I want to begin a new section
in Scripture today. I want to turn to Psalm 86. I was preparing a sermon for
the radio, and in the process of doing that, I needed to do
some more studying on David. And while I was thinking about
David, of course, I was reading the Psalms and came across this
Psalm. And so that's what this week's
sermon is about, is Psalm 86. I think we could just go through
the Psalms the rest of our days here. The Psalms are songs inspired
by the Spirit of God, written mostly by David the King, who
was also a prophet And the thing about the Psalms is that they
are common to God's people. And so when we read them, we
have great fellowship, not only with God, because He's given
us His word to know His own heart for us to come to Him by that,
but also because we have such a common bond in the Psalms when
we come to the Lord. David makes lots of very plain
statements in the Psalms, and I want to look at this Psalm
with you and just see some of those. We could just go through
these over and over, and I don't want to dive too deeply into
this, but I do want you to see as much as the Lord has been
pleased to show me. So, let's pray. Father, thank
you for your Word, thank you for your Spirit that inspired
men like David to speak from your heart, because he was a
man after your own heart, and not speak just for himself in
private prayer, but speak in a way that we also could hear
these words, this deep, intimate communion between the soul of
a man and our God and Savior. And so we pray that You would
give us this grace also to enter into the truth of this, not only
to understand it, but to go to You with these words as our very
own. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. save thy servant that trusteth
in thee." Because that's the words from this psalm in the
very first verse. So, we're just going to go through
this psalm together and we'll make some comments here. Now,
this sermon, at the outset, I want to say a few words to you. I want you to enter into this
psalm as if the Lord gave it to you, because the Bible wasn't
written for somebody else. it was written to me. It was
written to you. Not so you could use it as a
platform to stand above somebody else, or to use it to find faults
with others, but to take grace from God's Word Because his word
is life and truth. So this sermon might seem, at
the outset, to be a sermon for the lost. But I like sermons
for the lost. I don't know about you. I want
to hear how God saves the lost, because without his salvation,
I'm lost. But it is not a sermon only for
the lost. It is all, in fact, it is all
for... It's for all of us who are poor
and needy, as we'll see in the very first verse here. Poor in
spiritual things. Poor in things pertaining to
God. But not just poor, but needy. Needy for a salvation that is
in Christ Jesus the Lord. Needy for Christ to save me to
the uttermost. That's what we need, isn't it?
That's why we have fellowship one with another. Because we're
here with a common need. Common like poor people. I was
in Beijing, China several years back. which is a huge city, millions
of people live in that city, and millions more come in and
out of that city every day. I think it's the biggest city
I've ever been in. But when I was there, there was
a woman, I don't know how old, maybe middle-aged, maybe younger,
who was on a bicycle that looked pretty broken down, towing a
little trailer with a piece of wood on it. And I thought that's
interesting, in a city with all of this, all these people, and
all this fancy hotels and everything. Here's a woman who's riding around
collecting sticks, probably to stay warm at night. That was
poor. She was a poor woman. And so
we come spiritually poor to God and needy. Are you? Are you poor? Am I? Are we needy? If you are, it's God's work.
We don't make ourselves poor. God does that. And so if you're
poor, be thankful. It says in the Proverbs, the
poor uses entreaties. That means they ask for things
with a very lowly attitude. They need it. But the proud answers
roughly. Have you ever seen people in
a demanding way asking for things? It's mine. I have a right to
it. That's called pride. But the poor doesn't do that.
The poor cries out of their need. In Luke 4, verse 18, Jesus came
to preach the gospel to the poor. And in Luke 9, verse 11, it says,
He healed all who had need of healing. All who had need of
healing were healed. If they weren't healed, they
didn't have a need for it. May God give us that need, that
we would be poor and needy. In the Proverbs it also says
this, the full soul, someone after you've had a Thanksgiving
dinner, you know what it's like, you're full. The full soul loatheth
a honeycomb. It's like, I can't take anymore,
I don't want any of that honeycomb. In those days that was like the
highest, the most treasured morsel. But to the hungry soul, every
bitter thing is sweet. That's the way the gospel works.
