I find myself singing that hymn
a lot. Do you? That really helps me,
especially that verse. Temptations lose their power
when thou art nigh. It helps. Singing helps. Whenever temptations and thoughts
and things in the world fill my mind, I want to get rid of
it, I start singing that hymn. Mind you, I'll tell you, this
afternoon, I was walking around the house unaware and I was singing
one of those silly little Christmas ditties. Let it snow, let it
snow. And I said, I've got to get that
out of my head. So I started singing that hymn.
And it helped. I need that. Psalm 143. Psalm 143. The title of this
is a Psalm of David. All the Psalms are As you know,
songs are meant to be sung. They were sung. We've got the
Psalter and another book, but they're meant to be sung. David,
Moses and others wrote these songs and played them on instruments
of ten strings and so on. But they're meant to be sung.
And then verse 1, he says, Hear my prayer, O Lord. So this is
a song and a prayer. We need both. We need to sing,
we need to pray. A song and a prayer. David wrote,
no, Moses wrote, it's a good thing to sing praises unto thy
name, O Most High. It's a good thing to sing. What
we're doing here, this is a vital part of worship, singing. Singing. The Lord commands us to sing.
Sing unto the Lord. Let everything that breath sing
unto the Lord. And prayer. These are two vital
parts of worship, singing and prayer, calling on the Lord.
And James said, if any is afflicted among you, let him pray. Any
merry, let him sing. Let him sing. If you're sad,
sing. It may cheer you up. If you're glad, sing unto the
one that made you glad. If you're mad, sing. It might
soften you a little bit. Sing. Prayer and a song. Song
and a prayer. Prayer is a believer's breath. If you don't pray, you're not
alive. And prayer is not a posture, or a position, or a place. It's
an attitude of your heart. It's a constant, it's communion
with our Lord. Prayer is communion with our
Lord, with our Father, with our husbands, like the wife, the
beloved, speaking to her beloved. Prayer is a measure of the health
of your heart. Health. Prayer is calling on
the Lord. Call on the name of the Lord
to be saved. And God's people need saving from many things,
don't they? David constantly throughout the
Psalms, save me, save me, save me. Come into deep waters, save
me. Save me. Calling on the Lord. Whosoever
shall call and call and call on the name of the Lord. Prayer
is thanking the Lord, praising the Lord. Prayer is thanksgiving.
We have much to be thankful for, don't we? Some, if not most of
our troubles, will be dispelled if we are more thankful. You
know that? If we gave more thanks, our troubles would diminish.
Some, asking, prayer is asking, seeking, knocking on the door
of mercy. Prayer is hungry and thirsting for food and water,
which is Christ Himself. Prayer is repentance. Prayer
is repentance. Well, every psalm is full of
repentance in it. Have mercy on me, oh God. Prayer
is sorrow over sin. Prayer is a plea for restoration. We fall, we get into deep troubles
and we need restored on it. Singing and praying, that's what
we do, that's what we need to do. Singing and praying unto
our Lord with each other. It's good that we do this with
each other. Isn't it more special with your brethren? Isn't it?
