Well I've entitled this message
on Psalm 57, A Heart Fixed Amid Calamities. Sometimes God's children
face calamities. New Year is a time of hope. It's
a time of looking forward. But for some, It's a time of
calamity, and it has been. For two of our dear brethren,
suffering the loss of loved parents in such quick succession, suddenly
so close together. And what can we do? We can pray
for them, and our heart goes out to them in human sympathy. But that's encouraging to them,
no doubt. But what does God's word say
in such seeming calamity? And that's why I've turned to
Psalm 57 this morning, to look at this Psalm of David. It's
a psalm, look at its title, I said that was relevant earlier when
we read it. It's a psalm to the chief, it's to the chief musician. So it's to be sung in the temple
in the worship of God. It's part of worship. This is
a psalm to be sung in the worship of God. And it's Al-Tasjith,
if I've pronounced that correctly, which means destroy not. And it's a title that's given
to this, the 57th, the 58th, the 59th, and the 75th Psalms. And what it's speaking of is
this, that God's people cannot, God's true people cannot be destroyed
despite their own weakness. But God's enemies will be destroyed,
despite their apparent strength. And then it's a miktan of David,
which is a golden psalm of David. And it's dealing with the golden
treasures of grace. And look at the time when he
wrote it. When he fled from Saul in the cave, he was in peril. He was in calamity. he was fleeing
from Saul. Remember that this is the sweet
psalmist of Israel, the shepherd boy that was picked out from
all of his so much more qualified brothers, so it seemed to the
eye of the flesh. But this was the one, that was
the man after God's own heart, whom God was to have anointed
to be the king over his people. And such a picture and type of
our Lord Jesus Christ. So much so, that in prophecy
our Lord Jesus Christ is called our David, who would come. A
king reigning over peace and prosperity in his kingdom. This
is the one who it was. But at the time Saul was the
king. The one that the people would
have to be king. Saul. The one that did all those
things that the Lord despised. And the Lord took the kingdom
away from him. But for many years it went on and Saul persecuted
David. Saul was jealous of David. Saul
sought to kill David. The number of times he threw
a spear and David just ducked out of the way. And then he chased
him and his men, and here he is in a cave fleeing from Saul,
fleeing from certain death. As he says to Jonathan, whom
David loved, the son of Saul who loved David, In 1 Samuel
chapter 20 and verse 3, David says this to Jonathan, Truly
as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step
between me and death. That's how close I am. Do you
know every day, you and me, that could be said, couldn't it, if
we were honest? You and me, every day, there is but a step between
me and death. We're entirely dependent on the
goodness of God, on the will of God. We live in a perilous
state. This is a psalm for God's people
in the midst of calamity, in a perilous state. All I want
to do is simply go through each verse and see what it says to
us in a time of calamity. Look at verse one. Be merciful
unto me, O God. Be merciful unto me, cry of mercy. a cry of helplessness, a cry
to God, be merciful to me, for my soul trusteth in thee. In
the midst of the calamities of life, the child of God must and
can only cry to God and pray for mercy, for mercy. But who
is this God to whom he cries for mercy, be merciful to me,
oh God. Who is God that he's crying to
mercy for? The God of the universe is a
consuming fire, says Hebrews. Paul writes to the Hebrews, our
God is a consuming fire. He says, it is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God. And it's appointed
to man to die once and then the judgment. And why is that a fearful
thing? Because our God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity
and cannot look upon sin and cannot pardon it. His justice
is absolutely inflexible. He must exact justice. I just
paid my tax bill the other day. Those of you that pay an annual
tax bill will know that it can feel like a painful thing when
it happens. But I paid it. Now, imagine I
was in financial straits and I felt I couldn't pay it. And
so I was in a calamity, I can't pay it. And so I said to the
nice man at HMRC, be merciful to me, oh man at HMRC. And what
would he say? No mercy. None whatsoever. You must pay. The law demands
that you pay. The taxes have been calculated,
the law demands that you must pay. HMRC cannot be merciful. They will not be merciful. The
God of justice would fail to be God if his justice didn't
stand. How can David cry, be merciful