To the full soul, someone who doesn't have a need, it doesn't
matter what you offer them. I just can't hold anymore. I'm
full. But to the hungry soul, it doesn't
matter what you offer them. It's all good, bitter and sweet. Jesus told the Pharisees in John
chapter 9, after he healed the man born blind, he said, if you
were blind, then you would have no sin. That seems contrary,
doesn't it? If you were blind, you would
have no sin. But now you say, we see, therefore your sin remains. So over and over in scripture,
God emphasizes the importance of being poor. And so we see
that in this psalm. I haven't gotten to it yet, but
I'm going to get it. This is all preliminary. Now,
I was talking to someone, not this week, but the week before,
and I was hoping that in this person who doesn't know the Lord,
I was hoping that they might ask me, where do I start with
God? Doesn't that sound like something,
it's the place that people ought to be asking, where do I start
with God? And so I thought about that answer
to that question, where do we start with God? We have to start
here. We have to borrow words because
we don't have any words to come to God with. And that's why the
Lord has given us the Psalms. Here, take these words. Come
with these words in your heart and in your mouth. And that's
the first thing. We come with borrowed words.
to ask. We don't know what we need and
we can't pray as we ought to, so we borrow words and come that
way. And so here's a man who comes. God has given him the
words and we're borrowing them. And the second way we come, we
start with God, is we come with borrowed words and then we stand
still. and see the salvation of the Lord. We don't start doing
things. Stand still and see what God
has done. We borrow words as a beggar coming
to God for everything because we have nothing spiritually.
We're poor and we're needy. And so we ask the Lord to give
us His word. In Hosea chapter 14, I'll read
these words to you. I've read them several times
before. But in Hosea 14 it says, Oh Israel, And this is a nation
that God had been so good to over so many years. And they
had destroyed themselves, and He told them, You have destroyed
yourself, but in Me is your help. And then in chapter 14, He goes
on, He says, O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou
hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn
to the Lord. What words? These words say to
him, take away all iniquity and receive us graciously. So will
we render the calves of our lips, not literal calves, but our lips,
giving thanks to your name. Asher shall not save us. Assyrians
won't save us. We trusted in their gods and
they wouldn't save us. We will not ride upon horses,
neither will we say anymore to the work of our hands, you are
our gods, for in thee the fatherless find mercy. And then the Lord
promises, I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely. For
mine anger is turned away from him." That's the gospel. God's
anger turned away from our Savior who substituted himself for us.
And the Lord says, take these words with you and come. Ask
the Lord to take away all iniquity. We're guilty. Our mind and heart
is corrupt and defiled. We're helpless and hopeless in
ourselves. And so the Lord gives us these
words. Now, David was a man who knew God. There's no question
about that. In 1 Samuel 13, it says that
God found a man who was after his own heart. And that would
be David. But David was not just a man
after his own heart. He was also a prophet whose words
and whose life and experience was a prophecy of the Lord Jesus
Christ, his Son. He was his son, the Lord Jesus
Christ was David's son after the flesh, but he was David's
Lord after his divine nature. And so when we read these words
here, you're reading and you're seeing the very heart of God. expressed from the view of a
man towards his God. God gives these things, doesn't
He? This is His work, to put this
attitude in our heart of poverty, of spirit, and need of His grace. And so we need to learn. We need
to learn from David. We need to learn by God's grace.
Notice that he was heard. What he prayed, God heard. It
says in 1 John 5, I think verse 13, it says, we know that if
we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. What is
God's will? For sinners. Jesus said it in
John 6.40, this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone
who see it, the Son, and believeth on him, should not perish, but
have everlasting life." And I'll raise him up at the last day.
That's the will of God. Come as a sinner, lost and helpless,
and praying to God with these borrowed words and looking and
waiting for his salvation as we saw last week. Jacob prayed
that way. I've waited for your salvation
And so we're going to read these words, and these are the words
of someone else. But we're going to take them
as our own words, because God has given them in His Word, in
His own inspired Word, for His people, for His Church. Not only
are we going to take these words to ourselves by the grace of
God, we're going to identify with this man. We're going to
identify with him. But we're also going to see something
else in these words. We're going to see a man who
didn't just pray for himself. And he didn't just pray as an
example for us. But He prayed for us. And that's
the amazing thing here. So let's read these words together
from Psalm 86. Verse 1, it says, Bow down thine
ear, O Lord. Right away we see that the one
praying is low, and the one he's praying to is high. Bow down
thine ear, O Lord. God is high, but I am nothing. And so I need Him to condescend
to me in grace to hear me. Bow down thine ear, O Lord. He's
praying to the Lord, Jehovah God. Jehovah means the one who
saves at his own will and by his own mercy, as he will. Exodus
33, 19, God told Moses, the Lord is the one who has mercy on whom
he will, and whom he will. He pardons and he hardens whom
he will. This is God. So bow down thine
ear, O Lord, to me, the one who saves, saves whom he will, saves
as he will, and hear me. Hear me, Lord. The one who saves. Hear me, Lord. His name is Jesus,
Jehovah, salvation. For I am poor and needy." That's
what he prays. I'm poor and needy. Poor. This was David. David was writing
these words. He was writing them as a prophet,
but he was speaking, first of all, from his own experience.
