Our Lord took care of the weightier
matters concerning us at Calvary. And I was thinking as we sang
that song, will he not take care of these smaller matters, day
by day living? If he took care of the weightier
matters, surely he'll take care of these little matters. of our day-to-day living in this
evil world. Now, Psalm 119, we're coming
to the close of this one Psalm, Psalm 119, it's the longest Psalm. I titled it, The Prayer of a
Mercy Beggar. The Prayer of a Mercy Beggar.
As I read this psalm, I could identify with David. I could
identify with him. And one of the things that David
kept saying in this psalm is, let, let my cry, let my supplications,
let thine hand help me, let my soul live. Are we not at God's
mercy? I thought, as we began to sing,
my thought and prayer, I said, Lord, let us sing to your praise
and glory. Let me preach. Let me preach
tonight. And let us worship you in spirit
and in truth. Because if we do, God will have
to enable us to do it and allow us to do it. That's what that
word means, let, allow. Allow my cry to come into you.
Now we know that the Psalms speak of our Lord, don't they? They
speak, some are more clear than others, but the whole word of
God speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a hymn book. The
Bible is a hymn book. It's all about him. If you miss
the Lord Jesus Christ, you have missed the whole purpose of the
word of God. You've completely missed it.
If the Psalms speak of Him, He's in all the Scriptures from Genesis
to Revelation, and it's the duty of us who preach, especially
of us who preach, to find Him in the Scriptures and preach
Him as He's revealed in the Word of God. I'm not at liberty to
preach what I think about Him. I'm only at liberty to preach
as He's revealed Himself in His Word. We are at liberty to do
that. Now, we know this. David was
praying here, and I thought of our Lord, who is the great intercessor,
the great high priest, who intercedes for us transgressors. That's
what it says over in Isaiah 53, 12. Therefore will I divide him
a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with
the strong because he had poured out his soul unto death. He was
numbered with the transgressors and he bear the sin of many and
made intercession for the transgressors, the lawbreakers. Lawbreakers
is what we are by nature. We are we are law breakers of
God's law and he made intercession He prayed for us John 17. I love
that chapter It's the high priestly prayer of our Lord. That's the
Lord's prayer That's the Lord prayer our Father which art in
heaven is the disciples prayer They said Lord teach us how to
pray and that's what he taught there. But now the Lord's prayer
is John 17 That's the high priestly prayer of our Lord for the church.
So if we want to have some idea of his intercessory work, read
John 17. He gives us a glimpse into his
intercessory work for us, praying for us. He's the great intercessor. And no one even compares to Christ
in intercession. I desire your prayers. And I
do believe you pray for me. I do believe you pray for me.
But there's one who said, I know you always hear me. And that's
my Lord and your Lord. He is the one who is always heard. He's the one who prays according
to the will of God every time, every time. I can't say that about me and
you, because when we pray about things that don't go our way,
like we think, don't we get a little upset? You only get upset because
it's not your will being done, but his. If we are truly in line
with God's will, whatever comes when we pray, that's all right.
That's all right. But he submitted, our Lord submitted,
and he teaches us to submit to God's will in everything. Our
Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom
come, thy will be done not my will he said in the garden but
thy will be done as thou wilt and he prayed to be heard he
didn't babble he was not like the high priest who stood out
there and prayed to be seen of men they prayed it says with
themselves i hope we don't pray with ourselves you're not gonna
get anywhere we pray to him our lord prayed to the father As
a man, he prayed. As a man, he prayed for deliverance.
As David says here in this Psalm, deliver me. Our Lord prayed to
be delivered from the hands of the Pharisees, the scribes, Satan,
until it was his hour. Until it was his hour. And then
he submitted himself to being delivered up for us. He was delivered up for us. And
he submitted himself to that. Listen here in Hebrews, I read
this to you a week or two ago in Hebrews 5, 7. Who in the days
of his flesh, speaking of our Lord, when he had offered up
prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, real
tears, unto him that was able to save him from death and was
heard in that he feared. God raised him from the dead.
