Well, let us turn again to the Word of God and turning to Psalm 51. I'll read the Psalm. Psalm 51 to the chief musician. The Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone into Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions, wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee, the only, have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight, that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in the hidden parts. Thou wilt make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and uphold me with Thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto Thee. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing of Thy righteousness.

O Lord, open Thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise. For Thou desirest not sacrifice, how would I give it? Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion build thou the walls of Jerusalem then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness with burnt offering and whole burnt offering then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

We often refer to this psalm as David's penitential psalm And of course, that is the great truth, the great doctrine that we see so clearly, the doctrine of repentance. In a sense, we can divide the psalm into two basic sections. We have the knowledge of sin.

David was brought to that knowledge by the faithfulness of the Lord's servant, the prophet Nathan, who said to him, Thou art the man, David. And out of that word went home to his very soul. He had a knowledge then of himself and a knowledge of his sin. But there is also here in the Psalms surely that knowledge of grace. He knew the grace of God as well as the reality of his sin.

And the first 11 verses said before us something of the knowledge of sin and the burden of a guilty conscience and then from verse 12 to the end of the psalm we see something of the comfort of grace and David trusting in the mercies of God and well tonight as we come to this particular psalm I really want to concentrate although I've read all of the psalm through because in many ways I want us to consider the wholeness of the psalm but to concentrate on what David says here at verse 15. I'll read that verse in its context by reading the following two verses as well. O LORD, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice, as would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." Of course, the worship of the people of God under the Old Testament dispensation very much centered in sacrifice, many sacrifices.

Those wondrous types of the one great sacrifice that would be made once and for all at the end of time, the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we have nothing to do now with sacrifices. And we deplore the the bloodless sacrifice as they call it, the sacrifice of the Romish mass, the doctrine of transubstantiation, the blasphemy, the dangerous deceit in the language of what was once a reformed Church of England according to its 39 articles, that's how they speak of that awful doctrine of mass, of masses. worship God, and how do we worship God? We bring the sacrifice of praise. In that sense, all believers are spiritual priests offering the sacrifice of praise.

And here, of course, that's what we see in the words of those three verses I just read, 15, 16, and 17. The sacrifices of God, we are told, are a broken spirit. a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. But really, I want to concentrate, as I said, on verse 15 as a text. O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy price.

The worship of God, of all human activity, surely that is the most noble thing any man or woman could ever do is to worship God we're made in God's image we're created in his likeness our chief end is to know God and to enjoy God and surely if we know anything of God we will rejoice in worshipping that God that God who reveals himself to us in scripture that God who is declared to be good He does good. And so I want to take up that subject really tonight of the worship of God. In the very last chapter of Scripture, in Revelation 22 at verse 9, we have that exhortation, that commandment really, that imperative. Worship God. We are to worship God. Well, what lies behind true worship? What lies behind real praises?

Well, really, the content of this particular psalm. I was reading only the other day again, probably many times before, but I read again Martin Luther's introductory remarks to the exposition of Psalm 51. He doesn't just go straight into the psalm and begin to expound it, but he introduces the subject. And I was interested to observe just what Luther says there in those remarks. He says of the psalm that he's about to expound, it embraces the doctrines of the essential articles of our religion. And what are those essential articles?

He says, of repentance, of sin, of grace, of justification, and also of that worship which we are to render to God. These are the articles of our religion. And it's that last of them, the worship that we're to render to God, that I want us to consider for a while this evening from the words that I've read here in verse 15 as our text.

Oh Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. Dealing with some five headings tonight and first of all let's look at David's prayer. It is very much a prayer that we have in this psalm. Of course the psalms are hymns and songs of praise. But they're also prayers, and it's quite evident that this is a prayer.

Look at the way in which David begins in verse 1, Have mercy upon me, O God. He makes a request. He comes with his prayer. And he asks God for mercy. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. He addresses God.

And isn't this one of the beauties really of the book of Psalms? It's part of the scriptures and of course in all of scripture it's God who is addressing us. This is God's word to us. From Genesis to Revelation. Different books of course, some are simply narratives. In some we have the words spoken immediately by the prophets of the Lord, they say thus and thus saith the Lord. But there's a whole variety of literature in our Bibles, different types of literature. But all of it in its totality is the word of God and it's God's words to us.

He speaks to us. But the amazing thing in the book of Psalms is that here we have men, men like David, speaking to God in prayer and yet their prayers to God become God's word to us. Isn't that quite a remarkable thing? Why is it so? Well, prayer is the highest form of our worship. If we're to worship God, it's when we come to address Him in prayer.

