You know the Lord, don't you?
That's a prayer of my heart, everything he wrote there. It sounded kind of like this
psalm. I was reading through the psalms again, and came to
this one. I wanted to look at it with you
again, knowing it would be a blessing to you for the John Cheesley. We read from Psalm 34 tonight
in the study. Maybe you want to preach from
that? Wonderful. Psalms are so wonderful. I remind you, and me, that Psalm
means Psalm. And David sung these. David played
these and sung these. And they are meant to be sung.
The Lord tells us, He commands us, He urges us to sing for our
good. You remember these passages like
Ephesians 5, it says, singing to yourselves, let me read it
to you, Ephesians 5, speaking to yourselves in songs and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing, making melody in your heart to
the Lord, giving thanks always for all things and to God. In everything give thanks. This
is the will of God concerning you. Singing not only glorifies
our Lord when we sing and give Him thanks and praise, but it's
good for us. It lifts us up. So it's good. It's good to sing psalms. And most of the psalms, as you
know from reading them, are prayers. And I can enter into nearly all
of them, can't you? And all of them, prayers. This
begins, hear my prayer, O Lord. We'll look at Psalm 140. Deliver me, O Lord. That's a
prayer. Psalm 141. Lord, I cry unto thee. Make haste unto my voice. Psalm 142. I cried unto the Lord
with my voice. With my voice did I make supplication. So, this is a prayer, as so many
are. And He says, hear my prayer,
O Lord. Give ear to my supplication. In Thy faithfulness, answer me.
And in Thy righteousness. You know, when all is well, when
things are prosperous and all is well, we say grace. I don't know where that term
came from. I've never had much like it. We say grace. Or we go through the motions. No. Everything's well. We go
through the motions. Let's get this over with so we
can eat. Anybody? Be honest. But when we're in
trouble, we cry. Don't we? And we cry. David's in trouble here. He'll
be here. He wants to be heard. He needs
to be heard. Will the Lord hear us? Yes, verse 1, he says, In thy
faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness. The Lord has
heard and heeded the cries of his people from Adam, from Abel,
from the beginning. Millions upon millions, if not
billions or trillions of his people, he has heard their cries. There's a verse in Isaiah that
says, Before they call, I'll hear. David wrote Psalm 139. That's your favorite? He said,
it's not a word in my mouth. You don't know it all together.
I have a thought in my head. He knows. The Lord has heard
and will continue to hear His people because He's faithful.
I call upon some and they don't return my calls. I've done the
same. But the Lord is faithful. He's
a faithful friend. He sticks closer than a brother.
He will hear in His righteousness. What's that? Christ. Christ said, Father hears you.
He'll always hear you if you call Him by My name. He'll always
hear you. He might not answer you immediately, but He hears
you. Like you and your little children, when your children
were babies, you knew when they were just fussing, and you knew
when they needed you. Didn't you? You knew. The mother
knew. The father didn't. He's asleep. But the mother knew
when that child was Just, you know. And there's times when
we cry, and the Lord knows. But He hears. He always hears. He always hears. The Lord our
God hears us and delivers us for Christ's sake. He is our
righteousness. And because the Lord is righteous,
He does what's right. We don't always do what's right.
We don't always do what's right. He always does what's right.
Because He's righteous. He'll do right by us. If He doesn't
answer us, it's right. We need to be ignored for a while,
like the woman, the Saronite, the Protestant woman. We need
to be tested like her. Whatever He does is right. He'll
hear us, though, in His righteousness. Verse 2, Enter not into judgment
with thy servant. In thy sight shall no man living
be justified. Psalm 130, another favorite of
mine and yours, isn't it? If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, who shall stand? But there's forgiveness with
thee, that thou mayest be feared. So I wait for the Lord. My soul
doth wait. My soul waiteth for the Lord
more than they that watch for the morning. There is forgiveness.
But if he should mark iniquities, who shall stand? The Lord does
not mark the iniquities of his people. They're blotted out.
