We are looking at Psalm 71. It
says, in thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Let me never be put to confusion. Deliver me in thy righteousness
and cause me to escape. Incline thine ear unto me and
save me. Be thou my strong habitation,
whereunto I may continually resort. Thou hast given me commandment
to save me, for Thou art my rock and my fortress. Deliver me,
O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of
the unrighteous and cruel man. For Thou art my hope, O Lord
God. Thou art my trust from my youth. By Thee have I been holding up
from the womb. Thou art he that took me out
of my mother's bowels. My praise shall be continually
of Thee. I am as a wonder unto many, but
thou art my strong refuge. Let my mouth be filled with thy
praise and with thy honor all the day. Cast me not off in the
time of old age, forsake me not when my strength faileth. For
mine enemies speak against me, and they that lay wait for my
soul take counsel together, saying, God hath forsaken him. persecute
and take him for there is none to deliver him. Oh God, be not
far from me. Oh my God, make haste for my
help. Let them be confounded and consumed
that are adversaries to my soul. Let them be covered with reproach
and dishonor that seek my hurt. But I will hope continually and
I will yet praise thee more and more. My mouth shall show forth
thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day, for I know not the
numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of
the Lord God, I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of
thine only. O God, thou hast taught me from
my youth, and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. Now also
when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not until I
have showed thy strength unto this generation and thy power
to every one that is to come. Thy righteousness also, O God,
is very high. Who has done great things, O
God? Who is like unto thee? Thou which
has showed me great and sore troubles shall quicken me again
and shall bring me up again from the depths of the earth. Thou
shalt increase my greatness and comfort me on every side. I will
also praise thee with the psaltery, even thy truth, O my God. Unto thee will I sing with the
harp, O thou holy one of Israel. My lips shall greatly rejoice
when I sing unto thee, and my soul which thou hast redeemed. My tongue also shall talk of
thy righteousness all the day long, for they are confounded,
for they are brought unto shame that seek my hurt." Now once again we look at the
psalm and have the understanding that These things were given
to David and certainly have application to those who are called to trust
in Christ, but primarily we understand that these things are the prayers
of the Lord Jesus Christ as He declared the troubles that came upon Him
as a man as He bore these things for our sake. And he says, in
thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Let me never be put to confusion. And surely, that is our desire. You know, when a man, the terminology
there for confusion, we can probably better understand that in our
own vernacular as being shame. Let me never be put to shame.
Let me not be calls to deny thee, basically, what he says. He doesn't
want to be put into a situation where he is going contrary to
the things of God. Don't let me be found like those
whom Al was speaking about earlier and taking this table. Don't let me be among those that
would have a mixed understanding of what this is. Don't let me
be confused and put shame because of that as I would think this
is something in itself or that there is some holy thing in these
elements here that if I take it, it somehow or other minister's
grace to me. Now, we are blessed and ministered
to by the taking of these things, but it's because the Lord applies
them to our heart and mind. Not because of some miraculous
or mysterious occurrence that takes place as a part or on the
account of these things. But it is the work of the Lord
to teach us. In other words, the Lord teaches
His people through their understanding. Now, He can cause you to understand
something just like that, and He usually does. When the understanding
of the Lord comes to a man, my man can look at a passage of
Scripture, and look at it, and look at it, and look at it, and
he can't quite get it, and then all of a sudden, it's just as
clear as a bell as to what it is. That's because the Lord opens
the understanding. to get it. And so that's our
desire, Lord. Let me never be put to confusion
or shame. Deliver me in Thy righteousness
and cause me to escape. Incline Thine ear unto me and
save me. Now, we sang that song there
a moment ago. And I would imagine that in most
places, when the song was written by Joseph Hart and he was lamenting
the barrenness of his own soul, and a lot of places would consider
that to be a very negative view of things. Why you need to be
more upbeat than that. I mean, all you're talking about
is how low you are and how far from the Lord you are. But you
see, when the Spirit of God is working in a man, that's the
thing that He causes him to do. Now, He does lift us up, but
it's because He does it, not because we do it, or because
we get in the right frame of mind, or we get the right entertainment
that makes us happy, so that then we think that that's some
spiritual work. But it is the Lord. See, we're
not interested in the husk. Some people are satisfied with
the husk. One time I remember we had some
pecans on the trees, and they just looked good. I mean, they
really looked good, but you could crack them open and there wasn't
a thing in there. I had a tree that had these old
big nuts on it. They were about big as that.
And man, they just looked great. And you could have probably put
them out into a, took them somewhere and just sold them for a lot
of money until people opened one up and they got home and
there wasn't anything in it. But a lot of people like that.
