All right, go back to Psalm 119. You may remember a few weeks
ago, we looked at the eight verses right after this. And it seemed
to be a blessing to many of you. You responded so well to it that
we're going to look at another portion tonight. As we said before, there's something
in this psalm for everyone. at all times, no matter what
the need may be, you can go to this psalm. And this met my need. I've entitled this, The Cry of
a Troubled Soul. The Cry of a Troubled Soul. And you'll see why. Look at verse
25. David says, My soul cleaveth
unto dust. My soul cleaveth unto the devil. Now a believer, only a true believer,
has the feelings that David expresses here. Only a true believer goes
through the things that David is going to, David has gone through,
is going to express. We're getting in on David's private
conversation with this Lord here, and it's a conversation of every
believer. And he's not talking about financial
troubles here. He's not talking about life afflictions. He's not talking about job problems
on the job or in the family. He says, My soul, I got soul trouble. My soul cleaved
up unto the dust. What he's saying there is I'm
bound, and I can't get up. You ever been there? He said,
I'm down, and I can't seem to rise out of this. Quicken me. Quicken me. For whatever reason,
believers get down. All believers get down because
of their sinfulness. Because of their guilt. All believers
get down and feel dirty, in the dust, because of their wretchedness. That brings you down. And if the Lord allows you to
wallow in a little bit or see yourself, you stay down, you
think, I don't think I'm ever going to get up again. My soul,
that's what David's saying, my soul cleaving to the dust. We all get down because of whatever
troubles, sorrows, sickness, whatever it may be. We get down
and we think, I'll never rise out of this. My soul cleaveth
under dust. Quicken me. David says, I want
to live again. The word quicken all through
the scriptures means live. I want to live again. Quicken
me. Make me to live again. Live toward God. Dust. David talks about dust. And that's what this world is
made of. Everything in this world is made
of dust. And that's what it's going to
turn to. Isn't that what the Lord said to Abraham, dust thou
art, and to dust thou shalt come. And everything with us. And yet
we cling to it at times of dust and ashes. Quicken me. I want to live. I want to be
dead to this world and alive to it. What's with David's saying? Quicken me according to time. What's God's quickening power?
What is it that makes dead sinners live? What is it that makes dead
believers live again? What is it that gets down dirty
sinners and pulls them up out of the pit? The Word. Preach the Word concerning
Christ, the incarnate person. Christ, the Word. That's the
only quickening power. God's Word. Scripture says that
His Word is quick, powerful. It's able. It's the only thing
able. I remember, I love what old Peter
said to our Lord, when everybody else was turning
and leaving. Hard things and a hard path to
walk. And our Lord turned and looked
at his disciples and said, will you go too? I love what David
said. To whom shall, what you're saying
is right. I was dead before I heard it. And I'm dead when I don't hear
it back. What you say is life to me. I need it. Quicken me. According to your
word, look at verse 26. I have declared my will. Thou heardest me. What's he saying? He knows he's
not saying, I've told you that I'm a good fellow. I've declared
my righteousness unto you. And you know I'm not getting...
What he's saying here, Jeanette, is, I repent. I confess. I'm declaring all about... You
know, I've declared... You know my sincerity? What little
I have? You sure know my hypocrisy. Peter
said, I love you, Lord, thou knowest all things. You know
I love you because you gave it to me. But you also remembered
when I didn't act like even me. Don't hide anything. Believe
me, there's only guilt in hiding things. You just harbor guilt,
you harbor it, and it just brings you down, down. But look at this. He said, I have declared my ways
and you heard me. You heard me. You know, we need
a sympathetic here. We need a sympathetic here. We
need somebody to talk to. We really do. Someone to listen
as we pour out our hearts. And David said, you heard me. Every time. Yeah, he does. Why? Why would God hear a worthless
worm like that? God does God hear. such ungrateful
wretches as we are. Why? Why would he? That's right. For Christ's sake. For Christ's
sake. Because the blood is ever before
the wall. He'll always hear it. He'll always hear it. I've heard
it. David said, I've declared my ways, everything about me,
and you hurt me. And sometimes it's just enough
to know that he hears. And he says, teach me. Now, if
this all sounds very similar, That's because David really got
nothing new to say. We're going to say the same thing
when David said it, and God recorded it. Same thing. David said that,
remember? Verse 33, teach me, O Lord. Teach
me thy statutes. We're going to say that the rest
of our lives. Would you teach me? I thought I'd learned something.
