David's Danger and his Deliverance

Well, let us turn once again to God's Word, and I want tonight to direct you for a little while to words that we find in the book of Psalms. And turning to the 119th Psalm, that's the longest of all the Psalms, of course, 176 verses. and divided into these various sections under the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and we turn to, as I say, the 109th verse.

My soul is continually in my hands, yet do I not forget thy law. In Psalm 119, Verse 109, My soul is continually in my hand, yet do I not forget thy law. And to endeavour to say something with regards to David's danger and his deliverance. David's danger and his deliverance. And I want simply to divide what I'm going to say now into two principal sections, just two points. And first of all to look at the first clause of the verse where David speaks of his life being in his hands. My soul, he says, is continually in my hands.

And the Puritan Joseph Carroll, who wrote an exposition of this or write an exposition, I'd say, of the Book of Job. Well, not an exposition of the Book of Job, but also, of course, preached on other parts of Scripture and certainly was familiar with the Hebrew Old Testament Scriptures. And he remarks with regards to these opening words that this is a Hebraism and it's an expression that signifies a state of extreme and great peril. It's indicative then of David being in great peril.

His soul He says he's continually in his hands and we know how that David certainly experienced that with regards to his natural life, his physical life. He was one of course who as a young boy would be charged to care for the sheep of his father Jesse and in protecting the sheep he would have to defend them from the various beasts of the field and when he goes out against a great giant of the philistines and challenges him he remarks when he was caring for his father's sheep he had to wrestle with a lion and with a bear when they came to attack the flocks. There was a young boy, there were those many occasions when he was in real danger.

And of course we're introduced to him, aren't we, there in that 17th chapter of 1 Samuel, where we have the account of him confronting that giant, the champion of the Philistines, and how he slew the giant. But he ventures forth with just his sling and five stones. And doubtless it would seem that the great giant, the champion, would dispatch him in a moment. But David was victorious and he slew the giant.

But then after that, although initially favoured by King Saul, Saul was a strange man and he would time and again turn against the young man David and seek to kill him. And he says to his friend Jonathan, Saul's son, how at times there seemed to be but a step between him and death. Death was always at hand. His life was continually, in that sense, in his hands. And we read that portion in the 19th chapter of 1 Samuel, how David, even as to be aware that Saul is watching the house and Saul is sending messages to his daughter whom he had given to David, his wife and she has to warn him of the danger that he would be in and he flees, he's continually in perilous circumstances and situations Saul is even plotting against him.

And David becomes aware of his secret plots and he consults with the priest there in the 23rd chapter of the first book of Samuel. All this opposition that he has to suffer from a man like King Saul who was such an unstable character. But it wasn't just that he was threatened by the king, there were also those that he would go to for refuge and they would turn against him. The Ziphites, when he goes to Ziph, and we read of that also there in that 23rd chapter of 1st Samuel. and they send and they tell Saul that David is hiding amongst them and remember how in so many of the Psalms we find in the titles of the Psalms how it's indicated the circumstances in which David came to write these particular Psalms. And so there in Psalm 54, the Psalm of David, we're told when the Ziphims came and said to Saul, Doth not David hide himself with us? And what can David do?

Well, we have the content of the psalm. Save me, O God, by thy name, and judge me by thy strength. Hear my prayer, O God, give ear to the words of my mouth, for strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul. They have not said, God, before them. Selah. He is a man who is moved to utter these prayers to the Lord God as he finds himself in these circumstances.

All the days of the life of King Saul, what sort of experiences this man has. The times favoured by the king and then suddenly when King Saul falls into one of his rages, he will seek to kill David. Doubtless he was aware that it was David who must be king after him, and not his son Jonathan, and yet Jonathan, so submissive to the will of the Lord in all these things. And Jonathan, that one, he was a great friend and at times, under God's good hand, the deliverer of David from the rages of his own father. And then after David becomes king, we still read of those troubles that he has even in his own household when he comes to the end of his days he says although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure which is all my salvation and all my desire that we make it not to grow when he looks at his own children and or the disappointment he must have felt.

We can think for example of the way in which his beloved son Absalom had plotted against his father. In 2 Samuel chapter 15 and chapter 16 we read of how Absalom came and stole the hearts of the men of Israel and turns them against King David. And he speaks of these things. In another psalm, in Psalm 55, we find David making mention of Absalom and also Ahithophel, it would seem. Ahithophel was David's great friend, he was his counselor. But even Ahithophel falls in with Absalom's plotting and scheming.

