All right, if we pick up the
last verse of Psalm 62, in verse 12 of Psalm 62, it says, Also
unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy, for thou renders to every
man according to his work. Now, at the end of that psalm,
we were noticing that God has spoken, and of course God has
spoken in Scripture. Scripture is God speaking and
is recorded for us as the will of God would have it, that He
would actually write it down for us, which is an incalculable
value to us that he would write in his word. We don't have to
depend on what one person says or another person, because we
would never know who was telling the truth. But God has given
us his word. And he said the same thing repeatedly. He says in verse 11, God has
spoken once, twice, have I heard this, that power belongs to God. And then we looked at numbers
14, where Moses prayed, excuse me, He prayed that God would
show his power in forgiving sinful Israel when they failed to believe
him on their first coming to the borders of Canaan. And that
was such a blessing to me to see that God's power is revealed
in the forgiveness of sins. And we could talk about that
a long time, but I'm not gonna spend time on that right now.
Just know this, that in order for God to forgive sins, God
had to satisfy himself. He had to satisfy himself, not
just in a meager way, but in a way that actually magnified
all of his attributes in a way that was to the highest possible
extent, and in a way that was without compromise with any one
of his attributes. And you can hear in that power
God's mercy answering the will of God to save His people by
the blood of Christ, and doing so in a way that pleased His
justice in the highest possible sense. In that way, our minds
should swim in the amazement that God's power would be so
great that only He could, and He did actually make known His
greatness in the forgiveness of our sins. And so then in verse
12, He says, unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy, for thou renderest
to every man according to his work. And so that's the part, I think,
that we didn't get to, thou renderest to every man according to his
works. Now, realize this, and in Scripture, It said over and
over again that there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. That's Romans 8 verse 1. Condemnation
is the result of guilt, and that guilt is the result of our sin
against God. We're only condemned because
we're guilty, but in Romans 8 and throughout the New Testament,
we learn that there is forgiveness with the Lord, and in that forgiveness,
God has actually lifted our sins from us, and Christ has borne
them on himself before God instead of us bearing them. Not only
did he bear our sins, but he bore all of the wrath of God's
justice that would have been against us for our sins, He bore
that in Himself and therefore He took away our sins from before
God. And because He did that, there
is no condemnation to us. Now, if there is no condemnation,
then when God judges us, there won't be anything He would find.
for which he could condemn us. And that's why it says, there
is therefore now no condemnation. In fact, a little later in Romans
chapter 8 in verse 33, it says, who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? And so that teaches us that God
himself stands to defend them because he justified them? And
the answer to that question in Romans 8.33, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? God says, it is God that justifieth. Well, that means they've already
been, God's elect have already been justified. And of course,
that justification is because of the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's justification by his blood
in Romans 5 verse 9. So if you take these things collectively
together, you see that God himself has already answered God. He
himself has justified his people. He has judged them for their
sins in the blood of Christ, and He has judged Christ's obedience
unto righteousness as their own righteousness by His grace, He
has given that righteousness to them, so that what Christ
did in His obedience is counted theirs, and what He did in answer
to God for their sins is also received from God as from them,
through their head, their surety, their Redeemer, their High Priest,
the Lamb of God, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. And then,
of course, Jesus said in John 5, 24, whoever hears my words
and believeth on him that sent me has everlasting life, already
present possession, and shall not come into condemnation, but
is passed from death unto life. So the fact that we have everlasting
life means judgment has already occurred for God's elect. God
has justified them, and he has rewarded them. He has rewarded
them for the righteousness of Christ, and everlasting life
is the reward of righteousness. Romans 8.10 says, the body is
dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. And we could just go on and on
with that, but the point here is that All that Christ did for
His people has taken away their sins and fulfilled God's law
for their righteousness. Everything God could possibly
demand, He has received in the offering of His Son for His people. And this is the best possible
news. So, when we understand this, then, it fits with whatever
God has said, for example, in Psalm 143, verse 2, where He
says, Enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy
sight no man living shall be justified. Of course, no man
apart from Christ could be justified for his obedience. But the Lord
Jesus Christ could. He is righteous. Romans 4.25
says he was delivered for our offenses and raised again for
our justification. On his own merits, God justified
him. But on his merits, God also justified his people. And that's
what that's saying. We could never stand before God.
