Come back to Psalm 143. Psalm
143. This is the prayer of a king with a great army. I was looking at that and I thought,
this is a man who has a great army. This is the king of Israel. And we are allowed to listen
in here to his petition for help. I thought when he walked out
of his house, the place he lived, and he walked among his army,
I'm sure he held his head high, his shoulders back, and he walked
among them with confidence, We let him out into battle with
confidence, but he couldn't wait to get back to that closet. He's
the one who said, thou only makest me to dwell safely. David knew,
and we know. And we'll know even more of it
as we grow older. But he knew that his safety was not in ten
thousand and thousands of men. with shields and spears and bows. His safety was in God, one person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Our safety is in Him. But what
a prayer coming from the lips of a king. He says, hear my prayer. How condescending, what condescending
grace it is for God God Almighty, Holy, to hear my
prayer. To hear, who am I? They said
that, but who am I? I'm like a speck of sand. When you look at the universe,
I was watching a program last night, and I was just awed by
God's creation. The Lord has given us a lot of
technology nowadays, and I know that when these scientists look
at the universe, they examine it, they go off the evolution
end and stuff, but I stand there, and you stand there, amazed. They were showing one of the
planets last night, and they were trying to figure out why
it stayed so hot. They thought about how hot it
was, and they come up with the conclusion that the wind was
going around it so fast that the sunny side and the dark side
was the same temperature. And they said the wind was traveling
at 6,000 miles an hour around that planet. And I just thought,
amazing. Amazing. Here they are trying
to scientifically explain it. I have the word of God. I have the explanation. God did
it. That's just too simple, isn't
it? That's too simple for weak minds.
We have to have something complicated. Man does. Man has to have something
that's just complicated and you have to put a lot of figures
and numbers behind it. It's God. And it's our God. That's what I thought of when
I looked at, watched that program. That's my God. David said our
God is the God of salvation. Our God who created that. Our
God who brought all things into existence is the God of salvation. And He's our God. He's our God.
I mean, just that three words right there. Hear my prayer.
And that gives me courage as a sinner. If one can do it, another
one can. You know the story of David.
You know the sinfulness that he fell into. If the Lord will
hear his prayer, he can hear my prayer. He can hear the prayer
of every sinner that calls upon him in the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear my prayer. You know, all
men do not have this blessing. All men do not have this blessing.
Now, most all men call upon a God, as David said in one place, they
have eyes but they see not, ears but they hear not, mouth but
they speak not. But our God hears prayer. Our
God is God. Our God is real. He's the living
God. We have a blood-bought right
to enter into His presence and call Him our Father and cast
upon Him, the Scripture says, all your cares. For He careth
for you. And what greater display of the
care of God than the cross of Christ. To hang His own Son on
a cross. Let Him be hung on a cross. Deliver
Him up to wicked hands. And to deal with Him as a criminal. That's the way He was dealt with. As a criminal that I am. That's
the way the Father dealt with me. And now because of that, I and you can say, hear my prayer. Pray the night. The Lord can
hear that prayer because of the blood and righteousness of His
Son. We pray for one another. Pray for Don. Fine. Why do I think I'd be hurt? Because
of the one that sits at his right hand. That's fine. And then he says, in thy faithfulness, Boy, David knew him, didn't he?
David wasn't praying to a God sitting on a shelf. He said,
in thy faithfulness, just like you always do. God's faithful. And David appeals to God's faithfulness. We need to appeal to the attributes
of God. The way David prays here is evident.