And the language that we have there in Psalm 55, verse 12, it was not an enemy that reproached me. Then I could have borne it, neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me. Then I would have hid myself from him, but he was there. and mine equal, my guide and mine acquaintance, we took sweet counsel together and walked unto the house of God in company." Is he not speaking here of Ahithophel, his great friend? The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart. His words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.

And oh, he has to pray and cry to the Lord. that he would turn the council of Ahithophel into foolishness and frustrate Absalom's rebellion. Old David knew what it was, you see, to have wicked men about him, and he speaks of that time and again here in the words of this Psalm 95, verse 95, the wicked, he says, have waited for me to destroy me. Again in verse 110, the wicked have laid a snare for me. These wicked men, how they were set bent upon his destruction.

And yet the Lord grants him deliverances. That's a wonderful thing. Oh, the Lord time and again wrought a great deliverance. for King David. And so he speaks of these things in other Psalms, in the 18th Psalm, and there at verse 17 he makes mention of how the Lord appears in answer to his prayers, He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me, for they were too strong for me. And if we turn again to that 54th Psalm, in which he is, it's the situation when the Ziphims have betrayed him to Saul. And at the end of that Psalm he says, He hath delivered me out of all trouble, and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies." Oh, there were many troubles then. He knew what it was to be in the greatest of dangers, and yet the Lord would appear for him. So many times, my soul, he says, is continually in my hand.

But we're not only to think in terms of his physical life, But there's a deeper spiritual meaning surely also in the language that we have here. John Calvin, in his commentary on the book of Psalms, makes the observation that the Psalms are an anatomy of the soul. The Psalms are an anatomy of the soul. In other words, the Psalms are dealing with the inward experiences of the people of God. Yes, it's true that David knew physical danger, but David was the man after God's own heart.

David was a spiritual man, and see here, in the words of the text, he does speak of his soul, and he uses the word continually. My soul, he says, is continually. There were times, of course, physically, when His soul was obviously not in his hand. He wasn't in the gravest of danger. There were times when King Saul favored him very much. But spiritually, there's that sense in which his soul was continually in his hand. Always a prey to the forces of darkness, to Satan, and the ways of a fallen world.

There's that word that's given to the man called Barak in Jeremiah 45 and verse 5, that short chapter. Who was Barak? We don't really know a great deal about him, but he seemed to have served Jeremiah in some capacity a secretary, who would write down the words that maybe Jeremiah was dictating as he was exercising his ministry.

And there in Jeremiah 45.5 there's a word to Baruch.

Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not, says the Lord God. I will bring evil upon all flesh, but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest. Thy life given for a prey in all places whithersoever thou goest. continually being preyed upon.

Doubtless Barak was a spiritually minded man as was Jeremiah and they lived of course in tremendous days, the days of the fall of Jerusalem and the beginnings of the captivity and the people being taken away from Jerusalem and going into bondage in Babylon. Those were the days they lived. Barak's life given to him for a prey. And isn't it a fact that the lives of the people of God are lived under such circumstances?

Peter says the devil is a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour. We are to be aware of the activities of Satan, we're not to be ignorant. of his devices," says the Apostle Paul. And he is like a roaring lion, ever seeking to attack those who are the people of God, those who are the children of God.

The Lord Jesus Christ, all his days, was in some way rather tempted. Yes, he had great temptations at the beginning of his public ministry. after he's baptizing as the Spirit leads him into the wilderness, how the devil assaults him for 40 days and 40 nights and then he leaves him for a season. That's what it says, the devil left him for a season. It was a small season because the Lord himself says at the end to his disciples, ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. And if that was true of the Lord Jesus, so surely it must be true of those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And again, David in the Psalm, Psalm 57 and verse 4 says, My soul is among lions. My soul, again he's speaking of course of the inward man. Not speaking of any physical dangers, but the danger that his soul is in. It's among lions and we observe it's a plural. Though the devil is a roaring lion, But that's in the singular. There's not just Satan who will come and attack the child of God from without, come with his suggestions and his temptations, but there are lions within. Oh, there's that sin that is within the people of God.

