What old words with heavenly
comfort fraught or full. David asked the Lord in this
psalm to lead him. Psalm 143, this is a psalm as
all the psalms are. They were all meant to be sung
and were sung by David or Moses and all the people. This is,
I've entitled this a song of a soul overwhelmed, a soul in
trouble. How many times we've thought
about this, that singing is so good for us. It's good for us
to do and it's good for us. It's a good thing to sing praises
unto our Lord. He deserves, well deserves praise. Let's sing unto Him. That's good
for us. It's a good thing. It helps us.
James said, if any is afflicted, let him pray. If you're merry,
sing. Paul reminded us to always be
singing and make him mellowed in our hearts unto the Lord.
If you're sad, sing. It may cheer you, hopefully. If you're glad, sing unto Him
who made you glad. If you're mad, sing. It might quieten that old madman
within us. So this is a song, meant to be
sung. Sometime, if you ever read a
song and just start trying to sing it, put it to some kind
of melody in your head, try it sometime. Never know how the
Lord might bless you with that. David. This is a prayer, like
most of the Psalms are. It's a prayer. It's a prayer
unto God. That's why we love the Psalms
so much, don't we? Prayer is the believer's breath. If you're alive, if you have
life, the life of God in you, you have to pray to Him, call
upon Him. It's communion with God. It's
crying unto our God, like a child crying to its father. My prayer
is such a wonderful thing, a privilege. It's a confession. We confess.
We confess our sins and we cry unto Him. We call upon Him. We
ask Him. We can ask Him anything. Anything. And we seek Him, we knock at
Heaven's door, we thank Him, we praise Him, we rejoice, sing,
pray. It begins this way. Hear my prayer,
O Lord. Hear my prayer. Give ear to my
supplication. I have many things I need you
to supply me with. He's the source of everything. God of all grace, everything
we need, every supply. Hear me, O Lord. Give ear to
my supplication. My supplication. And this is
from the heart. This is not I've never liked
the term saying grace. We do it. We get in the habit
of saying that. But this is not just saying a
prayer. David is crying out from his
heart here. All through this, verse 3, he
says, my soul. He says, my soul is crying out. And verse 4, my spirit within
me is overwhelmed. My heart. Within me is desolate. Verse
6, he said, my soul is thirsty. Verse 8, he said, I lift up my
soul unto thee. Verse 11, I bring my soul out
of trouble. Verse 12, they that afflict my
soul, I pray you destroy them. So this is from the heart, from
the soul, inner depth. of a man. So he says here in
verse 1, Give ear, hear me, O Lord, and in thy faithfulness answer
me, and in thy righteousness. Faithfulness. Faithful means
true. Faithful means someone who is
dependable. Always the same. Trustworthy. Honest. Someone who you can believe.
And our God is faithful that promised. And by these many,
it says many, exceeding precious promises, we escape. We escape. And our God is faithful. He hears the prayer of His people. He's faithful. He's like a father
who's faithful. A good and faithful father is
one who is Always there for you. One who always loves you. Loves you to the end. That's
our Father. One who will not leave you. Will not leave you. Did you have a good Father? I
did. Well, we all have a good Heavenly Father. That's for sure. A faithful husband. That's a
wonderful blessing, isn't it? For you ladies, if you have a
faithful husband. One who, again, won't leave you. Who'll be there for you. One who loves you in spite of
you. Or when you get old and ugly, who'll still love you.
That's our Father, isn't it? That's our Husband. With us,
and for us, and provides for us. Shepherd. Our Lord is our
faithful Shepherd. He's our faithful shepherd. He
will feed you. He will lead you. He will protect
you. What about a friend? A faithful
friend? David lamented in Psalm 12, he
said, Help, Lord, the godly man ceases, and the faithful fail
from among the sons of men, the children of men. But a good,
a loyal friend, one who you can depend upon and one who, again,
won't leave you. One you can keep confidence with,
one who won't betray you, won't leave you, one who you can call
on and will help you out. We have a friend, let's take
it closer than that, faithful, faithful. When all others fail
you, our Lord will not fail you. He's faithful and He answers
us in His righteousness. How's that? What is His righteousness? Who? Christ is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness. And when we call upon the Father
in Christ's name, He's promised to hear it. Our Lord said that.