He knows it. He knows it. Because he deals
with his attributes. In thy faithfulness. God is faithful
to His promises. Has He not said, and shall He
not do it? God is faithful to His people. You read throughout the Old Testament,
and we went through the book of Acts. God has always delivered
His people, even though they murmured so often. Murmured. I find myself to them. I can't
shoot them. I'd have to shoot myself. I have
to shoot the man in the mirror. Because I murmur too. I find myself doing it. But God's
faithful. He's faithful to His Word. Faithful
to His Son. Faithful to His promises. He's
faithful. Faithful to His glory. His own
glory. He's going to keep His name. Often I do pray, Lord,
keep Your name. Don't let me bring reproach on
it. You keep Your name. Honor Your
name. So if you left it up to me, I'd
mess it up. And answer me in thy righteousness. We're not
afraid of that, are we? We are not afraid for God to
answer in righteousness because we stand in righteousness. We
stand in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
how we stand before God. That's how we come before God
in prayer. In the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. David
did not, even though this is the prayer of a king, He did
not come before God as a king. He came before Him as a child
of God dressed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
same righteousness you and I have, and made His petition. God can defend His own, though
they be sinners. He can defend His own through
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is said to be
a just God and a Savior. And I believe it's in that order.
I believe it's in that order. A just God and a Savior. God is not going to save in any
way that's not just. He's a just God and a Savior. And enter not into judgment with
thy servants. Because if you did, if He entered
into judgment with me, I'd do the same as my enemies. I'd end
up in the same place. David knew his heart. David knew
his life. He said, Lord, don't enter into
judgment with me. That's not the righteousness that I want
to deal with. The righteousness which is of the law, I don't
want to deal with that righteousness, but deal with me in the righteousness
of Christ. Oh, that satisfying righteousness
that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says this, For in thy
sight shall no man living be justified. We cannot justify
ourselves at all in any way, shape, or form. I cannot clear
myself of any charge count. You can't either. Once you do
something, you can't undo it. Once you say something, you can't
unsay it. It's true. So how can I justify myself?
There's so much behind me, there's no way I can clear myself of
all that's behind me. He said, No man in thy sight
shall no man living be justified. No man living can stand in the
court of God's justice on his own and live. We'll stand there
on Christ, on His merits, His righteousness, His blood. That's
how we'll stand in His court, justified in Him. Justified. Only in Christ, through His blood
and righteousness, can I or any other sinner stand and live. outside of Him, just like outside
the ark. There's no life. No life. No hope. The only hope we have,
the only hope a sinner has, is in Jesus Christ the Lord. And then David says, For the
enemy hath persecuted my soul. He hath smitten my life down
to the ground. This is the child of God speaking
here. The child of God. Sometimes the Lord lets the enemy
get real close, doesn't He? Sometimes He lets the enemy knock
us down. Because He's going to teach us,
the Lord's going to teach us our utter dependence upon Him. And sometimes He lets this happen.
David said, He has smitten my life down to the ground. Every
saint has his or her enemy. If you're living in this world,
you have them. And which is common to all the children of God. We
live in a fallen world, don't we? We live in a fallen world. And you couldn't say this in
a lot of places. You couldn't say that there's
none good, no, not one without being run off. You couldn't do
it. But that's the Word of God. That's the Word of God. We have
our enemies. Vicki and I were sitting at the
table eating supper. It was about 4 o'clock. We turned
the TV off. It was on channel 4. It was the Oprah thing. She was talking about spirituality.
We watched about 10 minutes of it. She was talking about spirituality
and how deep spiritual and how to get that way and going on
and on about this spirituality thing. And I told Vicki, I said,
If I stood up there and said there's none good, no, not one,
I said they would throw everything in their purse at me. They would
run me off the stage if I just stood there and told the truth. Now, if you want to find out
if you have real enemies, just tell the truth. Just tell the
truth. That's all you have to do. And
you'll find out. It won't take long. You'll find
out that every believer has His enemy. We live in a fallen world. We live in a world that hates
God. We live in a world that hates and despises Jesus Christ. Just tell the truth on Christ
and you'll find out. Just tell who He is. And they
hate His people. They do. And in this life we
will never be without enemies. We ought not to expect this to
be like heaven. I told a man one time, and was complaining
about trouble. And I told him, I said, this
is not heaven. This is the earth. This is the fallen world we live
in. Our Lord said, in this world you shall have tribulations,
trouble. You're going to have them. We
shouldn't be surprised when they happen, should we? Shouldn't
be surprised. But listen, although we have
them, we have trouble. We have heartaches. And even
though they will smite us down and try to get rid of us, yet
the Lord will not forsake us. He'll uphold everyone that He
is. And He will deliver everyone that He is in His time. Everyone. Men may cast us down, but as
long as God keeps me, it's going to be alright, isn't it? As long
as God Almighty keeps me. And that's, I tell you what,
that's how I go through some things. That's how I know you
go through things. When it finally gets out of your hands and you
can't do anything about it, you know still it's in somebody else's
hands. You know it's in His hands, not somebody else. It's in His
hands. And you know the end result somehow
is going to be alright. And you keep on moving forward.