We could never stand before God in judgment. No one could be
justified in God's sight. So that means that everyone will
fail that test if they stand in themselves. But God's elect
were given to Christ. He chose them in the Lord Jesus
Christ. In Ephesians 1 verse 4, before
the foundation of the world. So this was not something that
happened recently. This is as early as God is God. God has never not seen his people
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We can't understand that, but
that's what that... Known unto God are all his works from the
foundation of the world, from eternity. So even though we can't
understand it, we know that nothing came before God's will. And so
as early as they were God's elect, they were justified because God
received from Christ for them. He received from Christ as their
surety, as their redeemer, and everything. The Lamb of God,
the high priest who offered himself to God for their sins. So then,
that leaves the question about this verse, He will render to
every man according to his work. How does it happen then? Well,
there are those who, by the evidence of God-given faith, prove, God
proves and demonstrates in this life that we now live, they are
justified by the Lord Jesus Christ. And in their own personal experience,
they know that by God's Word being given to them, and they
being persuaded of the truth of it, and receiving that from
God by that same God-given faith. So the application of what God
is determined to do, and what Christ accomplished, is given
to us in our own experience when we believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. But it wasn't a transaction that occurred because we believed,
but our faith is the result of that righteousness given to us,
just like the life necessary for us to believe, that spiritual
life necessary, is also given to us by that same righteousness. But then, not everyone is a believer,
so then God must be just, and he will not clear the guilty. His people are not guilty. He
cleared them in Christ. But those outside of Christ must
answer God for their own work. And that's what this is saying
here. Thou renders to every man according to his work. Mercy
does belong to God and power to forgive sins belongs to God.
And so God's people are forgiven by that great power because of
God's great mercy in Christ. but it also is a fearful thing. And that's why God's word says
it this way, so that we would have no other refuge in our conscience
to flee to except the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, so that's what
I wanna say about that last verse of Psalm 62. Now let's move into
Psalm 63. And I wanna read through the
entire Psalm here, and then I'll begin from there. Psalm 63. This is probably familiar to
you. He says, O God, Thou art my God. Early will I seek Thee. My soul thirsteth for Thee. My
flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water
is, to see Thy power and Thy glory as I have seen Thee in
the sanctuary. So you can see the connection
between verse one and two. This thirst of the psalmist,
in this case it's David, he's speaking here, this thirst is
to see God's power and his glory as he has seen it in the sanctuary. Verse three says, because thy
loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. And this immediately reminds
us of 1 John 4, 19, doesn't it? We love him because he first
loved us. But in verse four of Psalm 63, he goes on, he says,
thus will I bless thee while I live. I will lift up my hands
in thy name. My soul shall be satisfied with
marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful
lips. I often, in my own life, have
wondered at people who seem to be joyful. I wondered, why can't
I be joyful about the Lord? But here, the psalmist is saying,
I'm not doing this with constraint. This is something I want to do.
I am joyful about this. And because his soul is satisfied
with the marrow and the fatness, therefore he praises God with
joyful lips. Then in verse six he says, when
I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night
watches, because thou has been my help, therefore in the shadow
of thy wings will I rejoice. And this is also very endearing. This whole psalm is so endearing.
Verse eight. My soul followeth hard after
thee, thy right hand upholdeth me. And it's because God's right
hand upholds him that his soul does follow hard after God. Verse nine. But those that seek
my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth.
So it's interesting in the first eight verses, David, the psalmist,
has been focusing on God Oh God, thou art my God. And this is
all pouring out his soul's thirst for God and his satisfaction
in God's provision for him. But here in verse nine, he begins
a different tactic. He says, but those that seek
my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth,
which is an obvious reference to damnation, to perdition. In
verse 10, he says, they shall fall by the sword. They shall
be the portion for foxes. A portion means the meat for
foxes. They're going to be the food
for foxes. And then in verse 11, the last verse, he says,
but the king shall rejoice in God. Everyone that sweareth by
him shall glory, but the mouth of them that speak lies shall
be stopped. All right, so, As always is the
case, there's a couple of things that happen when I read a psalm
like this. The first thing that happens
in my own thinking is, how can I possibly have the same zeal
and intimacy as the psalmist prays with when he prays to God? Don't you feel that? That the
psalmist seems to be praying at a level far above my own.