he trusted his father to do that and he did and now here we have
the prayer of a saint we can see christ in this you know we
can see christ in david but i can also see david and david and
i can see me and david and you know throughout this whole psalm
from psalm one it's a it's loaded with prayers and for help and
for mercy and It's just loaded with his prayers, and it's good
to read the Psalms. We learn something about praying
through reading it. But he starts out here and he
says, let, that means allow. Allow my cry. That means earnest
distress. Cry is an earnest distress. Allow
my cry. Let my cry come near before thee. You remember in Esther, when
she was gonna go before the king, this is the image I get. When
Esther was gonna go before the king, she had to wait until he
held out the scepter. If he didn't hold the scepter
out, she was not coming in. But when he held the scepter
out to her, she was allowed to come in. It's as if, I get this
image, hold, Lord, let your scepter, be held out to my prayer. Allow
my prayer to come into your presence. We don't take that for granted.
Allow my prayer to come into your presence. Let it is allowed.
You know, David uses that word, as I've already said. He used
it four times in these verses. He recognized the sovereignty
of God. When we pray, we should recognize
the Sovereign God, the One we pray to. He got His Sovereign. He's Sovereign in all things.
That's the reason I put in the bulletin. Have you ever considered
that God may not save you? Has that ever been a consideration?
That's the truth. That's the truth. He saves everyone
who seeks mercy, doesn't He? He's never turned away a mercy-beggar.
He's never turned away a sinner. But this day we live in, God
wants to save you, God wants to do this, God wants to... No,
no, no. The Sovereign is on the throne.
We are at His mercy. He's not at ours. We are at God's
mercy. I'm telling you, we're at God's
mercy. And you'll never worship Him until you realize that. And
I realize that. That's when true worship happens,
is when we realize, first and foremost, God is Sovereign in
all things. All things. everything so david
recognizes the sovereignty of god let me read you a let me
read you some sobering scriptures and some scriptures that to contrast
here with ezekiel 8 18 Therefore will I also deal in fury, mine
eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, and though
they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them. David knew that God, let my cry
come into your presence. Because he says here, I'll not
hear them though they cry in my ear. And listen to this, listen
here. And this is sobering. I want
to read some sobering scriptures here in contrast. If we will
not hear him, he says he will not hear us. Malachi 2.2. You know, I've written
out a lot. My outline here has almost 2,000
words in it. Two thirds of it's made up of
scripture. Two thirds of it. I try to do that now when I preach.
I try my best to put more scripture into it than I do comments. Because
he's promised to bless his word. Not so much my comments. But
now listen to these scriptures in Malachi 2.2. If you will not
hear, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto
my name, saith the Lord of hosts. I will even send a curse upon
you, and I will curse your blessings. Yea, I have cursed them already,
because you do not lay it to heart." If I won't hear God, why would
I expect Him to hear me? Jeremiah 22, 5. But if you will
not hear these words, Swear by myself saith the Lord that this
house shall become a desolation if you'll not hear me. I won't
hear you That's sobering. I wanted to put that out there
because that's sobering That makes listening to the word tonight
very sobering doesn't it? God arrest our attention tonight
because we don't hear him. He's not gonna hear us and But
now listen, let me get back to this matter of prayer, true prayer.
True prayer is when we crave an audience with the Lord of
heaven. We crave an audience. Let my
cry come before you. It's wise to recognize the Lord's
sovereignty. When we pray, we must never forget
we are mercy beggars. Aren't we? We are. All prayers may not be a cry
from distress. some are prayers of just praise
sometimes we ought to pray and do nothing but praise not ask
for anything just pray just praise the lord praise him but every
prayer is sincere if it's a true prayer it's sincere prayer and
then here's what he prays for give me understanding he's speaking
here of spiritual matters you know so many people And this
is so promoted by false preachers. It's asking for health and wealth
and prosperity in this life, and that's not what it's about.
Give me spiritual understanding. That's what he's praying for.
Give me understanding. The word understanding means
the ability to comprehend. You and I cannot comprehend the
Word of God unless He gives us an understanding. He's got to
give us an understanding. According to thy word, and that
word according means as stated, as stated in your word. He never
goes outside the word of God. You see, understanding is vital
to worship. You can't worship if you have
no understanding. Listen to what Paul said in 1
Corinthians 14, 15. What is it then? I will pray
with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also.