They like for that thing to look. See, they want to show you what
they've got. But when the Lord is working
in a man's heart, he can't be, he doesn't want, he's not interested
in what the outside is. He wants to see what the inside
is. And that's what this prayer is. Deliver me in thy righteousness,
he says. Cause me to escape and climb
thine ear unto me and save me. Let this be the work that is
in me. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, being
a perfect man, lack nothing, but he prayed because of our
lack, because of our need, because he bore our sorrows and carried
us in his bosom. Be thou my strong habitation,
whereunto I may continually resort. Let me go back unto thee. Let
me not be turned aside to this or that. Thou hast given commandment
to save me, for thou art my rock and my fortress. This has to
be speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ because it is in the salvation
of Christ. Now, you probably won't hear
that much anywhere, but the scripture speaks of it. The salvation of
Christ. Now, did He need to be saved? Not for His own sake, but it
was necessary that He be delivered. Was it not from death? in order
that we might have life. And so he prayed, Father, if
you have commanded, here it is, he said, be thou my strong habitation,
thou hast given commandment to save me. See, from the beginning,
it's the Lord's purpose to send his only begotten Son into the
world to die for sinners, but not just to die for sinners,
but to be delivered for sinners, to triumph over death. And in
that, he was saved from the grave. He wasn't saved from the grave
for his own sake, but for ours. That he might be the first fruits
of the resurrection. That we might see that that is
that which is given to us. That thou hast given commandment
to save me, for thou art my rock and my fortress. He's that one
in whom we trust. There's not another. There's
no place else we can go for help, and surely that's the prayer
of Christ. Deliver me, O God, out of the
hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel
man. Now the Lord delivered him up,
did he not? to the hand of the cruel man.
But, you see, that was but a temporary thing to accomplish the purpose
of God. For the Lord did deliver him
out of the hand of cruel men, because the cruel men would have
totally destroyed Christ, and that's what they thought they
did. But they only fulfilled the purpose of God, who was by
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God delivered up to them.
that they might put him to death. But that was the very victory
that he was given, and he was indeed delivered out of the hand
of unrighteous and cruel men. For thou art my hope, O Lord
God, thou art my trust from my youth. Oh, what a glorious thing
to be given a trust in the Lord as a young man. so that a man
might live his life with trust in the Lord. You know, it's a
wondrous thing, the thief on the cross, I mean, that was a
wondrous thing, was it not, that the Lord snatched him as a brand
from the burning. But what a greater blessing it
is when a man is snatched as a brand from the burning as a
youth, so that his whole life is before Him and the blessing
of God is upon Him in an obvious way. Now we know that the Lord's
hand is upon His people regardless of where they are. And He leads
some through the fire and some through the flood. But He always
brings His people out in the appointed time. And what a glorious
thing it is. Thou art my trust for my youth.
You see the Lord Jesus Christ was such a one. There was never
a day in his life when his trust was not in his father. You know,
that's baffling to consider, even as an infant in a manger. his soul gained glory unto his
Father. There was never a time when he
was not full of praise unto the Lord. Now, I'm sure that praise
developed, humanly speaking, the older that he got. He grew
in favor, the Scripture says, with God and man. And surely,
you know, there was a maturing. That's an amazing thing, even
as it is when we read that he learned obedience by the things
which he suffered. I mean, that's That's beyond
our comprehension. It is mine anyway. That might
be completely clear to you, but that's an amazing thing, how
the Lord became these things for us. He was that one who trusted
in the Lord from his youth. By thee have I been holding up
from the womb. Thou art he that took me out
of my mother's bowels. My praise shall be continually
of thee. The Lord told Mary that she would
bring a child forth. She didn't know how it was going
to be. She said, how can it be? I've not known a man. And the
Lord said, that which is in thee is that which is of the Holy
Ghost. And she pondered these things
in her heart. That means she didn't demand
what's going on. I don't know about this. And
the Lord appeared to Joseph. And the angel told him that she
would bring forth a son and told him what his name would be. And
said he would save his people from their sins. He that took
me out of my mother's bowels, my praise shall be continually
of thee. And so it is. As you know, every
one of us, if we be children of grace, we can pray the same
prayer. Lord, you knew me when I was
in my mother's womb. That's what Jeremiah said. Oh,