He said, You ask the Father anything in my name, He'll hear you. Christ
is our righteousness. Verse 2, He says, Enter not into
judgment with thy servant. David is a man who knew something
of his sinfulness. He asked the Lord to hear him
and his faithfulness. Well, if we confess our sins,
he is what? Faithful. And just to forgive
us our sins. How's that? In the blood of Jesus
Christ. It's always before the Lord.
He says, enter not into judgment with thy servant. David says,
if you should judge me, if you should mark iniquity, Psalm 130,
who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with
thee in Christ. And thy sight, no man living,
to be justified, not by works. But how are we justified? By
faith in Christ, completely. So he says, don't judge me, Lord,
but consider me judged in thy Son. Verse 3, the enemy, here's
the reason why I don't want judged for my life, because the enemy
has so persecuted my soul. What enemy is he talking about?
Our great adversary. Oh, my. David must have been
going through another time of temptation. We go through these
all our lives, all our believing lives, don't we? Forty years. That's what it says of the children
of Israel went forty years to temptation. And David must have
been going through another temptation that got the best of him, brought
out the worst in him, I should say. And his thoughts or his
words or his deeds or whatever were plaguing him, and the enemy
had persecuted him. And he said, he made me to dwell
in the darkness. He said, it's those that have
been long dead. Believers have so many ups and downs, don't
we? Seems like we have more downs than ups. So many ups and downs. I urge you always, when you get
cast down, to read Psalm 42 and 43. Both Psalms. David says this. He says, ask himself, why art
thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope in God. And he goes on to
say, my soul is cast down. It is cast down. But he says,
hope in God. He reminds himself. He's speaking
to himself. Hope thou in God. You'll praise him who's the help
of your countenance. And so we're always up and down,
aren't we? Lots of downs. Because the enemy,
our sin, our adversary brings us down. We get in dark places,
don't we? Dark places. So he says in verse
4, my spirit is overwhelmed within me. I hope you're not overwhelmed
right now. I hope you're not. But you will
be at some point. We all do. We all get that way,
don't we? For various reasons. My spirit
is overwhelmed within me. My heart is desolate. It seems
like it's empty. Every one of us get overwhelmed
by various things, don't we? Just today, when I was preparing
this message, there were so many distractions, so much going on,
so many things to do, and I thought, I can't get it done. We've all
been there, overwhelmed by the things, the responsibilities,
duties, things we've needed to do, but that's not really bad. He's talking about much deeper
troubles than that. in everyday life. But he's talking
about the feeling of drowning, being overwhelmed, drowning in
despair. Every one of us have been so
deeply in sorrow that we thought, I'm not going to ever rise again. I'm going to drown in my sorrow. Every one of us. Every one of
us have been afraid David was a bold and brave man, wasn't
he? But, he said, what time I'm afraid, I'll trust
in the Lord, I'll call on Him. We get afraid of various things. This is, again, in Psalm 42,
he said, in verse 7, he said, deep calleth unto deep, At the
noise of thy water spouts, he said, all thy waves and all thy
billows have gone over my head. You ever felt that way? Whether
it be sorrow or sin or guilt, you ever felt so guilty and so
ashamed that you thought, oh. This was what Jonah prayed in
the belly of the wave. You know, that was our Lord praying
wasn't it? Well, it was Jonah too. Because as the head is,
so are the members. As he is, so are we in this world. The whale's belly. And he said,
I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me.
He cast me in the deep, in the midst of the seas, the flood
encompassed me about, all thy billows and all thy waves. Passed
over me. I'm cast out of that sight. But
I'm going to look again. Ever been so far down that the
only place you could look was up? You had no one else to look
to either. Said the waters compassed me
about, even to the soul. The depths closed me around.
The weeds wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottom. Ever
been so down on the bottom you thought, I'll never get up again?