And that, you know, that gives me pause. So I immediately want
to read it again and again in order to try to understand what
is he saying here. And in this first verse, Oh God,
thou art my God. Okay, so that, I just say that
because that's a reaction that I have here. when I read these
psalms is that the psalmist is always speaking at a level that's
way beyond me. And so it's hard for me to really,
as a nobody, really enter into this psalm and claim these words
in some way for myself. So then I want to also point
out, though, that before verse one it says, this is a psalm
of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. So there are different
times in the history of David that he was in the wilderness
of Judah. A couple of times, if you remember, Saul was chasing
him. And there were two occasions
where Saul and David came into contact while Saul was chasing
him. And David was so wise and so humble, and as a result of
their contact, Saul turned back and went somewhere else. But
throughout the time, almost as soon as the time after David
killed Goliath, Saul was envious of David, and Saul was trying
to get rid of him, even though he He had to admit that David
really saved the lives of the entire army of Israel, and the
honor, too. But that didn't stick. Saul quickly
forgot that, and he hated David because of his envy, because
God was with him, and because the people loved him. So Saul
chased him around, but then there was another time when David was
in the wilderness, and that was when his son Absalom tried to
overthrow him, which we talked about as the background for Psalm
62. So I'm not going to go into the background very much here.
But what I want to say here is that clearly this psalm is written
at a time when David was led by God's providence out into
the wilderness, and this place in the wilderness where David
was, was a place where his soul thirsted. And it thirsted because
he longed to see God's power and glory as he had seen it in
the sanctuary. Now in the historical setting,
David worshiped God in the sanctuary wherever that was in those days. Because it was God's will at
that time to reveal himself through these types and figures and shadows
of the sanctuary. But nevertheless, while he's
in the wilderness here, driven out by the will of God, David
being chased either by Saul or by his own son and their wickedness
in that, nevertheless, David is not, even though he isn't
physically at the sanctuary, he's reaching into the sanctuary
by faith. And that, I think, is very important
for us to see here, that David, under the extreme circumstances
that he was in the humiliation as the one who was anointed king,
He had the promise of God, and yet he relied on God and waited
on the Lord to bring him into that promise, that exaltation. In the meantime, he was in a
state of humiliation because he was being chased by these
wicked men, and he himself, with those who were with him, were
suffering affliction because of that. All right, so we see
here that David now is praying out of this wilderness setting,
a wilderness that he was led to by the will of God. And while
he's praying this way, he's expressing by faith in God's promises and
what he had learned of God in the sanctuary when he saw his
power and glory, he's expressing this soul thirst, okay? And so I just want to point out
here a couple of things at the outset here. That David expresses
great longing for God while he's under great troubles by evil
enemies, and yet this was by God's purpose. So isn't that
the summary of the life of every believer? We suffer, Jesus told
his disciples, in the world you shall have tribulation, but be
of good cheer, I have overcome the world. So we have that promise
of Christ to his people, that even though we suffer tribulation,
it is the will of God, and no matter how severe the tribulation
seems, nothing can separate us from the love of God, because
that love of God is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So that's the
first thing. We pour out our hearts by faith,
reaching into what God has revealed in the sanctuary of his power
and his glory. And of course, the sanctuary
refers to the place where God meets with his people, and that
place is where he offers sacrifices and he reveals himself as the
one who provided the sacrifice to meet the requirement God had
on his people because of their sins. The only way they could
come to God and worship God is through the sacrifice in the
sanctuary. That's where God revealed himself
and made himself known. And of course, the sanctuary
is just the holy place. And the holy place is our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. He's the Holy One of God. In
Him and in Him alone, God makes Himself known. In Him and in
Him alone, we are brought near to God by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so we can see that here.
