Well, let us turn to the book of Psalms, and I want to read Psalm 63. We read there in that portion of Holy Scripture back in 1 Samuel 23, at verse 13, but rather verse 14, that David abode in the wilderness, in Stronghold, and remained in the mountain in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God delivered him not into his hands. Turning now to Psalm 63. And the title of the psalm, Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

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 part 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."

David's life was a life that was full of many trials and troubles. Remember how in the 119th Psalm He bemoans his great danger. He says, my soul is continually in my hands. It was always, it would seem, at jeopardy from the persecutions of King Saul, who was so bent upon his death.

He was a man then of deep experience, and it is Paul who refers to what God said of him. There in Acts 13 in verse 22 in his sermon at Antioch in Pisidia, he refers to what God himself had said back in 1 Samuel 13 and verse 14, and the words of That 22nd chapter in Acts 13, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. Paul said that was the Word of God. I have found David. the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart."

How this man's religion reached then into the very depths of his soul. He knew God in such an intimate fashion. And we see this surely in this 63rd Psalm, in the midst of all his troubles. The language that we have, for example, in the opening verse, he says concerning his soul, my soul, thirsteth for thee." His soul was ever thirsty for God and for the knowledge of God.

In verse 5 he says, My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness. And then again in verse 8, My soul, he says, followeth hard after they. Verse 9, he speaks of those who are seeking his death and his destruction. Those that seek my soul to destroy it, he says, and his desire for them is that they shall go into the lower parts of the earth.

Here is a man then with a real religion in his own soul. And it's interesting when we come to consider the language of scripture with regards to what faith is, because at times we see faith being compared, as it were, to our physical senses. we can think of the sense of hearing and of course we're familiar with the words there in Romans 10 17 that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God and then also we think of faith in terms of looking, look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else and in particular those words in Hebrews 12 looking on to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith how the senses then are spoken of in terms of what's involved in in saving faith as the sense of taste also Psalm 34 and verse 8, O taste and see that the Lord is good. And here, what does David say in verse 5? My soul shall be satisfied. as with marrow and fatness he tastes the good things of God and the grace of God and it's meat, it's drink to his soul and of course the Lord Jesus himself reminds us in that portion in John 6 at verse 53 following that except a man eat of my flesh and drink of my blood he says he hath no part in me that is a spiritual feeding that we should indulging in the knowledge of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. All these senses of various times in scripture are taken up and direct us to what is the exercise of true faith.

It's hearing, it's looking, it's tasting, it's smelling. in the Song of Solomon there in the opening chapter, verse 12, following, While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof. Oh, the sweetness of that smell.

And then also, of course, ultimately we see faith spoken of in terms of touching and taking hold of a thing, handling a thing. John speaks of his knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ in the opening verse of that first general epistle, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life. And John's intimacy with Christ, leaning upon his bosom, Well, I want us, as we come to consider the content of the psalm, first of all to say something with regards to the handling, as it were, and the taking hold of faith. We might rather say the cleavings, the cleavings of faith. And we have it indicated, really, in the opening part of this eighth verse.

My soul followeth hard after thee. Now, what we have here, the verb to follow, and to follow hard, indicates obviously to be close, and even to cling, and to cleave together. The same words, the same word is used in Job, chapter 38, and there at the end of verse 38. In the context there, Elihu, who is the speaker in Job 38, is speaking of the heavy rain, and then he makes the statement how the rain causes the clods to cleave close together. The same word then, cleaving, is the way it's translated. Followeth hard is the way it's rendered here in the psalm. But the clods, it says, cleave close together after the rain. The margin says how the dust is turned to mire, how things are bound together.

And one of the commentators says that here in the psalm that the primary meaning of this verb to follow, to follow hard, is really to cleave, to glue together. My soul cleaveth, or is glued to thee then might be a way in which that opening clause could be translated. It tells us something of what true faith is. True faith doesn't just deal with God in terms of doctrine.

It's not just something cerebral, not just something of the brain, it's not just intellectual ascent to the truth. probably aware there were those Baptists back in the late 18th century in Scotland, the Scots Baptists, who followed the teachings of a man called Sandiman, Robert Sandiman, and he taught that faith is really just a matter of mental ascent. and the term has come down, Sandimanianism. You may come across that term in reading, a Sandimanian faith, a faith that is just a matter of understanding the doctrine and assenting to that doctrine with the mind. In some ways I think we need to be wary. I remember as a young believer when I first began to come to some understanding and appreciation and belief in the in the doctrines of sovereign grace and the minister talking to a number of us and he said how young men need to be wary of of these doctrines in terms of just doing mental gymnastics, as it were.

The whole system of truth that we know, of course, as Calvinism, and we think in terms sometimes of the five points of Calvinism. And what he was saying is that the logic of the whole system does have an appeal to the mind. To see these things, and how all these things stand together, they link together.

