Commanded deliverances

Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 44, and reading from our text, verse 4. Psalm 44, verse 4, Thou art my King, O God. Command deliverances for Jacob. Psalm 44, and verse 4. The psalm begins with a testimony of what has been heard of the Lord's deliverance in times past.

It's a good principle, isn't it? For fathers to pass on to their children those things the Lord has done for them, how he has appeared for them. We have of course this recorded in the Holy Word of God and specifically what is mentioned here, how the children of Israel got the Promised Land. How the Lord went before them, delivered them, delivered their enemies into their hand and gave them their land.

In response to that, the Church of God, and this is who is speaking through this psalm, speaks the words of our text, Thou art my king, O God. Command deliverances for Jacob. Yes, God was their king, but here's a profession that he is our king, and again, What a blessing if we can, of hearing the generations before us how the Lord had blessed them and was their King, that we can have the same profession. The psalmist goes on, the Church of God goes on. Through thee will we push down our enemies, through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us. And there's a profession of what the present Church of God will do through the Lord, that is their belief and trust.

But then the scene changes in verse 9. It begins with a but. Things that actually are happening are not going according to what their profession and their expectation was. Thou hast cast us off and put us to shame, goest not forth with our armies. Seems to be the Lord has put to shame all of their trust in him. It doesn't seem to make sense at all that the enemy seems to be triumphing. But the Church nevertheless has a wonderful testimony in verse 17 and 18 and what follows.

All this is come upon us, yet have we not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant, our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way." That is a blessed encouragement, isn't it? There may be those of you here that walk the same path, you have the same profession, but you look upon things And they don't add up. There's so much come upon you, so much discouragement. And yet the amazing thing, you still keep coming, you still keep praying, you still keep hoping, you still cleave to the Lord.

Naturally, man would say, oh, and they do. They say, this is how God deals with us. We don't want Him. We're not going along with Him. But what an encouragement if we can come in here, though we may have all those discouragements, you say, I can go along with this psalm. I have not turned back. I am still seeking, following after the Lord. I still have this profession. Thou art my King, O God.

Command deliverances for Jacob. And so at the end of the psalm, There is again a cry to the Lord to awake and to appear. Arise for our help and redeem us for Thy mercy's sake. Our text has a mirror in the Gospel passage we read in 2 Corinthians chapter 1. as we finish that portion, verse 10, who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust he will yet deliver us. I want to look with the Lord's help this evening, firstly at the Church's profession, thou art my king, O God. And then secondly, for whom that deliverance is sought, it's spoken of here as for Jacob. Not for Israel, for Jacob. And then lastly, the church's petition, command deliverances for Jacob. But firstly, we have the profession of the Church of God.

We cannot help thinking and reading a verse like this, To go right back to when Israel first had a literal king, when King Saul was appointed, when Israel had seen Nahash, seen nations that were coming against them and they had a king and they wanted a king.

Samuel was very grieved when they asked a king. But the Lord said, they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me. And Samuel had to protest to them that what they had asked was a wrong thing. One solemn thing was they wanted to be like the other nations. Now we know, of course, that it had been foretold in Deuteronomy that there would be a king. And of course, David was to be raised up. It was said of Saul, I gave their king in mine anger and took him away in my wrath. But Samuel had to really protest that Israel was to not be looking for a man, for a king like the other nations round about. It was a time of harvest.

And Samuel drew their attention to it. And he said, the Lord will send thunder and rain today, that ye may understand there is an evil thing, that ye have asked a king. But also he gave them a blessing, that if they and their king served the Lord, and that the Lord still was their king, and to go before them, they would be blessed, and their king would be blessed. But solemn morning should they depart from him. Israel was never to forget that though they had kings like other nations, men over them, the Lord God was their king. And so their profession here Thou art my King, O God.