All right, but I want to take you to the last verse of this
psalm in Psalm 63. Notice the words of the last
verse because it's like going to the end of the book and finding
out how it ends. It helps you focus on the meaning
of the in-between parts if you understand the conclusion. So
here we see in verse 11, after speaking this way of his own
thirst of soul and in his flesh longing for God in a dry and
weary thirsty land and how he poured out his soul he longed
to see God's power and mercy and so on as he had before and
that there were those who were trying to destroy him in verse
11 he says but the king shall rejoice in God everyone that
swears by him shall glory but the mouth of them that speak
lies shall be stopped All right, this verse anchors the psalm
for our understanding. The king. Now this is something
I hadn't really thought about, but as I was thinking about the
way that God reveals this is David was the king of Israel.
God had chosen him to be the king of Israel, and God had anointed
him not only with the oil that Samuel poured on his head, but
with his own spirit. The spirit of God came upon David
on the day when Samuel anointed him with oil to be king over
Israel. And God obviously promised that
he would be king in that choice of him and the anointing of him.
And in fact, scripture says in 1 Samuel 13, I think around verse
14, that David was a man after God's own heart. That clearly
was the work of God in him, because no man is righteous in himself.
And so he had already been born of God. He had been given the
Spirit of God. And these things were spoken
about him because he had the mind of Christ, like all believers
do. Now, the fact that God made him
king over Israel helps us to understand, because what is the
function of a king? What is the role of a king. Well, the king in this psalm,
you can see it, he's pouring out his soul, but not as an individual,
not as a private individual, but as a public king. And think
about this, in our own country, the president, I think, is capable
of making treaties. with other countries that bind
all of the people in the country to the conditions of that treaty.
That's a scary thing, but thankfully God overrules the foolishness
of men. But nevertheless, it shows that
even in our own governments, we understand the principles
of one man representing the people in great matters, okay? one man
representing the people. So the king here now in this
role, if you understand the role of a king, God is through the
king lifting up his heart's desire and his prayer and not as a private
individual, although it is, he is, but as a private individual
with the words of a private individual, and yet on behalf of all of the
people in his kingdom, those who were loyal to him, who served
him as the king who God put over them. And so the king here in
this psalm and in other places is taking the needs of the people
According to the revealed will of God, because the king obviously
has to pray according to God's law and to his will, that he's
revealed in promises that he's made, the king is dealing with
God in things pertaining to God on behalf of the people. And
in that sense, it's like a priest. He's representing the people.
And he's receiving an answer from God, which is not just for
himself, but it is an answer given by God for him with the
people over which God has given him this delegated authority
to rule in God's place. He's an ambassador of God to
the people. He's bringing to them God's will
and God's word, and he's also enforcing this however he reigns. Scripture says that the throne
is established not just on justice, but also on mercy. King David
understood justice, he also understood mercy. And so the king is obviously
taking the needs of the people, but he also has a deep concern
for God's glory. And so you see in that role of
king, really the role of our mediator reflected. Now David is not the mediator,
but in a sense he was. But he's speaking here as the
one who's expressing his heart's desire, which is the desire of
the people. He's representing them, and he's
receiving from God an answer, which is in the form of blessings
that are going to be given to him and his entire kingdom. Everything
that God has given to David, he's given to him for the benefit
of the people of Israel. God appointed David and anointed
him over Israel because they were his people. And this has
to be taken forward and applied in an infinitely more gracious
and magnificent way to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And if
we understand this, then it helps us to understand the psalm itself. First, that David as a king spoke
as a representative for the people, a God-appointed representative,
not only to God for the people, but as the one through whom God
blessed the people as the king. Whatever God blessed the king
with, whether it was peace with their enemies, or whether it
was abundance, or whether it was the land that he gave them,
all of the things that the king had the ability to give to the
people freely out of his riches, that was to their blessing. And
this is what God is teaching us here. God has given to his
people what he has given to his son as our king. And what is
that? Nothing less than the riches
of eternal glory. He says in Romans 8 32 if God
spared not his own son But delivered him up for us all how shall he
not with him also freely give us all things so everything We're
joint heirs with Jesus Christ heirs of God as children not
just nationally related to him or even physically related but
we're heirs of God as the children of God and and what could and
What could boggle our minds more than that, than to be called
the sons of God and be given all that the king, who is the
son of God, is given, because he's standing for us. So the
king, it says in verse 11, the king shall rejoice in God, and
no wonder the king rejoices in God, because God has given him
a people. and given him authority to rule
those people in justice and in mercy, and of course Christ did
that when he went to the cross and gave himself for our sins
and defeated our enemies, and then rescued us from the poverty
and the ruin that we had plunged ourselves by our sins and enriched
us out of the riches of his grace with eternal life, and eternal
glory, and to know God, and to have the Spirit of God dwelling
in us, and be given grace in every way. Spiritual blessings
in heavenly places, all-inclusive, all-comprehensive, without measure. Everything in Christ, and that
is given to Christ, is given to us because He is our King.
