Psalm 63. This is a Psalm of
David when he was in the wilderness of Judah and he was there on
more than one occasion as he fled from Absalom and as he fled
from Saul on more than one occasion. O God, Thou art my God, early
will I seek Thee. My soul thirsteth for Thee, my
flesh longeth for Thee, in a dry and thirsty land where no water
is, to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee
in the sanctuary. Because thy lovingkindness is
better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless
thee while I live. I will lift up my hands in thy
name. My soul shall be satisfied as
with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with
joyful lips. When I remember thee upon my
bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches, because thou
hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will
I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after
thee, thy right hand upholdeth me. But those that seek my soul
to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth. They
shall fall by the sword. They shall be a portion for foxes. But the king shall rejoice in
God. Everyone that sweareth by him
shall glory. But the mouth of them that speak
lies shall be stopped. Now this is, of course, a Psalm
of David. And we mentioned the fact that
he was in the wilderness of Judah, but keep ever in mind that these
Psalms are the words of Christ as he was
indeed in the wilderness for our sake. He came from, as one of the hymn writers said,
out of the ivory palaces into a world of woe. And the Lord
Jesus Christ did come and walk in the wilderness of sin, and
specifically having reference to the fact that when He was
in the wilderness was where the devil came to Him and tempted
Him when He was in the wilderness. But yet, being a perfect man,
He was that one who was never without a desire or a confidence
in His Father. O God, Thou art my God, early
will I seek Thee. Rising up yet a great while before
day, He went into a mountain and prayed. And in the night,
when His disciples slept, He prayed. Early will I seek thee, my flesh
longeth for thee, in a dry and thirsty land where
no water is. Now, you know, you and I from
time to time, we are brought into such a place as that. But, for the most part, we are kind
of going along just kind of going through everyday life, and that's
not necessarily the place we find ourselves in, but by the
grace of God, when we are prone to consider these things as being
a source of joy, the Lord often takes those sources of joy from
us and brings us back to remind us that we are indeed in a dry
and a thirsty land. I mean, you know, there's nothing
that this world has to offer. I mean, that can really satisfy
the soul of a man that desires to know the living God. I mean, you know, all the entertainments
that men make, I mean, they're churning out movies and books
and songs and stuff just constantly. And this is supposedly, you know,
designed to lift men's burdens and help them and, you know,
go through the day and, you know, reading books and all kinds of
things that are supposed to help men in this journey. But there's
nothing that can help the children of God, in reality, but the water
that comes flows from the throne of God. because we live in a
dry and thirsty land where there is no water. I mean, there's
nothing. You know, sometimes a fellow
thinks, well, you know, if I could just get off for a few days,
and I can go on a vacation, or I can go do this, or I can go
do that. And we think that, and the flesh
does need such things, and the Lord does provide them. But they
don't satisfy us, because really and truly, we're right back in
the same place that we were. You know, the most enjoyable
time of a vacation is when you're getting ready to go and you go.
Because once you get there, then you start thinking about, well,
you know, I better enjoy this because I've got to go back pretty
soon. And then the worst times when
you're coming back. You know, but you'd think, you
know, you'd just be overjoyed and everything, but oh man, now
we've got to go back. And now we've got to go back
to work. Isn't it funny how everybody looks forward to the weekend? But what part of the weekend
do they really enjoy? Because really when it comes
back down to it, pretty soon you're thinking about, oh no,
the weekend's almost over and I've got to go back to work.
But those are just minor things. But this is not what the psalmist
is speaking about and not what the Lord Jesus is experiencing. Because this is a heart and a
soul matter. Knowing ourselves to be sinners
and finding no help within ourselves for the problems that we have.
I mean some people think, I mean there's plenty of books you can
read that'll tell you how to solve all your problems. I mean,
I don't guess there's a problem a man's ever had that you can't
go to a bookstore and find a book that somebody wrote a book about
to tell you how to solve that problem. But I'm telling you
this, you can read all those books that you want to, and when
the Lord shows you that you're in a dry and thirsty land, they
won't do you a bit of good. He's the only one. that can help
you. My flesh longeth for thee in
a dry and thirsty land where no water is, to see thy power
and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary, or in
the holy place, in that place set apart unto thee. The Lord
does give us times of refreshing sent from the Lord, and we meet
with Him in the sanctuary, and those times are precious to us.