They're covered. They're under the blood. Do you
know that? Our sin is ever before us. But they're blotted out by
Christ, by His blood. But David says, Lord, don't judge
me. You remember Psalm 51, another
thing. We could just keep quoting the
Psalms, couldn't we? We don't need to comment. But
David said, You'll be justified when you speak and you'll be
clear when you judge me. I need mercy. I need mercy. Oh, he says, he says, purge me
with hyssop. David is talking about the sacrifice
that used hyssop, dipping it in the blood and sprinkling the
pig. Purge me with, let the blood be propitiation on the mercy
seat of my soul. Don't judge me, please. Oh Lord,
don't judge me. I won't be able to stand. Nobody
would under his all-seeing eye. Don't judge me. Didn't the Lord
tell us not to judge? Judge not, that you be not judged. He does what He said. He knows
our prayer. He remembers that we're dead.
Judge means to condemn, sentence, and pass judgment or execution
upon. Cut off. He won't do that to
His people. He won't do it. Verse 3, the
enemy hath persecuted my soul. He had smitten my life down to
the ground. What enemy is he talking about? I think he's chiefly
talking about Satan, our archenemy. That's our greatest enemy. He's
an adversary. He's the one that our Lord told
to pray, deliver us from the evil, the evil one. And the disciples'
prayer. The enemy had persecuted. The
enemy, the great persecutor, the tempter, smites us. And we're no match. The Lord
knows that. He knows we're no match for Him. Adam, Eve, no
match. Remember what He said to Simon
Peter? Simon, Satan hath desired thee. It suits you like wheat.
Remember Job? Satan wanted to get at Job. He
couldn't unless the Lord let him. He's our archenemy. We feel like he's assaulting
us at times, We're hedged about, people. Aren't
you glad? We're hedged about. We're hedged about. The enemy
hath persecuted my soul. And perhaps the next greatest
enemy is the one within us, isn't it? He smites us down to the
ground. He makes us to dwell in darkness
as those that have been long dead. Satan, self, the world
brings us low, brings us down, darkness, until we feel like
we're dead. Dead. Verse 4, my spirit is overwhelmed
within me. My heart within me is desolate.
That's the title of this psalm. Psalm for those that are overwhelmed. Psalm for the overwhelmed. Have
you ever felt like you're overwhelmed? Overwhelmed means to be covered
over with something. So weighed down by a problem
or Your sin, your sorrows, your troubles, so weighed down so
that you feel like you're just going to sink under them. You're
not going to rise from them. Overwhelmed. You know the word
baptism is overwhelmed. That's what the word baptism
translates to. David in Psalm 38 says, My sins
have gone over me. Troubles, trials, all of God's
people. become overwhelmed. Become overwhelmed. And we feel like it's all going
to go down and never rise again. You remember Simon Peter? He
saw the Lord. They were out on that boat in
that storm. And they all saw the Lord. They
thought they were going to perish because of that storm. Storms
of light. The Lord sent him to show forth
his power, to show his presence. They didn't think he was with
them. They thought he was on the shore. He was watching them
all. It was a test. So he came walking on the water.
And they all saw him. And Simon Peter got excited.
He said, Lord, do you want to stay in that boat? He thought
the boat was going down. Bid me, Lord, come to you. So
he went. And he walked above that storm,
those rising waves. And he started looking around.
And he looked down. And he began to sing. And he
would have been overwhelmed if he hadn't uttered three words,
Lord save me. Five words, I perish. If the
Lord doesn't save us, we'll perish. Won't we? Every time. He has me, you're looking at
a man that cried time and time again. Lord save me, this poor
man cried, that's right. Psalm 34, 6. David in that Psalm
34, 6, that reminded me many times. That's right after he
acted like a crazy fool. He acted like he didn't even
know the Lord, didn't believe the Lord, and he acted like a
madman. He lost his mind. He was so full
of fear. Well, that king of Gath got rid
of him, and David wrote that psalm. And he wrote in that psalm,
this poor man cried. And he saved me out of my trouble.
