All right, I want to pick this
up. I have sent out the exposition, as I called it, from our previous
study. We didn't finish the psalm, but
I think one of the things I want to do tonight is I want to make
sure that we come away with what seems to be the theme of this
psalm. So when you look at this psalm,
it's clearly the psalmist is praying to the Lord. He's making
his supplications to the Lord out of his trouble. You can read
this in verse one. The theme is, in thee, O Lord,
do I put my trust. And then he goes on to describe
his need. He desires to never be put to
shame. He asks God to deliver him in God's righteousness. He
asks God in verse 2 to bow down his ear and to deliver him speedily. Remember, today is the day of
salvation. If God says today is the day of salvation, we need
to be saved today. And He doesn't mean this 24-hour
period when He says that in Scripture, but He means this time, when
the Word of God is being declared, this is the day of our salvation. And so we're hearing it today
and we're reading it right now. And we're reading this verse
and we see that the Lord Jesus Christ in prophecy is asking
God to deliver him speedily. And so we know that when we come
to the Lord, we should have an urgency. We should ask God to
do it as soon as it seems good to him to do it. And in the case
of the Lord Jesus, he was under an imminent danger. Obviously,
he was at the He was under the control, it seemed like, of his
enemies. His enemies seemed to be having
their way with him, and God did say that he was given over to
their will. So in an outward sense, at least,
it was that he was under their control. But remember that we
also live as people who are utterly dependent upon God to be gracious
to us in the circumstances of our life. This is painfully obvious
to us as we live our lives. We don't control the weather,
we don't control The government, we don't control anything. We're
pretty much peons or just pawns in this world. We're small and
insignificant. We have no strength in the worldly
matters. But in spiritual matters, it's
even more so that we have no strength. And so you see the
psalmist here praying in his trouble. He asked God earnestly
to deliver him, urgently to deliver him. He asked him to condescend
in verse 2. In verse 3 he says, Thou art
my rock, my fortress, therefore for Thy name's sake lead me and
guide me. Because he is, because the Lord is his rock and fortress,
therefore he asked God to deliver him for his name's sake. And
this is always the argument presented by the Spirit of God in prayer,
in intercession, that God would do all that he does for us for
his name's sake. What a comfort it is that we
can ask God to do this for his name's sake. Do this for your
name's sake, Lord. And as I mentioned last week
in Daniel chapter nine, verse 16, Daniel asked the Lord to
deliver them, even though they were sinners, to forgive them
for his name's sake. And that's a very strong warrant
from scripture for us to go to the Lord and ask him, save me
a sinful person for your name's sake and do it for Christ's sake. So that's the prayer here. The
intercession Moses made, remember that in Exodus 32 and Numbers
14 where he was pleading with God And this is actually summarized
in Psalm 106. He was pleading with God for
the people because they had committed idolatry. Aaron made them a golden
calf and Moses had to intercede for them people. And then they
were on the... At the border of entering Canaan,
at the first entrance, they turned back. In unbelief, they trusted
their own strength, and they saw themselves in the eyes of
the giants, and they didn't see the giants in the eyes of God,
or His saving power for them, and His promises to bring them
into the land, so they turned back in unbelief. And in both
of those cases, Moses interceded for the people pleading God's
name. He said, do it for your name's
sake. He reasoned that if God didn't
deliver them, then their enemies would be able, and God's enemies
would be able to say he couldn't, he wasn't able. He didn't anticipate
their sinfulness and he delivered them but didn't carry it out
because he couldn't or he wouldn't. So all those things are the reasonings
of God given to Moses, in that case, and to others to pray,
to show us that God does what he does for us, for his name's
sake, and what a blessing that is. And so he goes on, he says
in verse four, pull me out of the net that they have laid privately
for me, for thou art my strength. Notice the Lord Jesus Christ
is praying here, and yet he calls God his strength. Jesus Christ,
according to Revelation 1 and verse 8 and 11, is almighty. He is the first and the last,
the alpha and the omega, the almighty. Now, couldn't the Lord
Jesus, who is almighty, deliver himself from these enemies? Why
did he pray this way? Why did he wait upon God this
way? Well, because he had to stand
for us, as us, as a man. He had to be the captain of our
salvation. He had to be all that we were
and endure all the temptations as a man, not as God, but as
a man. But notice here also that God
himself required that to overthrow his enemies, it would be done
according to justice. God certainly has the power to
wipe Satan and his kingdom and this world and all things that
would have come against Christ at the cross. He could have wiped
them away in a moment. Just one thought, Jesus told
Pilate, or I think it was Pilate, don't you know I could, no it
wasn't Pilate. He told his disciples, I could call a legion of angels
to help me. He didn't, and the reason he
didn't is because God has, God requires this. God requires that
he deliver his people in a way that conforms to his own person,
his own justice and truth and righteousness. In order to show
mercy, in order to defeat our enemies, he had to do it righteously.