God-appointed, God-anointed King. And so he says here, in verse
11, just to finish this verse, he says, Everyone that swears
by him shall glory. Now that's a puzzling phrase.
We don't often say, well, we're going to swear by someone, especially
by God. We kind of, we don't think that's
right. You don't swear by God. I swear
by God. No, you're not supposed to swear
by God. So what does he mean here? Swears by him shall glory. Again, this is the way scripture
is written. It's written in order to get
us to realize the greatness of God's truth. In using language
that we're not familiar with, really, and we're not sure what
it means, but by connecting it together from other scriptures,
then we realize, well, this is way bigger than I realized. This
is amazing. Now, he had just said, the king
shall rejoice in God, and now he says, everyone that swears
by him. And I really believe he's talking about the king.
And what he's saying here is those who are loyal to the king,
God has given them in this way that they swear by him. And again,
it still brings us back to the question, what does that mean?
Well, look at Isaiah in chapter 45. This, I think, is most helpful
to me. In Isaiah 45, it says in verse
22, this is the Lord Himself talking, God, Jehovah God. But
Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ, he says in verse 21, tell me,
tell ye, and bring them near, yea, let them take counsel together,
who has declared this from ancient times, who hath told it from
that time, have not I the Lord? That's Jehovah. And there is
no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior. Not just just,
but a Savior also. And this is the mystery, the
great glory of God, that He is a God who forgives iniquity.
This is his glory. And then he goes on, there's
none beside me. Verse 22, notice, look unto me and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else.
I have sworn by myself, the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness
and shall not return that unto me, this is verse 23 of Isaiah
45. Isaiah 45, verse 23, he says, unto me, every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear. You see? Everyone is going to swear to
the Lord Jesus Christ, because that's the one being talked about
here. He goes on in verse 24, "...surely shall one say..."
Notice now, this is the way God is saying. This is the oath,
if you will, the swearing that they do. "...surely shall one
say in the Lord..." have I righteousness and strength. Even to him shall
men come, and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed."
So you can see the two different kinds of people throughout time,
throughout the entire earth. There are those who say, my righteousness
is in the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's my strength,
and I'm coming to him, looking to him, as he said in verse 22,
and finding everything God requires of me in him. And there are others
who are incensed, angry. They're so upset, their face
is red, and they've gone ballistic. They're against Christ and they
shall be put to shame. So in then verse 25, in the Lord
shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory.
Now turn to Romans chapter 14, where this verse is quoted. In Romans chapter 14, it helps
us to understand what this swearing is all about. Let's see if I
can get there. He says in Romans 14 and verse
25, 10, verse 9, he says, for to this
end Christ, this is Romans 14, 9, for to this end Christ both
died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the
dead and the living. But why dost thou judge thy brother?