what a glorious thing it is that there's never been a time, dear
brethren, when the Lord did not look with favor and love upon
those who whom He chose in Christ from before the foundation of
the world. That's a glorious thing. You know, men like to
think that they had something to do with when that began, but
dear brethren, they didn't. The Lord has loved His people
with an everlasting love. We love Him because He first
loved us. And were it not so, we would
have no love unto Him. I am as a wonder unto many but
thou art my strong refuge. I am as a wonder unto many. He was, was he not? And they
accused him of many things. They said he was a winebibber. They said that he accompanied
with sinners. They said that he was an unrighteous
man. They said he was a charlatan. They said he was just going about
to stir up insurrection. against the government. They
said all sorts of things against him. He was a wonder unto many,
but he said, you are my strong refuge, that one in whom my soul
finds rest. Let my mouth be filled with thy
praise and with thy honor all the day. What a glorious thing
it is to be able to praise the Lord. And is it not the prayer
and the desire of God's people to praise Him? Let my mouth be
filled with praise. I mean, do we wanna just be filled
with praise to God whenever our flesh gives us a green light
to it? I mean, do we say, well, now
we're gonna set aside this time to praise the Lord? No, the Lord
set forth the example, Lord, let my mouth be filled with thy
praise constantly. I mean, that is a desire of those
who know the grace of God. Let my mouth be filled with thy
praise and with thy honor all the day. See, that's the reason
why the Lord moves in His people to obey Him, to walk in His light,
that He might be honored. They hold blessings unto men
and say, well, if you'll obey God, then God will bless you. They say that the blessings of
God are conditional upon what men do. But, dear brethren, that's
backwards. Men walk in obedience to God
because of the blessing that He gives them. Obedience is a
blessing. It's not something we do to earn
the blessing, it's what the blessing is. It's a glorious thing to
walk in the way of the Lord, for our mouth to be filled with
praise and for thy honor. All that you do, do all to the
glory of God. Whether therefore you eat or
drink or whatsoever you do, do all to what? The honor of the
Lord, the blessing of God. See, why do we preach the Gospel?
A lot of people preach because they want to see souls saved.
Well, it's a glorious thing when men come to know the Lord, but
that's not why we preach the Gospel. We preach the Gospel
to magnify the name of Christ. to glorify Christ in the earth
and he said if I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me.
He was the one that will draw his people unto himself through
the preaching of the word quite often but that's not the reason
that we preach. The reason that we preach is
so that he might be magnified Let thy honor be seen all the
day. Cast me not off in the time of
old age. Forsake me not when my strength
faileth. Now the Lord Jesus Christ, He
never lived to be an old man, did He? He lived to be 33 years
old. But you see, He was tempted in
all points like as we are. He can be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities, and there's never been a person of great
age that has encountered any heartache or trouble or sorrow
or failing of the flesh that the Lord Jesus Christ was not
acquainted with as a man. And you know, a young man, he
can't quite get what it is to have the failings of age. And the older that you get, the
more that it becomes quite apparent to you what that means. And so these things are given
to those who are in that situation. Now, a young man can pray, Lord,
if I get to be old, but see when a man, starts reaching old age,
and what is old age? I'm not sure. I used to think
it was way older than I do now. I mean, I look at somebody now
that's 100, and they don't seem all that old. They're old, but
I mean, it's not like I thought of them when I was 15 years old. Of course, I never knew too many
people that lived to be 100 when I was that old, but anyway. As
a man experiences old age, then he can start more appreciating
what this prayer is about right here. Cast me not off in the
time of old age. I used to think that when men
got older, they just by nature, because of the fact they were
getting older, that they grew closer to the Lord. But the truth
of the matter is, if a man does not love Christ, It doesn't make
a difference. He can be a hundred years old
and still be a rebel against God and still have no concern. In fact, it is more likely that
he is entrenched in his way. and will not seek the Lord the
older that he gets. You'd think that the closer a
man got to the grave, he would be thinking about seeking the
Lord. But that's not the way it is. It has nothing to do with
age. It has to do with the grace of
God and the mercy of God. But it is a blessing unto the
saints of God as we grow older to know the Lord will not cast
us off. Forsake me not when my strength
faileth. And it will. You know, it's gradual. It doesn't happen overnight.