That's how you do it. Therefore, he said, is my spirit
overwhelmed within me? We can't help that we're in this
flesh. I wish we could walk in this life and just walk without fear. But we can't, can
we? I wish we could walk in a way
that we wouldn't be overwhelmed. That situations wouldn't overwhelm
us. But they do. Because we're still in this flesh.
And here's David. And I wouldn't even begin to
compare myself to David. He said, my spirit is overwhelmed
within me. My heart within me is desolate. Alone. Alone. Everybody's left
me. I'm alone. He felt so alone.
Here's a king. He has the whole Israel under
his authority. And he says, I'm alone. I'm alone. There's nothing harder to deal
with than when your heart is cast down, is there? There's
nothing harder to deal with than when you are knocked down spiritually
and you just can't seem to get up. You just cannot seem to get
back up. Your heart is gone. It's like
you have no heart left. And we go through that. This
is a child of God speaking. I'm so glad God put David through
these things. He put him through these things
for us. David is a man who must have been tried in just about
every area. Since he's the type of Christ
who was tempted, tried, in all points, as we are, yet without
sin. Here he is, the type of man, he just... He says, I'm
just so cast down. I can't get up. He says, I'm
so lonely. I just can't see. I don't think
I'm going to make it. This is a child of God here. I see no way out. I see no way
up. I feel left alone. That's what David said. I feel
alone. I feel that God doesn't even hear
me. But now notice what he does.
And I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit of God led David
to this point and then brought him to this point, as he does
with all of us. He brings us along the way. He brings us along every path
that we'll ever tread. He says, I remember. There are
some things good to remember. There are some things I like
to forget. But there are some things that are good to remember.
I remember the days, not a day, but days. There are many of them. David looks back and he says,
I remember the days of old. I meditate on all thy works.
I can't see tomorrow. You can't see tomorrow. We can't
see tomorrow. But we can see yesterday. We
can look back on yesterday and see the mercies of God, can't
we? See the mercies of God. Here's
what David's doing. Thinking upon the mercies and
deliverances of God in days gone by. David could look on his life
and look at instance after instance after instance. And so the Lord
delivered me that time. I remember that situation. I
remember when and I remember how the Lord delivered me. And
doing that, he got so much encouragement in his present situation. It
just carried him through. In the beginning of this prayer,
he said what? In thy faithfulness. You know what he's doing here?
He's looking back and remembering the faithfulness of God. Think upon the mercies of God.
He's never failed any of us. Here we sit. Here we sit. He's never failed any of us. And He never will. As He is,
so will He be. He changes not. I am the Lord. I change not. We do. We change a lot. He doesn't change. He's not even a shadow. Not even
a shadow of turning with God. Not even a shadow. It's good to have that kind of
stability. When you're trusting someone with your life, you want
it to be someone very, very stable, don't you? Very stable. Nah, he changes not. And he says, I meditate. I never thought much about that
when I was younger, especially when I was 20s and 30s. But I
think more about this thing now, getting off by yourself and meditating.
Meditating upon the Lord. Meditating upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. Meditating upon His Word. Drinking
it in like water. Letting it soak in like rain
upon mown grass. Just meditate upon it. We use
our bodies for a lot of things, but we need to use our minds
for these things that God's given us. He's given us such a mind.
Look what He's given us. Intellect, mind, and spiritually. I mean, He revealed the Gospel
to us. My soul. Use it to meditate upon Him.