I will sing with the Spirit, and I will sing with the understanding
also. The two songs we just sang, did
you understand what you were singing? If not, you didn't sing
unto the Lord, neither did I, if I don't understand what I'm
singing. I do know this. And I've learned
this over the years. We do not understand all things
when the Lord saves us. We are babes in Christ. What
does a babe understand? See, we grow in grace and in
knowledge of Christ. And as we grow in grace and in
knowledge of Christ, we grow in understanding. You know, it
says in 1 John 5 20, and we know that the son of God has come
and have given us an understanding. And it's given us this understanding
for this reason, that we may know Him that is true, the true
God. Not the God of imagination, not
the God where they've got 15 altars and they've got all these,
then they got one to the unknown God, not that one, the true God. There's only one God, there's
only one true God. And we are in Him that is true. If God has saved us, we are in
Him as the head, He's the federal head. He's our representative. He's our federal. We are in him.
He's the head and we are the body. We are in him. That's true. Even in his son,
Jesus Christ, this is the true God in eternal life. Jesus Christ
is the true God and eternal life. He is that life. He's not just
a giver of life, though he does, but he is that life. And give
me a spiritual understanding of your word. You know, this
book is a spiritual book. It's a spiritual book. And if
God does not give you an understanding, you can't understand it. It's
a closed book if he doesn't give us an understanding. We need
to understand more of God, more of Christ, more of ourselves,
more of the word. We need God to give us that understanding. And we ought to pray for it constantly. I was talking to my son this
morning, Jeremy, and we were talking about the fruit of the
Spirit. He was talking about being given the fruit of the
Spirit. And I told him, I said, well,
if God has saved you, all whom God has saved, I said, you have
the fruit of the Spirit, pray for growth in it. That's what
you pray for. You pray for growth in grace,
growth in love, growth in kindness, because you already have the
root in you. pray for growth of it. And here we pray for understanding. Listen to Paul in Colossians
1 9. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do
not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled
with the knowledge of his will, and all wisdom, and spiritual
understanding. Without this spiritual understanding,
we cannot worship God properly. In fact, without it, you can't
worship God at all. You can't do it. It says in Psalm
47, seven, for God is the king of all the earth. Seeing he praises
with understanding. Apart from that, there's no worship
and there's no praise in God. And he says to do so according
to your word as stated in your word, according to the, to that
promise without promise, prayer and praise never go outside the
word of God. and they don't do it. To pray
properly, we must understand the gospel properly. We must
have some understanding of it. And then he says in verse 170,
let, again, allow my supplication. Substance. First was cry. Let my cry, the earnestness The
distress of my cry come before you. Now he's talking here about
the substance of his prayer. Prayer has substance to it. If
you pray at all, it has substance to it. We don't babble, we pray. There's a difference. There's
a real difference. Let my supplication come before
thee. DELIVER ME ACCORDING TO THY WORD,
NOT ONLY LET MY CRY COME BEFORE THEE, BUT THE MATTER FOR WHICH
I PRAY, LET IT COME INTO YOUR PRAISE, GIVE ATTENTION TO WHAT
I'M BEGGING FOR. And here's what he asked, DELIVER
ME ACCORDING OR AS STATED IN YOUR WORD. This time he asked
for DELIVERANCE ACCORDING TO GOD'S WORD OF PROMISE. and call upon me in the day of
trouble, I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me." What
is a real day of trouble for you? For me? Trials or troubles? Yes, they
are. They are real troubles. But a real trouble to me is a
conviction of sin and guilt. Lord, deliver me. And the only
way I can be delivered from sin and guilt and be pardoned is
through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. It's a spiritual
deliverance. You know, we're so apt to always
be thinking of a material deliverance, a physical deliverance, always,
and we need those things. I don't need them like I need
spiritual deliverance. I don't need them nearly as much
as I need God to deliver me from this old nature, the power of
Satan, darkness, the guilt of sin. I need deliverance from
that. That keeps me out of heaven.
That keeps me out of God's presence. And that's what I need deliverance
from. And deliver me according to your word. You know, we have many promises
in God's Word for our use and comfort. That's why we should
be in the Word so much. You sure can't claim a promise
if you don't know it. In Christ and Him crucified, all the promises
of God are yea and amen. Let's learn those promises that
are in Him. Let's learn to use them. And
then he says here, deliver me according to thy Word, And my
lips, my lips shall utter praise when thou hast taught me. You
know, a part of praise is spiritual gratitude. It's a real thankfulness
to God for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. He hasn't done that
for everyone. You know that? If he did, this
room would be full. If he did, we'd be adding on
to this place. But here, listen here, listen. My lips shall utter praise. Here's
the meaning of that phrase. This has the image of water flowing
from a fountain. That's what he's talking about.