Paul says, I know that in me. that is, in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing." Where does evil come from? Well, the Lord Jesus makes it clear, it proceeds out of the hearts of men. All these wicked things, they come from the heart, because we are those who are not only guilty of actual sins, but we have a sinful nature, which we have of course inherited from our first parents, that sin that has come coursing down all the centuries.

Myself, the old Ralph Erskine, one of those great Scots ministers back in the 18th century would often say, all that I had not are myself, the good that I would, I do not, the evil that I would, not that I do, all wretched man that I am, the language of the apostle, there in Romans 7.

The flesh lofteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and ye cannot do the thing that ye would. My soul is continually in my hand. The believer is continually then in the gravest of danger. The believer's life constantly in jeopardy. There's a fight to be fought. Fight the good fight of faith, says the Apostle to young Timothy. Lay hold on eternal life. There's a conflict.

And not only a conflict, there are those trials and testings. Peter says, Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you this is the lot of the people of God even the Lord Jesus himself has said as much in the world ye shall have tribulation but be of good cheer I have overcome the world there's an overcoming and the overcoming is only in and through the Lord Jesus Christ Often think of those words in 1 Peter 4 at the beginning of verse 18. Remember what Peter says there, if the righteous scarcely be saved. If the righteous, that is, the justified sinner, because we know there's an unrighteous, no, not one. If we are the righteous, it's because we're in Christ, our justification. is only in Him, to be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ," says Paul, the righteousness which is of God. By faith, a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees.

And that's whom Peter is speaking of there in 1 Peter 4.18, if the righteous scarcely be saved.

What does that mean? Well, it doesn't mean that there's the possibility that the justified sinner can all of a sudden all together lose his faith and be lost again. It doesn't mean that at all. One of the Puritans, Richard Sibbes says, it's not a word of doubt, it's a word of danger. Not a word of doubt, there's no doubt.

Those who are in Christ are secure for time and for eternity once in him in him forever thus the eternal covenant stands we sometimes sing those lines but it is a word of danger my soul is continually in my hands the life is in the hands but also here There's a sense in which God's law is in the heart.

And so I want us to turn to the other part, the second clause in the verse. Yet do I not forget thy law, thy word have I hid in my heart, he says elsewhere in this psalm. Thy word have I hid in my heart. And so here is the difference. But it's interesting, isn't it? Observe the connection between these two clauses, and it's that word, yet. My soul is continually in my hand, yet do I not forget thy law. There's a sense in which it's the word of God that is the cause of his soul being in his hand. It is a fearful, it's an awesome thing for sinners to have dealings with God in his words, when God's word really comes to us.

Job certainly knew something of that. Look at the language which Job employs there in chapter 13 and at verse 14 following. Job chapter 13, verse 14, he says, Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand? It's the same expression as David has really.

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. But I will maintain mine own ways before him. He also shall be my salvation, for an hypocrite shall not come before him. Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth and put my life in mine hand though he slay me? Though he slay me? Though it's what the Lord does. And what does the Lord do when he brings his word to us? Well, there is that sense in which God's word brings with it the conviction of sin.

Paul says, doesn't he, I had not known sin but by the law for I had not known lust except the commandment said thou shalt not covet. Now this is a man who knew the law. Concerning the righteousness which is of the law when he was a Pharisee he could say he was blameless, he knew the law. He knew it in a sort of intellectual way He'd sat at the feet of Gamaliel, he was well-schooled in all the Hebrew scriptures, and all the traditions of the fathers, and yet, in a sense, he never knew the law at all then.

When the law came, he says, sin revived, and I died. That's a strange thing. I was alive without the law once. But the commandment came, and sin revived, and I died." It is a solemn thing then when God's law really comes into the soul of a sinner. Then how much is the soul in the hands? There David says, "...yet do I not forget thy law?" Oh, when the Lord comes by His Spirit in His work, Again Paul says, we know that whatever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before God. By the law no flesh can be justified in his sight, by the law is the knowledge of sin.

And we have those words in the hymn 310. In many ways, it's one of those hymns, I suppose, which is better used in private devotion than in public worship. There are hymns like that in Gadsby's selection. So long hymn 310, some eight verses, but look at the language that we have here.