Meditate upon His works. Look what He's done in the past
with harder cases than yours. I'm not a hard case. I'm not
a hard case at all. We're no challenge to God. I saw a lady in a wheelchair and
I told Vic, yes, it's my situation. I said, we don't have a tough
situation, do we? I said, I'd rather have what
I've got than what she's got. I'd rather have what I had than
what John Halston had. Physically. Spiritually, he had
it pretty good. He had it good spiritually. I have no challenge for God. But
listen, especially meditate on the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
for you. Meditate upon that. If God gave His Son to live for
you, to go through what He went through
for you, to die for you, suffer for you, and to be buried in
a grave for you, and to rise again, and to ascend on high,
and go into the Holy of Holies for you, Shall he not freely
with him give us all things? Shall he not take care of his
own? That's what he did. Don't think so much upon, and
this is for me, don't think so much upon your situation, but
think upon God's power. Here's an opportunity. When you
get into a situation, here's an opportunity to watch God work. It's an opportunity to watch
Him work again. See, we don't think too much
upon ourselves and our situation, but upon Him and His power. Spurgeon
said this. I think it was Spurgeon. As the
hands gather materials to work with, so the heart gathers material
to pray with. That's good, isn't it? And he
said, I am used on the work of thy hands. I think upon him.
Boy, he's being lifted up now, isn't he? He was down there wallowing
around in his trouble and his enemies, and they're all after
him. Now he's taken upon God. Now God has taken center stage
of his thoughts. And you can tell he's being lifted
up. I'm used on the work of thy hands.
Lift up your eyes. to see the mighty works of God. Get your mind on Him. Get your
mind on Him. Think upon things above where
Christ sits, at God's right hand. He's taking possession of glory
for you. This is a little while. That's forever. How long that
is? Forever. This is just for a little
while. And if you do this, here's what
you'll find happening. If you're able to do this. I
stretch forth my hands now unto thee. And you see a child here reaching
for his father. He's reaching. He's reaching
for his father. Here's a child reaching for God. Here's a sinner in need of mercy
reaching for his father. You see a little child fall down,
scrape their knee or get hurt, and they reach up to their parents,
you know, mother or father. They reach up there. And that's
what David's doing. That's what every child of God
does that needs mercy. Reaching up to him. Lifting up
his arms to his father. And the father reaches down and
picks him up. What kind of father would reject
that? That would be a cold, hard, dead
father, wouldn't it? He doesn't. He picks up every
sinner in need of mercy. This is what happens when we
think upon God in times of trouble. It makes us reach up to Him in
prayer. Trouble makes us thirst after God. He said, My soul thirsteth
after Thee. As a thirsty lamb, now he's thirsty
after God. He's desiring God. He wants to
be with Him. This is a rare thirst. Very few
have it. Very few have it. And God knows how to make us
tired and weary of this corrupt life, doesn't He? He knows how
to bring us into that place that makes us reach up to Him and
thirst after Him. And thank God He does. Thank God He does. Thank God He cuts the cords of
this world. He cuts those tethers and enables us to look up to
Him, to think upon Him. And He makes us thirst for Him.
Instead of thirsting after this flesh, the desires of this flesh
and of this mind, we begin to thirst after Him. Blessed are
those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. They shall be
filled. They shall be filled. And then
David says, Hear me speedily, O Lord, my spirit faileth. I'm
going down. That's what Peter walking out
on that water. He said, Lord, save me. That's
what David's saying. We don't have to have a lot of
words, do we? We don't have to have any words, really. He knows
the groaning of the heart. He knows. Sometimes our case, though, is
more urgent than at other times. But he knows, the Lord knows
exactly when to reach down, take us by the hand and lift us up
like he did Peter. Peter started going down, sinking.
He said, Lord, save me. And the Lord reached down just in time, at the appointed
time, when he knew he was a goner. When he knew that he had absolutely
no help whatsoever. Then the Lord reached down and
lifted him up. The Lord has to bring us into
those situations for us to see His power and understand something
of His grace. He doesn't. The wind and the
waves are still His. They still belong to Him. And then He says, hide not thy
face from Me, lest I be like them that go down into the pit.
