Well, let's turn to Psalm 43
Psalm 43 I'm gonna give the title, it's
a question, and then hope at the end of it, we'll ask ourselves
a question. The title of the message is,
Why Go I Mourning? Why? Why do I go around sad and
weeping and feeling sorry for myself and so tore up over Providence
and why? Hopefully the Lord will show
us here. Psalm 43 verse 1, David writes
here, Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. O deliver me from the deceitful
and unjust man, for thou art the God of my strength. Why dost
thou cast me off? Why go I mourning because of
the oppression of the enemy? Oh, send out thy light and thy
truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring
me unto thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles. Then will I
go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy. Yea, upon the harp will I praise
thee, O God my God. Fire thou cast down, O my soul. And why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope in God, for I shall yet
praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God. Some of the old writers say that
this Psalm, it's just a continuation of Psalm 42. We looked at it
last time. Verse five here and verse 11
in Psalm 42, they're just about the same. They're almost the
same, aren't they? Look at our page over Psalm 42,
verse 11. David finishes there, he says,
why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted
within me? Hope thou in God, that's the
only word of difference. Hope thou in God, for I shall
yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God. So this is the end of book one
of the Psalms and it's the beginning of book two. And so obviously
if that's the case, and they are different Psalms, I can look
at that. You can too. They stand alone, obviously.
These are two separate Psalms, but they seem so closely related,
don't they? Seems like they're almost word
for word. They both almost end exactly the same way. Why? Is
that odd? Do you find yourself singing
or praying or calling out to God? Almost the same thing over
and over, day by day, month by month, year by year. It might
be worded a little different. It may be raining instead of
snowing or sunshiny instead of cloudy. It's about the same thing. It's about the same thing. Joseph,
he had that same problem with him there in Genesis 39, 10 with
Potiphar's wife. She went to him day by day. We
have so much sin and woes and trouble sometimes day by day.
It just don't change much. Especially, especially we have
that same thing. We cry out, especially when it's
from a position of being cast down, especially when it's from
a position of exceeding sorrow. Not well, I'm a little discomforted
in that. It's easy to say, well, thank
you, Lord, that mild discomfort you sent me. But whenever it's
serious, it's heavy. We cross the same thing, don't
we? I think this will help some folks. Turn over Matthew 26. Matthew 26. Our Lord went to a place called Gethsemane. And he brought three of his disciples,
Peter, James, and John. He said, you sit here with me
while I go to pray. Here in Matthew 26, verse 37, we'll pick up.
And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began
to be sorrowful and very heavy. And he saith unto them, my soul
is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Tarry ye here, wait
here, and watch with me. And he went a little further.
And he fell on his face and he prayed. And the Lord tells us
what the Lord prayed. That's something. Saying, oh
my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless,
not as I will, but as thou wilt. Verse 40, he says, and he cometh
unto the disciples and findeth them asleep. And he saith unto
Peter, what, could you not watch with me an hour? You couldn't
make it a whole hour? Watch and pray that ye enter
not into temptation, that the spirit indeed is willing, but
the flesh is weak. I know inside of you, Peter,
is what he's saying. And said, you have a spirit in you because
it's my spirit. I put it there and hits willing, but boy, it's
housed in this body of death. And that's one of those tech,
we can just take small pieces. Lord said, oh, ye of little faith.
Do you hear what he said? He said, we had faith. And if he
gave it, that's all I need. That's saving faith. He gave
it in. But he says there in verse 42, and he went again the second
time. He went and told him, he said, y'all stay awake with me.
Stay with me, it's important. And he went away the second time
and he prayed saying, oh my father, if this cup may not pass away
from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. Now the subject
was the same. What he prayed to father in verse
39, it's the same thing. But his word is just a little
bit different. That's what was on his heart. That's why he was
sorrowful. That hour was coming. That's why it was so heavy. Verse
43. And he came and found them asleep
again, for their eyes were heavy. And he left them and went away
again, and he played the third time, saying the same words. The same words. He said the same
thing. He went and prayed the same thing three times. In chapter
six of Matthew, our Lord said this. He said, but when you pray,
use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think they
shall be heard for their much speaking. Well, that's too short
a prayer. Father, glorify your name. Amen.
