My voice shalt thou hear in the
morning, O Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto
thee, and will look up. For thou art not a God that hath
pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee. The
foolish shall not stand in thy sight, thou hatest all the workers
of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that
speak leasing. The Lord will abhor the bloody
and deceitful man. But as for me, I will come into
thy house. in the multitude of thy mercy,
and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. Lead
me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies. Make
thy way straight before my face, for there is no faithfulness
in their mouth. Their inward part is very wickedness. Their throat is an open sepulcher.
They flatter with their tongue. Destroy thou them, O God. Let
them fall by their own counsels. Cast them out in the multitude
of their transgressions. for they have rebelled against
thee. But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice.
Let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them.
Let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee, for thou,
Lord, wilt bless the righteous. With favor wilt thou compass
him as with a shield." And let's look at this together.
I've titled my message this evening, Prayer with a Purpose. Prayer
with a Purpose. And then David starts out saying,
Give ear to my words, O Lord. I'm calling on you. Harken unto
the voice of my cry, he says in verse 2. So here's a man who's
praying. And prayer is a privilege. Oh,
what a privilege it is to know what I can't say I know what
prayer is, but I know that it's communing with God in some way.
It's being able to take your needs and desires and hopes and
fears to God, and have the privilege of coming into His presence and
voicing our concerns and the needs of our hearts and the needs
of others. Oh, what a blessing. And our
Lord told us to always do it in laudation. Luke 18.1, men
ought always to pray and not to think. But I also know this,
it's hard to do sometimes. Prayer sometimes don't come easy.
It don't come easy for me. It don't. And we get disgusted
with ourselves. I should say I do. We get disgusted
with ourselves over our prayers, over our lack of Our lack of urgency in them.
Oftentimes our lack of words. Our lack of warmth in them. And
sometimes we just utter words without any heart in them. And
I don't even know if that would be a prayer or not. I just don't
know. But David opens this psalm with
prayer. And he says, Give ear to my words,
O Lord. Consider my meditation. Now,
there's two sorts of prayers. Two sorts of prayers, the old
timers say. They say those that are expressed
in words. When you express in words what
you want to say, you use words to commune with God, to tell
God, and talk with God, and pour out your heart to God. And then
there's the unuttered longings of silent meditation. There's
times when the heart Mind and the heart go out and utter, and
they go out with needs and desires before God. Those ones, it's
not uttered. It just goes on in the mind.
It just goes on in the heart. It just goes on in the soul.
Those is another kind of prayer. And I do know that both of them,
if God's pleased to bless them, our prayers. There's times, and
I know you do it even in a service like this here, your heart, you're
silently in your mind, in your meditation. If something comes
in your mind and in your meditation, you begin to think about it and
consider it, and then you utter something in your silence, in
your in your heart, you cry out, you utter something. And that's
the second kind of prayer. And Moses did that at the Red
Sea. And God told him, let me show you that. Look in Psalm
5 and look at Exodus 14 and verse 15. Moses did this. You know, he uttered something
before the Lord. And that must have been silent
because he don't hear Him pray. But look what the Lord says.
Moses said here in verse 13 of Exodus 14, Moses said unto the
people, they're standing at the Red Sea. Fear ye not, stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord, which he'll show unto you
today. For the Egyptians with whom you have seen today, you
shall see them again no more. The Lord shall fight for you
and shall hold your peace. Now look what happens right now.
And the Lord said unto Moses, wherefore cryest thou unto me?
You didn't hear Moses standing there telling them folks, stand
still. But evidently, silently, quietly, from the utterance of
his heart, he cried out to God. And God said, why are you crying
to me? Talk to the children of Israel. Tell them to go forward.
And so he didn't ever say a word. You don't find him praying, but
yet you say, God, God said he heard this cry, heard this cry
out of his heart under these utterances, and he said that. And look what he said here also
in verse 1 of Psalm 5. Consider my meditation. If I
don't have words to use, and you give ear to my words, if
I don't have words, and I don't know how to say anything, Lord,
consider what goes on in my mind. Consider the thoughts that I
have of the needs and the fears and the anxieties and the prayers
as I wake and I consider, oh God, consider my thoughts, the
meditations of my mind concerning you and my needs and the needs
of others. Consider what I thought. And then look what he says in
verse two. He said, hear my cry, or he said, hearken under the
voice of my cry. First he said, give ear, now
hearken unto the voice of my cry. My King and my God, for
unto thee will I pray. Now there's three my's here.