The Lord has designed it to be so, like sheep in a flock. Prayer
and praise are for His glory and for our good. Listen to Paul,
and he says this several times. He says, speaking to yourselves
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody
in your heart to the Lord. And praying, our Lord said, pray,
and men ought always to pray. And Paul picked it up and said,
we ought to pray without ceasing. Why? Because without Him, we
can do nothing. Prayer and supplication in everything,
by prayer and supplication in everything, by prayer and supplication,
let your request be made known to God. Let me show you before
we get into this psalm, what I briefly mentioned. 2 Chronicles 20 is where this
story of Jehoshaphat and the people is found. 2 Chronicles
20, this is a blessing. Prayer and singing. 2 Chronicles
20. They were in trouble. They were
surrounded by the enemy. What a poignant, what a wonderful,
beautiful picture this is of Jehoshaphat the king and all
Judah before the Lord. And Jehoshaphat is praying on
their behalf and he pleads to the Lord to help them. He says
in verse 12, Oh our God, wilt thou not judge them? Our enemy. We have no might against this
great company that cometh against us. Neither know we what to do. Our eyes are upon thee. And all
Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives
and their children. What a picture that is. That's
us, isn't it? That's us here tonight. And then this Jehaziel
is the first time you've ever heard of him and the last time
you hear of him. He had one short message. It takes about five
minutes at most to preach this message. And here's the essence
of it. Verse 15, he says, Harken all
Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, King Josaphat, thus
saith the Lord unto you, be not afraid nor dismayed by reason
of this great multitude. The battle is not yours, but
God's. Verse 17, you shall not need
fight this battle. Set yourselves, stand still and
see the salvation of the Lord. And Jehoshaphat, verse 18, bowed
his head, and all Judah, they fell before the Lord, worshiping
the Lord. Now look at verse 21. Jehoshaphat consulted with the
people and he appointed singers to the Lord that should praise
the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army. And
to say, praise the Lord for His mercy endureth forever. And when
they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against
the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, which were come
against Judah, and they were smitten." All they did was pray
and sing, and the Lord smote their enemies. Pray and sing. So this is a song
and this is a prayer. Psalm 143. Psalm 143, verse 1. Hear my prayer, O Lord. Give
ear to my supplication. He's asking to supply him with
his need. Give ear, O Lord. Hear my prayer.
In Thy faithfulness answer me, and in Thy righteousness. Have
you ever called on someone and they didn't answer? If you really need them to hear
you, Did you stop calling? Or did you keep calling? Now
some people won't call you back. Our Lord is faithful. He says,
answer me in thy faithfulness. His ear is always open to thy
cry. To the cry of His people. Always
open. He hears us. He may not answer us immediately,
but He hears us. Guaranteed. You have His word
on that. His ear is always open, just like a mother to the cry
of her little child. Would she turn a deaf ear to
that cry? No way. And she knows the difference,
doesn't she? She knows the difference when it's just a fussy, worrisome,
you know, maybe even a rebellious cry and a cry of real need. And she'll answer accordingly.
So it is with our Lord. His ear is always open under
their cry and His eye is always upon us. Always. Never takes
His eye. of his children. Never. Thou,
Lord, seest me. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad? Hear me. David needed the Lord
to hear him and answer him. Give ear to his supplication
in his righteousness. What's that? Who's that? We saw that. Suddenly, didn't
we? Christ is his righteousness. Did not he say, ask the Father
in my name and he'll hear you. Didn't he say that? Pray to the
Father in my name, the Lord our Righteousness, and He hears you. Guaranteed. You have His promise
for that. Verse 2, Enter not into judgment
with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be
justified. Evidently, obviously, David,
this must have been a time when his temptation of sin got the
best of him, or bested him and brought out the worst in him.
It had to be. Really, that's what this whole psalm is about.
David was in a bad way, as often he was, as God's people often
get in. He'd gotten in a bad way and
he'd fallen prey evidently to some lust or he did or said or
thought something evil as we're so prone to do. And he'd been in this state for
a prolonged time. He says it's one that had been
long dead. Ever been there? If you haven't, if you're a child
of God, if you haven't, you will be. I venture to say everyone
in this room has. He said, because in thy sight
shall no man living be justified. Why? Because there's not a The
Proverbs says, it's not a just man on the earth that doeth good
and sinneth not. By nature. Not a just man. Remember? Remember? How are we justified? By Christ. By His righteousness. By His
shed blood. Psalm 130. Turn back there quickly. This is the theme. This is the
prayer of David so often and all of God's people. We know
this. We're sinners before our Holy God and our sins. Psalm 130, he says in verse 1,
Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear
my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplication. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But, but, there is forgiveness within. Where is it? If he should mark
iniquities, Psalm 24 says, Who shall ascend unto the holy hill
of the Lord? Who? He that hath clean hands, a pure
heart, never lifted up his soul unto vanity, or sworn deceitfully.