That's the peak, as it were, the pinnacle of our worship. that we can address him immediately and we do that in our petitions, we do it in our praises well see how here David comes before God and what is his prayer? well he comes to make confession of sin he comes to confess what he is and that confession of course is very much associated with repentance and with faith how important are those those two things repentance and faith the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ when we are told in the opening chapter of the Gospel according to Mark when Jesus comes into Galilee after the imprisonment of John the Baptist, the forerunner. He comes into Galilee, we're told, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, repent and believe the kingdom of God is at hand. And this is what we see here in David. He makes his confession, he's coming in faith, he's coming in a spirit of true penitence. his repentance he recognizes the following the enormity really of the sins that he was guilty of and look at the multitude of different words that he makes use of he's then at a lesson really in the very language that he employs he speaks of evil in verse 4 against thee, the only have I sinned and done this evil, this evil thing in thy sight, this wickedness, this badness, and it's in the sight of God.

He'd done it all in secret, he tried to cover himself. We read chapter 12, didn't we, there in the second book of Psalm, we should maybe have also read chapter 11, where we have the the cunningness of David trying to cover himself after he had committed adultery Bathsheba's carrying his child and he wants rid of Uriah the Hittite well he doesn't really initially that's the ultimate but first of all he'll bring Uriah back and he wants Uriah to go and to lie with his wife Bathsheba it will appear then that this is Bathsheba's child that this is Uriah's child but Uriah is more noble than David he's come from the battle he can't go to the comfort of his own bed when the armies of Israel are still in the open field and so what does David do? he plies him with drink he tries to get him into some sort of stupor so he'll forget himself and he'll go and lie with his wife but he doesn't and then the ultimate solution What is David going to do? He's going to have the man killed. He's a murderer really. He does it secretly. But the Lord sees it all. The Lord sees it all.

And the Lord, well, he'll forgive his sin as Nathan the prophet says. His sin is covered. But God deals with his inventions, doesn't he? in what follows in the history there the rebellion of his own beloved son Absalom David having to flee and leaving his concubines Absalom goes and lies with the concubines of his father David you're familiar I'm sure with the whole account that we have there in the second book of Samuel God saw all that wickedness in David this evil that he had done before the Lord and yet he thought it was hidden and so he has to confess I have done this evil he says in thy sight in thy sight God sees it God saw that the wickedness of man was great in all the earth and that every imagination of the thought of his heart was evil continually We have those words back in the beginning of Genesis 6 before the great flood that God visits upon that ancient antediluvian world, the world before the flood. God saw the wickedness. Every imagination of the thought of men's hearts, God sees our hearts. And God sees what's there and it's evil. This is the word that David uses.

But I suppose the word that he uses repeatedly is that word sin, isn't it? In verse 4 again, against thee, thee only have I sinned, he says, and done this evil in thy sight. But he's used it previously in verses 2, 3 and 4. Sin. And we've said before the the word sin as we have it, the Hebrew word that's rendered sin in our Bibles is from a verb that literally means to miss. What is sin in that sense?

It's missing the mark. It's falling short of the mark. All of sin comes short of the glory of God. We never reach the mark. Sins of omission, you see. there are sins of omission as well as sins of commission and that certainly is the idea here in the word that he is using wash me throughly from my iniquity cleanse me from my sin I acknowledge my transgressions my sin is ever before them against thee the only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight And then we also, of course, have that other word.

He uses all these different words. He's writing, of course, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but he's writing what he's feeling. We're not to think that the Spirit simply dictates the words, and David writes the words down on feeling. He feels these things.

God's words had had it's effect when the prophet spoke to him and said David thou art the man the words transgression he wants all his transgressions blotted out according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies he says there in verse 1 blot out my transgressions. What is a transgression? Well, that's rebellion. That's rebellion against God. And he says again in verse 3, I acknowledge my transgression.

Again, the word acknowledge, it's an interesting verb really. I acknowledge. It has the idea of something that he's felt here, it's experience it's not just saying it, it's what he feels in the very depth of his being he's rebelled against God and he's feeling what he is, a rebel one who is in that state of alienation from God because of his sin and then the other word that we have is that word iniquity isn't it? wash me throughly from mine iniquity. He says. Again in verse 5, Behold I was shapen in iniquity. End of verse 9, Blot out all mine iniquities. What is iniquity?

Well again, the basic meaning of the word, the verb from which it's derived, is to bend or to twist, to be warped. And you see, God made man upright, as the preacher says in Ecclesiastes, God made man upright, but they seek out many inventions. Upright is the way God created the first man, Adam, the first woman, Eve. They're created in the image of God, they're upright, erect. but they sin and what does sin do i.e. they're no walk, bend and twist they're not what they were oh what a terrible thing is this what moves the sinner thus to pray like this the hearts so deceitful above all things so desperately wicked and God says who can know it I the Lord try the heart I try the rain to give to every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doing.

