which says, verses 1 and 2, Hear
my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth
will I cry unto thee. When my heart is overwhelmed,
lead me to the rock that is higher than I. I enjoy singing that. All right,
turn with me now to Psalm 57. Did one of you men read this
in the study on Wednesday night? Who was it? Stephen? OK. Look at verse four. This is our
text and title of this message. Verse four, Psalm fifty-seven. My soul is among lions. My soul is among lions." The
soul among lions. We're going to look at that,
what that means. When God Almighty gives life
to a son of Adam, when he quickens someone who's dead in sin, and
he sets his or her feet in paths of righteousness, in the straight
and narrow way. It is the beginning of a sojourn,
a pilgrimage through this world, a wandering through this world,
looking for another place, through a world of trials, temptations,
and difficulties. When God begins this, what God
hath begun, Paul wrote, when God begins this thing, far from
being the end of a person's troubles, it's just the beginning. It's
just the beginning. Real troubles start. And the troubles I'm talking
about or soul trouble. See, everybody has physical troubles
in this world, physical afflictions, emotional troubles, troubles
at home, family, job, and so forth. David here is talking
about soul trouble. You see, a person that God does
that to, They never had soul troubles before. They never even thought they
had a soul, never even thought about their soul. Over a hundred and thirty times
David mentions his soul. Over a hundred and thirty times.
I counted them. I didn't let my computer do it.
I did it. Over a hundred and thirty times
he mentions his soul. saying things like this, and
see if you can relate. He said, My soul is sore vexed. O Lord, deliver my soul. He said,
How long shall I take counsel in my soul? Deliver my soul from
the sword. Gather not my soul with the sinner. Reserve my soul. from destruction. As the heart
panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul hath to be,
O God. O when shall I come before you?
My soul thirsteth for God. I pour out my soul within thee. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? Bring my soul," he said, out
of trouble. My soul here in verse 6 is bowed
down. My soul is among lions. How many in here know what David
is speaking of? As we said, everyone goes through
trouble. Unbelievers go through physical pain and troubles and
troubles at home and at the job, financial troubles and emotional
troubles. Everybody does it. This is soul
trouble. This is for a soul in trouble. And for the soul in trouble,
soul troubles, there's one thing really, one thing needful, one
thing that's going to relieve this soul trouble, one thing.
And this is what the soul cries out for. This is what David here
cries out for, and everyone who knows something about soul trouble,
one thing they cry constantly, nearly every day, they cry, be
merciful unto me. Oh God, be merciful unto me. I didn't count how many times
David says that. It's too many. It's too many. Have mercy. The psalm loved by
most saints, I believe, Psalm 51, have mercy on me, O God. The clarion cry of everyone in
soul trouble, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. What is mercy? I wrote down here at the top
of every page, make it plain. Keep it plain. Mercy, very simply, is not getting
what we deserve. Not getting what we deserve.
Now, this book, God's Word, says that mankind, without exception,
every person, naturally, by nature, is wicked. I'm just telling you
what how this book calls us by nature. Wicked, evil, unrighteous, filthy,
this is what God says, vile, corrupt, stinking, wretched,
miserable, blind, deaf, dumb, unworthy, unprofitable thing. That's what God says about mankind,
all of you. And as when God destroyed the
whole planet, full of many say as many as eight billion people, And God said, he looked down
and all he saw was the imagination of man's heart was only evil,
only evil continually every day from his youth. That's what God
said. He says he repented him that
he made man. He's corrupt. That's what God said. And God, that same God, is going
to destroy this whole planet again, full of how many billions? Now only the believer believes
that. Only the true believer believes
that. And only the believer knows and
feels something of this wickedness. and this evil man within. Only the believer does. Only the believer struggles with
this evil nature within, this hell-deserving, wretched—that's
what Paul said, oh, wretched, wretched man that I am. Only the believer has this constant
battle and struggle going on within, which causes them to
cry out continually. As I said, every day, nearly
every day, this one thing, have mercy. Be merciful unto me, O
God. Carry not my soul away with the
sinner. Deliver me from going down into the pit. That's where
I'll go if you don't have mercy on me. Right? David is the one who wrote this,
and David is one of God's elect. How do I know? Because that's
what he cried, have mercy. David was one whom the Lord loved,
chose, predestinated, called, justified, and glorified. David
was a sinner saved by grace. David no different than you and
I. David no better than anybody. David was a sinner saved by grace.
David was pursued by a formidable and terrible enemy. Saul, as
you know, was the man who was after him. Saul, it said, stood
head and shoulders above everybody. He was the biggest, most powerful
man on earth at the time. Saul represents someone much
bigger than him, much greater, a common enemy of all of God's
people, a formidable enemy, one with whom we're no match. David
was running from Saul. David had slain a lion and a
bear, hadn't he, in his youth, yet he was no match for Saul,
and he ran from him. And Saul represents every believer's
common adversary. common enemy who hounds them. He's a real person. And only those
who are hounded by him know. I'm talking about Satan. And
you know, the world denies and scoffs at the existence of one
called Satan. Nothing. They really do, Hannah. not knowing that they're in his
grips. He has them precisely where he
wants them, under his absolute reign, who are, Paul said, held
captive by him at his will. Yet they deny his very existence.
