I'm at this time uncertain as
to where we're going to start studying next. We usually go
through a whole book, you know. And I haven't felt any particular
leadership as to a particular book. I have been reading again,
again, through the Psalms. And I know you're like me, most
of you. You're almost always in the Psalms.
You always turn to the Psalms if you want a blessing. And I
do too. And I've been reading, and I
came to this psalm, and it blessed me greatly. And so that's what
we're going to look at this morning. Psalm 30. Psalm 30. And the subject that is written
up here, the title is, The Singing and the Sighing of the Saints. Or Singing in Sorrow. Or Gladness
and Sadness of the Saints. That's the life of a believer,
the life of a saint, the life of a child of God is a continual
series of ups and downs, ins and outs, joy and sorrow. Like life for everyone, there's
gladness, there's sadness, there's laughing, there's crying, there's
mourning, there's dancing. There's faith and then there's
fear, doubts, worry. There's singing. You're on top
of a mountain, and inside you're down in the pit, down in the
valley. There's hope, assurance, and
then seemingly utter despair. Isn't it so? Isn't it so with
you? Now, the world goes through these
things, not faith. But the world goes through troubles,
ups and downs, but not the soul troubles I'm speaking of this
morning, not the spiritual troubles that believers, true believers,
God's people have. We're talking about great trouble
and grief and sorrow because of sin, and great gladness because
of forgiveness of sin. David writes, and oh my, he was
up and down. If you read the Psalms, you see
that. Read verses 1 through 5. He says,
I will extol Thee, O Lord, for Thou hast lifted me up. He has
not made my foes to rejoice over me. O Lord, my God, I cried unto
Thee, and Thou hast healed me. O Lord, Thou hast brought up
my soul from the grave. Thou hast kept me alive. that
I should not go down to the pit. And he writes to us, and he writes
to himself, Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give
thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. For his anger endureth
but a moment in his favor, his life. Weeping they endure for
a night. Joy cometh in the morning. He says, I will lift, I will
extol Thee, O Lord. I will lift Him up, honor Him,
and exalt Him, for He has lifted me up. The song is, He lifted
me up from the deep miry clay. He settled my feet in the straight,
narrow way. He lifted me up to a heavenly
place. Oh, praise His dear name. each
day for His grace. I will lift thee up. You have
not made, verse 1, you have not let my foes rejoice over me,
to triumph over me. What foes? Oh, the believer's
foe, greatest foe. The world laughs at this, but
he's so, he's so. Satan, the god of this world.
The world mocks that and scoffs that. They don't believe there
is a devil when all the time they're under his dominion. And
he's a very real adversary. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke of
him more than anyone. And he came to, stronger than
Satan came, to bind him, to lead captivity, to bind the strong
man and spoil his goods, which were me and you. And take his people to be his
captives, willing bond slaves. He's not made my foe to rejoice
over me. I've got him now. No, you don't,
Christ said. No, you don't. Sin, sin is our
foe, isn't it? Sin is the thing we wrestle with,
this old man within us, this old man that we think is going
to take us down into the pit. Thank God the Lord said sin shall
not have dominion over you. You're not under the law now,
you're under grace. Grace frame, that's Christ. Sin
shall not have dominion over the world that tempts us, the
world that allures us, the world that threatens to overcome us,
that we're so easily drawn by, that we listen to. Christ said,
Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. He has not left his foes. Let
our foes triumph over us and rejoice, and he shall not. Isn't
that good news? Oh, Lord, my God, verse 2, he
said, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. Oh, Lord,
I cried unto thee. That's about all the saint can
do. That's about all I find myself doing all the time. He tells
us to pray without ceasing, and I can't help it, because I'm
always in trouble. How about you? I can't help it,
I'm crying all the time, and about all I can cry is help me,
Lord help me, Lord have mercy upon me. And here's what I find,
I cry unto the Lord and he heals me, he saves me. I feel like
I go down into the pit again and again and again, and yet
he lifts me up. I feel like a leper, unclean,
all over again. I come in, hear the gospel, and
I read the scripture, and I feel clean. I feel like the blood
of Jesus Christ. God's Son has cleansed me from
all my sin. Then I go out in the world, and the world enters
my head, and I get filthy all over again. I feel like a vile
leper. And I hear His Word, and I cry unto Him, and I hear His
Word, and it heals me. It heals me. I love this story. You see, this gospel is for lepers.