Not only the church as a whole professing it, but each individual member of it as well. Sometimes in our land we might have the Our King going along the road or going in front of crowds and you will see people with a sign up or crying out, not my king. They're trying to make a statement that they do not want to be subject to our king. They do not recognise him, his authority. Of course we know in our land we have the governments, it's not the divine right of kings, it's not like it was in the time of Charles I or those, King Henry VIII, when the kings had a lot of power, or like, of course, in the days of Scripture. But you get the idea that there are some, instead of saying, Thou art my king, they will say, Thou art not my king. And most solemnly in our land today, this really is said concerning Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The world says, Thou art not my King. Who are you? Who should we obey you? Like Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord that I should obey him? He professed, I am Pharaoh, I am King over Egypt. I have supreme authority and supreme power. Well, the Lord proved that he didn't. There was a king of kings and lord of lords, one over it all. And it's good for us to remember this. There is a king of kings and lord of lords.

There is one who has supreme authority, a supreme right to govern us and ours according to his righteous lords and according to his will. one that is able to deliver, one that is able to order and govern how those deliverances should be. It is good then if we have as well this same profession concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we might say how How is it, if we are professing that, how does that work in practice? If we are saying, and God bears record, that we are saying that He is our King, how is it in practice? Well, we are viewing Him as supreme above all other men governments, the Lord is over all, who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not.

We acknowledge that he has a sovereign right to do what he will in the armies of heaven and throughout this world. We also acknowledge that he has given us his word and that he is bound himself by his word. And though heaven and earth pass away, his word shall not pass away. And his authority is exercised in the word of God. And especially with us who are his servants and ministers of the gospel, we are to preach the word. Preaching is the authoritative declaration of the word of God. and the authority is not in us, not in any minister, but it is in the word. Where the word of a king is, there is power. The Lord says that my word shall not return unto me void, it shall accomplish the thing whereto I sent it.

We also acknowledge the means that God uses to order this world in the realm of spiritual blessings, it is through the Word and through the preaching of the Word and through the power of the Holy Spirit. We also acknowledge that He has supreme authority over all providences, everything that happens, all that we do, all that we say, all that men say, that when we testify that he is our king, that we are not saying, well, you can be king in some things, but if a providence comes that I don't like, then I'm going to rebel and rise up against thee and not acknowledge this as coming from thy hand. We think of the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ, where written over him was Jesus, of Nazareth the king of the Jews. But our Lord was very clear that my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight.

And though we have here in the context of fighting to go into the land of Canaan, we think in a spiritual sense there is a warfare. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold upon eternal life. He wrestled not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, spiritual wickedness in heavenly places.

There is a warfare, a Christian warfare, and we do need a king that is governing it and ordering it. And so to be mindful of this, If we are the Lord's people, there is a warfare, we need a king, we have a king, we have one that orders the battles, who is one that commands deliverances. Bless God. He's given us that faith and that view and understanding that in our pathway and in our lives, we do have a leader. We do have a king, a supreme authority.

And of course with the children of Israel we have it through the prophecies. He didn't only deal and speak of things concerning the children of Israel but other nations as well. How helpless would our king be if he only had jurisdiction over his people and all the rest They had other gods, other kings, other ones. But through the scriptures we have it very clear that He is over all the lands and over all people.

And so there is none that can rise up against Him or come against the people of God and the Lord have no power against them or ability to help us. Very evident in the Psalms. that the psalmist, the Church of God, is truly viewing the Lord as their King and having ability to redeem, to save and to deliver.

I want to look secondly at for whom deliverance is sought. Thou art my King, O God, command deliverances for Jacob." At the end of the account when Joseph's brothers came to Jacob and they told him that Joseph was alive, they showed him the wagons and though his heart fainted, He believed them not at first, but when he saw all the wagons, we read that the heart of Jacob revived, or the spirit of Jacob revived, and Israel said, Joseph my son is yet alive, I'll go and see him before I die. And I like those verses there at the end of Genesis 45. where we get a picture of Jacob and Israel. Remember how he got the name Israel.

There he was with Esau coming against him with 400 men and he was wrestling with the angel in Genesis 32. I will not let thee go except thou bless me. Thou hast wrestled with God and with man and hast prevailed. That was one of the pre-incarnation appearances of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And Jacob, wrestling Jacob, Jacob wrestling for a blessing, for deliverance from his brother, from saving from death staring him in the face.