It's a poor excuse for a man. Become overwhelmed. Our heart
becomes desolate. That desolate means a couple
of things. Guilty. Empty. Barren. Cold, dead, dry, lifeless. We get like that a lot. Then
he starts musing. That's a good word. It means
to meditate. It means to think. I meditate.
I remember the days of old. I meditate on all Thy works. I muse on the work of Thy hand. Let's go back there to Psalm
105 and look at the Lord's works, okay? Psalm 105. Look back there. Psalm 104, 105, 106, 107. Wonderful
psalms. You could start there and start
reading about the Lord's works. Wonderful works of the children
of men. You know, our problem is that we often forget the Lord. David said, I remember. I remember
the days of old. I call to mind. I meditate on
all thy works. I muse on the works of thy hands.
Our problem is we often forget Psalm 107. Psalm 107. Look at this. This is where they cried unto
the Lord in their trouble and He delivered them out of their
distresses. He delivered them out of their distresses. No,
it is 105. Excuse me. 105. Verse 5. Here it is. Remember
His marvelous work. Remember his marvelous work that
he had done, his wonders and judgment of his mouth. O ye seed
of Abraham is served, you children of his. Remember. Remember what
he's done. But our problem is we forget.
We soon forget. Look at Psalm 106. Psalm 106,
verse 12. They believed his words. They
sang his praises. Psalm 106, 12 and 13. They soon
forgot his words. I didn't wait for his counsel,
for his word. But they lusted exceedingly in the wilderness,
tempted God in the desert. He gave them over. Gave them
over. Gave them their request and sent
Lemnas unto their son. Look at verse 21. They forgot
God their Savior, which had done great things in Egypt. Wondrous
works, the land of Ham. Go back and look at what all
the Lord did to the children of Israel who were so forgetful
of Him. He never forgets us, do we? But
we forget him, and that's part of our problem. Look at verse
32. They angered him. They angered
him. Verse 33. They provoked him.
They provoked him. Verse 33. They provoked his spirit. He spake unadvisedly. Look at
verse 43. Many times did he deliver them,
but they provoked him. Verse 44, Nevertheless, he regarded
their affliction, he heard their cry. He remembered for them. He remembered for them. Verse
47, Save us, O Lord our God. Verse 48, Blessed be the Lord
God, that all the people say, Amen. Praise the Lord. So David
says, I remember the days of old. I remember what you did
for your people. I meditate on all thy works.
I muse on the works of thy hands. That's part of our problem. We
don't do much meditation. Verse 6 in our text. I stretch
forth my hands. I stretch forth my hands unto
thee. My soul thirsteth after thee
as a thirsty lamb. I stretch forth my hand as one
in trouble, as Simon Peter surely did We're about to be overwhelmed. Do you? I stretch forth my hands,
my soul thirsteth after Thee. Blessed, our Lord said, are they
that hunger and thirst after righteousness. They shall be
filled. My soul thirsteth after Thee. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness. That's Christ. Jehovah said,
Ken is our righteousness. My soul thirsteth after thee.
You remember Psalm 42 where David said, As a heart panteth after
the water brook, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. When
shall I come and appear before thee? My soul thirsteth for the
living God. My tears have been my meat day
and night. Where is your God, they said.
I remember these things. I poured out my soul in thee.
Oh, don't be cast down, O my soul. Trust in God. I will yet
praise Him for the health of my countenance. So David says,
I reach out to you. Just pause. Verse 7, Hear me
speedily, O Lord. Hear me speedily. My spirit faileth. Hide not thy face from me, lest
I be like unto them that go down into the pit. Have you ever cried
unto the Lord, Lord, I need you now. This can't wait. Listen to David. Make haste,
O God, to help me. Make haste to deliver me, O Lord.
Make haste to help me. Hurry. I'm going down. That psalm
70. He began and ended that psalm
by saying, You're my help, my deliverer. O Lord, make no tarry.