And we remember those times and we say, you know, we'd like to
get back there. We want to get back there. Lord, I long to see
thee as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Now, the man that's
never met with the Lord in the sanctuary, he can't understand
that. But you know, the times are refreshing
that the Lord sends. Now, he gives to every man a
measure of faith. And he doesn't give to every
man the same understanding, he doesn't give to every man the
same level of comprehension of things, nor does he give to every
man the exact same spiritual experience. But he does give
to his people in varying ways a pleasant consideration of the
blessings of God. And they desire to be there.
wherever that might be for them. They desire that. "...to see
Thy power and Thy glory, so as I have seen Thee in the sanctuary."
Now someone has said, and this is true, that the men of the
world can see everything. A man who is a religious man,
he can see everything in the things that we talk about, but
one thing. you think uh... men can can learn
about everything that's in the bible and they can learn that
jesus christ went to a cross and died for sinners, they can
in a measure get that but the one thing that the men of the
world except man be born again that he cannot see and that is
the glory that surrounds that and that's the thing the people
of god desire to see is the glory Lord, I want to see Thy power
and Thy glory, because it's the glory of Christ that is that
which is sweet to the heart of God's people, that He is high
and lifted up. See, people, you know, men can
be stirred up into flesh to jive up and get feeling good, you
know, get their endorphins going in their body and they, you know,
all this stuff that people do and what not. When a man sees the glory of
Christ, all that stuff fades away. It doesn't mean anything.
The glory of Christ is not in those things, though men would
like to think that it is. The glory of Christ is in that
measure in which he is pleased to meet with his people and to
minister to them. and to teach them, to give them
the sweet consideration of thoughts of Christ and those things that
He has done in our behalf. Because thy lovingkindness is
better than life. Now you know, love is a good
thing and kindness is a good thing. But when you get those
things together, that's an amazing thing. You know, A lot of people
say they love other people. And we do, we love one another.
But sometimes we're not kind to people that we love. And vice versa, sometimes we
may be kind to somebody that we don't love. But in the Lord,
and the dealings of the Lord with His people, there is loving
kindness. Because it is a desire on the
part of God to meet with his people and bless them and draw
them unto himself. This loving kindness is that
which caused the Lord Jesus Christ to say, come unto me all you
that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Loving
kindness is that which caused the Lord Jesus Christ to weep
at the tomb of Lazarus. Because you see, he desired that
those people that were there might see the glory of God as
he could see it. See, when he walked among his
disciples, and he said, and Philip, I think of this, and this Philip
came to him and he said, Lord, show us the Father and it'll
suffice us. And I can think almost as the Lord was exasperated. He said, Philip, if I've been
so long time with you, And you have not known Me. He that has
seen Me has seen the Father. You see, it is the purpose of
God to give to His children kingdom. That is loving kindness. He would
give us the kindness of revealing these things to us, of showing
us the glory of Christ, not just in some rote fashion. I mean,
you can join up, you can join a church, you can join up and
be a Christian. I mean, there's some of these
celebrities now, and they got these guys running around, and
supposedly all these people, you know, is now coming to Christ
because of these celebrities. And maybe some have, I don't
know. I mean, the Lord knows them that
are His. But I'm telling you this, that
the Lord alone can cause a man to delight in the loving kindness
of Jesus Christ. You can join up and be a Christian.
See, a lot of times people say, well, you know, that sounds good.
I think I'll join up to that. I'll walk and I've seen it all
my life. You know, people get stirred
up and things get exciting and everything and you sweep a bunch
of folks in and pretty soon they say, well, you know, we got other
things to do, I mean, than that. I mean, we'll go on to that.
I mean, you know, this was alright for a while, but we don't want
to get too serious about this. But you see, a man who's tasted
the loving kindness of God, he wants to get back there. He wants
more of that. He's not satisfied just to have
tasted the love. Okay, yeah, I knew about that.
Okay. No. Once he's had a taste of that,
he wants more of it. Thus will I bless thee while
I live. I will lift up my hands in thy
name. Now, you know, lifting up the hands, that's
kind of a universal I mean, when a man lifts up his hands, it's
basically, you know, when you get exasperated and you can't
go any further and you just throw up your hands. I just can't do
anything else. Well, you know, that's the place
really where God's people need to be. Lord, we just can't do
it. Lord, help us. And we'll lift
up our hands in praise, not just in exasperation, but we'll lift
up our hands in praise to God. Because you see, lifting up the
hands is a universal sign of surrender, is it not? I mean,
you know, if an army throws down their arms, they don't come marching
out like this. No, they put their hands up.