Or why dost thou set it not, thy brother? For we shall all
stand before the judgment seat of Christ. You can see here,
this is final judgment, isn't it? For it is written, and here's
the quotation from Isaiah 45, 23, he says, it is written, as
I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and notice,
and every tongue shall confess to God. Okay, so we understand
the swearing then is a solemn confession of something, right? And what does he say in Romans
10 about this confessing? He says there in Romans 10 in
verse 9, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
with respect to or unto righteousness, and with a mouth confession is
made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. There's no difference
between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Swearing to Christ
is confessing to God in a solemn calling God to witness that all
of my hope and salvation and refuge and answer to God and
righteousness is in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. And isn't
that the confession of faith by the gospel? The gospel tells
us this. We didn't make it up. We've been
persuaded of it. We understand and we've been
persuaded of it. And we're confessing Christ is the Lord. He's all
my righteousness, as it says in Isaiah 45. So back in Psalm
63, the king shall rejoice in God and everyone that swears
to him or confesses to God, confessing Christ as the Lord. the one God
appointed and anointed as king, the one who has to represent
me to God, who has to take on himself what's important to God
and ensure that God's glory is upheld in the rule over his people
and then bring from God the blessings God has given through all that
God has provided. The king is just a conduit, if
you will, to all that God is giving to the people and all
that God requires for His own glory from the people, and this
is what the Lord Jesus Christ did, and this is what those loyal
to the King and in submission to God's revealed will concerning
the King do. They swear, they confess Christ
is all. And then he goes on in Psalm
63, verse 11, but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be
stopped. To say anything other than God
has said about Christ is a lie. And every man is a liar by nature.
But God's people tell the truth because they have been given
the mind of Christ. They think about things now as
God thinks about them concerning His Son. God says that we are
justified because of what He thinks of the blood and obedience
of His Son. And every believer confesses
with all of the solemnity involved in their eternal destiny. And
that is the truth. That is the truth. That is the
one I also am relying on. So we're in agreement. And that
comes to us by God's grace when he convinces us of this. But
those who reject that, who continue to stubbornly hold to their own
righteousness, salvation that includes a contribution from
them that they can take some confidence in, in their confidence
or in their performance or in their evidences or anything else
other than the pure and unadulterated gospel given to us in scripture
concerning Christ and His work and His glory. That's a lie,
and we can't accept that, can we? We're going to take our stand
by God's grace. God gives us this, and we're
persuaded of it. This is all my hope, all my salvation.
And so that helps me a lot to understand what follows in this
psalm. All right, so circling back now,
going back to verse one, I want to pick it up at verse one here.
Let me turn to the next page of my notes so I don't get off
that. He says, Oh God, thou art my
God. Early will I seek thee. My soul
thirsts for thee. My flesh longs for thee in a
dry and thirsty land where no water is. Now, first thing I
realize is that he speaks about his soul first and then his flesh. As human, in our nature, we are
made up of a soul, and a body, and a spirit. That you might
be saved in your whole soul, body, and spirit, the Apostle
Paul says in, I think, 1 Thessalonians. But in any case, we're made up
of a soul, and a body, and a spirit. But here's the thing. Have you
ever noticed this? If your body is sick, I mean
sick, but your soul is healthy, which happens when you hear the
gospel, your soul is healthy, you're believing the gospel,
you might be very sick. But if your soul is healthy and
your body is sick, nevertheless, you can be at peace, can't you?
And you can even rejoice, even though you might not be able
to express it as you want to. You feel it because your soul
is thriving. But the reverse is not the case.
If your soul is sick, If your soul is sick and your body is
healthy, no amount of air, food, water, medicine is going to help
because your soul is sick. And so that's why I believe that
he says here, Thou art my God, early will I seek Thee, my soul
thirsteth for Thee. He starts with his soul. That's
where all the life of God is. It's in our soul. The body is
dead because of sin, and the soul is that part of us where
God has united us to himself in his spirit. 1 Corinthians
6, 17, he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. That's in
our soul. And when we die because Christ
is in us, then even though our body dies in death, our soul
immediately goes to be with the Lord. So it's important that
we understand the importance of our soul and what comes first,
what's necessary. So first, it's about our soul. Second, is that our soul is our
life. Though our body is dead because
of our sin, our spirit is life because of Christ's righteousness.
And so the soul is the first and essential part of the one
that he says is thirsty. It's my soul that's thirsty.