And here I go again. Would you please teach me? Teach
me by way, teach me thy statutes. Every verse in this in this psalm
speaks of God's word. Every verse two has reference
to God's word. Every verse in this psalm, but
I think two verses. That's because the word of God
is believers only help, only help, only help. And other believers are only
help as they can bring the Word back to you. God's Word is our
only help, our only hope, our only strength, our only comfort,
our only encouragement, our only instruction, our only correction,
our only consolation. Only consolation. Words of life. Words of eternal
life and life to live. Words to live this life by. Well,
David says, teach me. You're the master. I'm a student. Teach me. Verse 27. Make me. You remember this? Say it again. Make me understand. Don't just
teach my head. Make me understand with my heart. If we really understand, we'll
heed God's word at the moment. If we really understand that
what God has said is the right way, then we will listen long
enough. We didn't listen to our parents until we came to understand,
did we, Steve? We did not listen until it was
almost too late. Do we finally understand, hey,
what dad, what mom's saying is right? And they're saying it
out of just pure love. And it's good, and it's wise. Make me understand that, would
you? Make me understand. The way of thy precept, the way,
it's the only way. Not a way, the way. And then
he says, if you do, then I can talk about it. You know, you have a hard time
talking about the gospel when you're not even, when you're
not much abiding by it yourself. Don't you? Anybody understand
what I'm saying? You have a hard time talking
about God's Word when you haven't paid any attention to it yourself. Why? Well, Lord, if you make me understand,
then I'll talk about it. Then I'll be able to tell somebody.
So shall I talk, he said, of thy wondrous works. I'd like
to be able to talk, speak to others better, wouldn't you? I'd like to be able to speak
of the gospel to you, one another, from the heart more sincerely. Well, T, make me understand,
make me understand, and I'll talk about it. I'll talk about
it. But I've got a problem. We've
got a problem. It's a continual problem. Look
at verse 28. This is it. That's soul trouble. My soul melted for heaven. David says this several places
in the psalm. My soul cleaveth to the dust. My soul melted. Verse 81. My
soul fainted, fainted. Peter said this. Talk about heaviness,
soul heaviness. All believers go through it.
Peter said, let me read it to you. He said, you greatly rejoice
in the gospel and the word of your salvation, but now, for
a season, if need be, you're in heaviness through manifold
temptation. And that word temptation is both
trials and temptation. And the believers have many of
those. Many trials. Especially temptations. With
sin. And many. And they weigh us down.
They weigh us down. Until David said, My soul melteth. The word dropeth. It's like a
candle. You remember our Lord, I think
it was Psalm 22, where it says, My soul is poured out like wax. Think of it. Melted. Somebody
said that tears are the distillation of the heart. The distilling of the heart.
Tears. David, that's what he's referring
to. David's talking about crying. My soul melted. My soul is coming
out down my cheek. My soul melts through heaviness,
through heaviness of whatever trials you go through, through
whatever temptation to weigh us down until our hearts break,
and then we melt. He says, strengthen me. Strengthen thou me according
unto thy word. Strengthen thou me according
unto thy word. The only thing, again, it's the
only thing. The only thing, the only one,
Christ, the Word. The only one, the only thing
is God's Word that's going to strengthen that. Christ, the
Word. Sinner, Savior. If your soul
melts, the heaviness of your sins is only one way out. The only one thing to pick you
back up again is to hear Christ, the Savior of sin. Christ, the
substitutionary Word. Christ, the demon blood. Christ.
Christ is the weak man's strength. Christ is the helpless man's
help. Christ is the sorrowing sinner's joy. Christ is the tempted
man's helper. Only by hearing of him strengthen
thou me, according unto your word, according as I hear of
Christ my strength, my help, my savior, my substitute. Verse 29, and here's a real problem.
Do you have this problem? Remove from me the way of lying. David talked about lying a lot. You know that? He said, we come
forth from the womb speaking lies. It comes easier. Now, have you gotten over it? Tell me, if your skin is on the
line, can lying get you out of it? Come on now. Lying. We're prone to lying.