Well, that won't do, I gotta add some stuff in there. What
did they say there in first Kings? Remember one of those prophets
of Baal that gathered around? It says from morning even unto noon,
for six hours. They got out there and they just
probably rocked back and forth. Oh, bell, hear us. Oh, bell,
hear us. Father, hear us now. Oh, heavenly
Father. They sang it and they rocked
and checked, because they got bored for six hours saying the same thing
over and over and over. And Elijah mocked them. He said,
maybe he's hard of hearing. Why don't you say it a little
louder? Maybe he's taking a nap. Why don't you wake him up? Maybe
he's in the bathroom. He's busy, right? Give him five
minutes to try again. He mocked them, didn't he? Because they're
saying the same thing over and over and over. Well, didn't our
Lord say the same thing three times? That's not a vain repetition,
is it? That's not useless to be seen
of men. Only the child of God who has
experienced begging, begging. You can tell the difference between
vainly repeating a mantra and petitioning the almighty God
because of our sorrow. Or David say over and over, save
Lord, mercy. That's one word, mercy. You're
crying to the one who gives it, who's able if he's willing, and
that's what you need. One word, mercy. That's not vain, is it? I need
it. It's not vain, he's able. He
delights to show mercy. That great apostle Paul, he wasn't
bragging when he said, I've labored more than them all. He wrote
more than anybody else. He traveled and preached more
than anybody else. He worked harder than anybody else. He prayed
more than anybody else. He did. It's just a fact. But he had
a thorn in his flesh, didn't he? The whole time he's writing
the bulk of that New Testament, he had a thorn in his flesh,
that choice servant of the Lord. We know he was modest. He prayed
three times, just like our Lord prayed three times in Gethsemane.
He said, take this thorn from me, Lord. Take this thorn from
me. Surely if Paul prayed three times,
surely if our Lord prayed three times, said, not my will, but
your will. I could pray six times, couldn't
I? Is that okay? I think I'd go to nine times
or 12 times, 333 times, couldn't I? If it's a need, if it's from
sorrow, not from this, not buy me a new Mercedes Benz, Lord,
give me a pure heart, give me your righteousness and let me
see it. I know you've done it, but I've wondered and I'm prone
to wonder. I don't see it. It's like you
hid your face from me. Let me see Christ one more time. We
keep asking him, don't we? David wrote this. He said, cast
thy burden upon the Lord. That word means throw it out,
throw it down, throw it away from you, just chuck it. Cast your burden, literally and
figuratively. Take it to him, it's his. He
gave it, just take your burden to the Lord. And he shall sustain
thee. You know, prayer, a portion of
prayer, it's praise and petition we ask the Lord, but a good chunk
of that is submission. And if I thought I could do it,
ain't no sense in me asking help, I don't need no help. But when
we're brought to cry out, we're brought to pray, that's submitting
to the Lord. And to do that, I've started
praying before, I said, Lord, won't you? And then as I think
in my head, I'm like, that was dumb, I don't know. You sent
it and it's right, and Lord, don't just give me, and you see
him a little bit, don't you? You submit to him, you see him
who he is, who we are, and it calms you. Brings you down a little bit,
Donna. Back in our text. That first verse here, Psalm
43, there's three requests David has. David asks for three things
in verse one. The first thing he asks is for
the Lord to be his judge. He says, judge me, judge me. That's a bold request, isn't
it? Oh, buddy. Because God is a just judge.
The judge of the earth shall do right. He will, won't he?