That's why this is so important to David. Yes, I'm in the wilderness. Yes, it was by God's will that
I got here, even though it might have been for my sin or some
other reason in order for God to get glory for himself. And
I don't know how he's going to get glory. I may be completely
unable to see what God's will is in this trouble. But the first
thing he says is, my soul, my soul thirsts for thee. And then
I also want to point out here how he calls on God. He speaks of him here, he says,
O God, thou art my God. Now, this is the language of
a covenant. This is the blessing God promised
in the new covenant. He says, I will be a God to you,
and you shall be my people. And it's interesting, if you
look in scripture and you search the times in scripture, God has
used this phrase, your God, or my God, the Lord our God, and
these kinds of phrases that identify God in a relationship of personal,
Him being my God, you'll find that the Scriptures are replete
with this. It's throughout Scripture. It's
so common in Scripture, and it's always applied to those who are
the people of God. Even in the Old Testament, where
the nation of Israel, we know it wasn't made up of 100% of
believers. Most of the people in that nation
were not believers. Yet because they were used by
God as a picture of the true church, he calls them, he speaks
to them about the Lord, your God, about himself. The Lord,
your God, the Lord, your God. He delivered you from Egypt.
The Lord, your God, delivered you from Egypt. The Lord, your
God, defeated Pharaoh. The Lord, your God, brought you
to the wilderness. The Lord, your God, gave you rest in the
land. He's always talking about them
in relation to himself as their God. Of course, the heathen have
their own gods, but he would always remind them, that's not
your God, the Lord your God. And this is why when he speaks
here, it's so important that we realize we have been given
this grace from God to call on the Lord Jesus Christ. And in
John chapter 20 and verse 17, Jesus sends to his disciples
and he tells Mary, he tells them, this is what I want you to tell
them. Now, let me read this to you in John chapter 20 and verse
17. I love this particular text of
scripture. He says this. I can get there. He says, Jesus said to her, touch
me not, for I'm not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren, the brethren, the firstborn among
many brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto my Father and your
Father, and to my God and your God. How did that happen? How
did God become our God? How did God the Father become
our Father? Well, He adopted us, who were
not naturally His children. We were alienated from God. Before
the foundation of the world, He adopted us and then predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. And
the Lord Jesus Christ removed every barrier that would prevent
him from making us his children, not only by adoption, but by
birth, he took away our sins. He made us holy. He made us without
blame before him in love. And this is all in Christ. And
so God adopted us, Christ redeemed us, and therefore he gave us
his spirit, birthed us as his own children, and gave us this
faith in Christ, which is the evidence of us being children
of God. And then, because of that relation
to him by Christ, because of his choice, because of his adoption,
which means to put those among his children who were not naturally
his children, which he did in Christ and by Christ, because
of that, in giving us his spirit, he says, now this covenant that
I made with you in Christ before the world began, in this covenant,
One of the blessings is that you will be my children, my people,
and I will be your God and your father. And the Lord Jesus Christ
at his resurrection, he says, now you go tell my disciples.
I go, I ascend to my father and your father and to my God and
to your God. You see the king here? Do you
hear the words of David and then reflecting them forward into
the fulfillment by Christ as the king of his people, speaking
to them in such such a magnificent way that he would say, oh, God,
thou art my God. He took Christ, took the place
with his people and called his father my God. And then He gave
to them, in the fulfillment of that covenant by His own blood,
the right to be called the sons of God, because He gave them
that grace of His Spirit and faith to believe on His name.
And they were not born of themselves, not by their will, not by their
blood relation, but by the will of God, by the work of God. And
so you can read that in John chapter one, verse 12 and 13.
And that's what He's saying here. Oh God, And in fulfillment, Christ
is saying, thou art my God. But to every one of us who are
also with the King in this, we echo this, we take God's word
to ourselves and say, oh God, thou art my God. And we understand
it because of the Lord Jesus Christ, don't we? He says, early
will I seek thee, my soul thirsteth for thee. Early, that means very
soon. As soon as I feel the twinges
of distance from God, I'm going to seek him early. Now, you and
I don't do that. There's times where we go, long
periods of time where we think, oh man, I forgot. What am I doing? I forgot the Lord. And that gives
me great concern, doesn't it? There's nothing that gives me
greater concern than to realize that I can seem to fly autopilot,
but here he says no. Early will I seek you. And now,
I want to say this before we end tonight, because we're not
going to get through all of these verses here. But take the context
here. David was in the wilderness,
and when you think about this as a prophecy of David, as a
prophet speaking as you know he did from Acts 2, verse 30,
David was a prophet, knowing that God had promised before
that his son would sit on the throne forever. He spoke of Christ. Here, David is speaking of Christ
in this. and in the first person here.
