Towards the end of the 44th Psalm,
in verse 20 and 21, we read the following. If we have forgotten
the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange God,
shall not God search this out? For he knoweth the secrets of
the heart. If we have forgotten the name
of our God or stretched out our hands to a strange God, shall
not God search this out? For he knoweth the secrets of
the heart. Before God, we all lie open like
a book. There is nothing that we can
hide. We all have secrets. We all hide
a great deal from one another. Before men we can choose what
we let them see, what we let them know. If we have some measure
of self-control we can present ourselves to be much better than
what we know we are. The evil that bubbles away within
our hearts, the evil that bubbles up inside, the angry thoughts,
the selfish thoughts, the hateful thoughts, the wicked thoughts can remain
a secret within. We like to have others think
well of us. We like to have them look upon
us as though we are righteous, as though we are better than
we know ourselves to be. And much of what men and women
do in life is a concentration upon presenting themselves in
the best possible manner that others should think well of them.
A huge amount of people's time is spent on making sure that
others think well of them no matter what they truly are. On
seeking the popularity the applause and the praise of men on justifying ourselves. Whenever
something goes wrong, whenever a rebuke comes our way, whenever
someone corrects us, whenever a parent or a teacher corrects
us, whenever a friend corrects us, whenever somebody has something
at all critical to say, how we justify ourselves. How we find
a reason How we find someone else to blame. How good we are
at making ourselves appear good. When the reality is very different. And both you and I know it. You know what's within, whatever
you might say to others. You know what you have thought
and done. You know what you are thinking. You know what you are planning
and what you are scheming. You know what you desire. You
know what the secrets within truly are. And you hide it from
men. But God, who sees all, searches
it out. If we have forgotten the name
of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange God, shall
not God search this out? For He knoweth the secrets of
the heart. Have you forgotten the name of
God? Have you stretched out your hands
to a strange God? Are your hands stretched out
to the gods of this world? To mammon, to money, to wealth,
to fame, to pleasure, to entertainment, to all the aspirations and desires
you have, are your hands stretched out to a strange god? Have you forgotten the name of
the one true and living God and his son Jesus Christ? Has this
world forgotten? Has this world stretched out
its hands to a strange God? Indeed it has. And indeed you and I have done
the same. But that God sits upon a throne
And that God who was in the beginning and who will be in the end. That
God who is from everlasting until everlasting. That God who is
eternal without beginning, without end. That God who spake and created
the heavens and the earth. That God who sustains all living
things. That God who today by His strength
keeps your heart beating. gives you life to sit and to
listen at this hour, gives you life to go forth on the morrow
and do whatever you plan. That God that gives you your
power and any strength in which you take pride that very God
in whose hands you are in whose hands your life is that God who
spake and brought you into being and who will speak and take you
away into eternity in a moment that God sits on a throne and
sees all Shall not God search this out? O fool of man! O foolish man and woman! Do you
truly think that you can go running around thinking this, doing that,
saying that, hiding what you are from others, presenting your
self-righteous appearance before men whilst you're filthy and
wicked within and you think that God doesn't see And you think
that your life is somehow something that you have and you control? Oh how foolish. Do you make your
heart beat? Do you put the air in the sky
around you? such that you can breathe it.
Are you in control of whether there's fresh air there or not?