Don't treat Me like the lost. Oh, David looked at them and
he said, oh, I don't want to be treated like that. I ought to. I deserve it. But Lord, have mercy and don't
treat me like that. Don't treat me like those who
will never see Your face, who will never see Your glory. Don't
treat me like that. Who go down into the pit, the
eternal pit. Don't let that happen to me.
Lord, let me see Thy face. Oh, let me behold Thy countenance.
Let me stand in Your presence and behold Your glory forever
and ever. Isn't that the heart of the believer? It is. It calls me to hear thy lovingkindness
in the morning. Isn't that the best thing you
can hear in the morning? You wake up in the morning and
you hear your wife's loving voice, lovingkindness speaking to you
instead of something brutal. But you hear someone speaking
to you in loving kindness. Your wife or you speaking to
your wife. That's what you want to hear in the morning. Loving
kindness. And he said, Lord, let me hear
it in the morning. Early! That will be the first
thing I hear when I wake up. Your loving kindness. Oh, that
the Holy Spirit would speak to our hearts when we first wake
up in the morning. of the love of God in Christ to us. Oh, how
He loved us. You woke up in a nice home. There's bad situations out there. But to wake up to His loving
kindness, called me to hear the good news of the Gospel early.
I pray that the Lord will bless our young people and enable them to hear this
loving kindness early while the evil days come not.
For in thee, he said, do I trust. I lean with absolute confidence
of my whole soul upon thee. I trust you to deliver me. I trust you to save me. Lord, I trust you. I look to Thee to teach me and
reveal to me the truth, the gospel. I don't look anywhere else. Lord,
teach me. Cause me to know the way wherein
I should walk. Don't leave me to myself. Don't
you want this? Lord, you instruct me. You teach
me the way I should walk. We're not born with that. We're
not born knowing the way to walk. We are born in this world on
the broad road, going the wrong way. Lord, stop me and teach
me every day the way I should walk. Some things look nice and
pretty, but don't go that way. Don't go that way. That's not
the way that leads to life. Cause me to know in my heart
the way that I should go, that I should walk. Teach me. Cause me. I like this. Cause
me. Take over. That's why we say it. Take over. That's what I want
God to do. Lord, just take over. Take me
over. Subdue me. Conquer me. Really. Conquer me. Bring me to your feet. Help me
do it. Make me to do it. Just cause
me to do it. I like that. Just cause me to do it. I want
to do it. When I would do good, He was
present with me. That which I would do, I do not.
I'm a mess. The Lord calls me to do it. Make
me do it. Make the way plain and cause me to walk in it. Walk
with confidence. Walk with absolute confidence
that God is God. And everything will be alright. Never to leave it. If I must
rest, one writer said, let me rest in the middle of the way.
But keep me in it. If I'm going to rest, I'll sit
down right in the middle of the way and rest. But keep me in
it. Keep me in Christ. Lord, I lift
up my soul, my very being, unto thee. I look to you to do this. Paul said, I know whom I believe
and I've committed. He's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. He's able to do it.
He's able to do it. Lord, I lift up my soul to you.
I commit the well-being of my soul unto thee for time and eternity.
What a prayer. What a prayer. I think he's saying this. Lord,
hear my soul. You keep it. If I keep it, I'll
lose it. If you keep it, I'll gain it. Lord, hear, keep my soul. Keep
it. And deliver me, O Lord, from
my enemies. Don't leave me to them. And here's one of my favorite
verses. I flee unto thee to hide me till
the storm passes by. In David's prayer here, a storm
is going on. His enemies, his soul is cast
down. He's got outward afflictions
and he's got inward afflictions, just like we do. He says, I flee
unto thee. There's no other refuge but thee. Christ is a hiding place. He's
our hiding place. Our life is hid with Christ in
God. No matter who or what the trouble is, I flee to thee. To
hide me. To hide me. Hide me under the blood. Hide
me in Christ's righteousness. Hide me in Thee, Lord. Hide me. Until this life is over. Hide me. He had a real sense of danger
there, didn't he? He knew what danger was. David had fallen
into danger. He had fallen into trouble because
he ignored danger. But he learned something about
danger. And he said, now, Lord, I flee to Thee to hide me. You
can never flee too soon to Christ. The sooner the better. And teach me to do Thy will. For Thou art my God. Not just know it. There's a lot of things we know
we don't do. He said, teach me to do it. Teach
me to do thy will. No one learns like the one who
wants to be taught. And no one teaches like God.