God's people don't. They know he's a real adversary,
and he chases after them. David needed mercy from God to
save him from this enemy, the enemy without and the enemy within,
the enemy that chased him and the enemy that was within him.
He needed help. He said in verse 1, he said,
My soul trusteth in thee. Be merciful
unto me, O God. Be merciful unto me, for my soul,
not my head, you can't find any real relief, with what you know
in your head, that's not going to bring you out of soul trouble. David said, My soul trusteth
in thee. My soul trusteth in thee. Trust, what does it mean to trust?
Well, it means to believe. You don't believe a thing. Your soul can't lay hold of a
thing. That belief, that trust must
be in a real person. My soul trusts that it's to believe
Him. Not about Him, but believe Him. It's to be assured of. who he
is and his ability. You don't trust in someone unless
you're absolutely persuaded and assured within the depths of
your being that I can trust this person. Have confidence. The word trust
means to have confidence in. Confidence in. complete, implicit
confidence in this person. To trust means to lean upon. Get that? If you're not leaning
upon, will you hold me up? That's what trust means, to lean
on. It means to cast your personal
trust. It means to lay hold on. Trust. It means to run to for
help. Trust. David said, My soul trusteth
in thee. You're who I run to. My soul. Look at verse one. It says, Yea,
in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge. Under thy wings,
in the shadow of thy wings, will I make my refuge until these
calamities be overpaid. I've got to run to you to hide
me. Hide me, O my Savior, hide, until
the storms be passed. Under the shadow of thy wings.
David mentions this many times. Back then, their life was around
animals, wasn't it? What we call farm animals now.
It was an everyday thing like it was with many of you growing
up. And these things they related to. And something happened to
me. I told you this before. But I
just rejoice thinking about it again. Back when we had some
chickens on our farm. There was a horrible storm going
on one day, right before the sun went down, it began. If any
of you have had chickens, you know they stay out until just
before the sun goes down and they go back into the coop. Well,
this storm hit us. Thunder, lightning, sky got dark
immediately. And it was a horrible storm.
And I started worrying about my chickens. And I went out,
and I knew that in particular there was one hen. Was her name
Gladys? Gladys, we were fond of that
hen. We didn't give her that name.
We were fond of her. You know, she was the most fruitful
hen we had. The most fruitful. Absolutely.
She bore an egg, Patrick Gladys gave us an egg every day of the
year. She was great, named her Gladys. But we loved Gladys and I was
worried about, Gladys had two little bitties, two little chicks
at the time. And I was worried about Gladys
and her chicks. And I went out looking for them. And I found
Gladys, and she was, you know, didn't make it into the coop.
She got under something. And I picked her up. I picked
her up, and I looked around for her biddies. Couldn't find them. Oh, no. Where are they? Where are they? Gladys, where
are your chickens? Gladys, where are they? And all
of a sudden, they fell out from under her wing. She had them all the time. But
she didn't need me to protect them. She had them. Can you enter
under that? Under thy wings. And our Lord said this, oh, how
often I've gathered you as a mother hen doth gather her brood. And he said to those unbelievers,
you would not. How much yet? Hide me, O my Savior,
hide me, until these storms of life be passed, until these calamities
be overpassed. I will make my refuge under the
shadow of thy wing." That's why you come here, isn't it? That's
why you come here, for refuge. It's not a place, it's not a
thing. You come to hear about a person
in whom you take refuge. He says in verse 2, I will cry
unto God most high. I will cry unto God. Tell us who your God is, David.
Most high. High and lifted up. That's my
God. He's not like old doggone. He's
not God because I let him be God. He is God. And he lets me know it. He let
me know he was God. Thank God, bless God for revealing
this unto me or else I'd be a doggone worshipper too. My God, David, tell us about
your God. We have our God here and we let
him do what we want him to do. We let him be God every now and
then. David, this is our God. Tell us about your God. Where's
your God, David? And what does he do? David said,
My God is in the heavens. High, preach to us your God,
David. You won't like Him, but I love Him. He's high. He is God. Always has been, always
will be. What does that mean? It means
He does as He pleases. Whatsoever the Lord please, that
did He in heaven and on earth. He's high. There's nothing higher.