And this is a great comfort because the Lord Jesus Christ has submitted
himself in this way. Now I'm talking about the theme
of this, it was trusting God, I mentioned that last week, but
look at it in 1 Peter, and you'll see this there plainly stated.
In 1 Peter chapter 1, actually chapter 2 of 1 Peter, He says
in verse 20, actually verse 19, he says, this is thank worthy
if a man for conscience sake toward God endure grief, suffering
wrongfully. It's often the case that God's
people suffer wrongfully. We sometimes suffer for our sins,
and that's a different matter, but here, if a man suffers wrongfully
and takes it patiently, he says in verse 20, for what glory is
it if when you be buffeted for your faults, you shall take it
patiently? But if when you do well and suffer
for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable, with God. So it's acceptable to God when
we look to the Lord under suffering that is not for fault, found
in us, that we suffer wrongfully. But notice in verse 21, he tells
us about the Lord Jesus. He says, for even here unto were
you called, because Christ also suffered for us. leaving us an
example that you should follow his steps, who did no sin, neither
was guile found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, so he
had no reason in himself to suffer, no guile in his mouth, he didn't
lie, there was no just cause for him to suffer in himself,
he spoke only the truth. And he also didn't speak in a
way that would have incited the anger of others against him just
out of spite. He just spoke the truth. It was
the truth that bothered them. The truth of themselves and of
himself. But he says, in verse 22 again, who did no
sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who when he was
reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered, when he suffered.
That's what's happening in Psalm 31. He was reviled and he suffered
and it's being spoken about in Psalm 31. He says, he threatened
not. He didn't even threaten. He could
have taken control and destroyed them, but he didn't. But he committed
himself to him that judges righteously. And then he goes on, here's why
he did all this. "...who his own self bear our
sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins,
should live unto righteousness by whose stripes you were healed."
Alright, so here the Lord Jesus is set up to show that his sufferings
were for the purpose as a substitute to endure this sufferings by
the will of God in order to deliver his people. That's what verse
24 is about. And so when he was reviled, when
he suffered wrongfully, because he didn't deserve it, but it
was laid upon him in order that God's justice could be answered
and his righteousness fulfilled, in order that his truth might
be upheld. In other words, God in all of
his perfections, in perfect harmony, is the demand here. That's why
the Lord Jesus Christ had to do it. It's for God's sake. God,
Satan didn't require this. The world certainly didn't require
this. Oh yes, they lashed out at him
and tried to kill him. That was their intent. But that
wasn't the purpose here. Christ could have easily freed
himself from that. But when they came to him, he
said, if you seek me, then let these go their way. It was to
take on himself what was required by God in his very nature, and
obviously his law, which was a reflection of that nature,
in order to deliver his people in justice. So that when the
Lord justified his people, No one could find fault with the
method. Eons and eternal ages future,
you could take this and do a minute examination of what the Lord
Jesus Christ did, and you wouldn't find any fault in it in comparing
what he did with the very character and nature of God himself. That's why he suffered for us.
In order to justify us, in order to free us from our sins, he
had to do this. And so when he prays here, he's
praying as a servant, and as one who doesn't rebel against
the wrongful suffering, but he asks God, he waits patiently
on the Lord. That's why this phrase in the
psalm, in thee, O Lord, do I put my trust, is so powerful, because
he's willingly, and in submission to the will of God, because he
counts nothing greater in all of his pursuit than doing that
will, and out of love for his people to save them, he does
all this. And so when we think of it in
that light, then in verse four, he says, pull me out of the net
that they have laid privily for me, for thou art my strength.