Is that you? No. Who is that? Christ. It goes on to say in Psalm 24,
open the gates. He's coming in. Who's coming
in? He that hath clean hands, a pure heart, never lifted up
his soul unto vanity, or sworn deceitfully. But look behind
him. Covered by his skirt, robed in his righteousness. All those
that have been made clean by Him, made righteous by Him, they're
coming in too. By virtue of Him. Like that woman touched the hem
of His garment and virtue went out of it. So do we. And by virtue of our Lord, virtue
of His righteousness, we're going in. The gates are open up. Oh
my. He was justified in Him. I never
get tired of telling that. I know you don't get tired of
hearing it. But look at our text. He says,
enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight
shall no man living be justified, not by his work. For the enemy,
here's what's happened. It happens so often. The enemy
hath persecuted my soul. He hath smitten my life down
to the ground. He hath made me to dwell in darkness
as those that have been long dead. Who's David talking about?
Saul? No. Satan. Surely, he's speaking of the
common enemy and adversary of all of us, isn't he? He's the
common adversary. He's the one. If you belong to
the Lord, you're going to be the object of Satan's assault.
If you don't, I remember, reading William Grinnell's book on the
Christian in complete armor in Ephesians 6, years ago as a young
man, he brought it out, this wonderful thing, and it just
blessed my soul. A young man who was so troubled
by my sinfulness, thought, how can I be a child of God and think
these things? How can I do these things? How
can I be God's child and be so sinful? and the wiles of the
devil, the assaults of the devil. Gurnall brought out this point.
He said, Satan will take that person who is looking to themselves,
who's resting in themselves, who is self-righteous, and he'll
withhold from them temptations and assaults and sinfulness in
the world, withhold that from them so that they think they're
so good they have to be saved. And then he'll take somebody
who knows he does not have them in his possession, that Christ
does, and that they're hedged about like old Job. And he'll
bombard them with every evil thought, and every temptation,
and every wow that he can throw at them so that they think, I'm
too bad, I can't possibly be saved. That person looking to Christ,
resting in Him, found in Him. Oh, that blessed me as a young
man, and it blessed me more now. The enemy hath assaulted me,
he persecuted my soul, he smitten my life down to the ground, made
me to dwell in darkness. That's because he's the rulers
of the darkness of this world. Spiritual wickedness in high
place. We're not wrestling with flesh and blood. Spiritual wickedness. The enemy. And if Christ doesn't take up our battle, Like Martin
Luther said, if we in our own strength confide, our striving
would be losing. We're not the right man on our
side, the man of God's own choosing. Just ask who that may be. Christ
Jesus, it is He. Lord, sabaoth His name, from
age to age the same, He must win the battle. One little word
shall fail Him. That's what Peter meant when
he said, resist Him in the faith. You can't resist him. You can't
withstand one of his assault, one of his temptation. You can't
but without Christ all the time. All the time. The enemy hath
afflicted me. And I've been, David said, I'm
in darkness as one that had been long dead. David got in this
state often, didn't he? I do too. For whatever reason,
whatever it is, we get in this state. And that's why these Psalms
mean so much to us, isn't it? David said this, he
said, listen to this. And I gave this Psalm to a dying
believer one time and it meant so much to him. My soul thirsteth
for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear
before God? My tears have been my meat day and night. They continually
say unto me, Where is thy God? When I remember these things,
I pour out my soul in me. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? Why art thou disquieted in me?