He's powerful. He is powerful. All power. And as we've said so many times,
I don't see why people would have a God who's not high, a
God who's not God, unless they're just trusting in themselves. God's people, they need a God
who's They need a God, Nancy, who's much higher than they are,
a God they can't figure out, a God whose ways are not their
ways, whose thoughts are much higher than them, than the heavens
or the earth, a God whose infinite wisdom. High God. I will cry, David said,
unto God most high. Rock. The only rock you can flee
to is a rock that's higher than you. And not like their rock. He says, look at this. I bet
you like this, John Davis, this next line. The God most high
unto God that performeth all things for me. Oh, that's our God. Barbara,
that's our God. He not only doesn't do what we
let Him do, He lets us do that. He does all things for me. Unto God that performeth all
things for me, beloved. And I'm not just using that preacher
term. Beloved. That's who I'm talking
to. God's people. Beloved. Now are we the sons
of God. And thy God is your Father. And he said, if you being evil
know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give
good things to them that have them? Thy God, beloved, cares
for you. That doesn't mean he just has
a sentimental, emotional attachment to you. It means he is taking
care of you right now. Oh, but how am I going to get
there? You're not going to get anything. I don't know how I'm going to
pay my next bill. You've never paid one bill. You've never paid one
bill in your life. Now, I'm preaching to myself
right now because I'm going through time. Great pressure and stress. We've never done one thing for
ourselves. God has performed it all. God who worketh all things, the
scripture says, after the counsel of His will. God who worketh
all things together for good to them that love God, called
according to His purpose. Who's doing it? Who's working
it? God. Yeah, but what? Give me an argument. Thy God careth thee. He's taking care of you. He always
has. How old are you, some of you?
Some of you old. A lot older than me. Never missed a meal, never been
without a roof over your head, never without clothes on your
back, never without anything. David said, I've been young,
I'm now old. He was a 70-year-old man, I believe,
when he wrote this. He said, I'm now old. He said,
I've never, I have never, I have never seen God's seed begging
bread. The righteous forsaken. Those
who trusted in Christ. Not seeing one person who ever
trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ forsaken. It's not presumption,
believer, beloved. It's not presumption. It's not
pride to trust God. It's unbelief not to do so. You say, but me, but me. Yeah,
you, but God. Anytime you get to thinking,
I'm not going to make it. I'm not going to make it. And
that's a good thing. to worry about yourself. You ought to be worried about
yourself. You ought not to worry about God. I'm not going to know
you're not going to make it, but by God is performing all
things for you. And Philippians 1, 6 says, I'm
confident that Paul said, and he was in jail when he said this.
He said, being confident of this one thing that he had begun a
good work in you will perform it until the day that Christ. He's the author and the what?
Finisher of the faith. He that had begun a good work
in you. Will perform it, Vicki. I'll
cry unto God that performeth all things for me." That's our
God, Vicki. That's your God. You can trust
Him. I mean, you can trust Him with
your soul. It's unbelief not to do so in
the face of your worst sins. In the face of your worst unbelief,
Peter, old Simon, after denying the Lord, after sinning against
such love and mercy, and after all that, they said, it's the
Lord. What did he do? He dove in, stripped
himself naked, dove in the water and had to get to the Lord. Why?
He trusted in his mercy. He trusted. Oh, he knew something
of himself, and I got to get to him. A doctrine won't do that for
you. But a real person, come unto me, Christ said, me. Oh, you that labor. A heavy leg,
our heavy wrath. Old Brother Maurice used to talk
about hugging up time. Hugging up. I'll have to explain
that to somebody that knows him. You know, it is saying, if God
that performeth all things for us, doeth all things for us,
our real struggles come when we try to do things ourselves.
It's taken me, well, I still haven't learned it. I still haven't
learned this. I was worse than I am now. I
used to be worse than I am now. When I was young, I did not want
anybody—Hannah, are you listening to this? I did not want anybody
doing anything for me. I wanted to do it myself. Consequently,
I've gotten a lot of misses. I, you know—and that's a good
way to learn. It's a tough way to learn. I'm not talking about you now.
I'm talking about me, all of us. You ought to ask advice.
You ought to talk to the counselors of safety, you know. Ask somebody
who knows. Call on some people to help you.