Why? Because they want the people that they're being captured by
to know that they're They're done. I mean, they don't have
any more power. They're giving up. And so when
we praise God with our hands lifted up, whether actually or
in spirit, we surrender unto Him. I will praise Thee with
my lips, and thus will I bless Thee while I live. I will lift
up my hands in Thy name. I believe it's a good thing to
lift up your hands. I mean physically to lift up
your hands in praise to God. Now, you know, the unfortunate
thing about all activity that men do is men will substitute
the activity for the reality. And so lifting up your hands
don't mean anything if you're not lifting up your hands in
your heart. But oh, what a glorious thing it is when God is pleased
to give us such a desire to worship Him. My soul shall be satisfied
as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise Thee with
joyful lips. Now, those that tell us that
we should watch our cholesterol, they wouldn't like this verse.
But this is what the, you know, this was the most prized part
of the meat when they gave, when they had somebody at a banquet.
They didn't trim the fat off of the piece of meat and give
it to them. No, they gave them the fattest, juiciest piece. They took the marrow out of the
bones. But I remember my daddy, he used
to like to eat bone marrow like that. He would take an old ham
bone or something and get it out. I never developed a taste
for it myself. But in the Scripture, that's
considered to be the very best. with mara and fatness my soul
shall be satisfied just like I had eaten a big old fat juicy
piece of meat and it just running down my mouth you know and I
had to wipe it off of my chin see that's how it is I will be
satisfied in that same way and my mouth shall praise thee with
joyful lips what a glorious thing it is to praise the Lord when
I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night
watches. What a blessing it is when the
Lord is pleased to meet with us as we lay down. Now, you know,
it's a good thing to have a habit of praying before we go to bed,
I think. Good thing to have a habit of
that, but it's a better thing If it's just that which becomes
natural to us in the state that we desire to meet with the Lord
in the night watches. When all, you know, everything's
out of the way and nobody's messing with us. and we just commune
with Him. What a glorious thing. When I
remember Thee upon my bed and meditate on Thee in the night
watches, I am made to praise Thee. See, prayer is not asking
God for stuff. Now most people, that is what
they think of when they pray. Most of our praying unfortunately,
is asking God to do this and asking God to do that. And we
should, and that's a good thing. There's nothing wrong with that.
But that's not the essence of prayer. The essence of prayer
is worship. When I meditate on Thee. See, praying is meditating
on the Lord. It's meeting with God. It's being
in that sanctuary place, that sacred place. meditate on thee
in the night watches because thou hast been my help therefore
in the shadow of thy wings will i rejoice you know that's a that's
an interesting phrase and uh... it's usually i was uh... thought
of a passage of scripture here i think it's in thirty deuteronomy
thirty two and in the psalms i believe about at least six
or seven times in the Psalms, in various Psalms, the concept
or the phrase, the shadow of thy wings, I will trust in the
shadow of thy wings. Now, we don't have any reason
to believe that the Lord literally has wings, but yes, You know,
as the angels, the scripture speaks about the cherubim having
wings and when Solomon built the temple and they had those,
the cherubim had their wings spread out. But this is speaking
about the covering of the Lord. That is that wherein He wraps
His people up. In Deuteronomy 32, let me see
here. Let's look at verse seven, Deuteronomy
32. It says, remember the days of
old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask thy father and he will show
thee. Thy elders and they will tell thee. When the Most High
divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated
the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according
to the number of the children of Israel. Now that sounds like an unconditional
election to me. Now, that's a true thing. The Lord said he set the number
of people, or he set the people, the bounds of the people, according
to the number of the children of Israel. He said, these are
my people. For the Lord's portion is his
people. Jacob is the Lord of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land
and in the waste howling wilderness, he led him about, he instructed
him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth
up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her
wings, taketh them and beareth them on her wings. So the Lord alone did lead him,
and there was no strange God with him. He made him ride on
the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase
of the fields. And he made him to suck honey
out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock, butter of
kind, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the
breed of Bashan. and goats with the fat of kidneys
of wheat and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape. Oh, what a glorious picture of
the Lord's love to his people. And he said as the eagle, now
I don't know this to be a fact, I've read it and I suppose it's
true. I've never done this study that eagles put their young on
their wings, somehow I don't know how this is or not, and
then they fly with those little baby eagles on their wings. So
before those eagles can fly, they're soaring through the skies
on the wings of that eagle. What a glorious picture that
the Lord takes His people Whether that's true about eagles or not,
it's true about the Lord taking His people. And He does cover
us with His wings. That He does wrap us in His warm
