Come back to Psalm 143. Psalm 143. I have a couple of titles for the
message. You can pick whichever one you want. Hear My Prayer, or verse 11, Bring My Soul Out
of Trouble. Hear My Prayer. or bring my soul
out of trouble. Let's look at this psalm. Psalm
of David. Starts out in verse 1. Hear my prayer, O Lord. Give ear to my supplications. I cannot put a value upon this
sentence. Hear my prayer. What a blessing to be able to
call upon the God of heaven and earth, a creator of all things,
to be able to call upon Him and be heard, to be able to enter
into the Holy of Holies and have an audience with Almighty God. There's no way we can comprehend
that, is there? But we can believe it and we
can do it. We can believe it and we can
do it. All men do not have this blessing. For all men do not
have faith. All men do not believe God. This blessing is a blood-bought
right. It is a blood-bought privilege
of the redeemed of God. We have a right now and a privilege
to enter into His presence and cast our cares upon Him. We have a right to do that. Through the blood and through
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can cast all
our cares upon our Father who cares for us. No prayer is trivial, and there
is no such thing as a little prayer. I've heard this said
before, say a little prayer for me. There is no such thing as
a little prayer. There is no such thing as having
an audience with God and speaking to Almighty God. There's nothing
small about that. Not at all. And in thy faithfulness, this
is an attribute of God. David reaches out and he grabs
hold. of one of the attributes of God, one of those attributes
that gives us so much comfort. It has all these attributes to
do. But here is one, God's faithfulness. God is faithful to hear the prayers
of His children. O thou that hearest prayers, in thy faithfulness, David appeals
to God's faithfulness. God is faithful to His promises. call upon me in the day of trouble,
and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." That
is a promise, and God is faithful to keep that promise. He's faithful
to do it. God is faithful to keep His people, whatever the situation. God is
faithful. He's faithful to defend them.
He's faithful to deliver them. He's faithful to do just as He
promised and said that he would do it. Take him at his word. That's what David does here. He encourages himself through
the faithfulness of God. Also here it says, answer me
in thy righteousness, in the righteousness of the gospel,
in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Answer me. God can answer me. God can hear
me. God can deal with me through
the blood and the righteousness of His Son, Jesus Christ. He
can do that. A sinner like me can call upon
a holy God and be heard and get an answer. Get an answer. God will answer His children. He'll answer. He'll answer in
His time, but He'll answer. And enter not into judgment with
thy servant. I know what I am. I've been taught
that by the Word of God, by the Holy Spirit, by experience. I
know what I am. I know going into God's presence
that if He willed to, He could deal with me. He could just pick
a day, pick a day, pick a sin, and deal with me in judgment.
And he says here, it's almost like he walks into the Holy of
Holies with his head covered and he says, don't deal with
me in judgment. Hear my prayer. In thy faithfulness
answer me. In thy righteousness, the righteousness
that we have in Christ, but don't enter into judgment with me.
I can't stand before God if he enters into judgment with me.
You know, I can go to court maybe with another person and maybe
win, depends on who has the best lawyer. I'm telling you, if you're
going to go to court, get the best lawyer. But I can enter
into judgment with God. I tell you what, I got the best
lawyer. I got the best advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, I tell you, no man living
He says here, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. I'm not going to enter into God's
presence on my merit because of who I am and who my parents
are and ancestry. I'm not going to do that. Fool
do that. And there was a time I was foolish
enough to do that. But not now. Not now. No man living, no man living
will be justified in God's sight by his own merits. No man living can stand in the
court of God's justice on his own and live. Only in Christ, in Him, in His
righteousness through His blood can I stand in God's presence
and live and be heard and get an answer. And here's his reason
for coming into God's presence. have persecuted my soul. They're
after my soul. They're not just after my goods. They're not just after what I
own. They're after me. They want to destroy me. After
my soul. Just like when our Lord walked
on this earth, the Pharisees were after His soul. They wanted
to destroy Him. They wanted to put Him to death.
They sought how they might kill Him. Every child of God, every
saint of God has his enemy. Has his enemy. We live in a fallen
world. We live in a world that hates
God. Now, you can tell people that. No, I don't hate God. Well, just
tell them the truth and you'll find out. They hate the Lord
Jesus Christ. Tell them the truth about Christ.
Tell them how he died for a particular people. You'll find out. You'll
find out they hate God. They hate Christ. You'll find
out they hate you. If they hated me, he said, they'll
hate you. You're living in a fallen world
that can't stand who God is. In this life, we will never be
without our enemies. In this world, our Lord said,
you shall have tribulations. You're going to have troubles
and trials in this world. You can't live right in a wrong
world and not have trouble. You can't do it. But although
they would smite my life down to the ground, Lord, don't you
forsake me. Don't you forsake me. Everybody else may forsake
me, but don't you forsake me. Don't you leave me. If you don't
leave me, everyone else can forsake me. And I'll end up all right. Right? I'll end up all right.