Well, he did, didn't he? The Lord brought him out. So
this is a song, a song for the overwhelmed. He says in verse
5 in our text, he says, I remember the days of old. I meditate on
all the works of thy hand. I muse on the work of thy hand.
I meditate. I think about what you've done
in the past. We need to not forget past mercies. This is why we should read God's
Word so often and so carefully and diligently. Because there's
people just like us that went through things just like us,
if not deeper. And the Lord brought them through
them all. David may have been thinking about Adam and Eve.
Can you imagine how they felt cast out of that garden? You
imagine the shame, huh? You imagine how, you know, Adam,
how many years did he live with... Why did I do that? Eve, how could
I have fallen for that? Look what I brought upon us.
You know how often they thought about that? How about you? Look
what I've done to myself. Why did... You know, there's
a verse in Isaiah 63, I believe it is. I don't know if you've
ever read this or not, but listen to it. They said unto the Lord,
O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy
fear? And they're not blaming God.
But what they're saying is, Lord, why did you let me do that? You could have stopped me, but
you didn't. Why? You ever prayed that? How many times? How many times? And so, you know, David may be
thinking about Adam and Eve, and he may be thinking about
Abraham and Sarah, you know. They went childless for years.
That's a great grievous trial. He was an old man, and God promised
him an heir from his seed. And Abraham, he believed God. He believed God. He hoped against
hope. He really did believe God, but
just years kept going by. It kept going by. Have you ever been there? You believe,
but... Oh, help my unbelief. So they
decided to do something. Wait. It doesn't tell us how
long to wait. Just wait. You'll see. He may have been thinking about
Jacob. Oh, my Jacob. After you see that, the God of
Jacob. Jacob was loved by the Lord, but he was hated by his
brother. He was pursued by his brother. David was too, by his
children. Think about that. His son wanted
him dead. How would you live through that?
How would you deal with that? You can't without the Lord. Joseph, the whole life of Joseph. He was, you know, we feel like
we've been so unfairly treated by some, even our brethren, and
not like Joseph. Joseph, like our Lord, you know,
was just hated by his brethren and falsely accused and put in
prison. And time after time, he was persecuted. How did it end? What was his
hope? In the end, what did he finally
plead? He said, well, the Lord, he said, everybody meant it for
evil, but God. Lord made it for good. It really
is true that all things work together for good. Why? Because
our God is faithful. He's faithful. Men aren't, but
God is. So David could have been thinking
back about all our, many of our brethren back then. And he says,
and so I stretched forth, verse 6, I stretched forth my hands
unto thee, my soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty lamb.
He loved that. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after the Lord. Oh my. I reach out my hands to
thee. This song, this verse, I think
I gave it to you as a memory verse a while back, and I didn't
remember it, but I had to look it up. But listen to this, this
is wonderful. Psalm 123 verse 2 says, Behold,
as the eyes of servants look under the hand of their masters,
as the eyes of a maiden under the hand of her mistress, So
our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until He have mercy upon
us. Or I could say like the eyes
of a dog to its master waiting for a cry. He's faithful. His mercy, how
long has it endured, Kelly? Forever. Forever. He read Psalm 136 tonight. Every
verse, 26 times. Why does he keep saying that? Because we need to hear it. Tomorrow
morning, tomorrow morning, we're going to wake up and we're going
to hope that His mercies are new this morning. They are. They will be. They're there because
our God is merciful. Stop and think about that. Sela.
Musical pause. Just stop. Let's just repeat
that verse. Now he asks for seven or eight
things. He has seven or eight requests
here. I love this. These are our requests, aren't
they? Several urgent requests. He asks the Lord to hear him.
He says, Hear me speedily. Hurry. Hurry. Hear me. David prayed this all
through the psalm. Let me just read a few to you.
All through the psalm. He begins all the way back in
the beginning. He says in Psalm 4, He says, Hear me when I call,
O God, of my righteousness. Hear me. Psalm 13. Listen to
that. I love the psalm. That's the
howling psalm. How long? How long? Psalm 13. He says, in verse 3, consider
and hear me, O Lord. Hear me, O Lord. Psalm 27. Anybody
love Psalm 27? It's your favorite. Listen to
this. He says, hear me, O Lord, when
I cry. He said, seek my face. My heart
said, I face what I see, O Lord. Hear me. You ever called upon
someone so urgently you needed them to answer you? You needed
something so desperately? How often do we call on our Lord?