Because of man's total depravity, there's no way of salvation other than through the sovereignty of God, and God has made choice of a people. And as God has made choice of that people, so he has provided atonement for that particular people. It's limited to those whom he has chosen in Christ. but they're dead in trespasses and sins so they must be called they must come the irresistible grace of God and those who know that grace of God they cannot frustrate the purpose of God they will persevere to the end there's a certain logic in terms of the whole system of of sovereign grace and we need to be aware then of the dangers if you're just appealing to to the intellect real faith real faith is not something cold and distant and detached, but it is warm, it's attached, there's that cleaving, there's that sense of utter dependence upon the Lord, there's that trusting in the Lord.

Surely where there is faith, there's not just a matter of the mind. In the Song of Solomon, the Beloved comes up out of the wilderness leaning upon her beloved and there's the lines in the hymn of hearts opinions in the head he says true faith as far excels as body differs from a shade or kernels from the shells the difference between that that is bodily and substantial and that that is just a shadow or then he uses that figure of the colonels, the outer shell. What we want, sorry, the outer shell is not what we want, it's the colonel that we want. And that's true, is it not, with regards to saving faith.

My soul, says David here in the opening verse, my soul thirsteth for thee. And he's addressing God, isn't he, in his prayer. Oh 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.

Oh, is that the faith that we have? We're thirsting for a person. We want to know God in that personal way, and that person in whom God reveals himself to us, of course, is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the image of the invisible God. What do we know of the person of Christ? How do we delight to contemplate, to consider the wonder of the person of Christ?

One person and yet those two natures. He is God and he is man. And what does he say here in verse 5? My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness. When we come to really meditate upon the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, we discover that it is substantial meat and drink to our souls, it establishes us.

Again, think of the Beatitude of the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 5.6, that blessed man, he says, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. What is that righteousness? Well, the sinner sees he has no righteousness of his own. He wants a righteousness. And that righteousness can only be found in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so he doesn't just consider the person but thinks of that work that Christ accomplished here upon the earth when he was made of a woman and made under the law. Why made under the law? Because he must answer for his people before that holy law of God, which he does of course in terms of obedience. That life that he lived, complete obedience, he wrought a righteousness with which to close his people. but not only to clothe them, as also His great oblation is obedient unto the death of the cross and that precious blood that pays the penalty without the shedding of blood, no remission. Oh, to think upon these things. This is that that will satisfy the soul of those who have the true knowledge of God.

Observe the faith of Jacob. Jacob at Peniel, where he became Israel. And if we have the faith of God's elect, we are those who are the true spiritual Israel. What do we read concerning Jacob's faith there in Peniel, as he's returning after the time that he'd spent with his uncle, with Laban, and now he must return home, but he's fearful, he's fearful of Esau, the one whom he had supplanted, he'd stolen the birthright, and Esau is coming to meet him with a band of men, and he sends the company that's with him, his family and his servants, they go before him, and we're told, you know, Jacob is there left alone. In Genesis 32 at verse 24, Jacob was left alone, we're told, and they wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. When he saw that he prevailed not against him, That is, the man prevailed not against Jacob. He touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him.

And he said, Let me go. This is what the man says to Jacob, Let me go, for the day breaketh. Jacob says, I will not let thee go except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?

And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." Quite remarkable, really, what we read here, isn't it? Peniel, he calls the place, the face of God. And why does he give it that name? Because he had seen, as it were, the face of God.

He wrestled with this man face to face. No man can see God and live. It's a spiritual experience that he's describing here. But who is the man? Well, this is the angel of the Lord. This is a theophany. This is really the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see here what it means to pray. It's wrestling with the Lord. This is what Jacob was doing. He's wrestling with the Lord. And he prevails with God.

And so his name is changed from Jacob the supplanter to Israel, a prince with God. As God says to him there, thou hast power with God and with men and hast prevailed. And we come together to pray and how are we to pray? We are to know what it is to wrestle. to wrestle with God in prayer it was the same wasn't it also in a sense with Rachel as we see earlier in chapter 30 Rachel of course was barren whilst her sister Leah was fruitful and I'm sure you're aware of the detail of the story. Rachel gives Jacob to wife, her maid, Bilhah. Bilhah bears a son. She bears Jacob a son, it says, in verse 5 of chapter 30 in Genesis. And then at verse 7, Bilhah, Rachel's maid, conceived again and bears Jacob a second son. And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed, and she called his name Naphtali. And of course, the very name Naphtali means my wrestlings.

Oh, she wrestled with her sister. How did she wrestle with her sister? Oh, she must have been wrestling with God. And she recognizes that. It is God who has answered her prayers, wrestling prayers. We sang, didn't we, in our opening hymn, wrestling prayer can wonders do bring relief in greatest straits. Prayer can force a passage through iron bars and brazen gates. Surely John Newton knew something of what it was to be those, to be one who is wrestling, wrestling with God in prayer. But it's interesting, isn't it, what we have here. I like the remark in Genesis 32 that Bernard Gilpin makes in his little exposition of that portion.