Hope thou in God. O my God, my soul is cast down
with Him. Deep calleth unto deep at the
noise of thy water spouts. All thy waves and thy billows
are gone over me. I'll say unto my God, my rock,
why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of
the oppression of the enemy? My enemies reproach me, say daily
unto me, where is your God? Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? Why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope thou in God. I shall yet praise Him. He's
the health of my company." On and on, David says things like
that. Why art thou cast down? Why? Because of the enemy. David
said, so many saw the enemy, the enemy, the enemy, didn't
he? The enemy. My enemies are strong, they're lively. He said,
I'm no match for them. Sin, Satan, self, the worst enemy
of all dwells in me. Anybody? Verse 4. Our psalm says, therefore
is my spirit overwhelmed within me. I'm overwhelmed. My heart
within me is desolate. Turn to Psalm 88 with me. Psalm
88. Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed,
overcome. I feel like I'm overwhelmed,
covered over. My heart is desolate. Sometimes,
often, Overwhelmed with many things. Grief, sorrow, sadness,
worry, fear, distress, and darkness. Oh my. They feel like we're dead, spiritually
dead. Desolate. Desolate means abandoned. Desolate means forsaken. David said, this often my lovers
and my friends are stand aloof from me. You keep things to yourself
and they don't know what you're going through. But they believe
your brethren do, because they all go through it. And we get down, we get in a
hole, a deep dark hole for whatever reason, sin, unbelief, distress, You know, our Lord knows exactly how this feels. He was made sin
for us. There are so many Psalms. Psalm 89, Psalm of the Cross. Psalm 88 here is a Psalm. Psalm 22 is a Psalm of the Cross. But Psalm 88 could be the very
words of Christ Himself, the whole Psalm. You need to read
them for yourself. Someone has even said that, you
know, everything our Lord said is not written down, but he could
have quoted all of Psalm 22, or maybe Psalm 88 upon that cross. Look at Psalm 88, O Lord, my
God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before Thee. Think
of our Lord Jesus Christ praying that. Let my prayer come before
Thee. Incline thine ear unto my cry.
Remember when our Lord was in the garden, sweat as it were,
great drops of blood. That's when He was being made
sin for us, for His people. God was laying on Him the iniquity
of us all. He who knew no sin must be made
sin. And it brought Him down. It says,
My soul is full of troubles. My life draweth nigh unto the
grave. I'm counted with them that go down into the pit. I'm
as a man that hath no strength, free among the dead, like the
slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more.
They're cut off from thy hand. Thou hast laid me in the lowest
pit, in darkness, in the deep. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me,
and thou hast afflicted me with all thy ways." That's Christ. That's our Lord Jesus Christ.
Smitten and afflicted and wounded, made sin for his people. Didn't he say, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? He knows how we feel. The Lord
Jesus Christ. And I'm not talking about being
overwhelmed because of work or responsibilities or business.
We all, like there's not enough time in the day to do this. We
don't have enough strength. None of this and that. You know,
they've been overwhelmed with the sense of Darkness, and despair,
and desolation, and doubt, and fear, like you're alone, like
you're cut off, like you're abandoned, like God has forsaken you. Anybody? Go back to our text in verse
5. Thankfully, David said, I remember
the days of old. I meditate on all thy works,
I muse on the work of thy hands." He said, I remember the days
of old. David, I believe, is thinking back on the days of
old, the saints of old, how the Lord had mercy on them. Abraham.
Oh, Abraham went down to Egypt and got in a mess. Denied his
wife, not once, but twice. Abraham, father of the faith.
I bet he wondered, He was a child of God at that time. Abraham. Jacob. What about old Jacob?
Oh, blessed is he that hath, happy is he that hath the God
of Jacob for his help. God calls himself by the name
of God of Jacob more than any other name. The God of Jacob. I change not, therefore you sons
of Jacob are not concerned. Oh, how happy is he that hath
the God of Jacob. Jacob have I loved, and he always
loved. No matter what Jacob gets himself into. Jacob went down to Paddanuram,
remember that? Got himself and his whole family
in a mess of trouble. But God brought him back to Bethel. The house of God. God of Jacob. David, I believe, is thinking
back and remembering the Lord's mercy and grace to the saints
of old. Abraham, Sarah, Lot. Jacob, Rahab, Ruth, all of them,
oh, blessed book of remembrance. He said, I remembered. I remembered.