He was given the name. of Israel. Jacob was one of the Lord's people when he was Jacob as well as when he was Israel. When he was given the name of Israel it wasn't the case that he was never ever again referred to as Jacob. Jacob meant supplanter. Jacob was his birth name.

But how many of us know and feel this? Though the Lord may have blessed us, and maybe more than once, with those deliverances and blessings that we have prevailed and we have been as Israel, but then we become like Jacob. Jacob who said, all these things are against me. Jacob who couldn't see the good, who couldn't see the Lord's hand, who struggled with it.

And so I do like it when we have here, it's not Israel, but it's Jacob. As if the Lord is mindful of his people in their weakness, their unbelief, their need of the Lord to appear for them and help them. the Lord mindful of what they were and what they are only by his blessing and by his grace and his appearing for them.

In one sense, Jacob was Jacob as he was resting for the blessing. When he got the blessing then he was Israel. We could say with our text, command deliverances for Jacob so that he rises as Israel and prevails with God. One of the beautiful things with the Gospel, He remembereth that we are but dust.

The Lord knows us and in our lowest state and in our low condition. And the other aspect is as well, when the Lord commands deliverances, He does it when His people are in need and especially when He begins, they are as Jacob. We need to remember that. We are only favoured and blessed as the Lord appears for us and delivers us and saves us. I believe the word comes down and may come to where some are, perhaps this evening, who say, I'm poor, I'm fearing, I'm doubting, I'm unbelieving, I'm struggling, I'm not what I once was, of being able to Testify the Lord's goodness and to rise to being in Israel. But here I find a word for Jacob's.

And all of God's children will need that right the way through life too. The Lord comes to us and delivers us and lifts us up, not for our sake, not for our duties, not for our faith, Not for our goodness, but for His own abounding grace and love and mercy. So I want to look then thirdly at the Church's petition, Command Deliverances. Command Deliverances for Jacob.

If God wished, if it was his will as sovereign, he could just command a deliverance and it instantly happened. When the children of Israel were coming into Canaan, he could have just wiped out all the inhabitants of the land, and just put them in there. But he didn't. It was done little by little and really any war, any war is done not by one command but by the king having a strategy and commanding it.

Sometimes in the Old Testament we read the prophet saying, perhaps to Ahab even, that he is to go to war against the Syrians. And he was said, who shall order the battle? Thou shalt order the battle. And the king then decides what number, where they go, how they act, what they do. And sometimes, very remarkably, the Lord is the one that is directing.

You think of the case of Gideon. There is Gideon, there is the children of Israel under the Midianites' hand. They come in and they ruin all of their produce and they just fill the land, a multitude of the Midianites. And God appears to Gideon. and he says that he would deliver Israel through his hand.

How is he to do it? The first thing that's done is that he's to cut down the groves, the idolatrous things of his father, but then he's to offer a sacrifice unto the Lord. At the end of this Arise for our help and redeem us for Thy mercy's sake. At the end of Psalm 25, redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles. The very beginning of a commanded deliverance by God for His people is redemption. They are purchased. The blood is shed. The warrant for helping sinners has been brought in. That was the case with Gideon.

That is the case with all the people of God. When the Lord commands deliverances for His people it begins I was going to say Calvary, but it begins with the lamb slain from the foundation of the world for his people. And the Lord God, the commander of the deliverances for his people, says, I command in the deliverance of my people, this must come first. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission. This is how I deliver. This is how I will exercise my kingship."

But then Gideon had to reduce his army. It was too big. Why did the Lord say it was too big? Because man would have taken the credit for any deliverance. So he first said, if any was fearful and afraid, you go home. Many went home. And it's still too big. So then he had to test them at the waters, the ones that lapped, the ones that just drank of the water, and reduce his army down to 300. The Lord is commanding deliverance. There is the deliverance at the end of this process, but the Lord is commanding each step along the way.

Gideon is fearful. So the Lord says, go down with thy servant and hear them tell the dream. And he hears the dream being told of a cake of barley bread falling into the camp, hitting a tent, laying along. And his fellow interpreted, he said, this is none other but Gideon, the son of Joash, by whose hand Israel or Midianite shall be delivered into Israel's hands. And Gideon was so strengthened. God, their king, ordering the battle, had ordered that his commander should be strengthened at that point in what he was going to do.