Whatever comes my way, whatever comes your way, if you lose everything,
it doesn't matter what goes on. If you have Christ, if the end
result is all right, it's going to be all right. Therefore, he
said, is my spirit, because of this trouble, is my spirit overwhelmed
within me? It's overwhelmed. Have you ever
been overwhelmed? Have you ever had anything so trying that it
just absolutely overwhelms you. I mean, it just puts you to your
knees. There's nothing harder to deal with than when your spirit
is broken. I mean, when it is cast down
to the ground. When you just cannot get yourself
back up. When your heart is gone. When you see no way out. You feel left alone, that God
does not even hear you. Where is he at? Joe said, I go
forward, I can't find him. I go backward, I can't find him.
I go to the left, I go to the right. I don't know where he
is. Some have been there. Most haven't,
but some have. You can't find him. Well, when that happens, here's
what you do. Here's what you do. We have it right here in
the Word of God in verse 5. I remember the days of old. I meditate on all thy works. That's what you do. I can't see what's ahead of me. I can't see tomorrow. I can't
see outside this building. I don't know what's going on
outside this building right now. But I can look back at the days
of old, and I can see how God has already dealt with me. And
as He has dealt with me, so He will deal with me. You can mark
that down. As God delivers me time and time
again, He'll do it again. You go over to Psalm 107, when
they were always in trouble, and they cried unto the Lord,
and then He delivered them, They rejoiced and then they were in
trouble again. Let's look at that. What did I say? Psalm 107? I think it's Psalm 107. Well, let's see where we went
there. They said, O give thanks unto
the Lord, verse 1, for he is good and his mercy is forever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed
from the hand of the enemy, and hath gathered them out of the
lands from the east and from the west, from the north and
from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary
way. They found no city to dwell in, hungry and thirsty. Their
soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go
to a city inhabited, O that men would praise the Lord for his
goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men.
For he satisfies the lonely soul and filleth the hungry soul with
goodness, such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being
bound in affliction and iron, because they rebelled against
the words of God and contended the counsel of the Most High.
Therefore he brought down their heart with labor. They fell down,
and there was none to help. Then they cried unto the Lord.
And they're troubled, and that psalm goes like that. It goes
like that. You just look back and you remember
those days of trouble and how He brought you out of them, and
He'll do it again. He'll do it again. Think upon the mercies
and deliverances of God in days gone by. He's never failed any
of us, has He? He never has, and He never will. As he is, so will he be. He's marked it down. As he is,
so will he be. He changes not. I am the Lord,
I change not. That's why you sons of Jacob,
that's why you sons of election are not consumed. That's why. And listen, he says here, I meditate. Meditate upon God's work. Look
what he's done in the past Listen, with harder cases than yours
and mine. Children of Israel standing in
front of the Red Sea with an army behind them wanting to kill
them. Going to kill them. I tell you what, I can put myself
in their place, standing there at that sea, thinking how in
the world is this going to turn out? It can't turn out any way
but bad. And then, lo and behold, the
sea opens up. Who would have thought that?
Who would have thought? Meditate upon what God has done
in the past with His children. And days go by. Meditate upon
those things. Think upon those things. Think
upon those things. He's never failed. He's never
failed. But meditate especially upon
this. The work of the Lord Jesus Christ
for us. You know, crossing that Red Sea,
I mean, that's a miracle. Taking care of them in the wilderness,
you know, and feeding them, you know, those things are miracles.
The water that came out of the rock. But when God became incarnate,
when He took my place, took your place, if you believe the gospel,
took your place, He took the hell of God's wrath. I mean, is there worse for that? There's no worse for that, is
there? To think that He lived and died
and rose again for us. Shall He not? Does it not say
this in Romans? Shall He not? In Romans 8, shall
He not freely It's in the book of Romans. Shall he not with
him freely give us all things? Shall he not do that? Yes, he shall. He shall. Don't think so much upon your
situation. And that is the hardest thing
to do when you're in trouble. I tell you what, just have a
toothache and don't think about it. That ain't going to happen,
is it? I mean, the only thing you can
think about is that stinking tooth aching. But try not to think so much
upon your situation, but upon the mighty God of heaven and
earth and His ability to deliver. O Daniel, is thy God able to
deliver thee? He sure is. He sure is. Who? I mean, being cast down
into a lion's den, and I'm sure they didn't feed those things
for a while. They made sure they was hungry
enough that when Daniel was cast down there, they was going to
make short work of him. And there was just like a bunch of puppies
down there. Someone said this, as the hands
gather materials to work with, so the heart gathers material
to pray with. That's good. I'm used, I meditate,
I think upon the work of thy hands. Lift up your eyes and
see the mighty work of God. Get your mind on His work. Think,
as Scripture says, think upon things above where Christ sits
at God's right hand. And if you do this, if you and
I are able to do this, in times of trouble, here's what we'll
find ourselves doing. Verse 6, I stretch forth my hands
to thee. You don't stretch forth your
hands if somebody can't help you. You can't do that. I mean, you're
smart enough not to do it. But when you think upon God,
upon who he is, upon his greatness, you'll find yourself as a child
of God reaching up to him in prayer. That's why, you know,
he says, I reach my hand to thee. With spiritual hands, in prayer,
you're reaching up to your Father. Like a child that falls down,
and it starts to cry, and it reaches up to its parent, mother
or father, to pick it up. That's exactly what we do. That's
what the child of God does. I stretch forth my hands unto
thee. Lord, lift me up. We sing that song, lift me up
out of the miry clay. This is what happens when we
think upon God in times of trouble. It makes us reach up to Him in
prayer. It makes us depend on Him. It makes us look to Him.