You know, those that fear the Lord, that speak often one another,
and the Lord hearkened, and He heard, and He wrote a book of
remembrance. You got it in your lap. It's
a book to remind us. Remind us, remember the pit from
which we were digging, and remember His mercies. Remember the Lord,
not forget His mercies like the children of Israel. So many of
them did. Oh, blessed book of remembrance. Oh, how we need
to read this and remember and meditate. He said, I meditate
on all thy works. I muse on the works of thy hands,
the work of thy hands. I muse on the work of thy hands. Listen to the work of His hands. And here's what will give great
peace. Thou Lord, Psalm 92 verse 4 says,
Thou Lord, let me read it. I've quoted part of it before.
It's a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, to sing praises
unto thy name, O Most High, to show forth thy lovingkindness,
remember that, in the morning. Remember that. To show forth
thy lovingkindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every night.
Every night we lie down, we ought to think back on the Lord's lovingkindness
and faithfulness. upon an instrument of ten strings,
upon the psaltery, upon the harp. If you can play, you ought to
play. If you can play skillfully, play
skillfully. If you can't, do it anyway. With a solemn sound,
a serious sound. But, for thou, Lord, for thou,
Lord, hast made me glad through thy work. I will triumph in the
works of thy hands. What works are those? the works
of Jesus Christ, the works of those nail-scarred hands, His
work of salvation, works of mercy and grace and loving kindness
and redemption. He's made me glad through His
work, that work of redemption. Now, David said, I remember,
I'll meditate. Oh, unto thee, verse 6, I lift
up my hand, verse 6 in our text, I stretch forth my hands unto
thee. Like a beggar, my soul thirsteth
after thee as a thirsty lamb. You ever been so dry spiritually,
so dead, so lifeless, you couldn't find any evidence whatsoever
that you're a child of God? Like a dry patch of earth needing
a shower of blessing. Well, we just read it and we
just sang it. There shall be showers, showers
of blessing. If you sang that from the heart,
oh, that today they might fall. While it is called today, if
you hear His voice. Then David here in our text asks
the Lord for seven or eight things. Go look at these quickly. He
asked the Lord to do for him seven or eight things. We all,
each of us, need this. We need to ask the Lord personally. Lord, do these things for me.
David says, do this for me. Cause me. Deliver me. Teach me. Lead me. Quicken me.
Me. Me. Every one of us. Me. I hope
you'll not just listen to me, but I hope you'll pray this for
yourself. For yourself. Verse 7. Hear me
speedily, O Lord. My spirit faileth. Hide not thy face from me, lest
I be like unto them that go down into the pit." The Lord does
hear. I've said that. But we need to be like the importunate
widower, don't we? Who would not go away. Our Lord
is the one that gave that story. He said, do you not hear? She
went to that unjust judge and she kept pleading with him to
avenge her. And he said, do you not hear,
even the unjust judge, because of her importunity, because she
wouldn't go away, he'll hear her. How much shall not God avenge
his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he
bear long with them, for reasons known only unto him, he forbears. Yet I tell you, Christ said,
he will avenge them speedily. Speedily. David said this so often, he
said, make haste to help me, oh hurry, hurry, make haste,
I need it now. This can't wait. He'll hear you. Oh hear me, hear me, speedily
oh Lord, lest I be, I'm going to go down into the pit. Verse
8, cause me, cause me to hear thy loving kindness in the morning,
cause me. We want Him to hear us, need
to hear from Him. They need to hear Him. If we
want Him to hear us, we need to hear Him. Blessed is He that
our Lord, Revelation 1, blessed are they that read the words
of this book, blessed are they that hear these words. Now, most of you, if not all
of you, probably try to begin each day with reading God's Word,
don't you? But we fail miserably, don't we? We've got the whole
day ahead of us, we've got other things bombarding our thoughts,
and it's so hard, it's so hard to focus. Well, pray this prayer. Keep reading, go to Psalm 443
first. This is a psalm you could read
every morning. Lord, cause me, first thing this
morning, to hear your loving God. And His lovingkindness,
what is that? Well, that's just a summary of
this whole book. You know that? This is His lovingkindness, this
whole book. It's a good one-word description
of the gospel. A good one-word. Look in your
hymn book, number 9. Look at hymn number 9 with me.