But your strength fails. Now, I still think I can do the
same stuff I was doing when I was 25 years old. You know, I look
at this something and I say, well, man, I'll just grab a hold
of that and just do it. But I can grab a hold of it and
I find out pretty quick, no, I can't quite do the same thing. Forsake me not when my strength
faileth, because it will. If you don't believe it, just
take you a trip over to the nursing home, and you'll see the strength of
men will fail. It doesn't make a difference
how strong a man is in the flesh. The strongest of men, they will
fail. They will get to the place where they cannot do anything
for themselves if the Lord You know, allows them to live that
long. That's just the way of the flesh. But oh, Lord, don't
forsake me in such time. And He will not forsake those
who are His. For mine enemies speak against
me, and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together. Our enemies are around about
us, For sure, but greatest enemy that we have, we wake up with
every day, and we look at him in the mirror, and he would turn
us aside if he could. Oh, Lord, deliver me from my
enemy. The flesh lusteth against the
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and you cannot do
the things that you would. May the Lord give us grace. that
our enemies not overcome us. Our enemies speak against me,
and they that lay wait for my soul, they take counsel together.
You know, the world, the flesh, and the devil, they will indeed
lay take counsel together against us. And they will bring you into
doubt and fear. They will. You know, the more
that you listen to the things of this world, the more inroads that the world,
the flesh, and the devil have. Oh, Lord delivers from such.
Don't let us be overtaken by such things. For mine enemies
speak against me. They take counsel together, saying,
God hath forsaken him. Persecute and take him, for there
is none to deliver him. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ was forsaken. He said, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Now that wasn't an empty thing.
He wasn't mistaken. The Lord did forsake him. But
the Lord forsook him that he might not forsake us. In his
prayer, O Lord, forsake me not. was heard because he prayed the
prayer for our sake. And the Lord will not forsake
those that belong to him. Oh my God, be not far from me. Make haste for my help. Let them
be confounded and consumed that are adversaries to my soul. Let
them be covered with reproach and dishonor that seek my hurt. Now the Lord, again, as we spoke
last week, He prays against the enemies of His people. He prays against His enemies,
and He would have them destroyed. And He will destroy His enemies
and all those that set themselves against the gospel. Paul said,
let them be accursed. If a man comes preaching some
other message that's not Jesus Christ and Him crucified, let
him be accursed. We don't need to be ashamed to
say that, because that is what the Scripture teaches. Now, it
doesn't fit in. You can't be a politician and
say that. I mean, just think of the uproar
that would take place if a president or a congressman or somebody
stood up somewhere and said that. They couldn't very well say it,
did they? Well, you know, I don't know what they want to say or
do or whatever. That's not my business. But I
know this. The Lord has called us to be
true to His Word. in whatever context that he would
call us to be there. Let them be confounded, but I
will hope continually and will yet praise thee more and more.
My mouth shall show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation
all the day, for I know not the numbers thereof. What he said there, I know not
the limitation that I have. We'll praise God every day because
this might be our last day to do so. You know, I mean, we don't know
the limits of our days. We think quite often, you know,
that our life will go, that we'll just kind of gradually go down
and then one day we'll die. And that may be what happens.
That happens in a lot of cases. But that's not always the way
it is. Death's a sudden thing. Whether it takes place in a man's
youth, or in his old age, or if he's a hundred years old,
when death comes it's sudden. And it's irrevocable. So teach
us to number our days, to apply our hearts unto wisdom, that
we might show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation. Isn't it a
glorious thing to be able to declare the salvation of the
Lord, the righteousness of Christ, rather than to go about talking
about what we've done? Go about telling folks what they
ought to do? I mean, declare what Christ has
done. That is a glorious place to be
standing, dear brethren. I will make mention of thy righteousness.
So God, thou hast taught me from my youth, and hitherto have I
declared thy wondrous works. Now also, when I am old and gray-headed,
or gray-bearded, I mean, you know, the older you get, the
lighter your hair becomes. And I remember my Aunt Kelly,
telling a story about this, and I can't remember the old gentleman's
name, but he didn't have any hair. His hair had all left him
at some point in time. And he would always, my Aunt
Callie, she had white hair, and she had had white hair for a
long time, but he would always joke around with her and kid
her, you know, about having all that white hair. And so she told
him, she said, well, she had read somewhere that your hair
keeps growing as you get older. And if it grows in there and
the roots of it hit brains, then it turns white. And if it grows
in there and doesn't hit nothing, then it falls out. And so she
said he didn't have much to say to her after that about her hair.
But when we're old and gray-headed, You know, that word there, grey-headed,
is the same word that is often translated in the Scripture as
hoary. H-O-A-R-Y. Hoary head. The Scripture and the Proverbs
speaks about the glory that there is to the hoary head. And it
is a wonderful thing to have grey hair. Because it is a proof
of the fact that the Lord has spared your life long enough
to get to that place. You know, what a glorious thing.