to me, O God, be merciful unto me? For one reason alone, because
mercy is found in our Lord Jesus Christ. Mercy is found in him. Philip, as I often quote to you,
said to Jesus, show us the Father and that will suffice. Philip,
have I been so long with you and you have not seen me? He
who has seen me has seen the Father. Yes, God is a God of
inflexible justice, but in the Lord Jesus Christ he has satisfied
justice for his people. He has made satisfaction. He finished the work of satisfaction. He is therefore able to be merciful,
for the debt has been paid. I can plead Mr. HMRC, please be merciful to me
if somebody else has come along and paid the bill for me. He'll
go, yes, that's okay, the bill's paid. You're let off, you're
exonerated, you're freed from it. Be merciful to me, oh God. This is a God who is a God of
mercy, a God who delights in mercy. Be merciful to me. Oh
God, be merciful unto me. Mercy comes from a situation
where you feel you can do nothing else other than plead for mercy,
cry for mercy. Mercy is relief from judgment,
from condemnation, from punishment, from the payment of a debt. Mercy,
relief from that. And it can only be granted by
one with the power and authority to grant it. It's not just a
case of, oh, okay, I'll let you off, I'm feeling generous at
the moment, I won't bother, I won't bother exacting that debt. He
must, he must call for that debt to be paid. And in the Lord Jesus
Christ, for his people, that debt has been paid. And so we
cry to mercy. We cry for mercy to the God who
has, who is in the position where he can grant mercy. He has the
power, Him alone. Is there cause for hope in pleading
mercy? Is there cause for any hope for
David in pleading mercy? He says, My soul trusteth in
thee. My soul trusts. Why do you trust? Do you trust in God this morning?
Do you trust in the true God of Scripture, the God of all
grace? If you do, it's because He has
given you faith. Faith, that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God. You are saved by grace through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. He has
given His people faith to trust. My soul trusts in you. Trust
in God's capacity to forgive. Trust that Christ has satisfied
justice for His people. and he has a reason to forgive
because he has paid the price of redemption he has paid the
price of the debt to the law when he who knew no sin was made
sin for his people that we his people might be made the righteousness
of God in him in his covenant of grace. He promises to be merciful. He is a God who delights in mercy,
he says. And it is, as Jeremiah says in
Lamentations 3.22, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not
consumed. Because God is merciful. He's
a merciful God. Be merciful to me, O God, be
merciful to me, for my soul trusteth in thee. Where does the child
of God flee in calamity? it's to the God of mercy pleading
for mercy because he's promised to be merciful to his people
and we need mercy because we are sinners saved by grace we
are sinners if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and
the truth is not in us we are sinners we are debtors to the
law of God we are those who are in need of mercy but God is merciful
to those for whom he has satisfied his justice We take refuge under
the shadow of his wings. Yea, says the Psalmist, in the
shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge until these calamities
be overpassed. In the shadow of his wings, refuge
under the shadow of his wings. Charles Spurgeon wrote this,
he said, of God, he said, I can't always see his face. but I can
always hide beneath the shadow of his wings because he spreads
his wings over me. What are these wings that God
spreads over his people? What are these wings? Is this
just poetic license? Is this just poetic language?
What are these wings that he's talking about? I take refuge
under the shadow of thy wings. What are they? They're wings
of salvation accomplished. salvation, that's what it is
you know I've told you often that the difference between that
that sounds very much like the gospel and that which really
is the gospel is this that which sounds very much like the gospel
is an offer of possibilities to all That which is the true
gospel of scripture is a declaration of salvation accomplished. That's
what it is. It's a declaration of salvation
accomplished. And to his people he gives faith
to believe that truth. Wings of salvation accomplished.
It's like hiding, as Moses, when Moses said to God in Exodus 33,
show me your glory, and that will suffice. Show me your glory.
And God says, you cannot see my face, but come here, hide
in the cleft of the rock, which is Christ. That rock was Christ.