Hurry. Hear me speedily. This is a pressing
matter. That's how we need to call on
Him. Like it's a pressing matter. In our text, he says, lest I
be like unto them that go down into the pit. What pit is that? It's this world. It's a pit of
corruption. The Lord takes His hand off of
us. We'll go down. This world, this sin that's in
this world, that's in us, like gravity, it just pulls us down.
Help me. And I'll go right back down into
that pit. A slime pit. One time He told us, reminded
us, remember the pit from which you live. Oh, my, hear me. I'll go back down to that pit. Verse 8, cause me. These are
seven or eight things that He's praying. Cause me. Cause me to
hear Thy lovingkindness. Cause me to hear. Lord, hear
me and cause me to hear You. Cause me to hear your loving
kindness. You know that about 14 times
in Jeremiah, turn with me to Jeremiah 7, 14 times beginning
in Jeremiah 7 all the way over into the 60th chapter I believe
it is, he tells us, or the 50th chapter, he tells us that he
sent his prophets early, rising early, to talk to his people,
speak to his people, and they wouldn't hear him. Fourteen times
he said, I sent my prophets, and you wouldn't hear them. Look
at this, Jeremiah 7, and that's why David says, cause me to hear. Let me hear your voice, and no
other. Jeremiah 7, 23. This is the Lord speaking. They hearken not unto me, nor
climb their ear, but harden their neck. They did worse than their
fathers. Read on. Therefore thou shalt
speak not all these words unto them, but they will not hearken
to thee. Thou shalt also call unto them, but they will not
answer thee." Isn't that a shame? Thirteen or fourteen times he
says that. All through Jeremiah. I sent my prophet, but they wouldn't
hear him. They wouldn't hear him. Cause me to hear. I want to hear
your voice. If nobody else listens, I want
to. In our text, Psalm 143, cause me to hear by loving kindness
in the morning. Loving kindness is another word
for His gospel name. His Word, His truth. Loving kindness. Cause me to hear in the morning.
In the morning. Before I hear anything else.
Before I hear all the lies. Before I hear the tempters' temptations. Before I hear all this noise
and pestilence that cause me to hear your voice. The voice of my Beloved in the
morning. 4, verse 8, in thee do I trust. You know, I do trust
the Lord. I do. Don't you? I believe Him. All
my hope on Him is to stay. All my hope. I trust in the Lord. I believe
Him. I really do. But I sure don't act like it
very often. I sure don't act like it. I sure
don't walk like it. Look at verse 8. He says, I trust in you, so
cause me to know the way wherein I should walk. I lift up my soul
unto thee, cause me to know the way wherein I should walk." The
Lord says, here is the way, walk in it. Doesn't it? It's plain. His Word is plain. Here's the
way, walk in it. What's wrong with me? We need to call on the Lord.
Because without Him we can't. We can't. Our feet will go astray
if we don't tell Him to order my steps. In Thy Word. Here's the way, walk in. Walk
in light. Remember? 1 John 1. Walk in the
light. See is in the light. Walk in
the light of His Word. Walk as children of day. Walk
in obedience. Walk by faith. Not by sight. Trust the Lord. Walk with the
Lord. Not with the world. Don't walk
with the world. You can't walk with the Lord and walk with the
world. So he says, cause man. Cause me. Cause me. Make me. Make me. Don't let me walk with
you. Grab hold of me. Cause me to
know the way wherein I should walk. Walk with you. I lift up
my soul unto thee. I am yours. I am thine, O Lord.
Verse 9 is another request. Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemy. Deliver me. Deliver me from my
enemy. There are many. There are lively. I am no match. I'm no match for
them. I flee unto thee to hide me. Don't you love that? I flee unto
thee. Oh, then to the rock let me fly. Brethren, we need saving. We
need deliverance every day, day in, day out. Every hour of every
day, we need deliverance. Oh, we have a deliverer, but
we've got to call on him. I flee unto thee to hide me.