But was he poor? Was he poor in material things?
Remember when Goliath stood and challenged all the armies of
Israel? Give me a man to fight with me. One man. If I beat him,
then all of you are our servants. But if he beats me, then we're
your servants." And David fearlessly went into the battle with Goliath,
a puny man against a giant. But his strength was in the Lord,
and he had no fear, because he said, the Lord will deliver you
into my hand. This was David. It doesn't sound
very poor to me, but in his heart he was poor before God, and that
was his strength. Because God told Paul in 2 Corinthians
12, verses 9 and 10, that my strength is made perfect in weakness. And so here a poor man was made
strong. He was a needy man, but he was
not only mighty and courageous against his enemies, but he was
the king. There was nothing he didn't have.
He could have asked for anything in the kingdom. Gold, silver.
And he did. He had it all. But in his heart
he was poor. Because he was poor in spirit. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew
chapter 5, blessed are the poor in spirit. That means spiritually
poor. Spiritually poor. And that's
the only way we really want to be rich. We want to be rich spiritually,
but we don't find that spiritual richness in ourselves, do we?
We find ourselves to be poor. And that's an attitude only God
can give. We can't make ourselves that.
The B attitudes are not things that we achieve by our own attitude
change. But God puts it in us. He gives
us a heart. He makes us poor in spirit. And
from that poverty of spirit, every other thing in Matthew
chapter 5 flows out of it. And you remember what it is.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are they that mourn. Those who are poor mourn
over their sin, don't they? They mourn over their sin because
they're poor. Their sin takes away that most
treasured thing, which is their communion with God Himself. And
so they become poor. And so he says here, "...bow
down thine ear, O Lord, hear me, for I am poor and needy."
Poor and needy. I'm not just poor, but I need
the Lord. I need the Lord Jesus. Jesus
said in Matthew chapter 9 verse 13, I didn't come to call the
righteous to repentance, but sinners. I didn't come to heal
the healthy, but the sick. I'll read this to you. In Matthew
chapter 9, when the Pharisees saw it, they said in verse 11,
they said to his disciples, why does your master eat with publicans
and sinners? And when Jesus heard that, he
said to them, they that behold, The healthy need not a physician.
You don't need a doctor if everything's okay. But they that are sick,
sick. The word sick there, it means
sick in an evil way. Sick because of sin. Most of
the time it's used that way in scripture. The woman whose daughter
was troubled with the devil, that was what she complained
about. The man who was possessed by demons, that's what he complained
about. The devil grievously vexes me, torments me. He was sick. I came for the sick. Those afflicted
by their sin and by Satan. Those who've been plagued in
their heart because of sin. But go and learn what that meaneth,
he said in verse 13. I will have mercy and not sacrifice.
I'm not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Poor
and needy. We mourn because we're poor.
God gives us that poverty. We mourn because of our sin.
Blessed are they that mourn. Blessed are the meek. When you're
poor, you're submissive to God in every way, aren't you? What
are you going to do? Resist? You're going to resist
the only one who's good and merciful and gracious and long-suffering
and full of faithfulness? Of course not. You're going to
gladly embrace Him with your whole heart and submit to His
will all the good and all what seems to be bad. You'll trust
Him. That's what a meek person does. And blessed are they who
not only are meek, but also who hunger and thirst for righteousness. When we're poor in spirit, we
hunger for righteousness. And we know it's not in us. We
have none. We're hungry and thirsting for something we don't have,
and so we're looking for it. And so blessed are the peacemakers.
Follows that. All of this comes out of that
first attitude of being poor in spirit because a peacemaker
is someone who holds to and clings to and talks about the peace
God has made with Him in Christ. And so we tell sinners about
how sinners can be reconciled. And those who are persecuted
for righteousness sake. When we're poor in spirit, we
make a big issue about the fact that all of our righteousness
is in Christ. And men might persecute us for
that. But that only makes us cling
to Christ the more, because we're poor. Like an abalone holding
to the rock and the waves come by. It just makes it tighter.