Because what is he for weapons? He's got pitchers and lamps and trumpets. And they go round the camp. What a strange strategy. But who's ordering it? Who's commanding this deliverance? God is commanding it. It's not Gideon saying, I think I'm going to do this and that. God is doing it. God is ordering.

Not as just straight forth a deliverance with no steps in it, but steps in it ordered so that eventually Israel completely prevails against the Midianites. And this is what is very much upon my spirit with this verse that is before us. Command deliverances for Jacob, commanding it in a way that the Lord is ordering all of the steps.

And remember this psalm, the experience of the psalmist, they'd heard what the Lord had done, had had their profession, but it didn't seem like the Lord really had gone before them. And many times with the steps the Lord makes in delivering his people, as well, it seems to be a step backward, not a step forward.

Let's think when the children of Israel went into the Promised Land. They went in first through Jericho. The Lord again ordering it. Wasn't Joshua deciding to go round and round the wall seven times and then one time each day and then the seventh day seven times? That was God's ordering, the commanding, the deliverance of Jericho into their hand.

Then they went up against Ai. And they were put to the worst. They were killed. You can come in with your son. What's happened? Why has this happened? Why haven't we got deliverance? The Lord said, because someone has taken of the accursed thing. And they had to find Achan. And they had to put him to death. They had to deal with that. And then the Lord said he'd be with them.

But then the Lord orders the battle as well and teaches them how they are to go now up against Ai who think that they're going to be beaten again. Ai doesn't realise they put ambushments behind. So when Israel starts to flee and to run and to have some killed as they had before, they leave the city open and they pursue after them and Israel then comes in and takes the city. And you see the Lord ordering that deliverance. A setback where they can, things set right and then back on track and how they are to do it. And this is done in literal battles and the Lord dealing with his people. But this is applied in a spiritual way as well.

What kind of deliverances do the people of God need? The very first one is the deliverance from death. We're all dead in trespasses and sins. We need deliverance from that. When we're delivered from that, we come under the law. Feeling under the law, we need deliverance from that. From seeking a righteousness of our own and a way of salvation of our own. We think of Satan.

We think of the world, we think of our flesh, we think of providential things, providential deliverances, spiritual trials and spiritual deliverances, temptations, habits, snares, how many things there are that we could say the Lord's people need delivering from.

Deliverances for Jacob. We might say, with this snare, this trouble, this unbelief, this dark cloud, the Lord can in a moment just command it and it just be delivered. But this is where I felt in this verse, command deliverances for Jacob. It's not just one deliverance, there's many aspects as I've just said, but it is a commanding it like a commander, like the kings, that there was many steps to it. If we go to the Apostle Paul for an example to this. The Apostle Paul was a Pharisee of the Pharisees and He trusted that he himself was righteous. He says, I was alive without the law once.

So how is the Lord going to deliver him? What is he going to do? He says, when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. So the Lord ordered the law and he picked out one commandment, thou shalt not covet, and he convicted the Apostle Paul of evil lustful desire through that one command. And that took away his righteousness. It took away his own religion, his own hope for heaven.

One step as it were in what the Lord was going to do for him. And then he appears for Paul on the Damascus road. He stops him from persecuting the people of God that were calling on the Lord and he brings him as a blind, dependent sinner and what he saw during that time, what he heard during that time, we don't know but we know that He says later he was caught up into the third heavens and heard unspeakable things which is not lawful for a man to utter. And the Lord then gave him a commission and sent him forth to preach in his name. But the Lord doesn't deliver by halves.

Paul had a natural spirit, a proud spirit. So he says, lest I was exalted above measure, the Lord gave me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffer me. Remember the Lord is bringing from works to salvation by grace. Paul, you have got to know what grace is. This is part of my commanded deliverances to bring you from works to grace, so your blessing is going to be balanced. Paul says, Paul, I don't like this thorn in the flesh. I pray three times, Lord, take this away, I don't want this. But the Lord says, no, my grace is sufficient for thee, my strength is made perfect in weakness. Paul says, much rather then will I glory my infirmity that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

And his profession later on, by the grace of God I am what I am. And you think of how he writes to the Ephesians, by grace you are saved through faith and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. And the Lord had brought this man as a self-righteous Pharisee from being a poor sinner saved by grace and established in the doctrines of grace. He delivered him. But he'd commanded the deliverance through all of those steps.