It makes us to realize the truth of what Christ said. Without me, you can do nothing. And you are nothing without me. Trouble makes us thirst after
God. My soul thirsteth, he said, after
thee, as a thirsty lamb. God knows how to make us thirsty,
doesn't he? He knows how to make us thirst
after him. He knows how to wean us from these things. He knows
how to do it. And He makes us to thirst for
Him instead of thirsting after the lust of our flesh. It's a
rare thirst. It's a rare thirst because it's
of God. Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst after righteousness. Why are they blessed? He said,
because they shall be filled. They'll have it. Hear me speedily,
O Lord. My spirit faileth. I'm going
down." That's what he's saying. I'm going down. You know, Peter
wanted to walk on the water. He said, Lord, let me command
you. I'm going to walk on the water
here. Let me come out to you. He said, well, come on. Peter
stepped out on the water, took a few steps and started going
down. And he cried one of the greatest prayers you could ever
cry. Help. Help. You don't have to have
his theological prayer. I mean, it'd be like one of my
grandchildren trying to talk Greek to me or something. I'm
like, son, talk English. Just speak our language. We cannot impress God. We can
impress each other because of our low intelligence. But we're
talking to infinite wisdom now. You can't impress God. Hear me speedily, O Lord." He says, I'm going down. Sometimes our case is more urgent
than it is at other times. But He knows when to act. He
knows when to lift us up, doesn't He? He knows when to reach down. Peter thought, I'm going to drown. In Mark, in the Lord there on the boat, that'll
be our next lesson in Mark chapter 4. They said, Lord, carest thou
not that we perish? He's there asleep. He's asleep. We ought to be able to deal with
that ourselves. Are we not in Him? Are we not as safe as He? They said, we're going down.
We're going to drown. You don't care? Well, of course He cares. But the timing of it, the timing
of it is perfect. You see, God's teaching us a
lesson and the lesson is not learned until you and I come
to the end of our rope and the rope breaks. And the rope breaks. And we know that we're gone. That's when he will reach down
and lift us up. The wind and the waves are still
his. They're still his. And hide not thy face from me,
lest I be like them that go down into the pit. Don't treat me
like the lost. I deserve to be treated like
that, but don't treat me like the lost, who never will see
thy face in mercy, who will never see thy face in glory, who will
never see thy glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Lord, I deserve
to be treated like that. I deserve. I deserve that. But oh, he says, don't hide your
face from me. Don't do that. Don't let that
happen to me. Let me see thy face. You know
what it is to see the face of God? It's to see Christ in the
gospel. It's to see Christ in the preaching
of the gospel. And don't hide that face from
me. It calls me to hear thy lovingkindness
in the morning. It calls me to hear the good
news of the gospel early. Tell me that old, old story one
more time. You young people, I pray that
the Lord will call you to hear the lovingkindness of God in
the gospel early before the evil days come not. Before you start
to look like this. I pray you hear it early. For in Thee do I trust. I look
to Thee to teach me, to reveal to me the truth of the gospel.
I look nowhere else, Lord, but to Thee. In Thee do I trust. Thou
hast the words of eternal life. Cause me to know the way wherein
I should walk. Boy, is that a prayer! Do you
know which way to walk? Do you know what decisions to
make? Do you? No. Absolutely not. Decisions are like children.