Obviously he has no strength that he's conjuring up or mustering
against them. He's asking the Lord to do it.
And therefore it has to be only on the basis of righteousness
and justice and truth. He says, into thy hand I commit
my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord
God of truth. God found the balances of his
justice and righteousness to be perfectly balanced. in the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ in order to set his people free.
He took him instead of us. And that's the redemption he's
speaking about here. He's talking about thou has redeemed
me as being one with his people. Verse six, I have hated them
that regard lying vanities, but I trust in the Lord. So the opposite
of trusting in the Lord in this verse is what they do. They regard
lying vanities. They trust in something that
cannot save idols. They trust in their own strength.
Verse seven, they trust in injustice. They think that they're going
to win by conniving and like the devil, by lying and getting
by with things that God doesn't approve. Verse seven, I will
be glad and rejoice in thy mercy, for thou hast considered my trouble,
thou hast known my soul in adversity. Now God knows everything, doesn't
he? He knows everything. But when he says here, thou has
considered my trouble, it's reminding you what we mentioned last time.
When God considers, he's looking upon that one and in his trouble
and in his mercy, he's looking on their adversities and considering
their soul in that trouble in order to deliver them. And imagine
the scrutiny of the detail here and the infinite wisdom of God
in how he's going to do this in a way according to perfect
righteousness, and he does it with the greatest calm. Never
is he frustrated or without an answer. He knows exactly how
to do this. And so his works are known to
him from the foundation of the world. And so the Lord Jesus,
in submission to him, in complete trust, waiting upon him, on his
wisdom, on his power, he commits himself this way. I will be glad
and rejoice in thy mercy, for thou hast considered my soul
in trouble. And what a comfort it is to know that God considers
his people's trouble. He says, thou has known my soul
in adversity. That knowing, that's coming alongside. That's a knowing in an intimate
way. What a comfort that is. And has
not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. Thou has set my
feet in a large room. A large room means God has blessed
him. In Psalm 16, another Psalm of
the Lord Jesus Christ, he says, the lines have fallen to me in
pleasant places. I have a goodly heritage. In
Isaiah 53, 12, God says he's going to give him the reward
because he was numbered with transgressors. He's gonna give
him all this because of that. So you can see this large room.
God didn't shut him up to his enemy, but delivered him from
that because he obeyed God in all that he did. He fulfilled
that will of God and magnified God's glory. He says, have mercy
upon me, in verse nine, have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I
am in trouble. Mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and
my belly. You can see he's affected in
the entirety of his being at the deepest level here. And this
grief, he goes on in verse 10, for my life is spent with grief. It wasn't just at the cross that
Jesus suffered. Remember all the times he was
in the mountain praying? I always thought about that as
a young believer. I still think about it somewhat
as an old believer, but I guess I've lost my sensitivity to it
or something, that the Lord Jesus Christ, when he was tired, when
his physical body was exhausted, he was praying to God. And that
prayer to God was for this very reason here. It was for the salvation
of his people with him, that God would deliver them with him.
in his work. So he says here, my life is spent
with grief. His entire life was spent with
grief. He was a man of sorrows. Remember Isaiah 53? And my years
with sighing, my strength faileth, he says, my strength faileth
because of mine iniquity and my bones are consumed. Now this
reference of our bones being affected by our sin is also made
in the next chapter, chapter 32, when David says, when I kept
silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
Here the Lord Jesus Christ as our surety, He's saying, my strength
faileth because of mine iniquity. And have you ever felt that way?
I know that you have as a believer. Sin saps our strength, doesn't
it? It makes us weak. And so nothing
in comparison to that, that it must the Lord Jesus who knew
no sin must have felt by the weight of our sin on him. And
it says in Matthew 8, 17 that He bore our sicknesses, and that
sickness we know is the sickness of our sin, because sin is the
root cause of all of our sickness and death, isn't it? And that's
why in 1 Peter 2, 24, that we read just a moment ago, it's
by His stripes that we were healed. That healing is a spiritual healing.