He says of Jacob that when the man touched him in the hollow of his thigh and he can't wrestle really, he has to give over his wrestling as he's disabled. And Gilpin says what he then did was to take to cleaving. He gives over trying to wrestle and he does nothing more now than cleave to the man. I will not let thee go, he says. I will not let thee go except thou bless me. Oh, it's the cleaving. It's the clinging. that is really best of all. My soul followeth hard after thee, thy right hand upholdeth me."

Well, I want us having said something with regards to this wrestling, this cleaving ultimately with the Lord as part of the life of faith, want us, in the second place, to see how it is the Lord Jesus Christ who keeps hold of his people, as we have it there at the end of that eighth verse, Thy right hand upholdeth me.

It is God who first lays hold of His people before ever they can really begin to lay hold of Him. And God lays hold in these three ways, briefly. Does He not lay hold of His people in terms of the eternal covenant? In Psalm 17 and verse 7, "...show thy marvelous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand." show thy marvelous loving kindness and that expression loving kindness it's a rendering of that great Hebrew word Checheth almost impossible really to adequately translate in our English language but it certainly has the idea of the covenant and God's covenant faithfulness show thy marvelous covenant faithfulness, we might say. O thou that savest by thy right hand. The Lord is determined to save His people. He determined their salvation before ever He created anything. His eternal purpose of grace.

And now, here in the psalm, we see how David is mindful of the loving kindness of the Lord. Verse 3 it says, because thy loving kindness, thy covenant faithfulness is better than life, my lips shall praise them. When he comes to the end, at the end of the second Psalm, you'll remember how we have his last words as it were. And he speaks there of the covenant order in all things, and sure, which he says is all his salvation and all his desire.

The Lord has taken hold of his people in the eternal covenant of grace. And then we see the outworking of it as the Lord Jesus Christ comes in the fullness of the time. God sends forth his Son, The Eternals are made of a woman, made under the Law. And what is Christ doing? Is He not taking hold of His people, those that were given to Him in the Covenant?

Hebrews 2.16, Verily He took not on Him the nature of angels, but He took on Him the seed of Abraham, it says. But it's interesting because we have an alternative reading in the margin which seems a more literal rendering. He taketh not hold of angels, says the margin, but he taketh hold of the seed of Abraham. The Lord takes hold of his people then in the Incarnation.

Again in Hebrews 2.7, thou mayest him a little lower than the angels. No provision is made for fallen angels, but for as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, we are told how He likewise took part of the same, how He becomes a real man, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin.

He comes to take hold of His people. And He takes hold of them as He fulfills all the terms of that eternal covenant, His obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. So He takes hold eternally in the covenant, He takes hold in time, in the incarnation, and of course He also takes hold of His people in their experience. They come to experience the grace of God.

It's God who applies the salvation. That salvation that was accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ is applied by God, the Holy Spirit. And there in another psalm, in Psalm 20 at the end of verse 6, we read of the saving strength of his right hand. The saving strength of his right hand when the Lord lays hold of the sinner. How Paul knew it. When he describes something of his experience there in Philippians 3, he says, I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. And again, the margin, the margin readings are often helpful because it brings out something more of the fullness which is there in the text of Scripture.

In Philippians 3.12, the margin says that apprehended literally is seized or laid hold. I am apprehended, I am seized of Christ Jesus laid hold of by Christ Jesus when the Spirit of God comes to make that blessed application of salvation that was the experience of Saul of Tarsus as the Lord Jesus deals with him, confronts him and strikes him blind, of course, there before the gates of Damascus.

Oh, what do we see then in this psalm? We see David, and David has such a religion. It's a religion of his soul. It reaches into the very depths of his being. And so we find these various references throughout the psalm to His soul and God's dealings with Him, even in the wilderness.

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. And then, again at verse 5, my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips. And then, again in verse 8, my soul followeth hard after thee, thy right hand upholdeth me. And then finally, with regards to his own soul, those that seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth. Oh, the truth is it not that the grace of God must prevail, ultimately, in the souls of all his people, against all their opposition, their fallen natures, against all the opposition of the fallen world that lies in the wicked one. against all the opposition of Him who is the great adversary of our souls." May the Lord be pleased to bless His Word to us. We're going to sing our second praise and then we'll turn to prayer. Let us sing the hymn 236. I'll read the first two verses and we'll sing from verse 3. The tune is St. George, number 59.

Faith's a convincing proof, a substance sound and sure, that keeps the soul secured enough, but makes it not secure. Notion's the harlot's test, by which the truth's reviled, the child of fancy finely dressed, but not the living child. Let us sing from verse 3, 236, tune 59. Faith is by knowledge fake, and with obedience mixed. The trunk is empty, cold and dead, and fancy's never fixed. True faith's the life of God, deep in the heart it lies. It lives and labours under load, though damned it never dies.