This gospel is for the unclean. This gospel is for sinners. The
message, the truth, salvation is for not good people, not righteous
people, but for sinners. I mean, no good, wretched, vile. This is what the scriptures call
all men by nature, but they don't know it. God's people do. They
all feel it. They all know it. Oh, wretched
man that I am, Paul the Apostle said. Who shall deliver me from
this old sinner within me? Who shall deliver me? Oh, he
says, I thank God. I've got to deliver him. And
that's Christ who came down here to be made sin for them. They've made their substitute.
These lepers. These lepers, Christ came down
here, and the only way to rid them of this leprosy called sin
is for him to become a leper. This is a true story. There was
a man, a missionary to Africa named Paris Reedhead. And he
was in Africa one day walking out in the bush, the jungle,
and he said he heard the most pitiful, woeful cry he'd ever
heard in his life. Help me. Help me. He kept hearing
this cry as he kept walking through the jungle and got loud. Help me. Won't somebody please
help me? He said he came around through
the corner of a place and he said, look, there's the most
pitiful and horrible sight you've ever seen with his eyes. He said he saw a man lying there. In the last stages of leprosy,
since the skin of his face was gone, just eyes, he said there
were just nubs, his hands had rotted off, and he had those
little stubs up in the air crying, help me, I want somebody to help
me. And the missionary Reed had thought,
if only I, if only I could reach down, and take him and embrace
him and pull him to myself and put that wretched face in my
face and grab those stubs with my healthy hands and impart my
life and my health into him and take his. He said, I'd do it,
but I can't. That's exactly what Jesus Christ
did. Would you do that for somebody?
I doubt it. But that's exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ did. When it says He was made the
sin for us, that's what happened on Calvary 3. This thing of putting
away the sins of God's people is not some act of man's will. It's not some offer that God
makes to people, won't you accept His Son. That is not it at all. That's blasphemy. That's wrong.
That's a false gospel. What it took to put away the
sins of God's people is for God to choose worthless sinners and
send His Son down here to do for them what they could not
do. They're dead. They're wretched. They're vile.
They won't even call. They don't even know they're
wretched and vile. They don't even know they're dead. They can't call.
They're dead. But when God sends His Holy Spirit through the preaching
of the gospel, like I'm doing right now, they all begin to
understand something of their wretchedness and their vileness
and their sinfulness. And they begin, every single
one of them, to cry unto God, help me, help me. And Christ
comes and says, I am come that you might have life. I am come
to be made sin-free. I am come to take your leprosy,
that you might have my righteousness. That's what it took. And that's
what he did. He healed me. And it continued. Did that help anybody right there?
It heals me. Verse 3, He brought my soul up
from the grave. He kept me alive that I should
not go down into the pit. He brought up my soul. Ephesians
2, you know this, don't you, brethren? You know this. And
you hath He quickened. Yes, you hath He quickened who
were dead and trespassed in sin. And you hath He quickened. He
brought up my soul out of the pit. We heard the gospel one
day that said, deliver him from going down in the pit. I found
a ransom. Brought up my soul out of the
pit of corruption. Sing, that's why it says in verse
4, sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his. Sing! Sing unto the Lord. O give thanks at the remembrance
of his holiness. Sing unto the Lord, ye saints.
Singing and giving thanks is more fitting to saints than sorrow
and sadness. It really is. Giving thanks is
certainly more fitting than murmuring and complaining, isn't it? He
hath not dealt with us according to our sins. He hath not rewarded
us according to our iniquities. Has he? He hasn't given us what
we deserve. He's given us grace. Grace is
unmerited favor. Mercy is not giving what we deserve.
And this is what God has upon His people. Mercy. He likes to
show mercy. He shows grace. He gives us what
we don't deserve. He gives us what Christ earned.
And He gave Christ what we deserve. Death and sin. The wages of sin. Oh, give thanks. Give thanks. Brother Scott Richardson, I quote
this all the time, because it's what David says, it's what the
Scripture says. He said, I haven't really heard too much bad news
since I've heard the good news. Scott was no stranger to troubles
and trials. He rejoiced. Paul, who wrote
that over and over again, was in prison when he wrote that.
He said, Rejoice, and again I say, Rejoice in the Lord. Sing, oh
you sing. David sang many of his psalms
when he was in exile, when he was being chased by his own son. Imagine that. Your son wants you dead. Imagine
that. David wrote psalm after psalm.
Sing! I'm not in hell. I'm not getting what I deserve.