He hears it. He's faithful to hear us and
just to forgive us. Psalm 38. Psalm 38. You like
Psalm 38? Listen to this. Listen to these
verses. I said, hear me. Hear me, Lord,
lest they rejoice over me, that my foot's slipping. I'm ready
to halt. My sorrow is continual. I declare
my sin. I'm sorry for my sin, but my
enemies are lively. They're strong. Oh, forsake me not, O Lord my
God. Be not far from me. Make haste." David says, hurry. You ever been there? Lord, I
need you to hear me. I need you now. Hear me, O Lord. It is comforting
to know that the Lord hears us. It's just comforting. And He
will answer in due time. He will. If we wait, He'll answer. He says this in our text. He
says, Hear me, O Lord. Hear me speedily, my spirit faileth.
Hide not thy face from me. This is prayer, seeking God's
face. One old fella said years ago, he said, before you see
anybody else's face, seek the Lord's face in the morning. Any
other boys, you seek Him. Hide not thy face from Him. His
face, His presence, His health are our countenance, lest I be
like unto them that go down into the pit. Hold me up. Hear me. Verse 8, cause me to
hear. Lord, I need You to hear me,
but I need to hear from You. Cause me to hear Thy loving kindness
in the morning. Cause me to hear. We need Him
to hear us, and we need to hear from Him. We need to hear His
voice. We need to hear His Word. This is a one thing needful. Our one source of comfort is
His Word, and we need to hear from Him. Before we take a step,
before we make a move, before we make a decision, we need to
hear from Him. He's going to go on to tell us,
cause me to know the way that I should walk, talk, act, and
so forth. Cause me to hear, hear me and
cause me to hear. Oh, we hearing ears of the Lord,
how we need to hear Him. Here it is in verse eight, cause
me to know the way wherein I should walk. in thee do I trust. Cause me to know the way wherein
I walk, for I lift up my soul unto thee. I don't want to do
anything without God's help, but lead him. He leadeth me.
Oh, blessed thought. He leadeth me. If he doesn't,
I'll fall in a ditch. I will. I'll go backwards. Like the children of Israel. So cause me to know the way wherein
I should walk. We know Christ is the way. We
know that. Let me walk by faith in Him.
Let me walk by faith in Him. Let me truly believe Him and
trust Him that I be not afraid. that I bear a good testimony
before others, a testimony of faith, believing and trusting
our Lord. Let me walk by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Let
me walk in paths of righteousness for His name's sake, for His
glory, His honor. Oh, let me walk before Him. That's
what He said to Abraham, walk before Me. Walk before me. Let me walk with Him, like Enoch. Let me walk with Him. To walk
with Him is to have comfort and peace. Let me walk circumspectly,
or that is, before others. conscious of who I am. That brings me to the next thing.
Let me walk worthy of the vocation wherewith I am called. Let me
walk in Thy Spirit. If I live in the Spirit, let
me walk in that Spirit. Lead me by Thy Holy Spirit. Let me walk in love. Let me walk
in love. Cause me to know the way wherein
I should walk. I lift up my soul unto thee.
If he doesn't cause us to walk by faith, he won't do it. He
won't do it. Cause me. Cause me. You know,
we don't believe in free will at all, do we? We believe the
Lord has to save us against our will. He has to make us will
it in the day of His power. We want Him to... Somebody says,
you believe God is so sovereign, you make yourself a puppet. Fine
with me. Fine with me. Don't let, don't cut the strings.
Whatever you do. You know what happens to a puppet
when you cut the strings? He can't do anything. He can't
walk, can't talk, can't do anything. Right? Oh, I want Him in absolute
control of me. Cause me. Make me. That's Psalm
23 we love so much. He maketh us to lie down. If
you're like me, you know, you're restless and I know some of you. Up and at them, you know, you
charge, you know. No. Lie down. Be still. Be still. Know that I'm God. Don't do anything without me. Cause me to know the way wherein
I should walk. Verse 9. Deliver me, O Lord,
from mine enemies. I flee unto thee to hide me.