Can't get it off. And so back in Psalm 86, he says
this, What is that? To preserve means to keep, to
hold, to not let fall, to uphold, and to bring to its completed
end. Preserve my soul, my life. I am dependent upon you for everything.
My breath, my life. I'm ignorant. I need the truth
to be revealed to me. I don't know anything unless
it's told to me from your word. I need everything. I need a heart
that's desiring you. Words to pray. A righteousness
to come to you with. A covering for all my sin. Cleansing
of all my sin. He says, I am holy. How in the
world can I be holy? How could a person pray, I'm
holy? Well, we know that if we are
holy, it's because God the Father sanctified. That's what holy
means. It means to be set apart by the one who is holy for his
holy use. Jude chapter 1 verse 1 says,
we're sanctified by God the Father. And how is that? In eternal election,
God has set us apart for His own use. And what use is that?
To the praise of the glory of His grace. That we might be to
the praise of His grace as object of salvation in Christ. We're
sanctified by the blood of Christ. By one offering, He sanctified
His people. By that offering He offered of
Himself to God, He sanctified them forever. And it was His
blood on the altar that sanctified us in Hebrews 10.10 and Hebrews
13.12. Sanctified by the blood of Christ. And we're sanctified
by the Spirit of God when He gives us that life in our souls. A new man that's created in righteousness
and true holiness. Sanctified by the Spirit of God.
Made sons of God in the new birth. Given that holy faith. That precious
faith that looks to Christ. We're made holy. But when we
read these words, we suddenly get the sense that there's someone
else praying here more than myself. Don't you feel that? When you
read these words, it's like, it just doesn't seem like those
words apply directly to me. I have to look at them through
another's eyes. And so, I want you to consider
how the Lord Jesus Christ himself was all these things to us. Is
it possible that these words were actually the words of the
Lord Jesus? Remember, they were spoken by
David. But David was a prophet. But
the Lord Jesus was the one David spoke about. But he spoke about
him in such a way that his words were in the first person as if
spoken by the Lord Jesus. Because they were, eventually.
In prophecy, they were. But in reality, they were actually
speaking of him. In 2 Corinthians 8, look at this
in verse 9. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes
He became poor, that you, through His poverty, might be rich. What does the psalmist say in
verse 1? I am poor and needy. Now, we're poor because we naturally
have nothing. Every breath is a gift from God.
All of our food that we eat. The ability to go to bed at night
and sleep and rest and wake up refreshed. The rising sun. Everything is a gift from God
to us. We don't deserve anything. We deserve justice. But here the man speaking in
the Psalms says, I'm poor and needy. This was spoken by one
who made himself poor. who became poor in order that
he might stand for his people. might bear their debt because
that's how you get poor. You owe something and you can't
pay it. We owed a debt we couldn't pay. Christ paid a debt he didn't
owe. He made himself poor and that
was his grace. He who is high stooped so low
that he took our debt and it became his and it became his
to such an extent that he now became the debtor to pay this
debt. And so he's coming to the Lord
as a man who owes. A man who's been brought low
by his own willing service. The foxes, Jesus said, have holes.
Foxes have holes. Birds of the air have nests.
But the Son of Man doesn't have anywhere even to lay his head.
And in Matthew 20, verse 26-28, the Lord Jesus said, it shall
not be so among you. The disciples wanted to have
a status compared to another. James and John's mother asked
Jesus if her two sons could sit on Jesus' right hand and left
hand when he came into his kingdom. And Jesus said, in verse 25,
Jesus called them to Him and He said, You know that the princes
of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are
great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so
among you. In other words, don't make yourself
a ruler over others in the church of God. But it shall not be so
among you, but whosoever will be great among you, let him be
your minister or servant. And whosoever will be chief among
you, let him be your servant. Even as the Son of Man came not
to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life
a ransom for many, He made Himself a servant. of all of his people,
made himself poor as a servant. You remember he washed his disciples'
feet. You call me Master and Lord, and you say, well, for
so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master,
have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
Humble yourselves." But look at Hebrews chapter 5. These scriptures
show us that the Lord Jesus Christ was made poor, willingly, voluntarily,
In order that he might do the will of God as a servant to his
father for his people. Hebrews chapter 5 verse 7 it
says, About the Lord Jesus, who in the days of his flesh, when
he had offered up prayers, which we're reading about in Psalm
86, and supplications with strong crying and tears. Why would the
Son of God offer up prayers and supplications with strong crying
and tears? Because he was made lower than
the angels. that He might taste death for
every son. And He was made lower than the
angels, and the burden of our sin was laid upon Him. And with
that burden, as the Son of Man, made lower, He says, I'm a worm
and no man in the Psalms. Here He says, in the days of
His flesh, He offered up prayers and supplications with strong
crying and tears to Him that was able to save Him from death.