This is much less than I deserve, you see. Much more pity, more becoming
of saints than sadness and murmuring, complaining. The psalms, you
know, are psalms, the psalms. Why do we love the psalms so
much? Because they're psalms and we read them and it cheers
us up, doesn't it? Even the sad psalm. Brother John
is going to read Psalm 51 this morning. He's looking for a response. Psalm 51, that's the saint's
favorite psalm. Have mercy on me, O God, according
to Thy loving kindness. Have mercy on me. Most of the martyrs went to the
stake, getting ready to be burned at the stake for telling the
truth, quoting that psalm, getting great comfort from that psalm. The psalms are songs. Singing
will lift you up out of sorrow and sadness. Singing. I know
this from experience. I know it from the Word. He tells
us it's a good thing, Psalm 92, it's a good thing to give thanks
unto the Lord, especially in times of sadness. Even the times
of sadness and the sorrows and the troubles and the trials,
God sends them. Why? Because those He loves,
He chastens. It's good. All things work together
for good. The whole saying under the law, give
thanks at the remembrance, verse 5, 4, of His holiness. The remembrance
of His holiness. And I'm preaching to myself.
I get angry at myself because no one is more downcast more
of the time than me, I don't believe. But give thanks, he says, at
the remembrance of His holiness. His holiness, and that made me
pause and think how the millions of people all over the world
call that fellow with that fish hat on his head in Rome, they
call him His Holiness. And they call these impostors
and these vile fellows that sit in a little booth, no telling
what they're doing behind it, listening to the confession of
other sinners, and they call him His Holiness. That's despicable. There is one His holiness. Holy
and reverent is His name, Psalm 111, verse 9. His holiness. We're talking about the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're talking about God. There's
only one holy, holy, holy man. The holy one of Israel. The holy
Lord God. His holiness. Now give thanks
at the remembrance of His holiness. People go and they confess their
sins to that fellow. He can't do anything about it.
You're just feeding his sin. You're just feeding his vile
imagination. That's what people do. And he
can't do anything about it. And God's going to deal with
him. But I tell you who you can confess all your sins to. And
this is the only one you need to confess to. Because there's
one mediator between God and man. It's the man Christ Jesus.
It's not Mary, and it's not some pretended priest. It's the great
high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. Confess all your sins. Christ
said, come unto me. Confess all your sins. Why? Because He has the power to wipe
them out. He has the power to forgive them
all. He and He only. Confess them,
all of them. I know, and he says, I know them
anyway. Go ahead. Confession's good for the soul
only when you confess to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Listen
to me now. This is the best message you'll
ever hear, because every one of us in here is sinners. And there's a great high priest
for sinners, whom God always hears. And God accepted his sacrifice
for sinners. And there's no condemnation there
in Christ. Now, to your room. His holiness
means many things. Holiness means, well, holiness
is the opposite of man. Man is sinful, vile, wretched,
miserable. This is what the Scriptures call
man. Wretched, miserable, vile, hopeless, helpless, damned, doomed,
corrupts, the whole earth corrupted his way, full of violence. Scripture
says there's none that doeth good, none, no, not one, none
righteous. He said the whole world is filthy
to God, filthy, that's what God said. But God is not like us. Man's full of hate, man's full
of malice, man's full of wrath and anger and rebellion, but
God is holy. God is the opposite of all that.
God is the opposite of all that. Man's hate, God is love. Man
is malice, God is mercy on whom He will. Man, take, take, take, God gives,
gives, gives, gives, and He delights to show mercy. The remembrance
of His holiness God is just, yes, He will by no means clear
the guilty, but when God in His justice, He is faithful and just
to forgive us our sin, whoever Christ died for, they are justified
from all things. Forever, John, their sins in
the past, their sins in the present, and the ones they have yet to
commit are under the blood of Jesus Christ. God is just. He
will not clear the guilty, and He won't blame the innocent.
And he says, you're holy and unblameable and unprovable in
God's sight. Why? Because of you? Anything
you did? No. Because of what Christ did. And
God said, I'm satisfied. I'm pleased with what He did.
I will accept you through Him and Him only. Isn't this wonderful? I didn't know I was going to
have this much liberty with this. I'm wonderful. I'm enjoying this.
This is my hope. His holiness is not only His
justice and His righteousness, but it's His love. It's effectual
love. It's perfect love. Holy means
perfect. His love is perfect. Whoever God loves, He loves forever. Whoever God loves, He saves.
Whoever God loves, they will by no means perish. No means! Would you? People say God loves
everybody and He'll send someone to hell anyway. Well, who needs
that God? Who needs that love? I need a
love that will never fail. I need a love that's going to
love me forever. I need a love that's going to
do everything for me. I need a Father who really loves
me and is going to save me. I can't save myself. I can't
keep myself. His holiness is His perfect love. It's effectual. It's eternal.