Don't break your back. Don't kill yourself. Ask somebody. I still need to learn that. But,
and so David cries out, crying to God that performeth all things
for me. Sam, now, if I had the money,
I'd let everybody do it all for me. Right? Sam, would you ever
work on another car if you had the money? He used to take great pride in fixing
something. I wish somebody else would fix
it for me. Man, I'm crying to God. My soul is troubled. I can't
fix nothing. Try as I may. You can't fix anything. Kelly, the more we try, the bigger
mess we get into. I'll fix this. Don't cry to him. He'll do it. He'll take care
of it. Oh my, and he says in verse 3
now, and each verse is such a message in itself. He said, I'll cry
unto God that performeth all things for me. He shall send
from heaven and save me. He shall send from heaven and
save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up.
God shall send forth his mercy. and his truth. My soul is among
lions. God, there's only one help for
my soul. It's among lions. God send from
heaven mercy and truth. Are you with me? We're just now
getting into the gospel here. My soul is among lions." The
Lord said to Simon Peter at a time when he was pretty full of faith,
he thought. He was full of himself, Tammy,
Ron. He was full of himself. Not full of faith. That's when
Peter said, they may forsake you, not me. Have we ever self-righteously
thought that? Yeah. I'm a believer. Look at her. And everybody in here, honest,
would say that. Well, at a time when Peter was
full of himself—Simon, that's what the Lord kept calling him,
Simon—the Lord said, Satan hath desired thee to sift you like
wheat. Peter, since Simon said, everybody's
going to leave you but me. Except you like wheat. And you know what? The Lord let
him have him. Just for a moment, just for a
minute, to teach Simon a terrible lesson, a needed lesson, a terrible
one. And when Satan got a hold of
Simon, he reverted right back to that cussing sailor that he
used to be. Just a minute. Just let him have
him a minute. And he was right back there. And later on, Simon Peter wrote
this. In 1 Peter 5, he wrote this.
He said, Satan, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he
may devour. He wrote that from experience,
didn't he? He said, He had me. Oh, He had me. And He said, for
He walketh about seeking whom He made did bower, a lion. A
lion. My soul is among lions. Let me read to you, or recall,
recount to you something taken from John Bunyan's book, The
Pilgrim's Progress. And I don't know of another book
written by a human being that I would recommend other than
that. And the Lord has used that book, hasn't he, Ed? Mainly because
it's so full of Scripture. It's just Scripture illustrated
it all is, all the way through. It's the life of a pilgrim, the
life of a believer, a Christian, whom God warns to flee from the
wrath to come. to flee from the city of destruction
and go to the celestial city. And he puts a burden on that
pilgrim's back, the burden of their sin, and they flee the
wrath to come in spite of the cries of the family and so forth,
and flees and he brings them to the foot of the cross where
their burden is removed. And an evangelist points the
way. Then to the way, yon wicked gate.
Straight gate. Go through yon gate. And keep
your eyes, he says, on the celestial city, but not to the right or
the left. Go right on. And he told the
pilgrim, he said, don't fall asleep in the way. Don't stop
at Vanity Fair. Don't fall asleep there. It's
troublesome. And an old evangelist gave him
a roll. He gave him a roll, wherein were
exceeding great and precious promises from God Almighty, the
Word of God. Gave him a roll, said, stick
that in your bosom, then don't lose it. You'll resort to it
time and again on this journey. So he did. He stuck that roll.
Well, lo and behold, like pilgrims do, like human beings do, on
the way he stopped a while and he fell asleep. And he lost his road. And he didn't know it. He didn't
know he'd lost it. And he went on, got up on his
merry way and went on his road to the celestial city, and he
met two fellas in the way named Timorous and Mistrust. Fearful and Mistrust. And he
met these two fellas and they were headed the other way. And
he said, where are you all going? You're going the wrong way. They
said, we met two lions in the road, and they'll kill us. He said, we're going back. That
lion's going to kill us. And the Christian said, you'll
die back there. That's certain destruction there.
Why do you want to go back there and die for certain? Just go
on. They said, no, we'll die. We'll die. So they left. Afraid
of the lion. And so Pilgrim Christian said,
I can't go back there. I'm fleeing from that riot. I
got to go on. Well, he started going on and
then he started thinking about what they said. Oh, lions. Lions. So he said he reached
in his book. He said, I got something that'll
come. He couldn't find it. He couldn't find it. He just got worried. He got fearful,
got that lying. So he turned back. He went looking for that roll
he lost. If he'd have used it that morning,
he'd have known he lost it. But he lost it. And he went backward,
and he said on the way back, he said, if I hadn't lost my
roll, I wouldn't be going backward, I'd be going forward. Are you
listening to this? He said, now I'm going backwards.