This is spiritual blessing. Three my's here. My cry to my
King and my God. You know what caused God to send
Moses down to Israel to deliver Egypt? He says, the cries of
the children of Israel have come up before me. And so he's in
the delivery. And I tell you, beloved, when
men say, Our Lord Jesus cried out on the cross, my God, my
God. And so men cry out to the Lord. And he says, I cry. Oh, God,
I cry. And that means he gives urgency
to his voice. There's a lifting it up. And
he says, hear my voice, my King. You're my King and you're my
God. That's who you are. And oh, watch
somebody praise Him. And what He said, Lord, I'm Yours.
I am Yours. I belong to You. You made me. You govern me. And I cry out
to You because You're the King. You can do something about it.
You're my God. You can hear me and meet the
needs of my heart, my soul. And that's why He says, for unto
Thee, my King and my God, will I pray. I mean, we're not calling
on somebody of low purity, somebody who can't do anything. We're
not calling on somebody that has no authority, that has no
power. Oh, no. King in my God. And look what else David said.
David not only has some resolve about praying, he has some resolve
about it. He said, here's what I'm going
to do about praying. My voice shall come out here in the morning,
O Lord. You know what? When I get up in the morning,
you know what you're going to hear? You're going to hear my
voice. And not somebody else's. You're
going to hear mine. Well, wouldn't it be something if we started
our days out like that? Lay in bed or get out of bed,
and the first thing we start doing is address God. The first thing we start doing
My voice will be the first thing you hear in the morning when
I get up, Lord. You will have to hear me again. I'm coming
to talk again. I'm coming to let my voice be
heard before you again. And then look what he says. In
the morning, I will direct my prayer unto thee. In the morning. In the morning, I tell you what,
I'm going to turn and I'm going to direct my prayer to you. I'm
not just going to direct it to the season. I'm not going to
direct it for somebody else's voice, or somebody else's hearing,
or even for my own hearing. I'm going to direct my voice
up to you. And oh, you know what our Lord
Jesus Christ did? You know, so many times it talked
about how that He went off to pray. But it says over in Luke,
it said, He Christ arose a great while before the break of day
and went to a secret place. A great while before. And then
look what David says. I'll direct mine in the morning.
He has some resolve in the morning. You're going to hear my voice
in the morning. I want the Lord to hear my voice
in the morning. I sure would like to start doing
that. Need to do that. And he says,
I'll direct my prayer unto thee, and we'll look up. I'll look
up. And you know what that means?
I will watch. I'm going to watch. I'm going
to watch for the answer. I'm going to look up. When I
call you on you, I'm going to look up and wait for you to answer
back. I'm going to do like Daniel did
when they told me not to pray. He opened his window and he began
to pray, watching for the Lord's answering, looking unto the Lord,
looking in that direction. And it's like, it's like Elijah
with Elijah, you know, he called that, put those sacrifice on
there and poured all the water and then he cried for the fire
to come down and then he stood back and looked, looked and watched
and waited for the fire to fall. That's what David said. I'll
direct my prayer unto you. I'll let my voice hear, but I'm
going to look for you to answer. I'm going to look for you to
answer. I can stand here right now and tell you several things
if God's answered my prayer. And I've got one particular prayer
that I believe He'll answer, and if He does, that'll be wonderful.
But if He don't, His will be done. But I tell you what, we
direct our voice to somebody who can do something about it. And then look what it says here
in verse 4. Oh, this is something right here.
I'm going to read these four through six and show you how
the Lord deals with the wicked, how God's hatred is of the wicked. He says in verse four, For thou
art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall
evil dwell with you. The foolish shall not stand in
thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. If he hates the workers, imagine
what the iniquity is. How much he must hate iniquity
if he hates those who do it. And then it goes on to say, Thou
shalt destroy them that speak leasing. The Lord will abhor
the bloody and deceitful man. Now, the Lord, you've got six
things here to how the Lord deals with these people. How the Lord
progresses in that. And first of all, he says, I
had no pleasure in them. I had no pleasure in the wicked.