It's His mercy. It's His mercy. I'm going to
need mercy until the day I die. Well, He said, He said, His mercy
endureth forever. Oh, it says the Lord takes pleasure
in them that fear Him and them that hope in His mercy. Verse 5, His anger endureth but
a moment, and His favor is life. How few people know Psalm 5,
5, Psalm 7, 11, 11, Paul, Psalm 11, 7, Malachi 3, the God of
the Bible who hates some people. He hates us all workers of addiction. That's what the Scripture says.
He's angry with the wicked every day. What preachers say that
today? Very few. True preachers do. His anger. God is angry. His
wrath is revealed from heaven. Romans 1 says His wrath is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. But
men don't see it. They're blind. They're dead.
They don't see it. God's people do. They know it's the wrath
of God. As well, God should be angry,
shouldn't he? He looked down before the flood and said, the
whole earth is corrupted, my way. He said, the whole earth
is full of violence. That's now, isn't it? This is
a despicable play. God calls this earth this present
evil world. God looked down and said, as
in the days of Noah, it's going to be when Christ comes. Just
like that. God looks down and says, the whole earth is corrupt
as His way. The whole earth is full of violence. Can you turn
anything on the TV? Can you look at any magazine
or any book or hear anything over the airway that's not vile
and corrupt and violent? Why do people love violence so
much? Because that's man. God ought to be angry. But God
so loved the world. Not everybody in the world, but
of people out of every kindred, tribe, nation, tongue, under
heaven. Oh, my. God is not angry with
His people. Those in Christ, like Noah and
the family that were in Ark, God was not angry with Noah and
their sinners. Who's on that Ark? Ham. Noah, he wasn't off that boat
a year until he wasn't lying there drunk. Right? Where was God's love? It was
in the ark. Not outside the ark. In the ark. And they're sinners too. They're
no better than the people outside the ark. But God told them about
that ark. And God brought them on that
ark. And God shut them in. That's me. In Christ, this is
my salvation. Waiting on people that are late
to come in. His anger, I'm going to get to
the last part of this verse, don't worry. His anger endured
for a moment. God's people feel like He's angry
with them at times, as well we should. As well we should. Do we deserve His praise? Have
you ever thought you've done anything that God ought to say,
good, well done? In fact, the sins of God's people
are worse than the sins of unbelievers. Worse. Sin against mercy, sin
against love, sin against grace, right? Beginning with the oldest.
The oldest people ought to know better. By now. He's not angry in the same sense
that he speaks of being angry with other people. He's angry.
We feel like he's angry with us, and he makes us feel his
displeasure. We need to feel that. And he
hides his face. But this is the sense of a parent
being angry with a child that provokes them, a rebellious child
that provokes them. It doesn't listen to them. But
it's not a hateful anger. It's a good kind. And it endures
but a moment. He's slow to anger. He's slow
to anger. Very slow to anger. It takes
a great deal to provoke Him to anger. Then what does that say
about us if He's angry with us? That means we provoke Him and
provoke Him and provoke Him. By God. And He makes us feel
this anger and this displeasure with us. But He only endures
for a moment. See, His favor is life, verse
5. His favor, that's grace. And
by grace, you say, you see? Weeping. Oh, my, it may even
endure for a night. Weeping. Oh, how God's people
weep. All people weep, but God's people
weep a great bitterness like Simon Peter after he denied the
Lord. He went out and said, wept bitterly. Weeping. David, like David, all
of God's people know something about weeping all night long
for many reasons. David said, I've watered my bed
and my couch with my tears. You know something about that?
David said, my tears have been my meat day and night while they
say unto me, I'm in all my troubles. And they say, where's your God?
There are many causes for weeping, and the number one cause for
God's people is weeping, constant weeping. It's sinfulness and
guilt and shame, soul sorrow. David, we're going to read Psalm
51. David's greatest cause for weeping and sadness and sorrow
was his own sin against God. This was the theme through every
psalm he ever prayed and sung and wrote. He said, Oh, have
mercy on me, O God. Wash me throughly from my iniquity.
You know something about that? We've been endurers for a night.
We've been over troubles and trials and afflictions and griefs
and sorrows, worries and fears. And the worst kind of worry and
fear is over others, over your children, over your loved ones,
over others. Not yourself, but others. We've
been all night long. And like David wrote in Psalm
130, he said, My soul waiteth for thee more than they that
watch for the morning. Have you ever had a sick child
or a sick loved one or troubles? Troubles that you lie in bed
all night and you're crying and weeping over these troubles and
fears and worries and all these troubles. And you're lying there
and you can't sleep. No matter what you do, you can't
sleep. And you're waiting for the sun to come up. Because always,
always it seems, whenever the sun will just come up, There
seems to be some healing in its wings. Well, that's by design,
because that son speaks of Christ. Here's Baum. He said, Behold,
as if there any sorrow like unto my sorrow, wherewith the Lord
hath afflicted me. Why? He was a man of grief, acquainted
with sorrow. Why? For his own sin? No. For
ours. And he said, Be of good cheer.