embrace. Because thou hast been my help,
therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. Now another
thing is I can imagine this to be true. that when the little
baby eagles are in the nest, and they're hungry, and you've
all seen the pictures, you know, the little heads is popping up
there and this. But just think about this. When
the mother eagle is coming back with some nice roadside kill
that she's picked up or whatever, piece of rabbit intestines or
whatever, and she's bringing that back, And those little birds,
when she flies over that nest between them and the sun, the
shadow of her wings comes over them and they rejoice. Why? Because
they know they're about to be fed. They're gonna be fed by
that one who cares for them, whose loving kindness wraps them
around and brings them such things as they need when they couldn't
do anything. See, little baby birds like that, they'd starve
to death. What could they do? If the mother didn't come and
bring them something to eat, they'd just be done for. And
how true is that of the children of God? I mean, if He doesn't
bring to us the sweetness of His presence, how are we going
to get it? I know you can read books about
how to find God and how to meet with God and how to do all these
things, but dear brethren, you can't meet with God. He has to
meet with you. The blessed truth is that because
of his loving kindness to his people, he does meet with his
people, and he does bring them such things as they need. My
soul followeth hard after thee, thy right hand upholdeth me,
because those that seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the
lower parts of the earth. Now, the Lord, in his prayer,
in our behalf, He sought the glory of God as He prayed for us. All that
He did, He did for the glory of His name. And what we see
here before us today is a memorial of the blood and the body of
Christ. And these things are not just
done for the benefit of men, but they are done for the glory
of God. And that's a picture of that which I think far too
often is missing from a lot of what we hear preached today as
the gospel. Is that all these things, the
Lord went to the cross. Yes, sure to redeem His people,
but He went there to magnify the glory of His grace. To bring
glory to His name. And so it is, dear brethren.
Because I spend my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will
I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after thee. Thy right hand
upholdeth me. He holds us up even as he held
up Jesus Christ. Did you not pray, Father, into
thy hands I commend my spirit? Because as a man in the weakness
of this flesh, he'd gone as far as he could go. He said, Father, into thy hands
I commend my spirit. In the shadow of thy wings do
I trust. But those that seek my soul to
destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth. They
shall fall by the sword. They shall be a portion for foxes.
And surely is this not that which is the way of those that despise
Christ? Those that hate the way of Christ?
those that will not bow to his rule, those that would oppose
him at every hand. Is that not what he said to the
Pharisees? You're of your father the devil. He says you're a bunch
of vipers. He says you're going to destruction. Those that seek my soul to destroy
it shall go into the lower parts of the earth. They shall fall
by the sword. They shall be a portion for foxes. They shall be destroyed. But
the king shall rejoice in God. Everyone that swears by him shall
glory. The king shall rejoice in God.
Now, who is the king? We don't have but one. The king shall rejoice in God.
He rejoiced in his father. All that he did, he came to do
for his father's sake. But the king shall rejoice in
God. Everyone that sweareth by him
shall glory. He's that one in whom all of
our confidence is placed. We don't have anyone else in
whom we can't trust. I mean, I trust y'all as far
as you can go, but I mean, when the time comes for the crossing
of Jordan, you're not gonna do me any good. I don't need you.
You know, I need the Lord. And you need the Lord, too, in
the same fashion. I mean, we can help each other
up to the water's edge, but dear brethren, that's as far as we
can go. We shall swear by him, and we
shall glory. Everyone that sweareth by him
shall glory. Everyone that has fled to Christ
for refuge shall glory in him. It's Christ and Christ alone.
See, a man is trusting in Christ. He can't get mad when somebody
talks about the fact that it's Christ who is his salvation.
How can he get mad about that? He glories in that. Christ is
my salvation. He's my hope. He's my expectation. Vain is the help of man. Most
assuredly, vain is my own help to help myself. God helps those...
You ever heard that? I grew up hearing it. God helps
those who help themselves. awful thing. Who'd be helped? Huh? Wouldn't be anybody helped
if God helped those who help themselves. He helps those who
can't help themselves. You see? That's what this whole
psalm is about. Lord, I seek Thee in a dry and
thirsty land where no water is. I can't find it. But the mouth of them that speak
lies shall be stopped. I don't know how many lies have to yet be told. There might
be a few and it might be many. But I know this, that the mouth
of them that speak lies shall be stopped. There's coming a
time when there will be no more lies. Because the one who's the
father of lies, the scripture says, shall be cast into an everlasting
pit of darkness. That's what Scripture says. It's
reserved for him. The Lord made it. He said, I
got it over there and it's waiting on you. And the day will come
when there'll be no more lying. In fact, Scripture says that
there's no liars that shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. No
liars will be there. Why? Because every mouth that
lies shall be stopped. But those that speak, by the
grace of God to the glory of God shall dwell in his presence
forever.