None whatsoever. I don't have any pleasure in
them. None. I don't look on them with pleasure.
I don't delight. I just don't. I know nothing
about them pleases me. And then look what he says going
on. And then not only that, but he
says, neither shall evil dwell with me. Evil ain't going to
dwell in my presence. It's not going to dwell with
me. That's why David said, I've hid thy word in my heart that
I might not sin against thee. Keep thy servant back from presumptuous
sins, O Lord. And oh, not only said, I don't
have no pleasure, but they ain't going to dwell in my presence.
And look what he says. And then he says, not only they
dwell, they shall not, the foolish shall not stand in thy sight. And oh my soul, how many foolish
people are there in this world. Foolish in oath, foolish against
God, foolish in their thoughts, foolish in their actions, foolish
in their desires, foolish in the way they think, foolish in
the way they act, everything about them foolish. And God says,
the foolish ain't gonna stand in My sight. And then He goes
on to say, Oh, and thou hatest all the workers of iniquity.
Now, the average preacher say he hates the sin but loves the
sinner, but that's not what it says here. Hates all workers. Now, everybody that's not in
Christ works iniquity. But there's some people that
actually, I mean, they make it a job. They make an effort to
be workers of iniquity. Their purpose in living is to
work iniquity. People that sell drugs. People
that get involved in some of the horrible stuff. They work
at it. They do great works of iniquity. They make it their job and they
make it their purpose in living is to work iniquity. And God
said He hates all of them. And I'll tell you something. You cannot love wickedness and
love iniquity, and love sin, and know Christ. Now, I didn't
say you couldn't sin. I didn't say that you won't sin. I said you can't love it. You know why you kill rattlesnakes?
Because they're poisonous. It's the poison that will destroy
you. And that's the way we feel about sin. It's the poison of
it. And God help us, save us, and oh, I don't want, God hates
all the workers of the nation. And don't you abhor men and women
when you see all the evil that they do? And then look what else,
not only does he hate them, but then his hands against them,
he says, look here, thou shalt destroy them that speak pleasing.
I'm going to destroy them. That we're at least in line.
They love to make a lie. They live and make a lie. He
said, you're going to destroy them. The people that lie, those
people that do all these things, these people that make it up.
He said, you're going to destroy them. And I'll bless His name
when God's destroyed this world and the wicked in it. Beloved,
God comes, and the judgment will come, and God will destroy this
earth and everything in it, and all the wicked will be cast into
hell where they don't want God, they don't need God, and they'll
work all their iniquity and tell all the lies and be as foolish
as they want to be for all eternity, and God Himself will stand back
and leave them go and just forget about them. And we will be in
glory. And then it says, look what he
says, the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. What
that means is that the man of blood, the man that kills, the
man that murders, the man that sheds innocent blood, you don't
have to actually shed blood to shed innocent blood. You know, Judas said, I betrayed
innocent blood. And also, he said, but a bloody
and deceitful man, that man of blood, and destroys people by
blood, and is deceitful. God said, I abhor him. I hate
him. I hate him. But look what David says now.
And oh, man, what a wonderful change. But as for me, whatever
you do, that's all right. But as for me, You know what
I'm going to do? I'm going to come into your house.
I'm going to come into your house. And you know why I'm coming into
your house? I'm not coming because I'm worried. I'm not coming because
I got married. I'm not coming because I'm good.
I'm coming because of the multitude of your mercy. That's the reason
I'm coming. That's why I'm coming into your
house. That's why I delight in coming into you. And all beloved
in heaven, oh, that's why I'm coming. And then look what he
says, and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. In thy
fear, out of fear for you, out of awe and reverence for you.
You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to worship. While you're
destroying these workers, while you're dealing with these wicked
men, I'm coming into your presence. I'm coming into your house. I'm
going to worship you. My heart's going to worship you
towards your holy temple, not an earthly temple. And the temple
hasn't been built yet, so he's talking, I'm going to pray towards
the Lord and His holiness and His temple in glory itself. And
what he's saying, I ain't going to stand in the distance. I don't
have to stand in the distance. I'm coming to your house. I'm
coming to worship you. And I'll do it because in the
fear, in your fear, I'm going to worship. And make that wonderful
that God put His fear in our hearts that makes us want to
come and worship Him. Delight in Him. Not stand afar
off. Come in His mercy. Come in real
worship. And then look what he says in
verse 8. Lead me, O Lord, lead me. O Lord, in thy righteousness,
because of thine enemies, make thy way straight before my path. Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness."