I'm just chastening you. God's going to send me to hell.
Christ said, God's going to send him to hell. Look for the joy,
he said. He thanks for our good. He said,
Weepy may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
Oh, my. If we don't wallow in our sorrows
and self-pity, but cry unto the Lord, Be kind to the Lord, joy
will come, joy will come. Hurry up with me, verse 6. He
said in my prosperity I said I shall never be moved. Lord
by thy favor you made my mountain to stand strong. Prosperous times
are the most dangerous times. We may look Wednesday night at
the perilous times, these last days and perilous times, 2 Timothy
3. We may look at that. Prosperous
times are the most dangerous times for everybody, especially
God's people. The Lord warns His people in
Deuteronomy over and over again, beware, beware, beware, you're
going to build houses, you're going to be fooled, you're going
to forget God. And then he's going to hide his
face from you. And he's going to let you take
a, you're going to be up on the mountain. You say, in my prosperity,
look at me, I'm rich and increased with goods. And God's going to
say, no, you're not. And you've forgotten me. And
I'm going to bring you down hard. And it's going to be the most
painful lesson. I'll never be moved. Not Peter. Didn't Peter say that?
They may deny you. Not me. Oh, Peter. And he hid his face from him,
verse 7, and what did he do? I cried to thee, O Lord. And
to the Lord I made supplication. Verse 9 and 10, he says, What
prophet is there in my blood? When I go down to the pit, shall
the dust praise thee? Shall it declare thy truth? Here,
O Lord, have mercy on me, Lord. Be thou my helper. What happened
to that fellow standing on the mountain? What happened to that
fellow that had the world by the tail and so prospered? What
happened to him? God brought him down. Be assured
of this, the lofty looks of man shall be brought down, the haughtiness
of man shall be brought down, everyone. He's purposed it, to
stain the pride of all glory and to bring into contempt all
the honorable of the earth, that no flesh should glory in his
presence. So we're the worst, we're the worst at that. If we
ever get lifted up with any pride whatsoever, that's the worst.
Those that know that by the grace of God they are what they are
and have what they have. If we ever get indignant at someone
or something, if we ever get... I cried and he heard me. He heard me. Have you ever thought,
Job thought this, David thought this, Manoah thought this, the
Lord's going to kill me. The Lord is going to kill me,
and he ought to. Have you ever thought that? Have you ever thought that? Surely
you've thought that. Every saint in the Bible has. He's done with me. I've sinned
away the day of grace. It's over now. That's what David thought. But
Lord, the grave can't pray. Job said that. He said, I wish
I had never been born. Have you ever thought that? Job
said, I wish they'd have thrown me out the day I was born. Cursed
his day. Well, that doesn't praise him. That
doesn't praise him. Here's what praises him. A little
while later, Job came to himself. A little while later, he said,
I know my Redeemer liveth. A little while later, you know,
the root of the matter was in him. He was just feeling sorry
for himself. A little while later, he realized, hey, it's the mercy
of God that I'm not consumed. His compassions, they fail not.
They're new every morning. And here's what he said. He said,
though He slay me, I'll trust Him. The Lord didn't, did He? Raised
him up out of that pit, that pit of sorrow, that pit of trouble,
put him back on the mountain. Oh my, verse 11, You turned for
me my mourning into dancing. You put off my sackcloth and
girded me with gladness. Oh my. Has anyone in here thought,
I'll never laugh again? You haven't. To the end, here it is, and this
is the reason for all the sadness and sorrows and troubles and
trials and the falls, the ups and the downs. This is it, to
the end that my glory, or that is that I may glory in Him, I
may sing praise unto Him and not be silent. The prosperous
are silent. The dead are silent. Oh, but
those the Lord hath brought up out of the pit. They're going
to cry. What? No, no more woe is me,
but praise the Lord. O Lord my God, I give thanks
unto Thee forever. Let me read this to you in closing.
Psalm 51 says this. Another psalm, Isaiah 51, says
this. It says, The redeemed of the
Lord shall return. Do you remember that, Isaiah
30? In returning in rest is your
strength. In quietness and confidence you'll
be saved, coming to sit and hear this same gospel. He said, The
redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion,
and everlasting joy shall be upon their head. They shall obtain
gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. Well, I hope you heard that. OK.