Now not all of the Lord's people will be dealt with in that same way. But one thing is sure. The Lord will be the one that commands the deliverance. Whether it is quick, whether it is short, whether it is perhaps years or a long time under the law, or whether it is a quick deliverance, whether it is through trials, through tribulation, we know all the children of God, it shall be through much tribulation they enter into the kingdom. But what we want to see is that all that comes upon us, that the Lord is the order of it. And we see the Lord's ordered this providence, this trial, this weakness, this sickness.

The psalmist says it was good that I was afflicted. Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept thy word. The Lord has used that. Those times when Something has happened in the week and you've come into the house of God and the Lord has joined together the word with what's happened.

We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose. In Ezekiel, wheels within wheels, these things joining together. It is the Lord commanding them. It's not just haphazard. It's not just luck. It's not just happening that these things end up for a spiritual deliverance and end up saving the people of God from their snares and Satan and from every error. The Lord has commanded these deliverances. And you see every step in Zion's road.

We could go on. You think of with deliverance out of Egypt. The Lord could have brought them straight out. But what steps? The training for Moses, first 40 years in Pharaohs, then 40 years in the desert, then he comes and they rejoice. Deliverance. No. The Lord was commanding that deliverance and there was to be all these nine plagues first. Before then there was to be the Passover.

And then they were to be brought out. And even then, they might have thought we could clean out, but no, they're hedged in with the Red Sea in front, the mountains beside them, and Egypt coming behind. But the Lord still had a plan. He was still the King. He was still ordering and commanding Israel's deliverance in such a way that they'd never see the Egyptians again anymore. And so he parts the Red Sea and he brings them through.

These are things that we need to know, not just that we have been delivered, but how we have been delivered. You might say to those two on the way to Emmaus, you began that journey very despondent, very low, with no belief. How were you delivered? What happened that afterwards you could say and be glad and the Lord has risen indeed? They'd say, well, we were taken by this stranger right through the Scriptures to see Christ through the Scriptures. And then he made himself known to us in the breaking of the bread.

They told what was done in the way and how Jesus was made known to them. all His dealings wise and good, uniform though strange or contrarious. The Lord knows what He will do, how He will do things. Many times, especially around the crucifixion, the disciples did not know what was happening, what the Lord was doing, but He knew what He was doing.

And in your life and in mine as well, We may have a deliverance in view, that which we really want the Lord and come in with this last verse and say, arise for our help and redeem us for thy mercy's sake. And the Lord begins and he arises as our King and commanding deliverances but at first you don't recognise it because he's ordering it in these steps and in these ways. Maybe feeling like a step forward and then a step backward. But in all his doing, you see a wisdom, a deepening of a work, a work that, instead of just viewing one thing, you see many things, and you see his hand. Who so is wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. Now those of you here praying this prayer, redeem us, save us, help us, be mindful of this, that the Lord doesn't very seldom answer in one command and a deliverance, but in steps, things leading up to it, and often in trials first, before being up again and blessed.

You think of what I've tried to set before you this evening, and when you read many of the accounts of scripture, you read in the book of Esther, the book of Ruth, you notice how the Lord has wrought his deliverances, the steps that he's done, and things that you marvel at, marvel at the timing, the wisdom, the ordering of it.

And I hope we can see in our own lives this, to His honour and glory, that where the Lord has begun to command deliverances for us, He commanded first His beloved Son and His sufferings and death, then commanded us to be born and then born again and every aspect of that and every step to deliver us at last to be with Him in Heaven to His honour and glory, to His eternal praise right the way through life. May we remember this. This be our profession. Thou art my King, O God. Command deliverances for Jacob. rise for our help and redeem us, for thy mercy's sake, or as Paul would say, who hath delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver in whom he trusts, that he will yet deliver us. May the Lord grant his blessing. Amen.

Commanded deliverances

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Commanded deliverances

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