And he was heard in that he feared, he feared God. Though he were
a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.
And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation
unto all them that obey him. That's our Lord Jesus. Poor and
needy. And so when we read this psalm,
we know it has to do Ultimately, with our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. And that's why I say, when we open this psalm, we're
hearing the heart of a man who's needy and poor. Truly poor and
truly needy. And he knows what it means to
be poor before God. And he knows what it means to
make his supplications before God as a humble man. Asking God
to bow down and hear his prayer. Because he stood in our place
with our debt. He took our sicknesses. He took
our plague. He received our stripes. He fulfilled
our righteousness. He offered up prayers, not only
for Himself, but for us. Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. Peter, I prayed for you that
your faith feel not. And in all of John 17, I believe
when the Lord Jesus went out to pray, He was praying for His
people. He prayed. He made intercession for the
transgressors. Isaiah 53.12 He searches the
hearts and He makes intercession for the saints according to the
will of God. This is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He
prayed for Himself as the Son of Man because God laid our sins
upon Him. He laid all responsibility upon
Him to fulfill all righteousness and bring us to glory. And that
was a heavy load, and so He prayed for Himself under that load that
God would sustain Him. But in His prayer for Himself,
He prayed also for us that the Lord would save us as our mediator.
As our substitute and as our mediator. Back in Psalm 86. Preserve my soul for I am holy.
Now we see it. He set himself apart as holy. He says in John 17, 19. I sanctify
myself that they also might be sanctified. He made himself holy
to do the will of God in order that we might be made holy. by
His own blood offered to God for us, cleansing us from all
our sin, clothing us in His own righteousness. Preserve my soul,
for I am holy. O Thou, my God, save Thy servant
that trusteth in Thee. Never were their words more true,
spoken by a man, than that the Lord Jesus said these things."
David prayed the prayer. He wrote it by the inspiration
of the Spirit. It applied to him personally
in his historical experience. But it looked forward to another,
the son of David, and David's Lord, who prayed as a son of
man, holding up this prayer. It was a prayer he prayed as
his own experience. He trusted in the Lord, they
said, while he hung on the cross. He trusted in the Lord that he
would save him. Let him deliver him now, seeing
that he trusted in him. Didn't he? He trusted in Him,
and so He not only trusted in Him for Himself, but He trusted
in His Father for His people. And in all of this, he's an example
also to us, because we trust in the Lord. You see that communion,
that fellowship? We don't have a high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but in all
points he was tempted, like as we are, yet without sin. Therefore,
come boldly to the throne of grace, that we might obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need, because he trusted and
he found mercy in this time of hell. of need. What need could
there be greater than his need when he bore the wrath of God
and he cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And
so in verse 3 we read this. Again, we can read these words
as a sinner coming to God through the Lord Jesus Christ because
our Lord Jesus Christ came to God for us. And so he prays in
verse 3, Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for I cry unto thee daily. Why did he cry daily? Why would
one who is holy cry for mercy daily? Because he needed mercy
daily. That's why. I know it seems like
a simple answer, but that's the only answer we can say. He needed
the mercy of God daily. Now if he did, if David even
did, this mighty brave and rich king. God had chosen him and
exalted him out of the people. If he needed mercy daily and
the Lord Jesus Christ in our nature needed mercy daily, how
much more we? And so we come to God with these
borrowed words asking that God himself would make us poor and
show us our needs so when we come to him we come daily. And
we wouldn't stay away. We would pour out our heart.
Everything that we think, everything that we want, everything that
we doubt, all of our fears, we bring it to Him. And we pour
it out to Him and say, Lord, I need You. I'm poor. I have
nothing. I need everything. Only You can save me. And so
we cried daily. Verse 4. Rejoice the soul of
thy servant, for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul." Rejoice
the soul. We want to rejoice, don't you?
