You notice at the title of this
song, it says, a song, it says, A Prayer of David. A Prayer of
David. What David is doing here, he's
praying and also praising God, or praying and giving a testimony
of the greatness and goodness and willingness of God. Prayer
is an amazing thing. It's an amazing thing. It's an
infinitely precious gift that God gives us. Sometimes we don't
know how to pray. All we can do is groan. All we
can do is say, Lord, please help me to pray. Teach me to pray.
But what it means is that by God's blessed grace, we're able
to talk personally, personally with the creator of this universe
and the sustainer of this universe. The God that created everything
that you can see, every mountain, every hill, the sun, the stars,
the air, the clouds, the earth on which we walk, that's the God that we can talk
with personally. We can address Him. But how can
a finite man, a finite man, speak to an infinite God? How can he
do it? How are we to approach Him properly? Or how can we approach Him at
all? Well, our Lord Jesus told us there's only one way we can
approach God. Only one way, God will hear us.
Only one way we can properly approach God. Our Lord Jesus
said, I'm the way, I'm the truth, and I'm the life, and no man,
no man comes unto the Father but by me. Nobody comes to the
Father but by me. So if we're going to go to God,
we want to come His way. He's provided the person. He's
provided the meaning. He's provided the way. He's provided
the sacrifice. He's provided the high priest.
He's provided the blood. He's provided everything we need
to go into the presence of God in His blessed Son. And there's
never a time. Now, it may feel like to us that
He doesn't hear us. It may feel like to us that the
heavens are brass. But they're never brass. He always
hears us, because He always sustains us. Even when we don't have the
ability to pray, don't have the heart to pray, when we don't
have the When we're so low that we can't even think, can't approach
God, when we just, our mind just can't get in the frame of prayer. But still yet, God stays with
us and is always there. And every child of God, I'll
tell you this, you keep this psalm here, look over in Luke
11 with me just a moment. Every child of God is interested
in prayer. I don't know of a person that
I've ever talked to and or ever known that's been saved by the
grace of God, who's not interested in prayer, would like to know
what it is to pray. I mean, every child of God is
interested in prayer. And that's what happens here
in Luke 11. Our Lord Jesus, it says that, And it came to pass
that he was, as he was praying, in a certain place. It don't
say where he was praying at, but he was praying, he was someplace,
and he was praying in a certain place. And when he ceased, he
stopped praying. He said, Amen. He said, Father,
or whatever He said when He got through praying. One of His disciples
said unto Him, and there they were, they were sitting listening
to our Master pray. No doubt they were down on their
knees with Him. No doubt they were sitting there
listening to Him. And one of His disciples said
unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray. John taught his disciples to
pray. They said to John, you know,
you have disciples, teach us to pray. And that's what he said,
Lord, John taught his disciples, you teach us. And then he gave
them the model prayer, what we call the model prayer. When you
pray, say, Our Father. That's the first thing you're
dealing with. You're dealing with a God and a Father. And where's
that? He's in heaven. He's so far above
us. He's in heaven. And then the
next thing he says, God, your name is holy. Your name is never
to be used vaguely, glibly, falsely, lightly, jokingly. When you address me, address
my name, and call on me, address me who I am. Don't take it lightly. And then he talks about he's
got a kingdom. Oh, a kingdom. God, a kingdom in heaven, a kingdom
on earth, and may your kingdom come and set up its throne in
our hearts, in our lives, in our church, in our families.
May your kingdom come. And your will be done on earth
just like it's done in heaven. So you see, that's what we want.
God teaches us to pray. How many times have you said,
Lord, help me to pray? Please help me to pray. And what
prayer is Psalm 17? This is a prayer of David. And
it's a beautiful prayer, blessed prayer. It's full of prayer and
also praise, a prayer and a testimony. He begins to testify or ask God
for something and he'll testify of God. And he'll bless God for
his greatness, for his goodness, for his blessed mercy to his
elect. Look what he says here. Let me
give you, first of all, the things that David asked for. David asked
for some things. And we often ask for things.