You give birth to children, but you don't know what they're going
to grow up to be like. That's what decisions are like. You
don't know what that decision is going to bring forth. You
do it with the best knowledge you have at the time, but you
don't know what that's going to happen. And that's why you
pray, Lord, cause me to know the way wherein I should walk. And we do know this, the way
wherein we should walk is after Christ. Because He said, I am
the way. So we always have Him as the
mark. He's the mark. You know, if you
don't have a mark going somewhere, you're not going anywhere, are
you? You're just wandering around. Wandering around like a lost
dog. But if you always have Christ as the mark, then you're always
going in the right direction. It's like following that North
Star. You're going in the right direction if you're going north. If you're not going north, you're
going the wrong way. Don't leave me to myself, my
reasoning, because I'm telling you, human reasoning and logic
is always opposite of God and truth and the right way. Always
opposite. Guide me in the way. Guide me. Cause me. Don't you want God
to cause you to walk in the way? Lord, don't just guide me and
cause me to do it. Make me do it. Make me do it. Make the way plain and cause
me to walk in it. Never leave it. Never leave it. Lord, I lift up my soul to Thee. He said earlier, my soul was
cast down. It's like he's picking it up.
And he said, Lord, here. Here, you take care of it. You take care of it. If I keep
it, I'll lose it. If you keep it, I'll gain it.
I'll keep it. You take care of it. I commit
the well-being of my soul unto thee for time and eternity. Not
just eternity, but for time also. Deliver me, O Lord, from mine
enemies. Don't leave me to them. Here's a good one for us. I flee
unto thee to hide me. That's a good one. I flee unto
thee to hide me. Here's another good one in Psalm 56. This is
another one of those verses that I always remember when I need it. I remember it
more often. Look in verse 3. What time I
am afraid, I will trust in thee. I'll trust you. That's what the disciples should
have done when they were on that boat. They should have just trusted
him. That's why he said, why are you
so fearful? Why are you and I so fearful? Well, sin, that's why.
Unbelief, that's why. We have no reason to be fearful,
do we? Do we have any reason to be fearful? None. But we are. We are. Scared to
death, go out in the dark. He said, the night is light.
The night is a day before me. There's no other refuge. I flee
to thee to hide me. There is no other refuge for
me but thee. Thank God He removes all other
refugees. Thank you. No matter who or what trouble
comes our way, we flee to God to hide us. Our lives are hid
with Christ and God. Hide me under the blood. Hide
me in Christ's righteousness. Hide me in Thee till the storm
passes by. And teach me to do Thy will,
for Thou art my God. You know, no one learns like
the one who wants to learn. It's a pleasure to teach those
who want to be taught. It's a pain trying to teach somebody who
will not pay attention. And no one teaches like God.
No one. You know, every day is a lesson.
I believe every minute of a day is a lesson if we pay attention,
if we just pay attention. My spirit is good. My situation
might be troubled, but God is good. God is good. Therefore, he is the only one
who can lead me into the land of uprightness, lead me out of
this land of darkness, this land of trouble and heartache, and
lead me into the land of uprightness. Everything else leads to sin
and death. If God leads me, it can only come to good. Is that
right? He said, when you go through
the water, he said, now how can that be good? When you go through
the fire, how can that be good? Well, here's the first reason
it can be good. I'm with you. I'm with you. I'd rather go through
the water and the fire with him with me than to be standing on
the beach in Florida having a good time with no God at all. Wouldn't
that be bad? If God leads me, it can only
come to good, and someday He'll lead me home. He'll lead me right
out of this life, right into glory. Quicken me, O Lord, for Thy name's
sake, for Thy righteousness' sake. Bring my soul out of trouble
for Your name's sake. I tell you what, you pin that
on your refrigerator. When you're in your troubles, Lord, for Your
name's sake, bring me out of trouble. Quicken me. Quicken the graces
within. Quicken me in duty. Quicken me
in devotion. Don't let me become so dull in
spiritual matters. Quicken me in the study. And
quicken me for Thy name's sake. Do it for your namesake. I have
confessed before the church and the world that I believe you,
that I'm your child. Don't let me embarrass you. Don't
let me embarrass you. For your namesake, keep me from
doing something that's bad. Listen to this. Protect your name. I'll mess
it up. I'll mess it up. But you protect
your name. And bring my soul out of trouble. Whether it be inward or outward
trouble, Lord, bring my soul out of it. Safely. Safely. And of thy mercy, cut off my
enemies and destroy all them that affect my soul, for I am
thy servant. I'm your servant. I'm yours. Cut off my enemies,
which are all those that hate Thee. All those that would keep me
from worshiping Thee. Cut them off. Cut off. Boy, can
we say this? Cut off everything that keeps
me from worship. You might not like what he's
going to cut off. Because it might be surprising. You know, we need to be careful
when we pray. Not just pray because it sounds good. Pray with understanding. Because He might cut something
off that's tough. Cut them off. Cut off my enemies. You know, when God sends this
world, this unbelieving world, to hell, He's doing a real mercy
to His children. Just like if a mad dog came in
here and I shot it between the eyes. Would you all get upset? Would you be upset? Would you
parents be upset? Neither will the saints in glory
when God casts the wicked into hell. Everyone's going to shout
hallelujah.