Psalm 74. And last week we looked
at about the first 10 verses. We'll start there in verse 10.
Of course, the Psalm begins with a lament on the part of Asaph
as to consider that the Lord has cast us off. Now, if a man
has never felt that he's been cast off from the Lord, it's
because he's never known the Lord. Because you see only those, I
mean the man in the street out here, he's not going up and down
the street lamenting, why has the Lord cast us off? Because
he don't care. I mean, he never knew the presence
of the Lord or the mercy of the Lord, the goodness of God. He's not considered these things.
But the people of God are very touched by these things. We need
the Lord. It's like that song we sang there
a moment ago that Daniel picked out, My Lord, My Life, My All. He says, I cannot live if thou
remove. And that is the heart measure
of the children of God. I mean, we need the Lord. We
confess that we need the Lord. We don't have the Lord. A lot of people talk about, you
know, they have the Lord and they're going with God and all
of that stuff, but the children of God know that the Lord is
in His holy temple. let all the earth keep silence
before him and we desire his presence but we don't have any
means whereby we can attain unto his presence we don't have any
power within ourselves to cause God to do anything now a lot
of people don't believe that they believe that you can uh...
get enough people together and uh... you know that you can send
up this wave of power up into heaven and cause God to do something
or change his mind or whatever now we don't make fun of praying
because surely the Lord has called us to pray. I never met a man
who is born again by the Spirit of God who does not pray because
of this very reason we know who it is that has the power and
we know that we don't have the power and because You know, people
come together, we don't magnify the power of prayer when we come
together. Now, the Lord is pleased when
His people come together to pray, and we ought to come together
to pray, but we don't think that somehow or other we send up some
kind of wavelength or something that, you know, just binds the
hand of God, or God's wanting to do one thing and all of a
sudden He just can't. You know, that's the way I hear
some of these guys that I hear on the radio and the TV. It's
like, you know, men have the power. God, He's just up there
and He kind of, He would want to do something, but He just
can't. Dear brethren, our God's in the heavens. He's done whatsoever
He has pleased. And we are in need of Him. And
that's what this psalmist is saying here. That's why I said,
oh God, why hast thou cast us off forever? Hast thou cast us
off forever? Now, our hope, our expectation,
our belief is that he has not. And the psalmist, I don't believe
he would have written a psalm if he believed that God had cast
him off forever. But that's the way he felt he
wanted the presence of God. And so that's what he's crying
out for. He says, oh God, this is verse 10. Oh God, how long
shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme thy
name forever? Doesn't it seem that way? I mean,
when we go through, if you're in this world and the blasphemy
of God is of second nature to the world, they don't give any
thought to it. I cringe how many times in the course of a day
I hear somebody say the name Jesus. And very seldom ever as
a word of praise. It's just, people just see it. People don't even think about
it. And often wonder, well, why don't they say George? You know
why? Because it is rooted in the heart
of man by nature to blaspheme God, even unknowingly. You know, that's just the way
that men are. And so they'll use the name, the precious name
of the Savior of sinners as a means of exclamation. That's a terrible
thing. I mean, it's an awful thing for
men to do that. but that's the way it is. Shall
the enemy blaspheme thy name forever? Now, we know the answer
to that question, do we not? I mean, we know how this thing
turns out. And we know that they shall not,
but it does seem like at the present time in the world in
which we live that that's just the course of things. Oh, Lord,
help us. For the men blaspheme thy name
and this causes us great grief. shall the enemy blaspheme thy
name forever? Why withdrawest thou thy hand,
even thy right hand? O pluck it out of thy bosom.
Lord, we need your help, help us. Oh, don't hide yourself from
us. For God, listen to this now,
now this is what I'm saying, why I know that, see this is
a prayer of faith. This is a prayer of faith. Why
withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? Plug it out of
thy bosom. For God is my King of all, working salvation in
the midst of the earth. Now what he knows is that the
Lord alone is the Savior. He's the helper. and he's seen
the Lord work in time past and his desire is to see the Lord
work again. Do we not desire that? I mean
when you read in the book of Acts that the Lord added to the
church three thousand souls in one day would you not desire
to see such a thing as that occur? Wouldn't that be a glorious thing?
Now I know that people you know that we got all these so when
it mails and stuff around here and he's big about our preachers
are on all over the countryside in a supposedly you know do all
these great things and uh... uh... i don't know what the lord
might do or not do uh... through them or in spite of them
or whatever i'm not that it's not my concern but i know this
when the lord is pleased to draw me and i'm doing so if they will
be drawn You won't have to worry about next week going to the
same place and wondering if anybody was there. Because when the Lord
draws men to Himself, He does a work that cannot be overturned. It won't fall by the wayside.