Don't you want to be joyful in the Lord? And yet, even the joy
that comes to us by God's grace is a gift of His grace. It says
in Romans 15, 13, This is a prayer of the Apostle in verse 13 of
Romans 15. Now the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace in believing. We have to have joy and peace
given to us, but God gives it to us in believing and looking
to Christ. In hearing His word and taking
His word as our own. And holding to it, clinging to
Christ through His word. He says, Now the God of hope
fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound
in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. How do we have
joy? How do we have peace? Through
believing. How do these things come to us? The God of hope gives
them. And he gives them by his own
Holy Spirit. We can't produce it. We're entirely
dependent. That's how poor and needy we
are. And then he goes on, not only does he want the Lord to
give him this joy, this rejoicing of soul, but he says in verse
5, Why he rejoices? For thou, Lord, art good and
ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call
upon thee. This is what rejoiced his heart.
The Lord David, of course, was glad that God was ready to forgive,
good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy, but the Lord
Jesus himself was glad that his father was ready to forgive and
plenteous in mercy to all them that call upon thee." Call upon
who? Who do we call upon? Well, it
says in Acts 2.21 in Romans 10.13, whoever calls on the name of
the Lord, the Lord Jesus, shall be saved. We call on the name
of the Lord Jesus, don't we? He's our only Savior. He's the
only one who can save a sinner from his sins. That's what His
name is, Savior. So we call on the Savior. We
call on Him as the Lord who has to save us. He has the power
to forgive sins. He's the one who earned that
right to forgive sins. It's His precious blood by which
God forgives us. So we call on Him. because He's
ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy. We take this as God's
Word. I'm a sinner, I have nothing, and the Lord is good and ready
to forgive and plenteous in mercy. I'm going to take these words
as my words to God, given to me by His Spirit, and know that
this is the will of God for a poor sinner like me. And verse 6,
"...give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer, and attend to the voice
of my supplications." Again, he's asking God to hear. He pours
out his needs. To supplicate before God is to
come to Him and ask Him to give to me. I need all things. There's nothing I don't need
that isn't given to me by God. I make my supplications to Him.
It's an attitude of of confessing that all that I need comes to
me by God's goodness and His grace. To not pray, to not make
our supplications is an attitude of presumption and pride. It's
just, you know, it just happens. It just comes. All good things
just happen, you know. What do they say? Life is good.
All these little phrases that that people come up with. You
hear them all the time in the workplace. I'd hear them all
the time. Something to go good at work. You know, somebody would
accomplish their job. Oh man, that's really good. It's
really good. But there was no acknowledgment
that everything came from God. But that's what the soul of the
child of God is taught. I make my supplications to the
Lord because everything comes to me from His hand. And so I
call upon Him and it glorifies God. A needy sinner. Think about this. A needy sinner
with nothing. Who deserves in himself, who
deserves nothing except God's wrath. Coming to God for everything. And looking to Christ to find
it. And to find mercy. And coming to God in the way
God prescribes. That glorifies God. You would
think that a king would have people bringing him gifts all
the time. But our king gives gifts. He doesn't need anything. He gives to all life and breath
and all things. God is glorified because as God,
He gives all to His people. He says in verse 7, He says,
He has confidence. In the day of trouble, when things
aren't going the way I expect them to go, When trouble is near, I call
upon you. Psalm 50 15 says, call upon me
in the day of trouble. I will answer you and thou shalt
glorify me. We call in the day of trouble,
in the day of blessing, we call and we give our thanks to God.
Verse 8, among the gods there's none like to thee. O Lord, neither
are there any works like unto thy works. There's no one like
you and there's no one who can do what you do. No one saves
but God. No one saves like our God. No
one would save but our God. No one can. Verse 9, All nations
whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O LORD,
and shall glorify thy name. All nations means the Gentiles,
not just the Jews, not just the physical children of Abraham,
but those who have no relation to Abraham after the flesh. Gentiles
also. This is my name right here. All
nations. That's me. A sinner outside the
covenants of Abraham. For thou art great, and doest
wondrous things. Thou art God alone." Such simple
truths flow from the Psalms. Thou art God alone. You are ready to forgive. Plenteous
in mercy. And then he goes on. Verse 11. Teach me thy way, O
Lord. I don't know anything. You have
to teach me. I can't claim any knowledge that
you didn't give to me. And it came to me from somebody
else. I didn't think it up of myself.