All through the Scripture, He says, do these things for Thy
name's sake. Deliver me. That's His name,
the Deliverer. That's why He came, to deliver
us from our sin. Deliver me. Deliver me from the
fowler. Oh, He's crafty. He's cunning. There's no one that's His match
except our Lord. Deliver me from the snares, the
pits, the traps. Didn't He tell us to pray? Deliver
us from evil. Temptation. Deliver us. Deliver me from the world. has
such a strong pull. Deliver me from the noisome pestilence. Don't let me listen. Don't let
me listen to anything going on around me. Don't let me listen.
Deliver me. Deliver me from myself. That's
a strong enemy, isn't it? Deliver me from my doubts, my
fears that bring me down. Deliver me from worry. Come right back to faith, don't
we? Cause me to walk by faith. He says, I flee. He keeps saying
this. I flee unto thee. Somebody write
a song about that. I flee unto thee to hide me. Hide me. Oh my Savior, Jesus
lover, Lord Jesus lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly. While the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is, now hide me, oh my Savior, hide me. You know that story, don't you?
Charles Wesley and his room when there was a storm outside and
they didn't have screens on the windows, they had these casement
windows, you know, And he was inside and the rain was blowing,
the wind was blowing and howling and he went to the window to
pull the window shut and he had his robe on and he went to pull
that window shut and a bird flew right into his robe. Right into
his robe. And he said, he just tucked it
in there and pulled the window shut. And he went and sat down
and wrote that hymn. Hide me, O my Savior. Jesus,
lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly. I flee unto thee. There's no one else to flee to.
He's a refuge. Pour out thy heart. God is a
refuge. Look at verse 10. Teach me. Oh, my. Teach me to do thy will. Thou art my God. You're my God.
Teach me to do thy will. Teach me. Oh, how we need to
talk, don't we? I'm getting older, and sometimes I think I haven't
learned a thing. Anybody? I need to learn all over again. Paul upbraided the Corinthians
about that. Wasn't it the Corinthians or
Galatians? Both. He said, you're dull of
hearing. Hebrews. Dull of hearing. Start all over again. Well, okay. Okay, lay the foundation. Maybe
it'll sink in. Our Lord said, let these sayings
sink down deep in your ears. Oh, too often they go in one
ear and out the other. Teach me. I need to be taught
to do thy will. Do thy will. Believe Him. Trust
Him. Faith and works, yes. Our Lord
said this when he washed the disciples' feet. You remember?
He said, if you know these things, happy are you that you do them.
Didn't he? You know these things. You'll
be happy if you do them. You'll be blessed into doing
them. And you know it's not for salvation.
It's for the glory of our Lord and for the good of others. It's
more blessed to give than to receive. There are more blessed
to do unto others than have them do unto you. Teach me. Do. To do. I will. Our Lord, after the Sermon on
the Mount, He said, He that heareth my sayings and doeth them. He
said, He's like a man who's built his house on a rock. You can
believe our Lord. Whatever He tells you to do,
you can do it. And it'll be well. It'll be well. Teach me. You're
my God. You're my God. They shall all
be taught of God. And you're my God. You're the
one I look to. You're the one I listen to. You're
the one I believe in. You're the one I believe is all
knowledge and all wisdom. I think God is true in every
man's life. You're the one I need to teach
me. Thy Spirit is good. Teach me by thy Spirit. Lead
me In all truth, lead me, look at verse 10, lead me into the
land of uprightness. That's all. Land wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Oh, that sounds good to me, doesn't it? The promised land. The land
that floweth with milk and honey. I love milk. I love honey. I love to sit under a vine, a
fig tree, don't you? He says it's a land flowing with
milk and honey, and I believe the church is a foretaste of
that. A land of uprightness. Lead me. Oh, that's where I want to go.