Only the Lord Jesus Christ can be independent, can be an individual
and say such a thing and live. Only he can. This is his word. If we're of our own accord, do
not go before a holy God and say, judge me. by yourself, you'll
be shot down, you won't be able to stand. David said that, he
knew that, didn't he? Psalm 130, he said, if thou,
Lord, should markest iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? I can't
stand your presence, but there's forgiveness with thee. That's
what was on the heart, wasn't it? There's forgiveness with
thee, that thou mayest be feared. How can a sinner born of Adam
ever ask God to judge them? Lord, you put me in Christ, and
when you judge me, you judge me in Him. You look at my substitute,
the one that stood as my surety, he stood in my place. They're
on the backside of your bulletins, that article by Brother David
Edmonds. I love articles like that. He makes a statement and
just tells you what the Lord said on it, right? It's every
bit in Christ. That's where everything is. That's our hope. That's our
surety. It's in a person, in a person. And Lord, you judge
me, because I'm going to die one day, right? And then after
these things in the judgment, after this, the judgment, and
you judge me and you judge me in him. You said so. You put
me there and you look to him. He must judge and he must be
our advocate. David said, judge me, oh God. He must intercede and represent
us. That leads us to the second request. Judge me, O God, and
plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Be my lawyer. Be my advocate. We're in your
courtroom, your holy courtroom. You be the judge. You judge me.
And you be my advocate. You be my lawyer. If God is the
one pleading my cause, if he's my advocate, if he's the one
pleading my case, the case will be won. You get that? It's sure. That advocate, he's got to present
the facts to the judge, doesn't he? That's what he does. John
wrote that in 1 John 2, he said, my little children, these things
I write unto you that you sin not, don't willfully go out and
sin, and you don't want to. If you've got a new creation
in you, you don't want those things. He said, and if any man
sin, when he sins, when it happens, it's going to, we have an advocate.
We have one that will plead our case with the father. Now I want
to know who that is. If I was going to be represented
in the courthouse down El Cajon, and I said, we've provided you
a lawyer. I want to sit down and know this person. That man or that woman, whoever's
going to represent me, I'm going to take him out to lunch or something.
Who are you? Where are you from? What kind
of grades did you get? And did you scrape by by the skin of
your teeth or did you graduate top of your class? I want to
know my earthly lawyer. Oh, how much more in his courts.
Who is that one that's an advocate with the Father? John said, Jesus
Christ, the righteous, the holy, the perfect servant. That's who's
our advocate. Lord, you judge me and he's gonna
be my lawyer. He's my advocate. He's my advocate. He must be
my judge. He must be my advocate. And the
third thing he asked for here, he must be the jury that delivers
the right verdict. Judge me, oh God, and plead my
cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me. from the deceitful
and the unjust man. Oh, deliver me. You be the judge,
you be the lawyer, and you be the jury. And you pronounce things
as they are. And I wanna be in him, don't
you? You pronounce things as they
are. And you deliver me from the deceitful and the unjust
man. That's everybody else, isn't it? We point with five fingers.
Popeye's alone on a deserted island. That hit home to me. There's a whole lot of applications
I can make that can give you examples in the world and your friends
and the people that deliver propane to your property or whatever.
Deliver me from this deceitful and unjust man. This one right
here. And you have to do it. I know
that. I can't. I can't clean up outside the
cup. I ain't in a cup. Just a stack of red dirt. You
got to do it, Lord. In ourselves, outside of Christ,
a man or a woman, a child, or anybody. I can tell you plainly,
do not come to the throne of the triune God asking to be examined. Do not come asking to be your
own advocate. I'll sort this out. And don't
come asking for a perfect verdict, David. You'll be found guilty.
All have come short, haven't they? In Christ, if we're in
him, he's our judge, he's our representative, he's the jury.