It is that which is forever. For God is my King of old, working
salvation in the midst of the earth. Now He's working salvation
in the midst of the earth in the present moment. Now we know
that He has worked salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
the world to save His people. He has purchased our redemption. He has brought salvation to His
people. But yet there is a salvation
which is presently occurring and we desire to see it. Lord,
we desire to see Thee as we have seen Thee in the sanctuary. O
Lord, unveil Thyself to us. Make manifest Your mercies and
kindness to us in a way that we might return unto Thee, praise. Working salvation. For it is
God which worketh in you, both willing to do of His good pleasure.
Is He not presently working in His people? Of course He is.
We're His what? Workmanship. See, he's working
in God's people even when they don't know it. But oh, what a
blessing it is when he causes us to know it. See, he's always
working in his people. He was working in David every
day of David's life. But oh, you see, when David was
brought to a place of repentance, it was then. that the work of
God was made manifest to him in a way that he never could
forget. It was not a thing that could
pass from his memory. Thou didst divide the sea by
thy strength. Thou breakest the heads of dragons
in the waters. Thou breakest the heads of Leviathan
in pieces and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting
the wilderness. Now I don't know exactly what
a Leviathan is. It's some kind of a big animal,
I'm sure, that has great strength. The Lord has more strength. Thou
breakest the heads of dragons in the water. Now, you know,
for the literalist, He'd have a hard time with the word dragon
because what men think of as a dragon is not what the scriptures
are speaking of here as a dragon. I don't know what the dragon
is, but I know this, the Lord is demonstrating His power. See,
when we think of a dragon or a leviathan, we think of something
with great power and might and strength. Well, the Lord, He
breaks them in pieces. They're nothing to Him. and gives
them to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. You
know, the Lord created some pretty scary creatures in the earth,
but he's given man dominion over them all because he would demonstrate,
as man is made in the image of God, he would demonstrate the
power of God over all the creation. And I don't suppose there's any
creature on earth that man hadn't at some point in time killed
and eaten by the mercy of God. You know, we've seen all those
pictures and I don't know how much, if there's anything even
to be given much thought to as to the accuracy of any of this
stuff, but you see how that when the woolly mammoths was alive
in the earth, and you see all these little men running around,
you know, and they got all these spears and stuff, and they finally
stick enough spears in this thing till they kill him. You know,
he might have killed two or three of them, but ultimately, you
know, and what did they do? Once they killed the thing, they
cut him up and ate him. because the Lord designed that
that way. He is the one who has the power.
Thou breakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces, gavest him to be meat
to the people. Thou didst cleave the fountain
in the flood. Thou driedest up mighty rivers. He literally did those things.
Now we know that the figurative language of it is that the seas
and the rivers and all that stuff flow at His hand, but the Lord
has. Remember when the children of
Israel were going to cross the River Jordan, going into the
Promised Land. And the Scripture says that the
Lord caused the river to stand up as a heap. Now, you know,
I've often thought of this picture in my mind. Just think, if you
was going, the Suwannee River's right there, and the scripture
says that when the priest first put his foot in the edge of the
water, that's when the Lord stopped him. Now just think about that.
That if you go up to the river, and you set foot in it, and all
of a sudden, all that water that's coming from up the river, it
just stops all there at one spot, just like a wall. And it just
builds up and up and up. And what happens to the water
on that side? It just keeps on going. And so here you are with
this wall of water on one side and a dry land on the other,
and you cross through that. Now, I'm sure they were probably
kind of, as they were going, they were kind of doing like
that, you know, as they saw that. But nonetheless, you see, how
did, and of course, men, you know, they scoffed, oh, that
couldn't have ever happened. But it did happen. We believe
that it happened. Brother, if I didn't believe
that that happened, I'd throw this book away. I mean, what
good would the thing be if you can pick out parts of it that
didn't happen? It happened. God did indeed cleave
the fountain and the flood and dried up mighty rivers. The day
is thine. The night also is thine. Thou
hast prepared the light and the sun. Now that's interesting. He prepared the light and the
sun. Do you realize that God said, let there be light before
there was ever a sun? And yet all the scientists tell
us that the sun is our source of light. That's not true. Now, I don't know all the scientific
explanations for all of that, but I'm telling you this. Light
exists without the sun, because He has made the light, and the
scripture says, created the darkness. He did all those things. He made
both of them. Nothing has been made that was
not made by the hand of the Lord. He has prepared the light and
the sun. And you know another interesting thing, that as you
look in the scriptures, that the evening, now we think of
the day and the night, but actually the Lord says the evening and
the morning were the first day. The evening preceded the morning,
not the morning preceded the night. Now, what do we see by
that? We see that out of darkness,
God has brought forth light, and the light has come after
the darkness. What a sweet thing, because is
this not what the psalmist is here speaking about? The fact
that he's desiring light, but he finds himself in darkness.