Quicken me. Look at the next thing. Quicken
me, O Lord, for Thy name's sake. Quicken me. I gave you so many
scriptures from Psalm 119. He says, quicken me up to thy
loving kindness. Quicken me. He says, my soul
cleaveth unto the dust. Quicken me. That means, quicken
me according to your word. That means make me alive again.
I get so dead. It's so down. This world has
a deadening effect on you. Oh, quicken me. And you hath
he quickened who were dead and trespassed and sinned. He has
to keep doing that though. It's not just a one-time thing.
It's like repentance. It's a lifelong thing. Repentance
is good. Confession is good for the soul,
if you confess to him. He's the only one that can give
you peace by that confession. And quicken me, O Lord, quicken
me. Make me alive again. Enliven
me to thy work. Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name's
sake. What's his name? Life. He's the
Lord of life. Give me life from the dead. Bring me back from the dead.
For thy righteousness' sake. Keep saying that, Dr. John. Why? Because Christ is all. Because
he's the one that the Lord Saved us for His name's sake. That's His name, the Lord our
righteousness. And He gave us life for Christ's
sake. Life for Christ's death. That's what we got. His death,
we got life. Quicken me for Thy righteousness'
sake, Thy name's sake. Lord, bring me, quicken me, bring
me out of trouble. Psalm 107, my favorite. One of
my 150 favorite psalms. They kept getting in trouble,
didn't they? Are you in trouble again? Yeah. Then they cried
unto the Lord, what does it say? And He heard them and delivered
them out of all their trouble. Well, surely they won't get back.
He said in another place that these are my people. Surely they
won't lie. Surely they won't do this. Surely
they won't do that. Well, surely they did. Oh, bring my soul out of trouble. I'm always getting in trouble.
Bring my soul out of trouble. And then he concludes like this.
Of thy mercy, cut off my enemies, and destroy all them that afflict
my soul." We were talking about that the other night. My sister
and I were talking about that, that David always was praying
to the Lord to kill his enemies, wasn't he? Well, I know this, that our arch enemy,
The Lord is going to cast him into the lake of fire and death
and his sins and all those enemies and all those that afflict God's
people, the Lord is going to put them all away someday. Especially this old fellow over
there. I'm glad. Destroy all those that afflict
my soul. I'm your servant. I'm your servant. I want you
to turn and close in Ezekiel 34. This goes well with this. Ezekiel 34, the Lord. This is talking about the Lord our Shepherd.
And our Lord Jesus Christ, the Great Shepherd. Ezekiel 34. We
have it. If you haven't read this in a while, read it all
for yourself. The whole chapter. Look at Ezekiel
34, verse 22. Listen to this. He says, I'll
save my flock. There'll no more be a prey. Our archenemy is a predator.
And Satan, he said to Pete Simon, Satan had desired you, he said
to you last week. And he said, they'll no more
be afraid. Won't you be glad when you don't have anybody after
you? He said, I'll set up one shepherd, verse 23, over them.
And my servant David, that's talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ. David had already been gone a long time. He's talking
about Christ. He'll feed them. He'll be their
shepherd. I, the Lord, will be their God.
My servant David, a prince among a leader, I, the Lord, have spoken
it. I'll make with them a covenant
of peace, cause the evil beast to cease. Verse 26, I'll make them the
places round about my hill of blessing. This is a refuge, a
little city of refuges. I'll cause the showers to come
down in that thirsty land. There shall be showers. I promise
you, there shall be showers of blessing. They said the field will yield
their fruit. I've broken the bands of the
yoke. Verse 28, you'll no more be a
prey. You're not going to be a prey
anymore. And verse 28 says, Neither shall
the beast of the Lamb devour them, they shall dwell safely,
and none shall make them afraid. One of these days we'll dwell in
a Lamb with nothing to fear. And he says on down, verse 30,
he says, They shall know that I, the Lord, their God, am with
them, that they, the house of Israel, are my people, saith
the Lord God. Yes, ye are my flock, ye my flock, the flock
of my pasture. You're just men. That's all you
are. You're men. But I'm your God. I hear that for your company. You're men, and I'm your God. I know where you're shipping.
Okay, stay with me.