In the first verse, Lord, when thy spirit descends to show the badness of our hearts, astonished at the amazing view, the soul with horror starts. Verse four, our staggering faith gives way to doubt, our courage yields to fear, shocked at the sight. We straight cry out, can ever God dwell here? surely there the hymn writer knew what he was talking about. It was Paul's experience as Paul outlines that experience in Romans and especially there in Romans 7.

This is the word of God that's quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing to dividing the son of soul and spirit from the joints and marrow, a discerner, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, or as the law worketh wrath.

The law worketh wrath. I had not known sin, but by the law, Paul says. It's that ministration of condemnation, that ministration of death that he speaks of in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. And so, there's something foul now. Again, the hymn writer says, to cease in smarts, but slightly, to own with live confession is easier still, but oh, to feel. Cuts deep beyond expression when we're made to feel these things.

God's law finds us out in every part, every aspect of our lives. Whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point. James says that man is guilty of all. The law requires a full, complete, perfect obedience to every one of its commandments and precepts and obedience in thought, in word and in deed. What a demand it is that that holy law of God makes.

And so in the previous verse, 96, David says, I have seen an end of all perfection, but thy commandment is exceeding broad. And of course there, the little conjunction but is in italics. It's much more stark. I have seen an end of all perfection. Thy commandment is exceeding broad. It's the commandment that makes him see. The end of all perfection.

Who can measure up to that requirement that God sets before us in His holy and infallible law? All my soul is continually in my hand yet, says David, I do not forget thy law. Because what is the real ministration of the law? Well, it's that schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. This is how Paul explains it all, isn't it? There in Galatians chapter 3. There is a ministry of the law and that really is the great subject matter that Paul's dealing with in the Galatian epistle. He says, doesn't he, verse 23, there, before faith came we were kept under the law, shut up, under the faith which should afterward be revealed.

Oh, the law shuts us up to what we are. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. But after the faith is come we are no longer under a schoolmaster. for ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."

Oh, thank God for that blessed ministry of the law. You see, God's Word isn't just law. God's Word is also gospel. And though the law, Paul is saying there, is meant to serve the gospel, the gospel as the priority, It says there in Galatians again that it was 430 years before Man Sinai and the giving of the law that God entered into covenant with Abraham. And there in that covenant made with Abraham we have really the gospel. For the law is added because of transgressions. As God convicts the sinner, so He also comes to minister comforts to the sinners.

Again, if we look back in the Psalm, verse 75, David says, I know, O LORD, that Thy judgments are right, and that Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. or when the Lord afflicts us, when He shows us ourselves, when He convinces us of our sins, when He deals with us in any contrary ways. He has a blessed end in view. We know that in all His chastenings. They all minister the fruits of righteousness to those who are exercised thereby, we're told in Hebrews chapter 12. Because God is the one then who brings that conviction. He is the one who also ministers the consolations of the gospel. And the language we have there in Deuteronomy 32, 39, see now that I, even I am he. There is no God with me. I kill and I make a life. I wound and I heal. Neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. Well, this is the God.

Job says something very similar, or Eliphaz, there in Job 5.18, "...he maketh sore and bindeth up, he woundeth, and his hands make whole."

This is the God then who ultimately will deliver His people. He causes us to see what we are and what our sins are, in order that He might reveal to us that only way of salvation, which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's been well said that where we get our wounding, there we find our healing. That's the ministry of the Word of God, isn't it? It's law, it's gospel. And that law is meant to serve the gospel and to bring us to the end of self. And to see that all our salvation is only in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so David here in the words of the text, my soul, is continually in my hand, yet do I not forget thy law." We have to remember, of course, that there are these occasions where the word law isn't just referring to the law of the Ten Commandments, it's one of those synonyms that are used throughout this psalm in reference to what we know as the Scriptures, sometimes spoken of as God's law, or God's statutes, or God's judgments, or God's precepts. It's the Word of God. And as I said, God's Word is not all law. It's law, but it's gospel. The law was given by Moses. Grace and truth came by the Lord Jesus Christ.

And there it is that we have all our salvation by the Lord bless to us his word we're going to conclude short service by singing the hymn 954 the tune is holly 348 Save me, O God, my spirit cries, and on thy faithful word rely. Save me from sin, my desperate foe, that fills my soul with every woe. Hymn 954, tune 348.

David's Danger and his Deliverance

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David's Danger and his Deliverance

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