Oh, it's the Lord that's in this. It's the Lord that's in this. And that brings us really to our second point. How is it that David can pray in this fashion and make such confessions? Why is there such a remarkable manifestation here of his true repentance? because of God, because of the power of God and the grace of God.

And look at the language in the words of our text in verse 15, O LORD open thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. Isn't there cause and effect here? It's only as God opens his lips God doesn't do anything, He'll never show forth the praises of God. Open thou my lips. There's cause, there's effect. We see it again at the end of the psalm. He says there at verse 18, Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion, build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offerings and all burnt offerings. Then shalt thou offer bullocks upon thine altar. What are all the services of the house of God? What are all the sacrifices made in the tabernacle of God?

Except God works in the hearts of those who bring in those sacrifices. It's when God does good in his good pleasure unto Zion, it's when God is building up Jerusalem, then, and not till then, is God pleased. with the worship that is offered. It's true for us, is it not? We need God to come, we need God to work mightily, graciously, effectually in our hearts and God is in all of that, you see. Remember what we read there in that 12th chapter of 2 Samuel, the very opening words of the chapter. The Lord sent Nathan unto David. The Lord did it. The Lord sent Nathan to David. And what does David come with? He comes with the word of the Lord. And where the word of the Lord is, there's power. There's power in that word.

Or the sinner, you see. He needs his lips to be to be opened it's interesting, isn't it? the leper in Israel had to cover his lips I suppose if any breath you see breathed disease and death he had to cover his lip but is it not significant when we think of what sin is because leprosy is certainly associated with sin. Remember, where we have all the rules concerning leprosy, there in Leviticus, is it chapters... I think it's chapters 13, 14 and 15 in Leviticus. And the leper is diagnosed not by a physician.

If a man suspects that he's got leprosy, he has to go to the priest. there's association, you see, there's something of some spiritual significance not to the physician, to the priest and his lip is covered his upper lip is covered and we think of the language of the New Testament because all that we have there in Leviticus is typical, isn't it? and all the antitype is in the New Testament the fulfilment is in the New Testament.

What is the ministry of the law? What do you think the law says? It says to all men that every mouth may be stopped, it says, and all the world become guilty before God. Every sinner's mouth in that sense is stopped, is made to feel something of his own sinfulness, he's got nothing to answer God's holy law condemns him but then when the Lord deals with the man and what we see in David is a remarkable case of true evangelical repentance and so his sin is covered he's forgiven and the Lord will now open his mouth but what will he do when his mouth is open? well he'll rejoice in God and he'll rejoice in the salvation of God and in the righteousness of God and we see that very thing don't we in Psalm 71 where we have David now as an old man David's now come to his final years in Psalm 71.

What does he say there? Verse 18 of that Psalm, Now when I am old and grey-headed, O God, forsake me not. Read through that Psalm and see how David rejoices in making mention of the Lord and the Lord's righteousness. verse 15 he says 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 at the end of the psalm 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 his mouth is opened and his mouth is opened only to speak the praises of God he can only rejoice in the righteousness of God it was the same was it not with the Apostle Paul really he was one so self-righteous that man what awful sin we see in Saul the Pharisee touching the righteousness which is of the law blameless. That's me. I've never transgressed the Lord of God, the Pharisee.

Oh, but when the Lord deals with him, and he speaks there, doesn't he, in the third chapter of Philippians, his one desire to be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith you know was David's sin the worst sin or was Saul the Pharisee's sin the worst sin Interesting, isn't it? Quite a dilemma. What is the worst sin? David, an adulterer, a murderer. Saul of Tarsus, a self-righteous Pharisee. Awful sin, isn't it? Awful sin. But each of them are brought to this. They can only rejoice in the righteousness of another. And that's what they will talk of. That's what David will talk of all the days of his life. And it's amazing, isn't it, how God does open the mouths of his people. He's the one who's opening David's mouth here, in this psalm.

He says, doesn't he, in the previous 14th verse, My tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness, O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. And what what lends and what troubles the Lord God goes to open a man's mouth we see it in the case of Moses when he's called to be the deliverer of the children of Israel there in Exodus chapter 3 but then when we come to chapter 4 he's making his objections he can't be the man for such a work as God is calling him to look at the language that we have in that fourth chapter in Exodus 4 in verses 10 and 11 and 12 Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth, or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say. Moses is objective, but what does the Lord do? Well, the Lord has done something previous to this. The Lord has demonstrated his own power in miracles. In the opening verses of that fourth chapter in Exodus Moses answered and said, But behold, they will not believe me, the children of Israel will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice, for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto them.

And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent. And Moses fled before it. And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail.