Those looking to him for all, He's our Lord and our God. We
can come to his throne of grace boldly because of him with a
clear conscience. David wrote this with a clear
conscience. Everything went on in his life with Bathsheba and Uriah
and cowardice times and spittle running down his beard and him
playing like he's crazy and all that stuff. It was wrong. He
knows it's wrong. He said, because that blood was
shed for me, and that's it, that's the only reason, not because
I chose, not because of nothing, but because he chose me, and
he's my judge, and he's my advocate, he's my jury, I come here, Lord,
and I can say boldly, you judged me. You represent me, and you
deal in righteousness. You give the verdict, don't you? only in his name, because of
his person and his word. That's what Paul was talking
about in Romans 8. He said, who shall lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? He knew something about that
courtroom, didn't he? The Lord's high courts. It's God that justifies. We just stand there silent. Who
is he that condemneth? Who's going to point a finger
and say, what they did was wrong? It's Christ that died yea, rather,
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. We're back to that advocate.
I love that just set down in me. He maketh intercession. That
means there has been intercession. There's intercession right now,
and there shall be intercession if he made it. And he maketh
it, because we didn't have none. You get that? How are we going
to have intercession? Salvation is of the Lord. He's
going to have to make it. He's going to have to do it all. David
had a very good understanding of salvation by the grace of
God. It's easy for us to think because we're so learned and
our brains are just so big. I bet we're going to find out
when we meet men of old and they live 700 years and we're just
barely scraping by cartily, right? Our IQ is pretty low. It's probably
in the thousands or something. But we think that all those saints
of old, they just didn't have a good handle on stuff. But boy,
now we really know the scriptures. David had a good understanding
of salvation by the grace of God. He knew by experience about
that ruin in the fall of Adam and the ruin in himself. It wasn't
just Adam's fault, it was his fault. And he knew he had been
taught that he'd been bought by that precious blood of Christ.
The Lord shall say to my Lord, sit down on my right hand. He
said, my substitute's coming and he's about to die for me.
And he knew it was solely, but it was the work of God that regenerated
him in this new creation. I have a new man in me and you
did it, it wasn't me. He knew those things. He wasn't
ignorant of these things. He knew that sin he had been
put away. Can you say that? Can I? Can I say that because
of him, my sins as far as the East is from the West, it's blotted
out, never be brought up again, it's gone. It's been dealt with,
it's paid for. Can we say that? An old writer
said, it's not just right and just and glorious for the Lord
to vindicate us. It's also just, it's right, and
it's glorious for the Lord to vindicate himself. He chose to
do it. And that's a hard thing for us
to understand. But if the Lord, if Christ died
for me and he loses one, he loses more than I lose. Y'all have
an attorney of damnation and that don't come They don't even
compare to him having a blemish in his glory and to his name.
It's impossible. It can't be. He's the head, we're
the body, and we're one with him. He'll lose none. We dwell
on these things during times of lowliness. We have to be cast
down to call out like this. You ever had everything just
going great? I mean, it was a really good day. You did your favorite
activity, you ate your favorite food, the sun was shining, or
if you like rain, it was raining, whatever. You had a great day,
it was wonderful. And you just cried from the depths of your
soul, Lord save me. Judge me, be my advocate. I don't need advocate, I'm on
cloud nine, right? He's gotta bring us down. It's
a pleasure to be down, to be low, to be cast down. Look at
verse two. He said, for because thou art the God of my strength,
you're my strength. I must decrease and you must
increase. And we got to get pretty decreased
before we start saying that, don't we? And then sometimes
we start to cry that out and the Lord cranks us down a little
lower. And then he cranks us down a little lower and then
a little low. As a pastor friend of mine, I've
been preaching for 40 years. Now, it was encouragement for
me to say, I prayed for wisdom one time. I said, Lord, be rough
with me. I'll never ask that again. He said, Lord, he said, you show
me, give me a glimpse of what a sinner I am. Show me my sin. He said, I'll never ask that
again. Oh, it's, we must, and as we decrease, it's a blessing.