It's a healing from our sin. And so, that's what he's talking
about here, the strength, faileth, the grief, his life is spent
with grief, sighing, and his bones are consumed, all these
express the great sorrow and the burden that came upon him
in order to save his people. He was made sin for us, he who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. What a blessing that is, what a savior. This is not
an abstract thing. This is a person, the Lord Jesus
Christ, suffering for us. Verse 11, I was a reproach among
all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbors. That's startling,
isn't it? Especially my neighbors. And
a fear to mine acquaintance, for they that had seen me without
fled from me. They saw him and they thought,
whoa, God's against him. He has a plague and we don't
want to get near him. I'm forgotten as a dead man out
of mind. I am like a broken vessel. You know what that looks like.
I drop a cup on the floor in the kitchen and it shatters to
pieces. It's no good anymore. I sweep it up and I throw it
in the garbage. It can't hold water anymore. It's worthless
to me. And that's what he's saying here.
In the eyes of those who see me, I am worthless like a broken
vessel. I can't hold any comfort in my
soul because I'm broken by God's hand that's come upon me because
of the curse that I had to bear for my people. Verse, he bore
sorrow. that we might not bear that sorrow.
He bore the being forgotten as a dead man so that our sins might
be forgotten out of God's mind. Verse 13, For I have heard the
slander of many. Fear was on every side. While
they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away
my life. That was their intent, to kill him. They strategized
together, they consulted together, and it was an evil motive, an
evil counsel, and an evil intent. There was no good in it, except
that God would use it for good and for our salvation. But this is what they did. And
so he says, the slander of many. Fear was on every side. And notice
what he says here. But I trusted in Thee, O Lord,
I said, Thou art my God." Now, when I read that verse in this
context here, I don't know about you, but... I rest, I just relax,
don't you? When you read these verses like
this, but I trusted in the Lord, I said, thou art my God. I want to be able to say that
from my very heart, don't you? I trusted in the Lord, I said,
thou art my God. I want that to be the case with
me, don't you? So what do we do? As just everyday
sinners, what do we do? sinners that have heard of the
salvation of God in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that He has
exhorted us to look to Him, to trust Him. We say, Lord, give
me that trust. Be my God. Make me your people. and put your spirit in me. Give
me a heart, a fleshy heart. Take away the stony heart out
of me and put your spirit within me and cause me to know the Lord."
All the things God has promised in his word that he would do
for his people, we begin to ask the Lord to do that. Isn't that
what he has instructed us to do? He said to the woman at the
well, if you knew the gift of God, you'd have asked. And Jesus
said, you have not because you ask not. So this is the opening
here. Ask, seek, knock. These are the ways that the Lord
has told us to come to him. Trusting that it isn't for our
merit, it isn't for our potential, it's not for something in us
or something done by us, but it's for his name's sake, it's
for Christ's sake. And so he says this, I trusted
in the Lord, I said thou art my God. This is repeated in the
psalm, isn't it, over and over. It's repeated in all the psalms,
I trusted in the Lord. And then in verse 15, again,
my times are in thy hand, deliver me from the hand of my enemies,
from them that persecute me. It's so comforting to know that
our times are in God's hands. Our circumstances, they all occur
according to God's time, according to God's predestinated purpose.
The outcome of our circumstances is all according to God's plan.
Our salvation, that's in God's time, that's in his hand. Our
birth, our death, all the sorrows, all the joys, all of it is in
God's hand, it's in his time. My times are in thy hand. Deliver me from mine enemies
and from them that persecute me. Make thy face to shine upon
thy servant. Save me for thy mercy's sake.
This phrase, make your face to shine, it means Show favor, show
grace to me. Show yourself gracious to me
and let me know that you're gracious. Show me how you're gracious to
me. Show me the way of your loving kindness towards me in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We say that in the Lord Jesus
Christ. But this is what he said. Make your face to shine upon
your servant. He calls himself the Lord's servant.
I want to be the Lord's servant. Don't you? I want to serve him.
I don't want to serve another God. I don't want to trust another
savior. I don't want to have divided
loyalties. I want to serve the Lord only.