And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand. that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto them. And the Lord said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again, and plucked it out, of his bosom and behold it was turned again as his other flesh and it shall come to pass if they will not believe thee hearken to the voice of the first sign and neither hearken to the voice of the first sign that they will believe the voice of the latter sign and it shall come to pass if they will not believe also these two signs neither hearken unto thy voice that they shall take of the water of the river and pour it upon the dry land and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land and yet Moses objects and says I am not eloquent I am slow of speech and slow of tongue but the Lord is demonstrating his power it's not what Moses is it's not what Moses is, it's what the Lord is and the Lord demonstrates his power and demonstrates it in those miracles and he surely is to go forth in that fight if he's going to be God's messenger to the children of Israel and remember at the end of course the end of all the books of Moses Deuteronomy we see his mouth opened in the praises of God.

Oh, he cannot but praise that God who had sent him and enabled him. And it was under Moses, of course, that they'd come out of Egypt. They'd gone through the Red Sea. They'd gone to Mount Sinai. The Lord had appeared in the mount. The Lord had entered into covenant with them.

And that great anthem, really, of praise and of worship that we have in the 32nd chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. Come right to the end, the closing chapters of Deuteronomy, 32. Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech I'll distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass, because I will publish the name of the Lord.

Ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock. His work is perfect. For all His ways are judgment. The God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He, and so forth. The Son of Moses. The Son of Moses. That's worship, isn't it? but God has to demonstrate his power the man has to see that all the glory belongs to God all the work is God's work those words that we were considering even this morning hour remember the language there in the 26th of Isaiah Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for all for thou also has wrought all our works in us O Lord our God other lords besides thee have had dominion over us but by thee only will we make mention of thy name how can we in worship make mention of God's name without knowing in our souls the summing of the majesty and the sovereignty of our God But what is it that we have here when he comes to worship?

O LORD, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. This is the pleading, this is the pleading of the promise of God. That's what he's doing, he's pleading what God has said. look at what God says to his servant the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel chapter 3 and verse 27 the very chapter where we read of his call, his commission to be prophet to those in the captivity God says when I speak with thee I will open thy mouth when I speak with thee I will open thy mouth And then again in Ezekiel 29, 21, I will give the opening of the mouth. Not only in Ezekiel, Psalm 81 and verse 10, I'm sure we're familiar with that verse. God says there through His servants, the psalmist, open thy mouth wide and I will fill it. You see, what David is doing really is pleading God's promises, he's pleading what God has said. These are the words that God speaks here in Scripture.

O Lord, open thou my mouth, or my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. God says, doesn't he, through Hosea, take with you words and turn to the Lord and say, take away all iniquity and receive us graciously. God issues the word, the word of command, the word of promise. Ask of me things to come and concerning the works of my hand command ye me. The language of Isaiah 45 11. What remarkable words are those. God says to his people, ask me of things to come. and concerning the works of my hand command ye me.

We ought to be presumptuous with God. But when God gives his promise and when God opens the mouth can we not then come with all boldness? This is why God gives us the promises. He gives us his word that we might plead his word. That we might surround him. with his own words. Hold him true to what he has said to us. The old Puritan says we ought to be thickening our prayers with the words of God.

This is what David does in all the humility of his repentance. What boldness. or deliver me from blood guiltiness O God, Thou God of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness O Lord, open Thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth Thy praises that's how we are to worship God to feel our own complete and utter impotence really, we can't we can't render what he is worthy of our praises fall so far short of his glory but observe what real praise is, it's not the outward observance of things, is it? it's not the outward observance verse 16, thou desirest not sacrifice How else would I give it? They delight us not in burnt offerings. Read the opening chapter of Isaiah and see what God made of all their sacrifices. He rejected it. It was just a form. That's all they had. The form. They did not think of the power of godliness. Read that opening chapter. There, all of it. Just reading a few words there in Isaiah 1 and verse 11.

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord? I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, the fatter-fed beasts. I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When you come to appear before me, you have required this at your hand. to tread my courts, bring no more vain oblations, incenses and abomination unto me, the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with. It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. And so it goes on. These people draw near me with the mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts, he says, are far from me. for their fear of me is taught by the doctrines of men." It's not what men say, it's what God does.

And it's our recognition of that complete and utter dependence upon the Lord. If our worship is going to be real and acceptable, it will be inward, it will be spiritual. It will be that that David was caused to bring unto God And what was David? He was a broken man. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, I will not despise. When two men go to the worship at the hour of prayer, the Pharisee and the publican, see how broken hearted the publican was, how he smote upon his breast, a broken heart you see could not lift up his eyes to heaven who was he? what was he? and yet Christ said that was the man who went justified to his house rather than the other or that we might know what this true worship is this worship that has at its centre at its circumference in its totality is taken up with God and our complete and utter dependence upon God.

O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praises. O the Lord, help us then to render such worship to him as shall ever be pleasing in his sight, that sacrifice of the broken spirit the broken and contrite heart that the Lord never despises because it is his own gracious work in the soul of a sinner. May the Lord bless his word to us. Amen.