Verse 10, teach me, teach me to do thy will, for thou art
my God. The Lord said this, our Lord
Jesus Christ in John 13, He said this after He washed their feet.
Do you remember what He said? He said, if you know these things,
happy are you if what? If you do them. If you know these
things, I know these things. I know these things. I've got
a pretty good knowledge of things that he said. Now I'll do them. He said, you'll be happy. You'll
be content. There's a song, trust and obey.
There's no other way. Another preacher and I have talked
about it years ago. He said, I don't know if I like
this. Well, over the years, I've come to like it. Because there
is no other way. There really isn't. Do what he
says. You're not going to be happy if you're disobedient.
Are you? You're not going to be. Trust
in the Lord. Cause me to know the way I should
walk in. What is it? He said, teach me
thy will. Teach me thy will, O Lord. Well,
listen, we've looked at this many times. Here it is. Here
it is. I beseech you, brethren, by the
mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.
wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable servant, be
not conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing
of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God." That's the will of God. Listen to this.
You've heard this so many times, and I'm not going to quit saying
it. I need to hear it. You need to hear it. Listen to
this. Ephesians 5, verse 6. Let no man deceive you with vain
words. because of these things. Come
with the wrath of God on the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers
with them. You were sometimes in darkness, but now you're light
in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Prove
the spirits of goodness and righteousness of truth. Proving what is acceptable
under the Lord. It's the will of the Lord. He
goes on down saying, walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. Be
not unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Teach me to do thy will. I know
His will. Teach me to do it. Listen, it's
not on. It's just on and on throughout
the scripture. 1 Thessalonians 4. I beseech
you, brethren, exhort you by the Lord Jesus. As you have received
of us, how you ought to walk, and to please God, so you will
abound more and more. You know what commandments we
gave you by the Lord Jesus? This is the will of God. This
is the will of God. Your sanctification. Your sanctification. Of people set apart. That's the
will of God. Right? So he says here, Psalm,
teach me to do thy will. I know you will. Teach me to
do it. Teach me to do it. Thou art my
God. You're my God. Didn't our Lord
say they should all be taught of God? Every man that has heard
and learned of the Father does what? Follows Christ. Follows
Christ. That means not just only look
to Him, but observe Him and emulate Him. Follow Him. You're my God. They come to Christ.
They follow Him. Thy Spirit, verse 10, is good. He leads and guides into all
truth, doesn't He? He's called the Holy Spirit.
He's good. He's good. He leads and guides
into all goodness and righteousness and truth. Lead me. Lord, lead
me. Please, take hold of me. Take me by the hand. Lead me. Don't let go of me. Is that your
prayer? Leave me. Savior like a shepherd,
leave me. Don't leave me alone for a moment. Don't leave me to myself. Leave
me into the land of uprightness. This is where I want to dwell.
Wherein dwelleth the righteous. That's where I want to end up,
don't you? And this is a little foretaste of that. The hill of Zion yields Thousand
sacred sweets before we cross those heavenly fields or walk
the golden streets. This is a little foretaste of
that. These people right here are righteous
people. Just people. Upright people.
Godly people. These are God's people. That's
who I want to dwell with. We're marching the Zion. We're
going into a land that is fairer than day, a land of uprightness,
where it dwelleth righteousness, where our Lord is. That's where
I want to go, and I want to go with you. I tell you, I know
you feel this way, sometimes I hate to leave this building.
Don't you? I really do. What's our purpose? Light. Salt. That's why. Go. Go, shed light,
bear light. Verse 11, quicken me, O Lord,
by thy name, say. You know how often David says
this? Quicken me, quicken me. That means, give me life. I feel so dead. Give me life. How does he quicken us? He said,
thy word hath quickened me. All through Psalm 119, he says
this over and over again. Thy word hath quickened me. I
remember, I've told you this, you know, 30 some years I've
told you about every story of mine. It's alright. It's my story. You tell your stories over and
over again. Some of you tell them two days after you told
them last time. But anyway, I was a young believer. Mindy and I were traveling somewhere,
coming home from somewhere, and we stopped into a church, wanted
to worship. It was on a Wednesday night,
I think. And I was just feeling so low, so down, so sinful, you
know? Struggling. The warfare within
me and all that. So dead. So dead. And the preacher preached on
that. Psalm 119. Quicken me according to Thy Word.