I'm not going forward. It's all because I lost my role.
And he went back and he sat down in a place where he knew he'd
slept, and he kept cursing himself for sleeping. Why'd I sleep?
Why'd I fall asleep? Lost my role. And he said, look
down. And God was merciful. He found his role. And he read in it, and it filled
him full of peace and joy and confidence once again. He said,
get up and head on, straight on, and follow the directions
of the vanguards. Look not to the right or the left. Head on
to that celestial city. Lines or no lines. And he said
he went on, and somebody on the way told him about there's a
haven beyond the way, a haven for pilgrims like you. You'll
find a place of rest, which is the church. And he was heading
on, and look, there they are, the lions. One on the right and one on the
left. And they were roaring. And he's trembling. But it says he followed the directions
of the evangelist, the porter, implicitly. He said he didn't
look to the right, didn't look to the left, he looked straight
in the path, and he headed straight on. And as he got closer, he
was scared to death. They were roaring at him, going
to kill me. And he looked, and they were
in chains. They were in chains. They couldn't
get to him. They could come so far, but they
couldn't touch him. And old Bunyan wrote, he said,
when he got past him, he clapped his hands. And he got to that place and
he just rested. And the porter of the place said,
Why were you so faithless? He lost his role. Lost his role. Oh, my soul is among lions. My soul is among lions. Well,
God said, and David through David, he said, He shall send from heaven
and save me. from these lions. What will he
send? Heaven sent help for those among
lions. It's a lion slayer. It's a person. A person. God will send his mercy
and his truth. Mr. Valiant from truth, whose
truth himself, whose mercy himself How do we know God is merciful
to sinners? He became the friend of sinners.
He ate with them. He came here from heaven. He
said, I'm from above. Why do you come? He didn't come
for the righteous. He came for sinners. Why do you come? He didn't come
for the mighty, not for the noble, but for the nothings, for the
nobodies. Why do you come? He didn't come for the innocent
for those who are merely you know out of the way I've come
for the guilty and the mercy of God in person. Mercy of God you see Christ is
the sinner's substitute. Christ is the guilty man's advocate. Christ is the poor man's redeemer
any roots in here. Any Naomi's in here? We have
a nearer kin. A kinsman redeemer. He is the
fearful man's captain. That time I was on that boat.
I'd never been on a boat before. And the waves started crashing.
I went to that captain, first thing. I went to that captain.
Seasoned veteran. I said, now how long have you
been doing this? You know where we're going? I couldn't see. It was black. The skies were
black. I had no idea. It looked like a vast ocean to
me. He said, Yeah, I've been there before. Okay, Captain. Okay, Captain. He's the fearful man's captain. He's the lost man's savior. He's the black sheep's shepherd. He shall send from heaven his
mercy and his truth. Is it true that God has a heaven? Yes, Christ came in truth. Is it true that God
is holy? Yes, Christ came. There he is,
holiness. No sin. Is it true that God will be merciful to
sinners. Yes, it's true. That woman that
said that, that dog, she said, I'm a dog. I'm a dog. Truth, Lord, everything
you said about me is truth. But even dogs get crumbs from
the Master's table. Would you, what she's saying
is, would you have mercy on me? Oh woman, oh woman, great as
I fail. I'll cry, David said, unto God
most high. God that performeth all things
for me, he shall send from heaven and save me. See, I need saving. I cannot save myself from anything,
let alone my soul. I cannot save myself. I need
a Savior. He shall save me. God shall send forth His mercy
and His truth. Because my soul is among a lion,
and He's a lion slayer. He's a greater than my adversary,
much greater than me, who binds a strong man. Oh, yeah. He's the one that's got him in
chains, you see. Where do those chains come from?
Where do those chains come from? Did Bunyan make that up? No,
no, no, no. He's a Jew that says he reserved
in everlasting chains of darkness. He's in chains. That's our guy. OK, let's sing
a closing hymn. But I think we're going to sing
Jesus, lover of my soul? OK. Let me to thy bosom fly while
the air waters flow, while the tempest still is high. What's
another one? 352. And let's stand. Sing the
first and second verse. Number 352. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly. While the nearer water flows
While the tempest still is high Hide me, O my Savior, hide Till
the storm of life is past Safe into the haven, God, O receive
my soul at last. Second as the last. Other refuge
have I none. Hangs my helpless soul on thee. Leave, I leave thee not alone,
still support and comfort me. All my trust on thee stays, all
my help from thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with
the shadow of thy wings.