We might just sing this. Hymn number 9. This is so good.
Lovingkindness is a one-word description of the gospel. Cause
me to hear, thy lovingkindness first thing in the morning, before
I hear all this other garbage. Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness.
Verse 9, hymn number 9 says, Awake, my soul, to joyful lays,
And sing thy great Redeemer's praise. He justly claims a song
from me, His lovingkindness, oh, how free! Verse 2, He saw
me ruined by the fall, Yet loved me not, withstanding all. He saved me from my lost estate,
His lovingkindness, oh, how great! Though numerous host of mighty
foes, Though earth and hell my way oppose, He safely leads my
soul along, His lovingkindness, oh, how strong! with trouble
like a gloomy cloud has gathered thick and thundered loud. He near my soul has always stood,
his loving kindness. Oh, how good. Sing! Can you sing that? What a song
that is. How good, how strong, how mighty,
how wonderful. Lord, let me hear it first thing
in the morning. Thy Word, Thy Gospel. Think on
these things. Meditate, muse on the work of
Thy hands. For in Thee do I trust. Verse
8. Cause me to know. Cause me. There's another request. Cause me to know the way wherein
I should walk. I lift up my soul unto Thee.
His Word tells us this is the way. Walk therein, doesn't it?
Not this is good advice. Not this is good counsel, this
is the way. Walk therein. Oh, I want to walk
with God, don't you? Like Enoch, like Noah. Oh, I
want to walk in faith, looking to cry. I want to walk in paths
of righteousness for His name's sake, don't you? He told Abraham,
walk before me and be perfect. Oh, I want to. Walk before Him.
I want to walk in love, don't you? By His Spirit, following
His Spirit. Walk circumspectly before the
world. Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
we are called. Don't you? Order my steps in
Thy Word, O Lord. Cause me. He says, cause me or
I won't walk like that. If you don't cause me to walk,
I'll fall, I'll stumble, I'll go back. O Lord, cause me to
walk. Be a pilgrim, stranger and a
pilgrim, sojourner. Walk. The way wherein I should
walk with Christ, like Christ, with His people. Verse 9, deliver
me, O Lord, from mine enemies. I flee unto Thee to hide me.
Deliver me. Oh, He's called our Deliverer,
isn't He? So what does that mean? Call on Him at all times. He's
the Deliverer. You cannot deliver yourself.
No man can deliver himself. A horse is a vain thing for safety. Mine enemies, I flee unto thee
to hide me. Look at the next thing. Teach
me. Verse 10. Teach me to do thy will. Thou
art my God. Teach me to do thy will. Teach
me thy way, O Lord. Doesn't he say that? Is it Psalm
25? I believe it is. He'll teach. The meek will he guide in judgment.
The meek will he teach his way. What man is he that feareth the
Lord? Him shall he teach in the way. His soul shall dwell at
ease. His seed shall inherit the earth.