And here's what David says to start with. He said, Hear the
right, O Lord, attend unto my prayer, cry, give ear unto my
prayer, that goeth not out of faint lips. What he's saying
here is, Lord, pay attention to me. Hear the right, hear the
just cause. When that right there means the
just cause, or do what's right in justice. You hear the just
cause. You deal with the just cause.
You're a just God, you deal with things justly. and attend unto
my prayer, and give ear unto my prayer." And look what else
he said. It don't go out of unfeigned lips. Feigned lips, it doesn't
go out of deceitful lips, is what he said. They're coming
out of lips that's been sanctified. Lips that's true. Lips that's
saying the truth. Feigned lips means a hypocritical
lip, a put-on, a pretense. And David said, my lips, they're
without deceit. When I call on you, when I look
to you and ask you to hear me, and to set up my right, set up
my just cause, and to deal with me in righteousness, He said,
I, Lord, I tell you, my lips, they're not using deceit. That's
what they said about our Master. There was no guile found in His
lips. There's no guile found in Him. I mean, I, Lord Jesus Christ,
the We all would love to be honest,
but Christ was honest from the day He was born to the day He
died with everyone He came in contact with. Never withheld what was true.
And oh, beloved, that's what He says here. Oh God, my lips,
my lips are not deceitful. I'm using honest lips. I'm coming before you honestly,
with words of honesty. And then look what He says. In
verse 2, let my sentence come from thy presence. You know what
that means? Let your vindication come from
me. The sentence that you pass, my sentence, let it come from
you. Don't let man sentence me. Don't
let man come to a verdict. Don't let man come to a conclusion
about me. Your sentence. You vindicate
me. Let your sentence be my vindication.
Let what you say about me be right and be true. Because God,
you see me and you know me, which he says later. And all beloved,
Lord, you see what's right. Look what he's going on to say.
Let thine eyes behold the things that are equal. Lord, you see
what's right. You see what's equal. I can't,
but you do. You know who's equal. You know
how to equal things out. And you do what's right, and
you behold the things that are equal, and you balance the things
out to suit you, to your way. Your will be done, is what he's
saying. And then look what he says down in Verse 5. Oh, I love
this right here. Hold up my goings in thy paths. We're going all the time. We're
going somewhere in our mind, in our heart, in our imagination,
or physically. We're going somewhere all the
time. And he says, wherever I go, in
all my goings, hold me up. And I don't want you to hold
me up, but I want you to hold me up in your path. I don't want
to just be held up for being held up safe. I want to be held
up walking in your path. The path that you've laid for
me, the path that you've put out for me to walk through, I
want you to hold me up in my goings whenever I go somewhere,
whatever I'm doing, hold me up in your path. That's what I want.
I want to walk in your path. And then look what he says, that
my footsteps slip not. That my footsteps be not moved.
You know, I'll tell you something. There's over in Deuteronomy,
God says, you know, that He says, I will not let their feet slip. But look with me over in Psalm
94, just a moment. Psalm 94. I want you to see this.