That's what he's speaking of. It's like a water flowing from
a fountain. And we know this. We know that praise flowed from
the lips of our Lord. He praised God as God is to be
praised. He praised Him perfectly. And
that's our righteousness. That's laid to us. In our head,
in our substitute, we praise God perfectly. But now listen,
we have the opportunity to praise Him as much as we can, and that's
never too much. There's a lot of things we can
do too much. We can eat too much. We can have too much pleasure. We can have too much pleasure.
Or we can work too much. We can never worship God too
much. We can never praise Him too much. Never. Not even come
close to Him. Not even come close. But this
is how God is to be praised with a continual flow of praise. And
when I thought of that state, when I thought of that Making that phrase that statement.
I thought of Niagara Falls. I stood by Niagara Falls and
the roar of that fall. I Never thought of it like this
before but the roar of that fall is to the praise of God It's
his fall It's his it's doing what he gave it to do what he
purposed it to do and and then and the roar of that fall We
ought to praise God like that. We ought to praise Him. Now,
I'm not talking about this false praise going around, whoopee,
you know, praise the Lord and that junk that you see on TV. That's your whole, it's your
heart. It's the heart in praise. You
don't have to go around spouting, you know, spouting off or like,
like you see him do on these televangelists carrying on. That's
not so. It's the heart. It's the heart. You know, you can be working
all day. You can be working and at it all day. And at the same
time, your heart be praising God. Your heart be praising Him. You're praising God when you
just do your job. If you just do your job right,
if you do it well, you do it well. It's praise to God. It's praise to Him. I heard a
lady, I told you this before, but I heard a lady some time
ago, she was talking to another lady, and she was talking about,
I just want to know my purpose in life, what God would have
me to do, what God would just constantly want to know his purpose.
How do you find out God's purpose? Where you are is God's purpose. Your wife, be the best one. Husband,
be the best. Employer, employee, be the best.
That's God's purpose. You should be the best at what
you're doing where you are. As a preacher, preach as best you
can as the Lord enables you. Study. Study and pray. I don't expect God to bless me
if I just play around all day. No, study. You get in the Word. You know,
it took me six hours to write this. I spent two days reading,
just reading, reading, reading, and it took me six hours to write
it down. You know, I put some time in
it. Now, if I just hurried up and just opened a book, I wouldn't
expect God to give me anything, or you either. But listen here. He teaches us
to praise Him, and when we praise Him, we praise Him for being
taught, for teaching us. You see here, he says this, let
me put it together. My lips shall utter praise when
thou hast taught me thy statutes. If you're not taught of God,
well, you don't have anything to talk about. You don't know
anything. You don't know anything. You
see, his praise is not without substance. When he teaches us
his statutes, his word, his word, out of his word, WE CAN ONLY
PRAISE GOD ACCORDING TO HIS WORD, ACCORDING AS HE HAS REVEALED
HIMSELF IN HIS WORD. THAT'S THE ONLY WAY WE CAN PRAISE
GOD. WE PRAISE HIM ACCORDING TO HIS WORD, NOT OUR IMAGINATIONS.
THAT'S HOW WE USED TO DO IT BEFORE WE KNEW HIM. NOW WE DO SO ACCORDING
TO HIS WORDS. AND GOD TEACHES HIS CHILDREN.
HE TEACHES THEM BY HIS SPIRIT, TEACHES THEM BY HIS WORD. IT
SAYS IN JOHN 6 45, AND ALL THY CHILDREN SHALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.
They should be taught of God and Jesus Christ is the lesson.