Well, you can't enjoy the light if you don't know what the darkness
is. See, a man who's blind He has
more, if he's given sight, he has far more appreciation for
it than you do. Because of the fact that he couldn't
see, and now he can. And so the same thing is true
in spiritual matters. You know, the man who's never
seen the light, he doesn't have any consideration of it whatsoever.
But the man who's, because he thinks he's in the light. See,
men don't think they're in darkness. I mean, the people of the world,
they think you're stupid. They think you're the one that's
in the darkness. They're going along, and they say, man, them
people. You know, look at them. They're
down there meeting, and all these people are dying with the coronavirus. I mean, they have more light
than we do. We might all die from the coronavirus. I don't
have any idea what the Lord may have ordained for us. Dear brethren,
but I know this, that it is in His hand to do as He sees fit. The world says that's foolishness.
No, not foolish. You know, now I heard a guy the
other day talking about how that the Lord wouldn't let him get
sick, so he wasn't worried about getting that. Well, I wouldn't
say that. I mean, the Lord may strike me down tomorrow with
some disease worse than the coronavirus, but I'll tell you this, I'd rather
have the Lord to strike me down dead tomorrow with some disease
than I had to be outside of his presence. I mean, none of that matters,
dear brethren. All of these things that men
are so concerned about, they are concerned about thinking
they walk in the light, but they're enemies of the light. They hate
the light. Why? The scripture says they
didn't come to the light because their deeds were evil. And men
don't want you to glorify Christ because it magnifies the evil
in their own heart. And so the Lord He has, the day
is thine, the night also is thine. He has prepared the light and
the sun. Thou hast set all the borders
of the earth. Thou hast made summer and winter. You know countries that come
along and they think they set their borders, don't they? I
mean, we shut our border, the north border and the south border
and all that. I mean, we, I guess as a country
in that sense, we have control over these things in that way,
but the scripture says the Lord's the one that set the borders.
I mean, men didn't make them, they might have drew them out
where they thought it ought to be, but the Lord made it. I mean,
who made the East Coast? Huh? I mean, you can say the
border, what's the border of the United States? It's the East
Coast. I mean, once you get to the border,
you're in the ocean, right? But that's a demonstration of
what I'm saying. The Lord set the borders. He
set the bounds of our habitation, the Scripture says, that we cannot
pass. You won't ever leave the United
States if the Lord doesn't set forth for you to do so. I remember
as a kid growing up, and I had never been much of anywhere,
and I remember the day came when we was going to go to the eye
doctor. And in order to go to the eye
doctor, we had to go to Georgia. And buddy, that was a big deal
for me, because I had never, I don't know, I was probably
eight or nine years old, I guess, and I had never been outside
of Florida. And I thought, I didn't know
what to expect. I thought maybe there might be
like a big wall up there and you had to go through a gate
or whatever. I could think of all these different things. But
the Lord has set our bounds, brethren. He set the borders
of our lands. All these things are in His hands.
You know, when I got up to Georgia, I was kind of let down. It wasn't
much different than Florida. But how merciful is the Lord.
He has made summer and winter. Remember this, that the enemy
hath reproached, O Lord, and that the foolish people have
blasphemed thy name. We're concerned with the glory
of God, are we not? I mean, the world doesn't care
about the glory of God. But we're concerned, we're desirous that
the glory of God not be blasphemed. Now we know that regardless of
whatever men do, they cannot in any wise diminish the glory
of God. They in vain would seek to do
so. But yet, it is a disrespect unto the one whom we love when
men blaspheme the name of God and disrespect him. It hurts
us. because we have respect unto him, we love him. He's our savior. He's that one who has set us
free from the law of sin and death. Oh, deliver not the soul
of thy turtle dove unto the multitude of the wicked. Thy turtle dove,
that's a term of endearment. If someone would say, as in the
book of Matthew, In the book of Song of Solomon,
he uses the term turtledove. Because this is that one that's
precious. And the psalmist says, oh, don't let your turtledove,
the one whom you love, don't turn us over unto the multitude
of the wicked. Forget not the congregation of
thy poor forever. Blessed are the poor, for theirs
is the kingdom of God. The Lord has made his people
poor. now some of us he's made poor in in material things and
I shouldn't say that because any one of us in here that isn't
rich beyond measure compared to the vast majority of people
in this world I mean we're we're wealthy in material things you
know I mean it's amazing but You know, the Lord has set those
things according to the good pleasure of His will, but His
people are a poor and needy people. Now we don't like, a man by nature
doesn't like to think of himself as poor and needy. I mean that's
kind of a, of course anymore it's not that big of a shame
thing. You know, used to if a person had to go on welfare, they kind
of wanted to drive around to the back of the welfare place
to pick up the check. They didn't want to park out
front where people could see them go in there and get it.