But I know that in the end, analysis, only the Lord Jesus Christ could
say this with his whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. And
yet we say, with our whole heart, mind, and strength, as much as
we can, save me for thy mercy's sake, don't we? In verse 17,
let me not be ashamed, O Lord, for I have called upon thee.
Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave. Now, the wicked here are obviously
those who do not call upon the Lord, because he says, I have
called upon thee. They obviously do not call, because
there's the contrast in this verse. He said in verse 18, let
the lying lips be put to silence, which speak grievous things proudly
and contemptuously against the righteous. Now, the Lord Jesus
Christ in 1 John chapter 2 is called Christ Jesus or Jesus
Christ the righteous. We know he is the only righteous
one in himself. But all of God's people are righteous
in him. And this is the testimony of
scripture. And so when God says the righteous here, he's referring
to all of God's people in the Lord Jesus Christ. because in
him we have our righteousness. But notice he says in verse 18,
let the lying lips be put to silence. Anything brought as
an accusation against a believer, one who's in Christ, an accusation
now, has to be a lie because God has justified them. And this
is great comfort, isn't it? This is strong medicine against
timidity. We need to know that God has
justified us in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is our only hope. And that's all of our salvation
if God has justified us in Him. If He's looked upon us in Him,
if He's looked upon His Son and considered Him for us, then God
has justified us in all that he did, all that he is. And so
there's no basis for any accusation. So anything that the wicked say
is a lie. Satan's accusations are not tolerated. It's not that God just won't
tolerate them. It's because it's unjust. God
has answered this matter for his people. Who can condemn one
for whom Christ died? God has justified them. They're
his people and they were justified in him as soon as God chose them
in Christ from the foundation of the world. Although they were
justified by the blood of Christ in time and they are justified
in their own experience, when they are given grace to see their
justification in Christ and God gives them faith to receive it
as their own, they experience it, but that justification happened
when God did it. when he chose them in Christ,
when Christ answered for them to God's justice. He is the propitiation
for our sins. He is our righteousness. He is
our redemption. He is our wisdom. He is our sanctification,
our holiness. He's everything, isn't he? Isn't
that what 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30 says? Christ is all to us.
And then in verse 19, he says, oh, how great is thy goodness
which thou hast laid upon which thou hast laid up for them that
fear thee, which thou hast wrought or worked out for them that trust
in thee before the sons of men." Now, in the ages to come, in
Ephesians 2 and verse 7, it says that God will make known the
exceeding riches of his grace to us and his kindness towards
us through Christ Jesus. God's grace The riches of His
grace, anything that God has is infinite, but the riches of
His grace in His kindness towards us through Christ. It's all through
Christ, isn't that? That's Ephesians chapter 2, verse
7. Read that and compare that to these words here in this verse. Oh, how great is thy goodness,
which thou has laid up for them that fear thee. Where has he
laid it up? All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, all
the treasures of grace are laid up for his people in the Lord
Jesus Christ. God the Father has blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. That's the place, that's where
it is. It's a location, it's in Christ because God has given
everything to him. He's the heir of all things.
The father loved the son and has put all things into his hand.
And here God says that he has laid up great goodness for his
people, for them that fear thee. Now notice this phrase here,
he says, He's laid it up for them that fear thee, and notice
there's a semicolon in the King James, and then it says, which
thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons
of men. Now he's talking more broadly
than his own self as our surety. He's talking about the benefits
that flow to us believers, those called the saints of God by God,
called to be saints, those people Chosen by God, given grace to
know the Lord Jesus Christ and to know God in Him. God has worked this out for them
and they are those who fear the Lord and is defined in this verse
as those that trust in Him. To trust in God is to fear Him.
Remember in so many times in Old Testament Israel, the people
would trust in idols, and the result of that was that they
would seek help from an idol. They considered the idol capable
of delivering them from their enemies or blessing them, and
so they sought after that idol for that purpose. In other words,
they didn't fear God. They trusted in the idol. To
fear God is to know that our only salvation is in Him. All
of our salvation must be in Him, and in Him alone. We have to
answer to Him. But He has, of His own self,
provided salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's fearing
God. And verse 20. Thou shalt hide them in the secret
of thy presence from the pride of man. The secret of God's presence? Why is it called the secret of
His presence? Well, because God's presence, there's no secrets
there. But where that is, is secret
to the wicked. It's secret to the unbeliever.