He said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. And he says
here, my tongue, you see, first he said, my lips shall praise
thee. Now my tongue shall speak of thy word. He becomes a teacher
and his subject is the word of God. And Christ is the subject
of the word of God. It all concerns him. My tongue shall speak of thy
word. For all thy commandments are righteousness. You know,
as great as God's works are, His works of creation, His Word
is greater. He magnified His Word above His
name. He didn't say that about anything
else. And when a change takes place
with the tongue, when the Lord saves a sinner, He begins to
speak of the gospel, of the Lord's mercies. Let me give you a contrast
here. This is what our tongue used
to speak of. In James 3.6, And the tongue
is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members,
that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course
of nature, and is set on fire of hell. James 3.8, But the tongue
can now maintain It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Romans 3.13, their throat is
an open sepulcher, with their tongues they have used to see,
the poison of Asp is under their list. But what a difference grace
makes when God actually saves us. Psalm 35.28, and my tongue
shall speak of thy righteousness and thy praise all the day long,
all my life. My life is going to be lived
out in praise to you. What a difference grace makes
to the tongue, my tongue and your tongue. And the subject
of the believer's tongue is the gospel of God's glory. Not the things going on in the
world, that's not the subject of our conversation, Christ is.
And the reason for speaking of God's word is this, for thy commandments
are righteousness. You know, back in verse 138,
he said, Thy commandments are righteous. That means they're
right. They're right. God's commandments are right.
But here is the essence. The intrinsic nature of your
commandments is righteousness. Not just right, it's right. It's
the intrinsic nature of God's Word. Righteousness. Now, 173 says, Let thy hand help
me. Let thy hand help me. Let thy
hand help me tonight. Let thy hand help you to listen.
You know, I know we can only retain so much. And I thought
about that as I was writing this out. And I thought, well, when
I get tired, I'll quit. But I took a nap, so. I had to see if you were with
me. But he said, let thine hand help
me, for I've chosen thy precepts. We are in God's hand, aren't
we? His hand of power, his hand of
grace, his hand of providence. He has the whole world in his
hands, but especially you. When Peter was about to drown,
the Lord reached his hand down and lifted him up. It was by his hand he touched
the leper and made him clean. let thy hand help me let thy
hand help me to walk by faith let thy hand help me for i've
chosen thy precepts you know prayer is not without reason
but hear what he said for i have chosen thy precepts that's the
obedience of faith that's all that is the obedience of faith
i've chosen your precepts over everything else your word your
word means more to me than Everything else. Listen, we dare not ask
God's hand to help us if we love sin and drink iniquity like water.
Many call on God for help in the day of trouble. You let somebody
get sick and they get religious. They do. The doctor says you're
going to die. The next thing they do, some
preacher comes along and they all get saved. They do. But now listen. Many call on God for help in
the day of trouble who have not chosen his word, his precepts,
his word as their choice to light. Just let them get better while
they do. They leave. Usually they leave. That's what
usually happens. But he said, I've chosen, I love
your precepts. I love them and I've chosen them. I have longed, there in verse
174, I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord, and thy law, thy word
is my delight. You know, David just had the
first five books of the Bible and he was writing the Psalms.
He says, I love your word. I love your law. Paul said the
law of God is good. There's nothing wrong with it.
The wrong is with us. All whom God saves has an earnest,
heartfelt, that's what long means. Long means heartfelt desire. You have a heartfelt desire to
be saved. Do you want God to save you? Do you really want
God to save you from your sins? You really want to be saved.
Not just from a place called hell, but you want to be saved
from your sins and be made one and have fellowship with the
Father and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. That's salvation. That's what it is. You have a
longing desire to be forgiven, pardoned, justified in God's
sight. They long, God's children long to be saved completely and
to be with the Lord. Paul said, for I'm in a straight
betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ,
which is far better. He longed for that. He had a
heartfelt desire for that. It'd be hypocritical to say that
I long for God's salvation and then neglect the means. that
he uses to say, which is his word. He says, so then in Romans
10, 17, so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word
of God. And if that's how it comes, I
wanna hear more of it. That's how it grows also, is
by hearing the word of God. It grows the same way it started,
by hearing the word of God. And he says again, it's 175,
let my soul live, And it shall praise thee, and let thy judgments
help me. Let my soul live. He's speaking
here spiritually. And let me live on, whether in
this life especially, while I'm living, let me live spiritually. Why do you and I want to live?