I'm not an idea generator. I don't have innovative thoughts. Not about God. God gives it all. He reveals himself. And if he
doesn't reveal himself, we are in the dark. Teach me thy way,
O Lord. I will walk in thy truth. Unite
my heart to fear Thy name. Put a shackle on my heart so
that I will not depart from You. Cause me to fear Your name, to
walk in this attitude of admiration and reverence, knowing You are
God and I am a sinner and I need so much. Verse 12, I will praise
Thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify
Thy name forevermore. And can't you hear the sound
in heaven reverberating through this infinite space that God
has created with the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ over His
accomplishments, over His conquest, over His enemies, over His salvation
of His people. When one sinner is saved, all
of heaven rejoices. And here I hear the Lord Jesus
leading the praise. I will praise Thee, O Lord my
God. He says it in Hebrews chapter 2. I will give thanks unto Thy
name. In the midst of the congregation
I will give thanks unto Thee. I will praise Thee. Let me read
it to you from Hebrews chapter 2. This is the Lord Jesus, no
doubt about that, singing these songs. He says in In verse 11
of chapter 2, Hebrews chapter 2, 11, for both he that sanctified
makes holy, and they that who are sanctified are all of one,
all of one congregation, all of one body, one people, one
flock, one church. For which cause? He is not ashamed
to call them brethren. That's the Lord Jesus. He's not
ashamed to call his people, these are my brethren. He comes to
his Father, look, these are my brethren. He stands before the
onlooking universe and says, these are my brethren, the sons
of the living God. Verse 12, saying, this is what
he says in scripture, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the church will
I sing praise to thee. And again, I will put my trust
in him. And again, behold, I and the
children which God hath given me." That's the Lord, our Savior,
praising His God because of the children God has given Him. Back
to Psalm 86. He says this, verse 13, "...for
great is thy mercy toward me, and thou hast delivered my soul
from the lowest hell." This is true, isn't it? Hezekiah said,
Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit. He
says, because you have cast all my sins behind your back. I'm
going to read it to you just like he said it in Isaiah 38,
verse 17. When he was sick and almost ready
to die, the Lord healed him. He said, Behold, for peace I
had great bitterness. Isaiah 38, 17, But thou hast
in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption,
for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. The love of
God sent his Son. The love of God laid my sins
upon Christ. The love of God received from
Christ for me, and received Christ, and with him received me. He
cast all my sins behind thy back, and that's why I'm healed of
my sin sick soul." And so he prays here, I was delivered from
the lowest hell. The Lord Jesus certainly was.
And we were delivered because he went and suffered under the
judgment and wrath of God in order that he might deliver us
from the judgment and wrath we deserved. So he's delivered us
from the lowest hell too. Verse 14, O God, the proud are
risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after
my soul, and have not set thee before them. But thou, O Lord,
art a God full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering,
and plenteous in mercy and truth. It's amazing that God is so glorious. And yet we are so dull and so
adverse to him by nature. And he tells us these things
over and over again to comfort us. He's a God full of compassion,
gracious, long-suffering, plenteous in mercy and truth. And we can
come confessing this truth with his words. Oh, verse 16, turn
unto me and have mercy upon me. Give thy strength unto thy servant
and save the son of thine handmaid. The Lord Jesus was born of a
woman, made under the law, and he endured the curse and fulfilled
the law for us. And so he says, give strength
to thy servant. Show me a token for good that they which hate
me may see it and be ashamed because thou, Lord, hast opened
me and comforted me. Show me a token for good. What
good? What token do you want him to show you? Give me this
precious faith. caused me to look nowhere but
to Christ. That's the token I want. I don't want any claims of accomplishments. All I want is to have faith to
see that Christ has done it all. And I want to be able to come
to God in that precious faith, that holy faith that God gives,
and thank Him as the Lord Jesus Himself did. did it in the place
of his people, he prayed for his people, and he shows us how
to come. Let's borrow his words, let's
take them, and stand upon the fact that he was hurt, because
he feared, because he paid the debt that we owed. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we pray that you
would receive us to the glory of God, and you would forgive
our sins, and you would show us the mercy that you have for
sinners, this plenteous redemption, this abundance of grace. Save us for your namesake, Lord.
Make us holy. Set us apart for your use. Make
us the objects of your saving grace to your great glory. and
fulfill your word, dear Lord. Give to us what you've promised
for sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ. We want nothing
but what you give, but we want all that you have for sinners,
for Christ's sake. In His name we pray. Amen.