And when we're gray-headed, he said here. Now again, the Lord
died when he was 33 years old. I doubt he had a gray hair in
his head. He may have, I don't know. But he's touched with the
feeling of our infirmities. He knows what it is to be gray-headed. You see, when I'm old and gray-headed,
oh God, forsake me not. You see, the man that's walking
with the Lord, He's as desirous of walking with the Lord when
he's old and gray-headed as he is when he's young and vibrant. And he desires the presence of
the Lord. O God, forsake me not until I
have showed thy strength unto this generation. Don't let me
go down to a gray-headedness and not have testified of thy
glory. You know, don't let me just waste
my life away in some endless pursuit of the things of this
world, but, O Lord, let me testify of Thy glory. Don't let me go
down to gray hairs without having showed unto this generation Thy
power to everyone that is to come, that is to come there to
that place of gray-headedness. Thy righteousness also, O God,
is very high. who has done great things, O
God, who is like unto thee. Thou which has showed me great
and sore trouble shall quicken me again and bring me up again
from the depths of the earth. That is the hope of God's people,
is it not? Job said that though the skin worms eat
my flesh, yet I shall see him. Oh, what a glorious thing it
is that in our flesh we shall see God. Now, it won't be in
the same flesh, but it will be in a glorified flesh. We shall
see Him. I know that my Redeemer liveth
and on the earth again shall stand. We shall see Him. What a glorious thing. He shall
quicken us again and bring us up from the depths of the earth.
And He did. bring the Lord Jesus Christ up,
did he not? On the third day, he rose from
the dead. And that gives us hope in the
resurrection. Paul said, if the dead rise not,
then we're of all men most miserable. Because if the dead rise not,
then that means Christ was not raised. And if Christ was not
raised, brother, we don't have any hope. I mean, it's as simple
as that. I mean, you do away with the
resurrection and bingo, I mean, you go have anything you want
to, but brethren, our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus'
blood and righteousness, and his righteousness is declared
in the resurrection of his body from the grave. Thou shalt increase
my greatness and comfort me on every side. I will also praise
thee with the psaltery. Even thy truth, O my God, unto
thee will I sing with this harp. Now what harp is he going to
sing with? What are the harps that are spoken of in the scriptures?
What is the sacred harp? They're not going to hand you
some stringed instrument when you get to heaven. The Lord already
gave it to you. It's right here. That's the harps. The golden harps that the praises
of God come up unto the Lord by. Oh, what a glorious thing! My lips shall greatly rejoice
when I sing unto thee. What a blessing it is, my dear
brother, to sing. You know, the Lord gave different
people different capabilities and different voices and different
abilities to carry tunes or not carry tunes, but the tune is
not the thing. I mean, tune is the thing that
helps the natural ear. It's not the tune, but it's the
song. And whether a man can carry one
note of a tune or not, he can sing. unto the Lord. What a glorious thing it is to
sing unto the Lord. My lips shall greatly rejoice
when I sing unto thee, and my soul which thou hast redeemed,
my tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day
long. For they are confounded, for they are brought unto shame
that seek my hurt. And how much it is indeed true
that the enemies of the Lord were brought to shame on the
day of the resurrection. because they thought to destroy
him and they did everything within their power to seal his tomb
and take all the precautions they could and even to lie about
it afterwards and send men out to tell stories that weren't
true. But they were confounded. What a glorious thing that we
have a Savior who confounded the wisdom of the wise and he
is that one who will bring his people back from the grave when
they shall lay for what period of time is pleasing to him. I
don't know what it is. I don't know how long it is.
I don't know. You know, people talk about, well, what happens
when you die? Well, I don't know what happens
when you die. I don't know what happens when you die. I know
what happens when the Lord raises the dead to life. I do know that. It don't matter what happens
to you when you die. The glorious thing is that the
Lord Jesus Christ has made the absolute promise that He will
come for that which is His. And in the day of the resurrection,
He will raise His people from out of the graves wherein they
lay. And they shall be forever with the Lord. What a glorious
thing. What a blessed hope. And it is
that hope that we have that brings us to this place. Because we
couldn't have that hope if it wasn't that we had what this
bread and this wine signify, the body and the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he told us to remember his
death till he comes again. You know, that's a temporary
thing, is it not? He didn't say, I want you to
remember my death. He said, I want you to remember
my death until, until he comes again. And he said, then I will
drink it new with you in that kingdom. What a glorious thing. rather than the hope of the saints
of God. It transcends old age. It transcends the attacks of
the enemies of God's people. And it is an abiding hope. By
the grace of God, it's one that we cannot escape. He gives it
to us. He causes us to delight in remembering
his body. Broken for us and yet blown.