And he's saying that he was in the wilderness, David was in
the wilderness. Was the Lord ever in the wilderness?
Did Jesus ever go into the wilderness? Well, remember when he was baptized? What happened immediately after
his baptism? The Spirit of God drove him into
the wilderness, didn't he? And he fasted for 40 days and
40 nights. He didn't eat in the nighttime
and not eat in the day. Every day and every night, he
didn't have anything to eat. You can bet his soul, in his
soul and in his body, he was hungry and thirsty in the desert. Why was he there? Well, he was
there to be tempted of the devil. And what happened in that temptation?
Well, he trusted in God. He trusted in his word. He answered
every temptation with, as it is written. And when the devil
tempted him, prove you're the son of God, turn these stones
into bread. No, it is written, underscore, man shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word of God. Every word that
proceeds out of the mouth of God. So over and over again we
see that this is Christ in our nature and being tempted of the
devil in the wilderness now and he was faithful. He was so faithful
and he overcame. That's the amazing thing. The
devil overcame Adam. He did not have anything in Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ overcame
the devil, and that's why he was cast out of heaven. That's
why the accuser of our brethren is cast down like lightning from
heaven, and he has nothing to say now because Christ has answered
for his people. So see that there, and then also
remember at the cross, The last thing Jesus said, perhaps the
last two or three things he said was, he said, into thy hands
I commend my spirit, and he cried, it is finished. But before that,
you know what he said? He said, I thirst, remember? And that thirst had to be an
unimaginable thirst of soul. Isaiah 53 verse 10 says, Thou
hast made His soul an offering for sin. In Matthew 26, while
He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He says, My soul is very heavy,
very heavy. And He was sore amazed and very
heavy. And He prayed, if it be possible,
my Father, let this cup pass from me. but nevertheless not
my will but thine be done." His soul was thirsty because thirst
of soul means an absence of God's word. He had God's word, but
at that time he was in deprivation of soul because he was treated
as one who was a sinner because he bore our sins. He didn't commit
sin, But God had laid our sins on Him, and He owned them, and
He stood before God with them. They were not on us anymore.
He bore them Himself in His own body on the tree. And what a
wonderful blessing it is, when He cried, I thirst, and then
He cried, it is finished. And it was done. His thirst,
His being driven into the wilderness, was all for our salvation. And
so you see, O God, Thou art my God, my soul thirsts for Thee,
early will I seek Thee. My soul thirsts for Thee, my
flesh longs for Thee, in a dry and thirsty land where no water
is. Whenever we're in a situation where we don't sense or we feel
absent or distant or anything by any kind of affliction, especially
internal soul affliction, this is the model. Oh God, by the
Lord Jesus Christ, Thou art my God. This is all my hope, all
my desire. And even though in my own person,
I don't see it. Yet in Christ I see it absolutely
fulfilled, and therefore that's my hope. Since it's all in Him,
then I have the full assurance that Christ is all-sufficient
and God has received from Him everything that He required of
me because He Himself provided it. Let's pray. Lord, thank You
for Your Word, we pray, Lord, that You would open it to us.
You would make Your Word our Word. You, Yourself, would be
our God and You would teach us so by Your Spirit. and we would
call on your name by calling on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
we would see you by seeing Him, and we would see your glory in
the sanctuary by seeing His work as our High Priest and as the
Lamb of God, going about fulfilling all that you required of us by
your own will, and you receiving it for us from him. What a blessing. Unbelievable, unbelievable good
news. And we do also confess with a
solemn witness of God himself that Christ is our all according
to your word. And we find such comfort in him.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.