Do you make yourself to live? Do you stop yourself from dying? If you think you do, if you think
you're in control, you're a fool. You were made, you were created
and you are sustained this day by Almighty God and in a moment
He will take you away and you will stand before Him. And at
this hour He looks within your heart and sees all that is there. and one day you will stand before
him and you will be accountable for all that you are, all that
you have fought, all that you have said and all that you have
done. Then what will you say? If you have forgotten the name
of our God, or you have stretched out your hands to a strange God,
shall not God search this out? For he knoweth the secrets of
your heart. So writes the psalmist. The psalmist who knows this God. The psalmist who knows what he
is before this God. How small he is. How nothing
he is. And how great this God is. The psalmist that knows the mercy
of this God, and the love of this God, and the care of this
God for his people. For those who've come to know
that before this God they are nothing. For those who've come
to know that they stand before this God, naked, exposed, open,
in need of his mercy. those who come to know that they
are wicked by nature, that they are rebels by nature, that they
have gone astray and that their only hope is that this God shows
them mercy. Such was this psalmist. And he
opens the psalm with words of recognition of the goodness of
God towards him and his people in past days. He says, we have
heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us what work
thou didst in their days, in the times of old. How thou didst
drive out the heathen with thy hand and plantest them. How thou
didst afflict the people and cast them out. for they got not
the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their
own arm save them, but thy right hand and thine arm and the light
of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them. And the Psalmist here looks back
in historical terms upon the goodness of God to his people
Israel. That people who were captive
in Egypt. That people who God delivered
from Egypt. He sent a deliverer. He sent
Moses. And Moses went to Pharaoh in
the mighty hand of God. led that people out and delivered
them from the grip of Pharaoh in Egypt and he brought that
people through a wilderness over Jordan into Canaan and gave them
a land that he promised them but that land was full of enemies
that land was full of nations of tribes of people who hated
the people of God but God gave them victory He drove out that people. He
drove out their enemies. He gave them a victory over their
enemies and he gave them the land that he promised them. But
it was God that did it. And the psalmist knows that God
did it. They got not the land in possession
by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them. But
thy right hand saved, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance,
because thou hadst a favour unto them. God gave this people a
land. He delivered them. He saved them. He blessed them because he had
a favour unto them. Because he looked upon a people. He chose the nation Israel. A nation just like any other
nation. A people just like anyone else.
People born of Adam. From the same source. sinners
like all others, yet God said this people I will love. Jacob have I loved and Esau have
I hated, he set his love upon a people and he said even though
they are wicked, even though they've gone astray, even though
they've heard my voice and turned against me, I will love them. and i will deliver them and i
will save them by my mighty arm and i will bring them in to the
land that i have promised unto them and so he did and so he
continues to do for all his people throughout all time of whom israel
was a figure he has a nation a people called spiritual israel
the children of god Believers in Jesus Christ. Those who've
heard of God and know God and are brought to God and are brought
to see what they are. Those who are shown what their
heart is. Those who are shown that they
are sinners. Those whose hearts have been sought out. Those who've
been brought in before God guilty. Those who cry out for mercy. Those who, in crying out, hear
of Jesus Christ, his love for his people, his sacrifice, his
death in their place, his taking away their sin in judgment, his
blood which cleanses and washes from all sin, as the Lamb of
the Passover, whose blood was shed. That Lamb that was slain
when Israel was delivered from Egypt and His blood was daubed
upon the doors of the houses and the destroyer that came upon
the houses saw the blood and passed by. So God today looks
upon those people who have the blood of the lamb above the doors
of their house above the doors of their heart and he looks upon
them and says I will not destroy I will deliver I will save and
I will bring this one into my kingdom forevermore that's what
the psalmist looks back on He sees the salvation of God. We have heard with our ears,
O God. Have you heard with your ears
of the mighty salvation that God has for Israel? Of the mighty
salvation He has for spiritual Israel. His people, the Kingdom
of God, all who are found in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God,
the Son of God, slain from the foundation of the world, all
who have blood above the door of their hands. Have you heard? Our fathers have told us, have
your fathers told you? have a previous generation that
you despise in your youth with the arrogance of youth as every
generation comes up and rejects what the previous generation
tells them it comes up in arrogance and says oh we're modern we're
enlightened we're we're scientific and they turn their backs on
what they're told and yet at some stage when God intervenes
and shows them truth and shows them the reality of what they
were once told they're brought to look back and they can say
with a psalmist we have heard with our ears O God and our fathers
have told us what they told us about the work of God in a prior
day was true in the times of old, of which
our fathers told us, when God moved, and God preached His gospel,
and God saved the people by grace. We've heard now. They were right. This is true. And it didn't come
through their strength or our strength. It didn't come through
their sword or our sword. It came through the arm of Almighty
God who had a favour unto them and has a favour unto us. We have heard. Have you heard? So I must move on in verse 4.
Having praised God for his past deliverance, He moves on to praise
him for who God is to him today. Thou art my king, O God. Command deliverances for Jacob. Bless thy people today. Thou art our king, O God. Through thee will we push down
our enemies. Through thy name will we tread
them under that rise up against us. For I will not trust in my
bow, neither shall my sword save me. For thou hast saved us from
our enemies and hast put them to shame that hated us. In God we boast all the day long
and praise thy name forever, Selah. Oh, what tremendous faith
and praise here! in the God of his salvation. Thou art my King, O God. Command
deliverance is for Jacob. God has saved us from our enemies
and he continues to save us and we didn't trust it wasn't our
bow or our sword which saved us in the past and it's not going
to be today I will not trust in my bow neither shall my sword
save me I know when I trust in my own strength I know from bitter
experience that when I turn to my own strength for my own wisdom
I fall but I will trust in the God that saved me in past days
and who will save me today. That God that watches over me,
that God that leads me, that God that provides for me, that
God that cares for me, that God that loves me, that God that
loves me with such a love that he was willing to send his own
son to suffer and to die in my place. Thou hast saved us from
our enemies and has put to shame them that hated us. And how many
there are, how many enemies there are of the children of God, how
many hate the things of God, how many hate Jesus Christ and
all that he is and all that he stands for, how many there are
that hate those who declare Jesus Christ and his gospel. If you stand in faith for Jesus
Christ today, you will find you have enemies. You will find that
you have those that hate you and mock you and scorn you and
say what a fool you are to trust in such things. But you will
know in experience that your God will save you from these
enemies and will put to shame those that hate you. In God we
boast all the day long, where is their boast? Where is your
boast? Do you boast in God? Do you praise
his name forever? Or do you trust in men? in their
bow, in their sword. Do you trust in self, in your
bow or your sword? If you do, you will find that
you are weak and that one day your life and your strength will
wither away. Today you may be young, soon
you will be old. Today you may see Soon you may
be blind. Today you may walk. Soon you
may be confined to bed. Today you can breathe. One day
you may be breathless. The day comes when whatever strength
you think you have will be taken away and then death will take
you by the shoulder and pull you from time into eternity where
you will stand before the God who saves by his strength. And you will know that your bow
was worthless, your sword was broken, your strength was vain
imagination. In what do you boast? In self? In man? Or in God? Having praised God for His wondrous
grace and mercy in past days, and His wondrous care in present
days, the psalmist turns to the shame that there is in us, in
man, by nature. But thou hast cast us off and
put us to shame, and goest not forth with our armies. Thou makest
us to turn back from the enemy, and they which hate us spoil
for themselves. Thou hast given us like sheep
appointed for meat, and hast scattered us among the heathen. Thou sellest thy people for naught,
and dost not increase thy wealth by their price. Thou makest us
a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them
that are round about us. Thou makest us a byword among
the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people. My confusion
is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered
me. for the voice of him that reproacheth
and blasphemeth by reason of the enemy and avenger what a
sorrowful picture this paints in stark contrast to some of
the words earlier we've read of how God will push down our
enemies and put them to shame that hate us And here the Thomist
speaks of being cast off, put to shame, of how God, as it were,
has deserted them, how the enemy prevails. how the people are
sold for naught how they've become a reproach to their neighbours
a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us a byword
among the heathen a shaking of the head among the people how
the people around look at them and laugh at them and see how
weak and foolish they are how the shame of his face has covered
him how the voice of him that reproacheth
and blasphemeth by reason of the enemy and avenger he's full
of shame he's nothing, he cannot stand but here he shows his awareness
of how weak he is and the work of God in his people in showing
them that they are nothing for you will never know salvation
until you're brought to see that you are wretched that you are
a sinner that you are lost that you are vile and you'll never
know as one who is saved what it is truly to walk with Christ
until you know what it is to walk in his footsteps and know
what it is to be rejected by this world to be hated to be
cast off to be despised there will be a time when you feel
like God has deserted you like all men have deserted you like
you are without hope and yet behind it all it is still true
that God has favoured his people. If you're brought there, it's
the hand of God that's brought you there. He will have you know
that you are nothing. He will separate you from this
world and its ways. He will watch over you. He will
make you to have nothing that he might give you all and it
might be to his praise. Do you know your shame? Do you
know your shame? When you look within and see
the secrets of the heart, when you think, what would I feel
like if everyone knew what I really am, what I've really thought
today, what I've really done, what I really desire, if everyone
saw me as I really am, how shamed I would be. Do you know how wretched
you are before a holy God? Does it cause you to cry out
under Him and Him alone for mercy? Have you been brought to shame?
If you have, you will know what it is to truly call upon this
God for salvation and to prize and to value His salvation because
you will wonder that He could show mercy and love unto one
such as you. your wonder. It will melt your
heart that God should love one like you. You will say how could
Christ take my sins and suffer for me? How could he set his
love upon me to deliver me? How could he wash me in his blood?
I am such a rebel. I am so shameful. I'm amongst
the most wicked. No one really knows how vile
I am. No one knows how hateful I am. I hide it from others but this
God who looks within and sees, how could this God who knows? He's the only one that really
knows how bad I am and yet he's the only one that really loves
me. He knows how bad I am more than
anyone and yet he's the only one that really loves me. How
can this be? How can this be? Accept it be
grace. Accept it be grace that God whom
I hated in return has loved me. There are those that hate me,
who I've hated back. There are those that get in my
path, who I've despised. There are those who annoy me,
who I'm angry with. There are those close to me,
loved ones. who annoy me when I don't get
all that I want from them. There are those whom I should
love and yet they do one wrong thing and I turn against them
in anger. And yet here's a God whom I have
hated from the days of my youth, who I have turned my back upon,
who I stand before full of shame. I deserve absolutely nothing
and yet He loves me. He loves me. Oh, what a wonder. And what a wonder it was that
a psalmist. In verse 17 he says, 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. Though thou hast
so broken us in the place of dragons and covered us with the
shadow of death, if we have forgotten the name of our God or stretched
out our hands to a strange God, shall not God search this out?
For he knoweth the secrets of the heart. Yea, for thy sake
are we killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the
slaughter. His response is he knows he's
gone astray. And he knows that God at times
will correct him and show him what he is. And he knows that
God sees everything. He knows that God sees his heart.
He knows that before God he's nothing. And yet he'll keep coming
back. He'll keep looking unto God for
he knows he can go nowhere else. And he knows that this God, despite
all that he is, despite all his own shame, despite his own wretchedness,
this God is the God that delivered him. This God is the God that
delivers him. And this God is the God in whom
his faith is set. Because this God took him, spake
unto him, opened his eyes, May this one who was once blind to
see put faith in his heart to look and to trust and to rest
in one before whom he falls down in praise and adoration. Once
he had no faith, once he could not see, once he did not hear,
once he did not believe, once he did not care, but then God
came in his gospel. and spake, and declared Christ
unto him, and he saw, and he saw. And now, all the day long,
he's counted as a sheep for the slaughter. He feels himself both
to die and to live, to be put to death, to be crucified, and
yet to live. To have his old man cut down,
and his new man rise up in faith. And he feels this and experiences
this because he's been brought unto Christ who did this for
him. He's been brought unto the one
who came into this world in his place and who took his shame
and who took the secrets of his heart upon him. and went under
the wrath of God against it. He's been brought to the one
who was taken as a sheep, as a lamb for the slaughter in his
place and was slain for him that he should be delivered. He's
counted as a sheep for the slaughter yet Christ came and suffered
in his place. as the lamb slain from the foundation
of the earth. He took the psalmist's place. And if you have faith like this
psalmist, he took your place. O children of God, he took our
place. He took our shame. He was cast off. He was put to
shame. He was given as a sheep appointed
for meat. He was made a reproach and a
derision amongst men. He was sought out. He was judged. He was the one
who was slain. He was the one who suffered. because he bore the secrets of
our heart. The wicked, the sinful, the wretched
thoughts, the secrets of our heart, all of our sins, he bore. And God looked upon his own son
and cut off his own son and judged his own son. and took a sword
and slew his own son that the psalmist in him might be forgiven
and delivered. Did he do this for you? Did he
do it for you? Are you killed all the day long? Is your old man slain? Are you
counted as a sheep for the slaughter? And do you know it because by
faith you look unto the one who took your sin and your shame
and was cut off in your place. So I must conclude. Awake, why
sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, cast us not off forever. Wherefore hidest thou thy face
and forgettest our affliction and our oppression? For our soul
is bowed down to the dust, our belly cleaveth unto the earth.
Arise for our help and redeem us for thy mercy's sake. He cries
out from this place, in this pilgrimage, looking by faith
under his God who saved him in the past who's delivered him
in the past who we can look by faith and say unto thou art my
King O God as he journeys through this world and knows the bitter
conflict within himself between his flesh and the Spirit, between
the old man Adam and the new man of grace in Christ Jesus.
As he journeys through this world and knows the opposition of men
against him, as he knows the hatred and the scorn of others
when he speaks of his Saviour, as he journeys through this world
and struggles, struggles to stand, struggles to walk, has no strength
as he journeys through this world and falls every day because of
his own failings. As he finds himself doubting
and fearing. As he finds himself falling and
sinning and hating himself for his own sin. As he struggles
on the journey, faith looks up. Faith looks up and looks up unto
his God and cries out, every day it cries, remember me, O
Lord. Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Cast us not off forever, hear
our cries. Wherefore hidest thou thy face
and forgetest our affliction and our oppression. Help us,
O Lord, we are weak, we need thee. Our soul is bowed down
to the dust, our belly cleaveth unto the earth. Arise for our
help and redeem us for thy mercy's sake. He looks and he cries. No matter how hard the path,
no matter how difficult the way, he looks up. Faith always looks
up. It always looks up. And when
his saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, was taken as that Lamb of God
and had a cross laid upon his back and carried that cross through
the streets to Golgotha. When the saviour was taken and
whipped and beaten and bruised and nailed to the cross. When
the saviour was lifted up in the heat of the sun when the
Saviour was spat upon, when the Saviour felt the nails in His
hands and in His feet, when the Saviour suffered and hung and
died that lingering death upon the cross, when the Saviour had
the burden of the sins of all His people laid upon Him, when
the Saviour was made sin. when the light of the sun was
taken away and the whole world went dark when the saviour hung
and felt the fires of God's wrath come down upon him because he
bore the sins of his people in their place when the saviour
was cast off when the saviour was in the worst place ever the
darkest depth the greatest of sufferings that anyone has suffered
when he went into the abyss of hell as it were and suffered
it in the hours upon the cross when his own father rejected
him when he cried out, my God, my God why hast thou forsaken
me? when the Saviour bore the secrets
of the hearts of all his people and God the Father crushed him,
bruised him, burnt him, judged him because of the filth and
the iniquity which he bore. When the Saviour was dying, when
the Saviour was in darkness, when the Saviour was in the valley,
when the Saviour died, his faith never failed. My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? said the son of God, as he cried
out in faith to his father. Why does this come upon me? Nevertheless,
God, deliver me, save me, save my people in me, remember me. He knew he would. He knew that
death would bring about the salvation of the covenant of grace for
his people he knew the promise would be brought in he knew the
people would rise again with him he knew that he would lead
them in to the new heavens and the new earth into that Canaan
into that promised land into that land flowing with milk and
honey oh the faith of Jesus Christ in the very depths Oh the faith,
oh the faith of the psalmist in the midst of affliction. Have
you faith? Have you looked? Have you seen? Has God given you that faith
of Christ to look unto Christ, to trust and to rest in him?
Have you seen his suffering? Have you seen his faith in the
depths? For us, for us, have you seen
him? Has he seen the secrets of your
heart? Has God put in your heart the
faith of Jesus Christ? Amen.