Well, first of all, that's the only way God can lead us. If He leads you, He's going to
lead you in righteousness. Lead me in the path of righteousness.
That's what David said. He leadeth me in the path of
righteousness. If God leads us, He has to lead us in righteousness,
because He cannot do anything but lead us in righteousness.
A righteous God can't do anything but lead in righteousness. Is
that not right? Could He lead us in the other
way than the way of righteousness? Because His nature is righteous,
His character is righteous, His ways are righteous, He's righteous
in His person, so He's going to lead us in righteousness.
And then He says, lead me, O Lord. Lead me as a child is led by
his father. And little Riley down at the
house the other day, we go out and she'd say, here poppy, hold
my hand, hold my hand. Lead me, take me, take me over
here, take me over here. I want to lead her. Don't lead
me, don't lead me. And then lead me as a blind man
led by a friend. As a blind man led by a friend.
I noticed yesterday, I was up in town for a few minutes coming
back from Coopville, and there was an old man with his son.
And they got out of the truck, and
they said, boy, he probably looked to be about 40 maybe, late 30s. He was blind, had his stick in
him, and he had his father's arm, and his father led him across
the street. Went up to the Coke machine. But the boy put his
money in for the Coke, got it back out. He was so happy to
get that Coke, you know, have that Coke to drink, be going
to that machine. But his daddy, daddy over there. And that's
what we need, Lord. Lead me like a blind man. I can't,
I don't know which way to go. I don't even know why to walk,
don't even know what I need. But you do. Just as sure as you
don't take me by the arm and leave me, I'm going to bump into
all kinds of things. But that was so precious yesterday.
I've seen that old man, that son holding on to him, confident
that his daddy wasn't going to let him go. There's blind men
that run marathons and they put a rope around their arm, the
person that can see. and stay side by side, stay right
with them. And they've got that rope tied
on there so they can stay with them. That's why he said, Lord,
take my arm. Lead me. Lead me, Lord, as a
child of His Father. And then because of my enemies.
And you know, I'll tell you what, he says, Lord, if You don't lead
me in Thy righteousness, He said, you do this because I've got
enemies and I don't know where they are. I don't know when they're
going to come. I don't know when they're going to come after me.
So Lord, you know where they are. You lead me that way. You know, my enemies won't sneak
up on me. They won't be able to get to me because you're leading
me. You're leading me. And then I love this right here.
Look what he says in the last part of verse 10. Make thy way
straight before my face. And all this was just make thy
way. Make thy way, not my way. Make thy way. Oh, whenever you
say, I want His way and not mine, that's a work of grace in a man's
heart. Make thy way straight. You make
your way straight before my face. You make it so plain, make the
way straight right before my face. I'll give up my way. I want your way. I want your
way. That's what I want. And then
looking, Verse 9, here real quick, let
me hurry y'all. Look what he says here. For there is no... These are
my enemies, that's who he's talking about. They ate my way straight
before without faith. For there is no faithfulness in their mouth.
There's no steadfastness in them. No steadfastness in them. And
then look what he says. Their inward part is very wickedness. Oh my! Wickedness of wickednesses. Their inward part is very wickedness. And then remember when Paul wrote
this in Romans 2, Romans 3, their throat is an open sepulcher.