And that presence of God is, we have access into the holiest
of all, how? By the blood of Jesus, Hebrews
10 verse 19. So we enter into the presence
of God in the presence of our high priest who sits on the throne
of heaven called the throne of grace. And that's the presence
of God. He hides us there. He hides us
there in his presence. It's a hiding from anyone else
because no one can come into God's presence unless they come
in the perfect holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. So no wicked
thing is allowed there. So he'll hide us there in the
presence. and he'll hide them from the pride of man. The pride
of man is the opposite of those who are in God's presence. Man's
pride is not allowed in God's presence. There's no pride in
God's presence. The only one that gets glory
in God's presence is the Lord Jesus Christ and God in him. Glorify thou me, Jesus said,
that thy son may also glorify thee. And the Lord, the God,
the Father glorified him because that's the way he glorifies himself,
by glorifying his son and everyone will bow to Christ. That's the
pride of man humbled. There's no tolerance of pride
in God's presence. He knows how to humble the proud. Satan doesn't dare, doesn't dare
come into God's presence unless God summons him there. And neither
shall any man come into God's presence. But thou shalt keep
them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. The pavilion
is that safe place in God's presence. Verse 21, blessed be the Lord
for he has showed me his marvelous kindness in a strong city. A strong city. Now, in Isaiah. chapter 26, if you want to turn
there. Look at Isaiah chapter 26. This
is a delightful place, a delightful scripture here. And this phrase,
a strong city, because I kept thinking about this, strong city.
What is a strong city? Is it a city of opposition or
is it a city of salvation? Is it a place where the strength
of God's enemies are piled up together? and God and Christ
has been shown salvation, or we have been shown salvation
there. What is this? No, it's in Isaiah 26. Notice this. In that day shall this song be
sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city. Salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks. Now, if you were gonna build
a strong city, what would you build it out of? The very strongest
city that you could imagine. Ah, I know what it would be built
out of. Salvation. It would be built out of salvation.
And what would be the defense of that city? Salvation. You
see, this city is strong because of the salvation that God has
accomplished in the Lord Jesus Christ of his people. Nothing
can separate them from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus,
our Lord. Nothing, whether it be life or death, things present
or things to come, persecutions, tribulation, hunger, famine,
nakedness, peril, sword, all those things listed in Romans
chapter eight, nothing things, principalities and powers, nothing
can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ because
it's a strong city. Notice, the walls of the city,
salvation. Not that the walls, not that
salvation is in the walls, but the walls are salvation. The
bulwarks are salvation. He says, open ye the gates that
the righteous nation which keepeth truth may enter in. And how do
we keep the truth? We come to Christ. He's the way, the truth,
and the life. We believe him. We know him through
this God-given faith. Thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in
thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever,
for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. That's the city that's
strong, isn't it? In the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the strong city. Jerusalem, which is above, is
the mother of us all. That's the church. The heavenly
Jerusalem in Galatians chapter 4 is the church, but the Lord
Jesus Christ is the light of that city. He's the life, the
light. He is the foundation. He's the
walls. He's everything in that city.
All right. He says, in verse 22, Psalm 31,
verse 22. For I said in my haste, I am
cut off from before thine eyes. Nevertheless, thou heardest me.
Thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried to
thee. Now, when our strength is exhausted,
you know what that feels like. It's not a pleasant place to
be. It seems like sometimes our strength is exhausted, and then
we're brought even lower. So really, we never reach the
end of our strength until, perhaps, until we lie in the grave. But we do feel without strength
in our spirit, in our soul. So when our strength is exhausted,
though, according to 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9 and 10, Christ's
strength is made perfect. And this is the greatest blessing,
is that the strength of the Lord is our strength, the strength
of Christ, not our own strength. He says in Philippians 3, 3,
we take no confidence in the flesh. Jesus said in John 6,
62, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you,
they are spirit and they are life. So it's not our flesh. It's Christ in us. It's Christ
himself for us. And so he says here, I said in
my haste, I'm cut off from before thine eyes. Nevertheless, thou
heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried to thee. To all
outward onlookers, He was a goner. The Lord Jesus Christ on the
cross, He was a goner. They even said, He trusted in
the Lord, let the Lord deliver Him since He trusted in Him.