He increases. He's our strength. but thou God
art the God of my strength. When I'm decreased, when I'm
cast off, when I'm mourning, what's the solution? What's the
solution? Because he says there, he says,
why dost thou cast me off? Why do I go mourning because
of the oppression of my enemy? When that happens, verse three,
oh, send thy light and thy truth. That's a good place to be. Lord,
send your light, send thy truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring
me into thy holy hill and to thy tabernacle. Does that mean
I need to get some facts? Lord, you gotta give me a little
light on this. I need some truth so I can load my gun and I can
have good theological arguments or let this little light of mine,
we can sing. No, that's not what he's talking
about. What does he say? Oh, send out thy light and thy
truth. Well, what's the light? What does John 8 say? The Lord
said, I'm the light of the world. John 14, he says, I'm the way,
the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. When he feels cast off, when he feels so down, that's
when we cry out, Lord, send Christ to us. Let us see him again. Let us hear a word of him again.
And then let him lead me, lead me by those still waters, those
waters of judgment. He's calm. He's the one that
spoke to the waves. Be still, didn't he? It's the
waves, pay attention to this man. a whole lot more than the
waves. We have to see him, he has to
lead us, and he has to bring me into his holy hill, into his
tabernacle. Lord, you're my strength, you're
my judge, you're my law, you're the jury, but I'm cast down,
and I'm weak, and I'm weary. Send your spirit to me to declare
Christ one more time. One more time, lead me by those
still waters that you've satisfied and bring me to your holy hill.
Your holy hill. He said in Psalm 2, yet have
I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. We're brought to a person,
not to a physical mountain. You get that? It's him. And your
tabernacle, where you reside. But that tabernacle there also,
it translates to grave. to grade. Lord, bring me to the
finished work. Bring me to an empty tomb. I want to see it. I want to know
this is sure. And show me in your word. Let
me read it one more time. I forget. You ever read something
and say, how long has it said that? I've never seen that before.
Do that now, Lord. Show it to me. Reveal it. Make
it new and fresh today. He says in verse four, then will
I go into the altar of God. unto God my exceeding joy, yea,
upon the heart will I praise thee, O God my God. Will I go
to the house of the Lord in joy and praise him? Of course I will.
If he does this, of course you will. He'll draw all his sheep
in and they'll gather where other sheep are that went through the
same things and we'll get together and say amen. He gets all the
glory, that's right. And I'm happy about it. Salvation's
of the Lord, it better be. Tickled to death to hear it.
David said, I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the
house of the Lord. But that's not the altar that light and
truth leads us to. Did you know that? That's not
a physical place, that's not a physical altar. Read Hebrews
13. We have an altar. We have an
altar. That's what he's gonna bring
us to. Whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.
And he goes down further and he says, by him therefore let
us offer the sacrifice. Because of Christ our altar.
Lead me to him. Bring me to him. Let me see that
finished work one more time. Tell me the old, old story. And
then we'll praise God continually. He says that is the fruit of
our lips giving thanks to his name. So when we start out, the
Lord's revealed himself to judge us. You be the judge, you be
the lawyer, you be the jury, and show me Christ again. I'm
weak and weary, I'm cast down, I'm low. It's like your mercies
are clean gone forever, Lord, but you're faithful. I'm not.
Show me him one more time. Bring me to him the truth, the
light, the altar. Let me see. Tell me of his name. Tell me of his finished work.
When that happens, I got a question for you. Verse five. Why art thou cast down on my
soul? You ever said that? You ever looked in the mirror
and said, what's wrong with you? I ought to know better who I am and whose
I am. Why art thou cast down on my
soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Why am I nervous?
Why do I sweat and worry? Why don't I just say, that's
good. That's good. Thank you, Lord. Your whole family's
been wiped out, Job. All your possessions are gone,
all your cattle's gone, your houses are gone, your children's
gone. I left your wife, and she's gonna say mean, horrible things
to you. Thank you, Lord. That's right. You did good. Why art thou cast out on my soul?
Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God. Or hope thou
in God, like the last psalm says. Same thing. Hope in him. Your
expected end. No, fingers crossed, I hope,
no, not in our modern language. Have your expected end in a person. For I shall yet praise him who
is the health of my countenance and my God. You ever been sin
sick? We get some sicknesses, don't
we? He's my health. He's my health and I need him
and my God. And so, I hope that's comforting
to you. Brother Cass and Brother Trevor