Why do you want to live? I asked myself this the day before
I asked you. Why do you want to live? Or the
correct answer is this, to the praise of God. That's what our
motive ought to be, to the praise of God. We have no reason to
exist. And I realize this now more than
ever in my life. I have zero reason to exist except
to the praise of God. I don't have no reason to live
or to exist. except to his praise. Paul said
in Philippians 121, For me to live is Christ that dies gained.
Oh, that God bring us to that point. Let my soul live in the power
of thy resurrected life, and I'll praise thee. someone said
this the highest attainment in the life of believers is continual
praise to God for who for who he is and for what he's done
for them in salvation in Christ that's the highest attainment the highest attainment is not
preaching it's praise it's praising God that's the highest attainment
of life is your life day by day is lived unto the glory and praise
of God almighty And let thy judgments help me.
Help me to discern between good and evil. I like what John Calvin
said about this. He said, let thy judgments in
Providence. He said, we live in an evil world.
We do. We live in an evil. We have many
enemies that we can't even see. But Lord, let your judgments
keep them at bay. Let your judgments be for my
good. Let it be for my good. And I thought of this. Let thy
judgments help me to understand thy ways, whether in chasing
me or punishing the wicked. Because God's judgments, as David
has said, are right. They're right. And then last
of all, and I like the way he ends this long psalm. He comes
to the end of this long psalm and he looks, it's like he looks
over his life and he says, I've gone astray like a lost sheep. Can we not say that? Seek thy servant for I do not
forget thy commandments. David looked back over his life
and considered all his wonderings and confesses, I've gone astray
like a lost sheep. I need thy help. I need thy help. He didn't say, he's not saying
he's a lost sheep. He knows the Lord saved him.
He says, I've gone astray like one. And we've done that so many
times in our life. When I read this, it registered
with me. I had that business for 25 years.
And there was a point in that when I had that business, it
consumed me. I started missing the service. But when David said this, he
says, seek thy servant, leave me not alone, I'm yours, that's
why he's saying, for I do not forget thy commandments. And
I do remember that period of time I was so consumed with that
business that I could be sitting in the pew and Henry preaching
and I would be my mind be on that business. And the power
that was in his preaching all those years began to not be there,
not because of him. Because of me. My mind was somewhere
else. But in all that time, I never
forgot God's word. He didn't let me forget it. I
would think of scriptures, forsake not the assembling of thyself
together, as a manner of some is. You know, different scriptures
would come to my mind throughout that time. And thank God he took the business
away from me. He took it away. I'm glad he did. I'm glad he
did. I told Jeremy, I wrote this in
the bulletin. I said, you know, when we finally
get to glory, because he was talking about some things that
he had done and feeling bad about it. I said, there's one thing
for sure. When we get to glory, we wouldn't change a thing. We
wouldn't change a thing. I know every one of us would
say, I'd like to go back and not, I wish I hadn't done this.
You know, I would change this, I would change that. But when
we have the mind of Christ, we would not change a thing. God
used it to bring us to himself. He allowed, he's allowed some
of his children to fall deep into sin. And some, he just like
Lydia, he just opened her heart. But as I said to him today, I
said, I guarantee you though, after he opened her heart, she
started feeling some real conviction of sin because it never leaves. A conviction of sin never leaves
us. We mourn over sin throughout
our whole life because we continually do it. And it's worse now because
we sin in light. We have more light than we ever
had, and we still do it. David said, against thee and
thee only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight with
you looking on. And I knew better, but I did
it anyway. I did it anyway. But he says here, and I like
this, I got this out of Spurgeon's Treasure of David. Down there's
where the hints for preachers. It said here, my confession,
I have gone astray. I've gone astray. We'll do that
part before the week's out. My profession, I'm thy servant. I'm yours. I belong to you. Find
me. Come after me. My petition, seek
thy servant. That's my petition. Lord, seek
me. And my plea, I do not forget your commandments. Isn't that
a good way to end the psalm, this long psalm? He just confesses,
I'm a sinner in need of mercy. I'm a sinner. At the end of the
day, when you and I come up to the end of life, we may live
to be 90, may live to be 100. Doubt it, but we might. But if
we do, we're going to say this, Lord,
I've gone astray many times, but I'm your servant. Seek me. That means find me. I looked that up. It means come
after me. Find me. Find me. I don't forget your commandments.
I may have gone astray, but I haven't forgot your word because you
haven't let me. All right.