No, the Lord didn't seem to answer. So they concluded He was a goner. They had their way with Him.
And so you would conclude from all of that, in haste, that He
says, I'm cut off before thine eyes. It seems as if he was,
but he wasn't, was he? Nevertheless, you see that word,
nevertheless, that conjunction, that's the interposition of God's
purpose being finally revealed in the fulfillment of it in the
experience of the life of a believer. So when we come to the end of
our strength and we cry to the Lord, I'm at the end, it's over
for me. Nevertheless, thou heardest the
voice of my supplication when I cried to thee." What a comfort
this is. It doesn't matter how low we
go, how low we go. we can cry to the Lord. In fact,
it's when we're at the lowest point that we actually do cry
to the Lord. That's when we truly need him.
And that's what the Lord Jesus himself. So he says in verse
23, as a result of this, oh, love the Lord, all ye his saints.
For the Lord preserveth the faithful and plentifully rewardeth the
proud doer. The faithful are those who trust
Christ. The proud doer are those who
trust their works. Be of good courage, and he shall
strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord." 1 Timothy
1.1, Christ is our hope. We hope in the Lord. In Jeremiah
17.5, cursed is the man that trusteth in man. But in Jeremiah
17.7, it says, but blessed are they whose hope the Lord is.
He's our trust. He's the one we look to and lean
upon. He's our hope. He's the one from
whom we expect all of our salvation. And what a blessed thing. God
says, be of good courage. That's what he said to Joshua
before he went into the land of Canaan to take it. Be of good
courage, be strong, be of good courage. Why? Not because you
have got strength, but because the Lord does. The Lord Jesus
Christ has overcome our enemies. If you hope in the Lord, If you
hope in the Lord, then you have hoped in the only one who can
save a sinner. And that's what we do, isn't
it? By God's word, we come in the nakedness and the corruption
of all that we are, in our guilt, in our condemnation, to Christ
for healing, for washing from the guilt of our sin, for the
removal of the condemnation and the curse of our sin. We come
to Him for life. We come to Him for faith. We
come without anything. We come to Him for everything. And we expect God to receive
us not for anything in us, therefore, for Christ's sake alone, and
since it is for his sake alone, and he will receive us as his
son." That's what Paul told Philemon in the book of Philemon, verse
12. He said, receive him as myself,
receive him as myself. That is mine own bowels, mine
own bowels. The deepest part of his affections
and desire was for Onesimus. And so he asked Philemon, receive
him as my own bowels, as myself. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ, his desire is to receive his people. And we come as in
reciprocation of that truth taught to us from the word of God in
the gospel, we come, Lord, receive me for his sake. Receive me for
Christ's sake. That's the truth God has revealed
in his word. That's the truth we love, don't
we? We love it. Oh, love the Lord. We love the
Lord because he first loved us and he loved us in saving us
from our sins. This is the way we know the love
of God. The Spirit of God has shed abroad the love of God in
our hearts because when we were yet without strength in due time,
Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5, verse 5 through 10. And all that's said there in
Romans 5 teaches us that the love of God is poured out upon
us and made known to us in the love of Christ for us when he
gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the wrath of
God, from the curse of the law, and from this present evil world,
and from the corruptions of our nature, and from all that sin
has brought upon us, what a Savior! O love the Lord, ye his saints.
Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word,
for this great salvation, this strong city that the Lord Jesus
Christ himself is to us. All of your salvation, all of
your blessings have been given to him for your people. And you
have exhorted us, you've exhorted us to be of good courage and
hope in him, to trust him as he trusted in you. And we do
that, Lord. He is our mediator. He is our
surety. He's our all, our high priest,
our advocate, our intercessor. He's everything. And he is our
king to bring us to himself, to bring us to glory, not for
what we are, but for what he has done, that we might stand
and admire and worship him forever and ever. In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.