No one. And what a pleasure it is to
teach someone who wants to learn. And this child of God here, and
I believe all of God's children, He makes them to want to learn.
And He teaches them. All thy children shall be taught
of God. Thy spirit is good. God is good. Whether I have a
good day or a bad day, God's good. It doesn't change the character
of God. It may change my character, or
it may reveal my character. It may reveal my character. But God is good. Whether the
sun's shining or whether it's raining, God's good. He changes
not. Therefore He is the only one
who can, listen, since He's good, God is good, He's the only one
who can lead me into the land of uprightness. You know that's
where He's leading us? God is leading us to the land
of uprightness. That's paradise. That's where
He lives. He's leading us away from this
place. scratch and claw and do everything
we can to hang on to it. Oh, I tell you, once we're gone
from here, I think, I don't know how we think, I don't know, I'm
just using my imagination now, but I'm thinking, why would I
want to hang on to that? What was I hanging on to? Lead me into the land of uprightness. Everything else leads to sin
and death. But if God leads me, Now listen, if God leads me,
it'll only come to good. It can only come to good if He
leads me. And someday He's going to lead
me to eternal glory by His goodness. Someday He's going to do that.
But you and I will hear no evil, see no evil, do no evil, never
be molested by evil again ever. Ever. Words like afraid will never
be used. Fear, never be used. Not in the
context we're using it. God said to Adam, Adam, where
are you? Where art thou? You know what
the first thing Adam said? I was afraid and I hid myself. We won't do that. Never be afraid. I can't imagine that. Never be
afraid. Never be afraid. Quicken me,
Lord, quicken me. Give me spiritual insight. Lift
my heart up. Quicken me. Make me think upon
You. Quicken me, O Lord, for Thy name's sake. Do this for
Your name's sake. Don't let me grovel around here
and act like somebody's lost. Act like somebody doesn't know
You. Quicken me for Your name's sake. Enable me to walk just like I believe. It enabled
me to walk the talk. It enabled me to do it. I don't want to say all things are under his power
and control, then go run and hide. David said in one psalm,
why do you say to my soul, flee like a bird to the mountain?
That's not faith. He says, O Lord, for Thy name's
sake, for Thy righteousness' sake, bring my soul out of trouble.
Oh, bring it out of trouble. Don't leave me in this situation
lest I embarrass everybody. Bring my soul out of trouble. Quicken me. Quicken the graces
within. Quicken me in duty and devotion. Don't let me get so
dull in spiritual matters. Quicken me in the study. Quicken
me in prayer and do it for Thy name's sake and for Thy glory.
That's a good reason to do it, isn't it? That's a good prayer. Do this
for Your name's sake. I don't want to bring reproach
on Thy name through my slothfulness. Quicken me for Thy name's sake.
And bring my soul out of trouble, whether it be inward trouble
or outward trouble. Lord, bring it out of trouble. And here I'll
close. And of thy mercy, cut off my
enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul. For I am
thy servant. Cut off my enemies. Lord, put
a stop to it. Put an end to it. Which are all
those that hate the gospel. They afflict my soul. They torment
me. He said, Lord, cut them off.
They keep me from worshiping thee. The afflictions and trouble
that we have inwardly, Lord, subdue them. The doubts and the
fears, Lord, subdue them. They're enemies, aren't they?
Not enemies? I find that greatest enemies dwell within me. They
literally dwell within me. My greatest enemies. Lord, subdue
them. Subdue them. Bring them under
your control. By your power, bring them under
control. Cut them off forever. And when God destroys all of
this, all this that sin has touched, all the evil, all the wicked,
when God destroys it all, the saints are going to shout hallelujah. We're not going to miss it. Not
going to miss it.