because he didn't want to be poor and needy. Now everybody
just figures the government owes it to them, and so they don't
have any problem going up there to get it, but whatever, but
God's people are poor and needy. And that's what the psalmist
is saying here. Have respect unto the covenant, for the dark
places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. Two things, one is the dark places
of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty. You know,
we live in a land, even though it's as wicked as probably any
nation on earth in one respect. It may be more wicked than many,
especially if you consider the light against which our sins
are committed. But we have been blessed, we
are a nation that has been given great light. But there are nations
in the earth that have not been afforded that, and these are
the habitations of cruelty. I mean, they are the places where
things go on that don't go on in our nation as far as the oppression
of the government and things of that sort. And we desire to
be delivered from such things as that. Lord, give us light.
because the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations
of cruelty. But look what he says, have respect
unto the covenant. Now, when I was growing up, they
taught us that, you know, the Lord had made a covenant with
men and the covenant went like this. If you'll do this, God
will do this. But that's not. The covenant
of which we desire to know anything about. You see, the covenant
of God is one which is yay and amen. It is absolute. Because the covenant is between
the Father and the Son. And the Son has been given a
people by the Father. They belong to Him. And the covenant
is that He will bring those people. that the Lord gave him out of
darkness and into the light. And dear brethren, see, that's
our desire is when we approach unto the Lord, we desire that
that covenant stand. Now we know that it will. That's
the reason that we come to the Lord, because we know he won't
break his covenant. But that's the thing, the righteousness
of Christ is the stand and the standard where we would stand
and desire to be found. Oh, let not the oppressed return
ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise
thy name. Oh, that it might be so. Arise,
oh God. Plead thine own cause. His own cause. I mean, why has
the Lord sent forth His Son into the world to redeem sinners? Because that's His own cause,
that's His own purpose. You see, He would bring glory
to the name of Christ in the redemption of sinners, and that
is the thing that He has sent forth and made the earth for.
Lord, let Your name be magnified in the earth. Why do we preach
the Gospel? Is it so that sinners might be saved? Well, it is indeed
true. The Scripture says that through
the foolishness of preaching, God has chosen to save them that
believe. It's a true thing. There's no
doubt about that. But why do we preach? Because
in order to glorify Christ, to magnify His name, because we
believe that in the magnification of Christ's name, the Gospel
must go forth. I mean, you can't preach the
glory of Christ without preaching the gospel. Because He would have His glory
known in the earth as the one who is the Savior of sinners.
And the reason that He has saved sinners is according to the good
pleasure of His own will. What a glorious Savior we have. Arise, O God. Plead Thine own
cause. Remember how the foolish man
reproaches thee daily. And if he reproaches thee, O
Lord, he reproaches us, because we are in Christ according to
the good pleasure of your will. Forget not the voice of thine
enemies. The tumult of those that rise
up against thee increaseth continually. Lord, help us. I mean, if you
wanted to sum this psalm up, In a few words, it would be that.
Oh, Lord, help us. We perish. It would be the same
thing that the disciples said when the Lord was asleep in the boat. They said, Lord,
save us or we perish. Or when Peter was walking on
the water and he saw the waves around him and he thought to
himself, I can't walk on water. See, that was a startling truth
that Peter didn't think about that when he stepped out of the
boat. But, you know, the closer that he got to the Lord, the
more he realized, hey, I can't do this. And it was all by the
design of the Lord. People say, well, Peter, he started
to sink because he didn't have enough faith. If he just had
enough faith, he'd have walked on to the Lord. He wouldn't have
ever walked on to the Lord. The Lord put Peter out of the
boat to teach Peter that he didn't have the ability to walk on water.
He put Peter in that position to show him that he needed Christ. That's what the psalmist says,
Lord, we need you. Oh, that he might impress upon our heart
and mind this day our need of him. There's not a thing in the
world I can do for you, not a thing in the world Ed can do for you
or Tim or John or whatever. There's nothing we can do for
one another but he alone has the thing that we stand in need
of. Oh, Lord, hide not your face from us. Let thy face shine upon
us, and we shall be saved. If the Lord pleased to show mercy,
then we will be saved. What a glorious thing. Pass me
not, O gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry. While on
others thou art calling, do not pass me by. Oh, what a glorious
Savior we have. He does save sinners. He saves
those that call upon Him. He saves men like Asaph, who
said, Lord, have you cast us off? I mean, we're in a mess
here. We can't get ourselves out of
it. We need help.