I went in there dragging, crawling. I went out of there flying. Flying. Mounted up on wings of people.
Quicken me. I feel so dead, so dry, so desolate. Quicken me, O Lord, for Thy name's
sake. That's His name. Lord, our life. Christ, our life. Quicken me. You're my life. Give me life. Word of life. For Thy righteousness'
sake, verse 11, for Thy righteousness' sake, bring my soul out of trouble.
For Thy righteousness' sake. What's that? Well, it's Christ. He is our righteousness. Jehovah
Sidkenu, that's His name. Lord, our righteousness, bring
me out of trouble for Thy righteousness sake. Brother Scott Richardson,
he said every believer's got three kinds of trouble. He said
troubles you just came out of, troubles you're in right now,
or troubles you're about to get into. You're never out of it. It seems like we're never out
of it. We just got out of trouble. And we're in trouble, and we're
going back into more trouble. Man is born of a woman is a few
days and full of trouble. Our trouble filled day. Bring
me out of trouble. That's Psalm 107. I got kind
of mixed up there because 105, 106, 107 are so much alike. Psalm
107, they always kept getting in trouble. And he says, then
they cried unto the Lord. He delivered them out of all
their trouble. And everything was fine. And
then they got back in trouble. Oh, we're always in trouble,
Lord. And He's so faithful to bring us out. For His righteousness
sake. You see, He's faithful. Verse
12, Of thy mercy cut off my enemies. Of thy mercy, O Lord, cut off
my enemies. There are many. Destroy all them
that afflict my soul. Mindy and I were talking about
this, and you read the psalm. You know how often David speaks
of his enemies, and sometimes he's talking about people. Quite often he's talking about
people. That no matter what, they're just against him. They're
just against him. And he says, and you can't help
it sometimes, you think, Lord, deal with these people. Please. Please deal with that. He will.
He will. He will. That makes it all the
more important that we don't. That we're a friend but stick
it closer to the brother. Don't turn. Because the Lord
is righteous in all his way. Amen. He hateth. He hateth the the destruction or the judgment
of the righteous he hated. Verse 12, he says, cut them off,
all those that afflict my soul, for I am thy servant. I am thy servant. Can you believe
that the Lord Jesus Christ would say these things? You know that
you could preach this whole psalm as Him saying these things? Because
in all our afflictions, He was afflicted. In all our troubles,
He was troubled. The reproaches of them that reproached
Him fell on Him, the Scripture said. And all those things. Our
Lord. Our Lord had many enemies, didn't
He? And He cried. He cried unto the Lord. He cried
unto the Lord. He was His servant, wasn't He?
And so are we. We're His servants. Oh, Lord.
So He begins by saying, Lord, hear me. Hear me. in thy faithfulness, in thy righteousness. And O Lord, help me. I am your servant. I am your
servant. Stand with me. Our Heavenly Father, our prayer
is what we just read. All that David cried unto Thee
concerning all his desire is our desire. He said it in another
place, Lord, all my desires are before Thee. All my groanings
are before Thee. You know all that we feel and
all that we need and all that we want even, Lord, You know. We ask, O Lord, that You would grant
us these things that are surely Thy will. That You would hear
us. that You would lead us, that
You would guide us, that You would cause us to hear, cause
us to know Your will, and teach us. Oh Lord, we need Your help. Our helper, our healer, our friend,
our Lord, our Savior, our Deliverer. Oh Lord, we pray that You would
keep us for Thy name's sake. Through Christ our Lord we pray
and ask these things. Amen. Thank you very much.