They flatter with their tongues. These are my enemies. He says,
look at it, there's no faithfulness and there's no steadfastness
in their mouth. They flatter with their mouth. They flatter
with their tongues. They speak smooth things. And
they come along, and they want to say nice things to me, but
I can't trust them. They're smooth, and they flatter
me, and they flatter us, and yet there's no steadfastness,
no reality to what they say. And then look what he says, and
their throat is an open sepulchre. Boy, I'll tell you what, you
just imagine an open grave. an open grave with just a body
in it. And that's what he's saying. Their throat is like an open
grave, an open grave. And when you get around an open
grave with a body in it, with its stench and its loathsomeness
and its gashes, and his putridness, and all the disease and destructions
in that. And then, here's also said, these
are my enemies, and what would happen to a man if he's out there,
and he didn't know where he's going, if he fell into that open
sepulcher. And that's what David says, these
are my enemies, and their throat is like an open grave, and I
don't want to fall in it. I don't want to have nothing
to do with them. And then look, that's why he says here in verse
10, he says, Oh my, dangerous ignorant men. Oh, they flatter
with their mouths. But look what he said here in verse 10. Turn too many pages
today. I'm getting bad Scott. But look what he said in verse
10. He said, Oh, their throats are open, sick and flat with
their tongues. You know what he said, what you want to do
to my enemies? Destroy them, O God. Could you pray that way for somebody
that you consider your enemy? Destroy them. That's what David
said. Destroy them. Because you know
why, he says, look down in the last part of the verse, for they
rebelled against you. It's not me they rebelled against,
it's against you. What they're doing, they're doing
it against you. It's not against me. You see, we can forgive our
enemies, but only God can forgive His. And look what he says here,
let them fall by their own counsels. Let them go in their own will,
let them go in their own way, let them go by their own counsels.
That means leave them to their own devices. Leave them to their
own. And you know what happens to
men who are left in their own councils? Judas sold Christ for
30 pieces of silver. Went hunting south. The high
priest hired people to lie on the cross, left at Christ's,
left to their own councils. Pharaoh, left to his own councils,
ended up drowning in the Red Sea. Pilate, Even though he said,
I find no fault in this man. He's been in hell all these many
years. Here it is. Go on and on and
on and on and on and on. And then you look at people left
to their own counsels. All the people we know have been
left to their own counsels. You know, they know what's right
for them. They know the right way to go.
They know what, you know, you go your way and I'll go mine.
You worship God the way you want to, and I'll worship God the
way I want to. Well, they'll fall by their own
counsels. And aren't you grateful that we have a wonderful counselor,
the Body of God, the Prince of Peace? Amen. But then look what he says here
down in verse 11 and 12. Let's wind this up. He talks
about what God's going to do with all these people in his
prayers, and then he says, But let all those that put their
trust in thee rejoice." Rejoice. And we do. We're rejoicing Him. We're rejoicing
Him. Oh, listen, let all them that
rejoice. And then look what he went on
to say. Let them ever shout for joy. Shout for joy. Rejoice in
you. Shout for joy. Do you ever get
so filled up with the goodness of God, the goodness of Christ,
the goodness of all the things He's done and said for you? And you just, all of a sudden,
just let out a shout for joy. Just get happy inside. He said,
let them forever shout for joy. And here's the reason why we
do it. Rejoice and shout for joy. Because you defend them. Who's going to get me?
Who's going to be for me? Who's going to be against me?
Rejoice, Lord, because you're the one defending them. I've
got enemies that want to defend me. As folks is going to try, they
got so concentric and say all kinds of things to fame my character.
Let the good thou defendest them. And let them also that love thy
name be joyful in thee. And boy don't we love his name.
We love His name because He first loved us, but we do love His
name. We really love His name. We love the name of Christ. We
love the name of the Lord Jesus. We love the name of God. We love
God as He is in all of His holiness. We love Him. Love Him. And then
He says in verse 12, For thou, Lord, will bless the righteous.
Now that's a promise. Thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous. Not maybe, not hope to, might
think about it, but he says, you will bless the righteous.
And then look what he goes on to say. With favor, with grace,
wilt thou compass him. And that word compass means crown
him. Crown him as with a shield. Put
a shield right over the top of him. Put a shield right over
the top of him. I wrote this down today. Spurgeon said this, talking about
rejoicing in God, being joyful in God, trusting in the Lord,
and the Lord making these promises to him. He said, Our heart is
at ease in our God. Our heart is at ease in our God. That is a statement, ain't it?
Our heart is at ease in our God. He's the Lord. Amen. Amen. Our Father, in the blessed,
blessed name of Christ our Lord, take these efforts, these words
that's been said tonight, and I pray that you make them a blessing.
Let you make them a blessing. You're the only one that can
put it effectually to the heart and the understanding of the
mind. God bless the saints here. Meet all of their needs. Remember
the ones we prayed for. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen.