Let me look at Psalm 77. I cried unto God with my voice,
even unto God with my voice, and he gave ear unto me. In the
day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My soul ran in the night
and ceased not. My soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God and was troubled.
I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed. Thou holdest mine
eyes waking, I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I have considered
the days of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance
my song in the night. I commune with mine own heart
and my spirit make diligent search. Will the Lord cast off forever?
And will he be favorable no more? Is his mercy clean gone forever? Doth his promise fail forevermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious?
Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Say, Law. And
I said, this is my infirmity, but I will remember the years
of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the works
of the Lord. Surely I will remember thy wonders
of old. I will meditate also of all thy
work and talk of thy doings. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary. Who is so great a God is our
God. Thou art the God that doest wonders. Thou hast declared thy strength
among the people. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed
thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph, say, La. The water
saw thee, O God, the water saw thee. They were afraid, the depths
also were troubled. The clouds poured out water,
and the skies sent out a sound. Thine arrows also went out, also
went abroad. The voice of thy thunder was
in the heaven, the lightnings lightened the world, the earth
trembled and shook. Thy way is in the sea and thy
path in the great waters and thy footsteps are not known. Thou leadest thy people like
a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. And once again, as so many of
the Psalms, I believe, are given to us, as an insight into the
mind and sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we can surely,
in a measure, even as Asaph, as he penned this psalm, I'm
sure this was his experience and his mind as he came before
the Lord, but keep in mind that any understanding or any desire that
we've been given to seek after the things of God has been first
found in the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, a man never sought
the Lord more earnestly than did the Lord Jesus Christ when
He walked among men. Now we kind of, in a way, we
think of that as being a given because he was and is God in
the flesh as he walked among men. And we kind of forget about
the fact that as a man walking in the earth and subjecting himself
to every temptation that has befallen unto men, he was tempted
in all points like as we are. He was made aware as a man that
of all the heartache, sufferings, troubles, anguish, feelings of
abandonment, all of those things that men experienced, the Lord
Jesus Christ did in greater measure than any man ever has. Has any
man ever felt abandoned by the Lord? The Lord Jesus Christ knows what
that is. And I believe we see something
of that in this prayer here of Asaph, but I believe it is the
prayer of Christ. It says, I cried unto God with
my voice, even unto God with my voice, and he gave ear unto
me. Who shall enter into the presence of the
Lord? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not
lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. That's
the man who can come to the Lord. Now a lot of people claim that
they pray, but I'm here to tell you that there's never a man
that ever prays unto God. Now there are people that pray
with themselves. Remember the Pharisee, he went
down He was at the temple and the scripture says that he prayed
thus with himself. He was praying, prayers going
up all over the place. But apart from a man coming unto
the Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, he can't approach unto
God. And his prayer is just empty.
It's words. It's just like Brother Al was
talking about going to the graveyard and talking to the dead people
there. Yeah, people do it. I mean, I,
there for several, I hadn't seen him over there in a long time,
but there was a gentleman that ever, every, I believe it was
on Sunday afternoons, because I would be walking that way and
getting some exercise. And I'd walk by the cemetery
over there and he had a little bench right there. And I guess
it was his wife. I never stopped to inquire about
him, but he would be sitting there And sometimes I could hear
him talking, you know, when he was going by there, or when I
was going by there. And that's really basically what
most people think of when they think of prayer. People say,
oh, well, we're praying for you. And they probably are thinking
about you and whatnot. But dear brethren, when we're
talking about praying, if we're not in Christ, coming to the
Father in the name of Christ, in the authority of Christ, is
no prayer at all. And so whenever he says, I cried
unto God with my voice, see, he cried unto God with his
voice. We cry unto God with his voice,
not our voice. And so it is that Here, I believe
the Lord is speaking. He says, I cried unto God with
my voice. He had the right to come into
the presence of God. He could come there because he
had not sworn deceitfully, lifted up his soul unto vanity. He was
a perfect man. He was that one who was pleasing
in the Lord's eyes. Now, if you pause and think about
the fact that he who was pleasing in the Lord's eyes, Yet walking
among men in the likeness of sinful flesh experienced the
things that he did. Why should you and I ever think
of complaining when we as sinful men before a holy God don't endure
even a millionth of the anguish and suffering and pain that he
underwent in our behalf? I cried unto God with my voice,
even unto God with my voice, and he gave ear to me. He heard
me. Oh, how many times are we certain
of that? We often pray and we wonder,
well, did it get any higher than the ceiling? I mean, did the
Lord hear us? He heard me, he said. How did
he know he heard him? because it was his father and
he loved his father and his father loved him. He had a need and
his father met that need and he gave ear unto me. In the day
of my trouble I sought the Lord. Now, we learn several things
because we know that the Lord Jesus Christ, He bore our sin,
our sorrow, our trouble. He had trouble, but it was not
trouble of His own. Most of the trouble, I'd say
99% of the trouble that you face in your life is self-inflicted. You know, you can't blame somebody
else. Now we spend a lot of time trying
to look for somebody else to blame, but most of the time when
it comes right down to it, We know that we're the ones that
got us in the shape that we're in, the trouble that we're facing.
It's all because of ourselves in one way or other, either through
some neglect or either through some act of performing or doing
something that we shouldn't have done or whatever, but we can't
blame somebody else. And he says, in the day of my
trouble, I sought the Lord. Now, what trouble did the Lord
have? The only trouble the Lord had was the trouble that He bore
for us. He bore our troubles. But He
didn't say, Lord, I'm coming to you for their trouble. He
said, I'm coming to you for my trouble, because if my people
are in trouble, if my people are in anguish, if my people
are in sadness, if my people are in sorrow, I am bearing that
sorrow. It's my trouble. It belongs to
me. I take it. I gladly get hold
of it and take it to my bosom. It belongs to me. In the day
of my trouble, I sought the Lord. My sore ran in the night. Now that's kind of a graphic
illustration. And I don't know if you've ever
had an oozing sore or a wound that took a long time
to heal, but that's a sore that runs in the night. There's nothing
that, you know, you can visibly see that that is a problem there. He said, my sore ran in the night
and ceased not. My trouble didn't diminish. See, when the Lord prayed in
those times when he went into a mountainous park to pray, he
prayed for us. He didn't need to pray for himself.
I mean, he was good, I think. But he took upon himself our
trouble, and he prayed. And he said, my soul ran in the
night and sees not. My soul refused to be comforted. There was no comfort around me. There was no comfort in this
world for the Lord Jesus Christ. He was not comforted by his disciples. We don't ever read in the scripture
where the Lord was comforted by his disciples. They didn't
add one thing to it. But oh, how often were they comforted
by him. What a glorious Savior we have.
my soul refused to become and i could not become i remembered
god and was troubled who was in trouble you know you and i
are much like the old cartoon character mister mcgoo i don't
know if because he did probably never even heard of mister mcgoo
mister mcgoo he was a cartoon character and he was uh... uh... very uh... nearsighted, he had
big glasses, and he couldn't see. Well, I guess he was farsighted.
I don't know if he was nearsighted or farsighted, but anyway, he
couldn't hardly see. And he was constantly going along, and ladders
were falling right beside him, and just all manner of things
was happening that would have destroyed him, and he was just
blissfully going along like nothing happened. He didn't know. And
we're much like that. You know, we go through life,
and we don't even know the danger that we're in. But the Lord knows. He, when He said my troubles,
He said I couldn't be comforted. I was troubled when I remembered
God. See we're, sometimes when the
Lord is gracious to cause us to see our sin before Him, we
become troubled. We ought to be troubled all the
time. I mean, we ought to just be, we ought to be, really, if
we paused and really thought about it, I mean, God ought to
just kill us all right here this morning. Talk about the coronavirus
and they're gonna have 60, 70,000 people die from it. Well, I mean,
really, everybody ought to die from it. I mean, the Lord ought
to just kill us all right here and now. And what could we say?
But see, people, they think, well, you know, we're doing all
right. I mean, we're coming on in, and you know, we just don't
understand why the Lord would do such a thing as this. That's because we're blissfully
unaware of how much God hates sin. But the Lord Jesus Christ
became acquainted with it in our behalf as he bore our sin
and carried our sorrow. And he said, I remembered God
and was troubled when I thought of the judgments of the law,
and I saw my people scattered, and I saw my people under the
lash of the law, and I saw my people perishing. I said, when
I remembered God, I was troubled at their peril. I complained,
and my spirit was overwhelmed as I thought of that very thing. Oh, the depths of the woe that
gripped our Savior's heart in our behalf, say, Lord. Now, holy is mine eyes waking.
He said, I can't even sleep. The scripture graphically says
that he prayed all night. Prayed all night. I remember
one time, me and some other guys back in our youthful, religious
ignorance, we decided we was gonna pray all night. We were
gonna have an all-night prayer meeting. Well, we didn't last. In fact, it's shameful to even
think how little we did. but not the Lord Jesus Christ. See, he didn't shrink back because he is the Savior. Thou
holdest mine eyes waking. That's the only way I tell you.
A man can't pray very long. You talk about people, people
talk about, oh, how long they prayed and all that stuff. You
can't pray five minutes if the Lord doesn't keep your eyes open.
You'll be asleep like that. You know, some people, they say,
well, I couldn't get to sleep. I had to count sheep. Well, brethren,
let me tell you what. Try praying. It'll put you to
sleep just like that, unless the Lord keeps your eyes awake.
Now, there are times in his mercy when he causes you not to sleep,
but to cry out unto him. But the Lord Jesus Christ understood
that. He knew that. He is that one
who said, I am so troubled that I cannot speak. Now again, we
learn a lot from the Lord Jesus Christ about praying. Most people
think about praying as a bunch of words. No, the most eloquent prayer
are those that come with groanings that cannot be uttered. That's
the work of God in man. It cannot be uttered. It can't
be said. The Lord Jesus Christ knew. He
ran the gamut. And He knew what it was to be
so troubled that He could not speak, and yet to be so filled
with grief for His people's sake. I have considered the days of
old, the years of ancient times, I've considered the days of old.
Think about that. Think about the Lord Jesus Christ
saying, I have remembered the days of old. I mean, how far
back is that? You and I, we think about the
days of old, and if we could think back 70 years, we think
we've done pretty good, 100. I mean, if you could go back
150, that's just way too far back. But he said, I remembered. the days of old. Because he loved his people from
before the foundation of the world. Now when was that? Before the foundation of the
world. From before the foundation of the world. He didn't say I
love my people at the foundation of the world. But he said before
it. Now, if you can explain that,
you let me know. I'd like to hear all about it.
I just know this, that it's impossible for men to comprehend when it
was that the Lord began to love His people. It's impossible. You can't know
it. Oh, to be found in Christ, what
a glorious thing. I've considered the days of old
the years of ancient times. Now I'm talking about ancient
times, ancient times. Can you imagine? Now they, you
know, the brilliant scientists and all tell us that the world's,
I don't know, 50 billion years, I don't know what the actual
figure that they finally come up with that they think that
it is. And of course we know How long
the earth's been here? It's been here just as long as
the Lord wanted it to be here. How long that is, I don't know. Some people try to calculate
it in years and maybe you can do that. I don't know if you
can or not. Going to the Bible and it says
it's been this many years, I don't know how many years it's been.
Because I don't know if a year has always been a year. I don't
know what it is. I don't know what the passing
of time is. But when the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the ancient of days, says that I remember the ancient
times, that's a long ways back. It's beyond the comprehension
of men. I call to remembrance my song
in the night. I commune with mine own heart
and my spirit made diligent search. I call to remembrance my song
in the night, my rejoicing. The Lord Jesus Christ, who for
the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame, He had a song in the night, and even in the midst
of his greatest sufferings, his thought was never upon himself,
but it was always on those. He said, Father, I pray for them. Thou hast given them to me, and
I have lost none. Oh, what a glorious Savior we
have. What a wondrous privilege we have to be able to remember
His death temporarily. Because that is, this is a temporary
thing. This isn't something that's gonna
continue on. But this is something that the Lord gave us for a little
while. Because He knows, again, He gave this to us because He
knows our weakness. See, we need something that we
can see and touch. That's just the way we are. but
the way the Lord made us. And he would have glory in the
giving of his body and his blood, and he would have glory as he
has given this to us to partake according to the good pleasure
of his will. And you know, this is a solemn
occasion, actually. And the scripture speaks of it.
with solemn solemnity and warnings. It's not just an offhanded thing. And a person should not partake
of this if they're not discerning the Lord's body. That is, if
they have no regard unto that which Christ did. Worst thing
that a person could do is to take this stuff, these elements,
without a due consideration of that which Christ did. and a
desire to have a part in that which he did. And to do so with
that mindset is to take this cup and eat this bread worthily. None of us will ever be worthy.
You can't become worthy. When I was growing up, they used
to talk about, you know, if we was worthy to take it. You know,
some folks would say, well, I'm not worthy. Well, if you came
to that, if you really understood what you were, by nature, you'd
never take this. Lord didn't say you become worthy.
He said worthily. How will we worthily take it
is that we take it in understanding what it is. that it is the body
and the blood of Christ, and that, and that alone is our place
of approach unto the Father, is through the Son. Oh, what a glorious thing He's
given us here.