The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. Some idiot
wrote a book a while back, The Secret. The Secret. It was a
bestseller. They sold millions of them. I
looked through it. There's not one mention of Jesus
Christ in there. That's because it's a secret
to her. But not to us. He's revealed these mysteries
to us and our children. The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear Him. And that secret is Jesus Christ, the covenant. He will reveal unto them His
covenant. That's what it says in Psalm
25 verse 14. Covenant mercies. Don't you like
that? Teach me. Teach me thy way, O
Lord. Teach me. Teach me to do thy
will. Isn't that what God's people
want not my will, but thy will be done. And who's the teacher? Verse 10, thy spirit is good. He's the teacher. Our Lord said He'll teach you
all things. What will He teach you? What
did He say He'll teach us in John 16? He'll teach you all
things and bring to remembrance all things that I have said,
and bring to remembrance all things that I have said, and
bring to remembrance David said, I call to remember. Bring to
remembrance what I have done, O Holy Spirit, teach me. Lead me, verse 10, lead me. Lead
me into the land of uprightness. Lead me. The Lord doesn't lead
us all the way. We won't enter the land of uprightness.
Lead me, O Lord. Lead me not into temptation,
but deliver me from the evil one." That's what that means.
Don't let me go. Don't let me have my way, but
let me follow. Lead me. We sing that song I
love so much all the way. My Savior leads me. What have
I to fear? And that's what He said in Deuteronomy
8. And you'll remember when it's all over. You're going to remember
all the way. that I led you through this wilderness
all the way, that I led you to the promised land. Lead me. That's our prayer, isn't it? Lead me. Don't lead me to myself.
Lead me. Verse 11, quicken me, O Lord,
quicken me. That means raise me from the
dead. Remember He said back there,
I've been down so long, I've been like those that have been
long dead. I remember Mindy and I were coming
back from somewhere as young married couple and young believers
and coming back from somewhere. She was not aware that I was
going through some deep soul distress. And we stopped in another
church where a brother that we know well was preaching. We just
had time to make the services on a Sunday night. And I felt
so dead, I felt so low, that I didn't know if I was going
to get out of the hole I was in. And that blessed brother
preached this text. Psalm 119.25, My soul cleaveth
under the dust, quicken thou me according to thy word. I went in there lower than a
snake's belly, and I went flying, bounding up on wings of eagles,
flying out of that place. And you weren't even aware of
it. Oh, quicken me. Oh, Lord, quicken me. Ever been
there? You'll get there again. Dead, dry. By thy name's sake. He's the living Lord. He gives
life. I love this thought. Whenever
the Lord was in the presence of a dead person, they rose. Tabitha, Dorcas, didn't they? Whenever there was a funeral,
beer going by, a casket going by, that person arose. You can't
be in the presence of the Lord of life and stay dead. Oh my, quicken me, O Lord. That's
His name. He's the Living Lord. For Thy
righteousness' sake, for Christ's sake, bring my soul out of trouble,
and of Thy mercy, cut off mine enemies. Destroy all them that
afflict my soul. I am Thy servant. He will, very
soon, very shortly. Scripture says He'll bruise Satan
under our feet. It'll all be over. And we lay down this, the battle
will be over completely, finally. No more warfare, no more enemies,
no more sin, no more sorrow, no more pain, no more suffering,
no more tears, no more death. Don't you look forward to that
time. But until then, pray this prayer and sing this song. Stand
with me. We sing under Thee. We sing praise
under Thee. Praise Thy name. O bless the
Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy
name. O bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all His benefit, who forgiveth, who forgiveth
all Thine iniquities, who healeth all of Thy diseases. O Lord, Thou art so good, Thy
loving kindness, so loving and so kind, so gracious and merciful,
so full of compassion. We thank you, oh Lord, we thank
you. We're sinners, we know it, thou knowest, but thou art our
great God, and we will triumph over sin, death, and hell through
the work of thine hands. Oh Lord, thank you for your word.
Thank you for your gospel, the word of truth, the gospel of
our salvation. Thank you for Christ, the word
made flesh, who dwelt among us, and was made sin for us. Thank
you, Lord. Bring us back this Lord today.
Until then, cause us to sing the songs of Zion and cause us
to call upon Thee. Deliver us from the evil one.
We pray in Christ's name. Amen. You're dismissed.