You know, it's not in man to direct his own ways. Jeremiah
said that. Jeremiah said, it's not in man
to direct his own steps. Man divides his own way, but
the Lord directs His steps, and He directs the steps of a righteous
man. But look what David said here
in Psalm 94, verse 18. When I said, my foot slips, I'm
fixing to slip, I'm fixing to slide, I'm fixing to fall, I'm
fixing to fall. And in one place, I think it's
over in Psalm 34, 36, where it says, you know, the wicked wait
for me to slip. for my foot to slip. And what
that means is they're waiting for you to do something that
they can look at. See, I've said, I told you that
fellow wasn't nothing. They'll find the fault real quick,
but they won't find out what's right. And that's why he says,
when I said my foot slips, Lord, I'm fixing to fall. I'm fixing
to go down by mercy. Oh, Lord, help me up. Oh, it's the mercy of God that
keeps us from falling. And that's why he goes back over
in our tent. Oh, Lord, hold me up. Hold me up. Keep our feet. Keep our feet. Hold us up in
our goings. Wherever we go. That's why we
thank God. We pray for timely mercies when
we go somewhere. And look what he says here in
verse 7. He not only said, hold up my goings, but look what he
says in verse 7. Show thy marveling lovingkindness
in all mine. What does he mean by that? Show
thy marveling lovingkindness. That word lovingkindness, it
means A covenant love. It's the covenant love. The same
thing that this love of God is not a general love. It's not
a... When He says, Show thy marvelous lovingkindness, show the love
of your covenant. This covenant love that you have
for me. The kindness of your covenant love. Your mercies toward
me. Oh my, He pleads for... God revealed
His character to me. Let me see your kindness. Let
me see your lovingkindness. Let me see your marvelous lovingkindness. And, O Beloved," and he went
on to say here, "'O thou that savest by thy right hand them
which put their trust in thee.'" O Lord, you save, he says, you
save, thou that savest by thy right hand. God asked this question himself.
He said, is my right hand, is my right arm sheltered that it
cannot save? is my right arm shortened to
the king. And he says, O thou that savest by thy right hand,
them which put their trust in thee. That's who he saves with
his right hand. That's who he reaches and gets
a hold of with his right hand. That's who he holds up with his
right hand. It's them that put their trust in him. And who else
can we put our trust in? When I say, and I know when you
say it, that you really believe Jesus Christ And you really trust
Christ. You mean that from the depths
of your soul. And that's why God said, Oh,
He saves them with His right hand. Them that put their trust
in Thee. And how many times has God come
and saved us with His right hand. Saved us from a thousand enemies. Saved us from a thousand falls. Saved us from a thousand things
that would have destroyed us that we didn't even know about
that God has saved us from. And then it says, those who rise
up against them. What he's saying is, those who
rise up against you even, and them that trust in you, let your
right hand, let your right hand save us from them. And, oh beloved,
look what he says in verse 8. He only says, oh give me, please
pay attention to me, please uphold me, please show yourself to me
in your loving kindness. And then he says, and then keep
me, protect me, Verse eight, keep me as the apple of thy eye. Hide me under the shadow of thy
wings. Keep me as the apple of thy eye.
What do you protect more in your body than your eye? The eye is the most precious
part of your body, and you do everything you can to Something
gets in it, it'll irritate you to no end. And David says, Lord, protect
me, and you keep me. Just like an apple in your eye. Something precious, something
delightful, something blessed, something that you consider,
and he says, you keep me as the apple of the eye. You keep me. You look at me and you see me
as the apple. Solomon says that, says he's the apple of his eye.
And over, and I think it's Zechariah, he says he'll keep us as the
apple of his eye. And, O beloved, keep me, and
then hide me. Not only keep me, but hide me.
Hide me, O thou blessed Savior. Hide me, O hide me, O hide me. And he said, hide me where you
want me to hide you at, under the shadow of your wings. That's
a good place to be, ain't it? Under the wings of God. Under
the shadow of the wings of the Almighty. Under the shadow of
His wings. And, oh, keep me from the wicked
that oppress me. From my deadly enemies. And,
oh, my, how many deadly enemies do we have? Oh, he says, that's
against my soul. Sin's a deadly enemy. Satan's
a deadly enemy. Flesh is a deadly enemy. The
world's a deadly enemy. And He says, these things can
pass us. And He said, they're enclosed
in their own fat. They sow well off in things,
and with their mouth they speak so proud. So proud. And they've set around in us,
they can pass us in our steps. And they set their eyes back
down to the earth. They got their eyes set on the
earth, looking at where we walk. But, O beloved soul, let me give
you another one here. Here's his testimony. Here he
talks about God. Look what he says about God.
He gives a testimony of God. He says in verse 3, he says,
Thou hast proved my heart. Thou hast proved my heart. Thou
hast visited me in the night, thou hast tried me, and shalt
find nothing. And I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. My, my, thou hast proved my heart."
That means God tries your heart. That's the place God tries more
than anything else, He tries the heart. For from without a
heart are the issues of life. And it's the heart that's so
deceitful, above all things, and desperately wicked. heart
that gets deceived. And that's what must be dealt
with first. And that's why he says, Lord,
thou hast proved my heart. And you know, in Psalm 139, David
says, Search me, know me, try me, prove me, and if there be
any wicked way in me, deliver me. And that's what David said,
Lord, you search, you prove my heart. You know my heart, you
prove my heart. That's like when he said, Simon
Peter, to your lovely Lord, Thou knowest. Thou knowest. My son, give me a heart. And
that's why he says, you know, prove his heart, because that
heart is the deceitfulest part about us. It'll lie to us and
tell us that we're doing just exactly what's right, when our
conscience says, no, you're not. And the Word of God says, you
know, you're not. Oh, the heart's so deceitful. And then look what
he says, you visited me in the night. Oh, bless his name. Visited?
You mean God comes and visits you? Yeah. When did he visit
you? In the night? When it's dark, that's what he
means. When it's dark. In the middle of the night, when
it's dark, and there's nobody but you. When it's nighttime. And the nights are long. He says
your heart's been proven. And then He comes and visits
us. He visits in mercy. He visits in grace. He visits
in power. He visits to give rest. He visits
to give peace. He visits to give comfort. He
visits to give assurance. And the night, oh, He comes to
That sorrow and darkness of night, He'll come and He'll bring some
light and He'll bring some comfort and He'll bring some assurance
and He'll bring some quietness and He'll bring some restfulness
and He'll bring some peace. Oh, to visit Him. God to visit
us. And oh my, it's a wonderful thing
to be visited by God. But even more wonderful when
you need Him in the middle of the night when it's dark and
sorrow is around. That's a wonderful time for Him
to visit. Does He ever visit you in the night? Does He ever
visit you in the night? Does He ever visit you when it's
dark? Ever visit you when you're with
such sorrow? Oh, has He ever brought you peace
when your mind wouldn't stop, brought peace to your soul when
your soul wouldn't rest? Oh, He comes in business. And
then look what He says. And he says again in verse three,
thou hast tried me, and this absolutely, I don't, you know,
and thou shalt find nothing. Thou shalt find no evil. Now,
I do a lot of studying over these psalms, and I was looking at
what one fellow said, and he was talking about Most of this psalm from down
here, the next four, five, from verse three down to verse six,
is David's talking about how he has such confidence in his
obedience. and in his righteousness before
God, and how he's obeyed God and walked upright before God,
that he comes before God, and because God can find nothing
in him, he has this great competence. That this is David's holiness,
this is David's goodness, this is David's being obedient, that
he can have competence. When I say that thou hast tried
me, thou shalt find nothing. What I see in that is that the
only reason he's tried us and shall find nothing is because
of Christ. God said, there's sins and iniquities. Well, I remember no more. I mean,
if God don't find nothing in us, no evil in us, no sin in
us, it's because of what Christ did for us. There's never a time
that we in ourselves could ever come with confidence in who we
are, or what we've done, or what we said, or a work we've done,
that God would ever accept us. We wouldn't know a thing about
grace to think that we was going to come to God, or because we've
obeyed God. I come to God in Christ because
Christ obeyed God. I come to God in Christ because
God found in Him no sin. God made Him to be sin so that
He should not find any sin in me. And oh, and look what David
said, and I'm purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. That's
what he purposed, and then you'll find him again in Psalm 51. He
says, Lord, it's against Thee only and only that I've sinned.
So we'll make these boasts, and we'll say, and we mean it, I'm
purposed that I won't transgress with my mouth. He said in one
place, set a watch over my mouth. Job said, I'm going to set a
watch over my mouth. I'm going to even put a watch
on my eyes. And I'm purposed that with my mouth I shall not
transgress. I won't say anything against
you, your law, or the way that you do things. Oh Lord, I tell
you, God has tried me and found no evil purpose in me." And then
look what he says in verse four, "'Concerning the works of men,'
and I won't transgress my bounds concerning the works of men,
"'by the word of thy lips I have kept thee from the pass of the destroyer.'
Now what is the world by the violent man? That destroyer means
violent man. He said, concerning what men
do, and how they seek to destroy,
and how they're wicked men. He says, you know what's kept
me from walking in their paths and being destroyed by them?
The word of thy name, sir. What you say in your blessed
book. What you say in your word. He said, the words of your lips,
the words of what God said, that's what keeps me. That's what he
says, that's what keeps me from walking and from the paths of
the destroyer, going in the paths of violent men. He said, the
words of your lips has kept me from going in that direction,
going in the way of these men and going by the works of men.
He said, that's what I've done. And I'll tell you what, beloved,
if we're ever kept, we're kept by His blessed Word. And the
Word from His lips. David says that they're more
precious than a gold yet to be tried with fire. And I read here,
what, a few weeks ago, about His Word as that silver tried
in a furnace seven times. So by the Word of our lips. Oh
Lord, that's what we need. By the Word of our lips. That'll
keep us. going where we ought not to go, and being around people
we ought not to be, and doing things we ought not to do. This
right here, Thou hast kept me. And then He answered him. He
said, O Lord, as He said in verse 6, He said, I have called upon
Thee, for Thou wilt hear me, O God, and climb by ear unto
Me, and hear My speech. I have called upon You. And He says, You know what? You
will hear me. He didn't say, I hope you hear
me. I'd like for you to hear me. But he says, Thou will hear
me. You will hear me. You will hear
me. Mary asked me all the time. She
got just cause for doing it. She said, Are you listening to
me? Are you listening to me? Are
you listening to me? Just to make sure I'm paying
attention. Because, you know, I may be sitting there just doing
nothing. And I've got whatever I'm doing, I've got to put it
down and say, yeah, I'm listening. And then on the way to the service
tonight, she said, I asked her a question, she said, I told
you you didn't listen to anything I said. Because I asked her a
question she done answered. Oh, I know you fellas, you don't
have that problem. Oh my, that's what he says, I've
called upon thee and thou will answer, thou will hear me. And
oh, God will hear us. He hears the thoughts that we
have, the desires of our heart, the intents of our heart, the
prayers of our heart, and the words of our lips. And oh my. And he says, incline thy ear
unto me, And hear what I have to say. Hear what you have to
say. Oh God. And that's why Paul said
to the Philippians, let your request be made known unto God.
And then look at the final thing that he says here. Giving a wonderful
testimony of God. Talking about God. He said, ask
for me, in verse 15. Ask for me. Men in this world,
they have their portion of this world. Verse 14. They have their
portion. From thy hand, men have what
they have in this world. They have their portion in this
life. All they're ever going to have is what they've got here.
And whose belly you fill with His treasure, you fill them up
like that. And they're full of children.
They got lots of children. And they leave the rest of their
substances to the babes, to the children. But look what he says,
let men have their portion in the world. You give them their
hidden treasure, fill them up, give them a good inheritance
to give to all their kids. As for me, as for me, I will
behold thy face in righteousness. I will behold thy face in righteousness. face-to-face with Christ my Savior. Face-to-face. And when I behold Thy face in
righteousness, I shall be satisfied. This is the final and full satisfaction
that we'll have one of these days. Fully satisfied. Final satisfaction. Full satisfaction. I shall be satisfied. When I
wait, life. Huh? Told you. Oh, my. Prayer and testimony, they go
together. When you pray, you've got to turn around and tell God
how blessed He is, and how He's heard you, and how He's blessed
you, and His love and kindness. You've got to turn around and
tell Him, you know, what all He means to you and what He's
done for you. You can't just ask Him for things without testifying
of His greatness, see? You can't. Amen.