David, he said, deliver me from lying lips. He wrote that song. I didn't write it down. It was
a song that he wrote. says that lying lip, delivered
out me, oh how I hate lying lips. He said, he's talking about himself.
That was when he acted the fool. Remember when he acted like a
bloomin' idiot before that king to save his neck? You remember
that? Remember when he fanged himself
as a madman? Prominent man. You remember that?
Wasn't it horrible? How could a And then he said later on, he
said, I said in my haste, all men are liars. So he says, remove
from me. I want to be done with this.
Lying lips. We're prone to lying to cover
ourselves. Cover ourselves. We're prone
to lying to improve ourselves. I don't suppose anybody in here
ever exaggerates anything. Ever builds himself up for somebody
or whatever. We're prone to lie to prove ourselves
before the eyes of the true press of the government. They just
remove this from us. Who am I trying to impress? It's
all lies. When I'm discovered, when I'm
found out, it's worse than if I told the truth. I read that recently, it said
if in doubt, if in doubt, tell the truth. It'll always come
out right. So David said, remove from me
the way of life. Remove me from, I want to be
true. How? Look at verse 29. Grant me thy
love, your word. You see, it's all based on the
word. Or if you hide your word in my heart, then lies won't
come out. Maybe you'll crowd out the lie. I want to be true. So only by the truth planted
in my heart will we be true. at all times. I want to be true.
And so only by the true one, Christ, the truth, taking hold
of me, teaching me and keeping me. David, I like what he says
here. He says, grant me thy law graciously.
It's like he's asking a king, would you graciously, oh gracious
king, would you please grant me this wish that you would put your word
in my heart So that might be true. Verse 30, he says, I have
chosen the way of truth. Now, this is not an idle boast,
this is not a proud boast. Roy, this is not a self-righteous
man saying, I chose Jesus. I accepted him, and I don't know.
I want to ask everyone in here, everyone who professes to be
a believer, see if you can't say this with Dave, I have chosen.
I have chosen the way of truth. Huh? It's by God's grace, yes? The scripture said, my favorite
verse, Psalm 110 verse 3, blessed is the man whom thou choosest
and causes to approach unto thee. Yeah, that's my, no, maybe it's
Philippians 3, 2, 13 and 2, 13 is God which worketh
in us both the will, so that he'll choose and do of his good
will. I know that, but I have chosen the way of Christ. I have. I do. I do choose the
truth. Don't you? It offers a choice. Here's this false gospel. Here's
the truth. What does it mean? It's the truth. But you know what it says about
you? You've got to have it. I will. I will. I have. I've chosen the way of truth.
There was a time when our only choice was sin, right? Can you say? Let me ask everyone. Here's the word. All the riches like Satan tempted
our Lord with. OK, here are all the kingdoms
of the world. Here you go. You can have it. Here's a cry. One of the
best. Honesty. Choose what you want. Here's a word. You can have it.
Help, wealth, and happiness. You want it? Or cry. I have chosen. the way of truth. Have you? And when that's not,
see that John, that's not a self-righteous man's boat. But by the grace
of God, it's just an honest answer of a redeemed and regenerated
heart. I have chosen the way of truth. Huh? Here's this, here's
this. We'll look at it. Huh? Choose you this day. And you'll serve. Joshua said that. Choose you
this day. Ask for me in my house to serve
you. Well, he says in verse 30, I
have chosen thy judgments, have I laid before man. Yeah, there they are. Right there
in your lap. You know, if you go in the average
so-called church, it's hard to find a Bible. Honestly. Do you remember that place we
went to down the road here, where the pastor didn't even have one? Well, no, he doesn't
have a history to it. But thy judgments have I liberally laid
before me. Open them up. Look into them.
You know, the world doesn't care what God's Word says. They don't
care, Paul. They don't care. They really
don't. You can tell them what you will
from God's Word. They're not interested. That's the reason
they don't care in the Bible. That's the reason preachers aren't
preaching from God's Word. Ain't nobody interested in what
God has to say. But David says, a man after God's
own heart and every believer says, Thy judgments have I laid
before me. Yes, I am. You're there. I'm stuck on. Verse 31. Well,
I'm stuck on. You ever been stuck on anything?
Can't seem to get away from it? I'm stuck. You stuck me. We're stuck, aren't we? We're
treated rotten to heart. Stuck under thy testimony. Stuck. Oh, Lord, put me not to
shame. Put me not in shame. Now, the
Lord's not going to put us in shame. I was looking at this today.
Maybe this would be a help for somebody. Look over at Isaiah
63. This was a big help to me. Isaiah
63. David says, Oh, Lord, put me
not in shame. Now, the Lord doesn't shame His
people. He never has. He never will. We put ourselves to shame, don't
we? The things we do, the things
we don't do, the things we get into, we put ourselves to shame. We bring shame and reproach on
the Lord. We put Him to shame, don't we?
He never puts His people to shame. He never, in God's Word, ever
did He put somebody to shame. As a matter of fact, like David's
sin or whoever, Jacob, all the wretched, vile, sinfulness of
God's people recorded in God's Word, he never brought them out
in public and put them to shame before everybody. He didn't bring David up and
say, look what he's done. Only Nathan and David knew about that.
The Lord dealt with David, though.
He dealt with him privately. You see that? Because our Lord
doesn't do that. He doesn't do that. What David
is saying here, I believe, is look at this. Isaiah says in
verse 17, Isaiah 63, Oh Lord, why hast thou made us to err
from thy will? You know what he's talking about?
The Lord doesn't make his people to err. What he's saying, I tell
you, means, why did you allow me to do this? Why did you allow me to
act like that? You could have kept me from doing
that. You could have, by your power,
restrained me. You could have, by your sovereign
power, constrained me to do otherwise. You could have kept me from falling
in that pit. Why didn't you? Now, he's not
blaming the Lord. You understand that, don't you?
Every one of God's people understands. Why have you allowed this to
happen? So that's what David is saying
there. Why does he allow us to feel
our sin? and to feel it, to feel our guilt.
Why? David's calling on the Lord,
isn't he? David's looking to Christ.
David's trust in the Lord will never be put to shame. Never. Never. Oh, Lord, put me
not to shame. Verse 32, in conclusion, he says,
I will run the way of thy commandment. I will. I've chosen that way. I've stuck. I'm stuck here. Lord, you're not going to get
rid of me. That's kind of what Peter was saying. You're not
getting rid of us. No, we're not worthy. We're stuck
here. And I will run. I will run. I
don't feel like I can even walk in the path of righteousness,
but I will run in the way of thy commandment. You enlarge my heart. See, out
of the heart are the issues of life. Out of the heart. My son, he says, give me your
heart. With the heart, man, believe it or not. With the heart. Heart. I will run when you enlarge my
heart. Enlarge his heart. We've said
that before about somebody. He's a big heart. That means somebody that's full
of compassion for you, somebody that's full of feelings, somebody
that's, you know, their heart goes out to you. Well, David
said, I'll run the way you're committed when you enlarge my
heart. And what he does, though, the first thing he does to enlarge
it is to break it. He said, to fill something up,
you've got to open it up. I will run the way of thy commandment.
When you enlarge my heart, I will rise when you pick me up. My
soul cleaveth unto death. I will rise when you pick me
up. I will walk when you set me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake. I will talk when you make me
quit lying. I will run when you enlarge my
heart, when you touch my heart with your word so quickly. according
to your word. Christ is the word. All right.
Stand up. Our Lord, your word is a light,
a lamp to our feet, a light unto our path. Thy word is quick,
powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing the body. Able, Lord, discern the thoughts
and very intense of our hearts. You know us through and through.
You've searched us, found us out. You know us, our down-sitting,
our up-rising. And we're glad. And we've declared
our ways unto you. And it's not because we've declared
them that you shouldn't forgive us, but because of Christ. We plead in you. Lord, we thank
you. Thank you for your word. Take it, use it powerfully, as
only you can and must. Your Holy Spirit, cause us to
dwell on these things, Lord. Hide it in our heart, that we
might not sin against that. The soul troubled, the melting
heavy soul, Lord, use these words. For Christ's sake, amen. All
right, you're dismissed.