And that cleft in the rock, for he was broken for us. Hide in
this cleft in the rock. And my glory shall pass by, but
you cannot see my face, is what God said to Moses. were hiding,
like in that cleft of the rock, under the shadow of his wings,
hiding under the wings of a compassionate savior. You remember when Jesus
used this terminology? He was looking over Jerusalem,
the man, the man in flesh and blood like we are, in the flesh
and blood of the children, the one who was made of a woman when
he came at the right time, in the fullness of the time, and
he looked over Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem. you
that kill the prophets, how often would I have gathered you as
a hen? If any of you have ever kept chickens, it's very, very
cute to see. You can probably look on YouTube and see one of
these, but, you know, the chicken spreads its wings and the little
tiny fluffy chicks, I know this is causing Joan nightmares at
the back there because she has a bit of neurosis about chickens
and feathered things of that nature, but it's a very, to most
of the rest of us, It's a very, very cute picture as the hen
spreads its wings and gathers the little fluffy chicks under
its wings to protect them. But then look, I will take refuge,
I will make my refuge in the shadow of your wings. Now look
at this. Look at these last few words
of this verse, until these calamities be overpassed. Does that encourage
you? Child of God, experiencing the
chastisement of God until there's an end in prospect, isn't there?
There's an end in prospect until these calamities be overpassed,
until these trials that we experience in the flesh be overpassed. The
calamities, somebody wrote, the calamities of this life are matters
of time alone. The believer's safety is a matter
of eternity. eternity until these, excuse
me, these calamities be overpassed. There's an end in prospect. God
does all of these things just for a time. It came to pass. You often read it. It came to
pass. Well, it did. The thing came and then it passed.
Until these calamities be overpassed, God takes us through experiences
that can be very painful and very bitter to experience, but
they're for a season. He knows how much we can stand.
He knows how much we can take. But in that situation, verse
2, I will cry unto God Most High, unto God that performeth all
things for me. I will cry, I will plead, I will
earnestly, importunately, persistently pray to God. I will pray to God,
but which God will I pray to? The only true Most High God. I will cry unto God Most High,
Most High. Note where he is. He's God most
high. You're in a storm of calamity.
You're in a storm of trial. You're experiencing as the child
of God, the chastisement of God. You're in that storm. Where will
you pray? You pray to God most high. God the very highest. Most high. Here am I in a storm that would
engulf me. In my flesh I would be crushed
by it. In floods that would overwhelm
me. But my God is higher than it all. He is high above all
calamity. He is the one who is above all
things. He is God that performs all things
for me. All things. He causes. Romans
8, 28. He causes all things. to work together for good to
those that love God. Why? Because they love God? No,
because He loved them. We love Him only because He first
loved us. All things work together for
good to those that love God, those who are the called according
to His purpose. What does He do? Providentially,
he interweaves all things to make that cloth of my eternal
salvation, all the circumstances and the issues and the happenings
and the ups and downs of this life. He providentially performs
all things for me, for knowing. me before time began in eternity,
predestinating me before time began, calling me in His Son,
that wedding in eternity of His people to His Son, justifying
me from all eternity on the grounds of the redemption that Christ
would accomplish for His people. That redemption that He would
come in the covenant of grace, He undertook to come and stand
in the place of His people and bear their sins and pay the sins
penalty. pay the price of that sin, so
that when God looks for sin in Judah, He looks for iniquity
there, and there shall be none. Why? Because they're not sinners?
No, but because Christ has taken it all away. He's accomplished
it. He's glorified His people, says
Romans 8, 29. He's glorified us, yet we're
not there yet. He's glorified us in eternity,
and yet in this time state, it's still something to be hoped for.
we have a hope, a good hope, a good hope of eternal glory
if he has determined such a complete salvation And if he is the God
who we believe him to be, the God who is sovereign over everything,
and nothing can thwart his purposes, or say to him, what are you doing? You cannot do that. If he's this
God, he whose will is that none should be lost, as Jesus said,
they asked him, what is the will of God? He said, this is the
will of the Father who sent me, that of all that he gave me,
I should lose nothing. The Father gave a people to the
Son, a multitude that no man can number, before the beginning
of time. He gave them to the Son, and His will was that not
one of them should be lost. What would cause them to be lost?
That justice was not satisfied for them. But they're sinners.
How can justice not be satisfied? Christ came as the substitute
of those sinners. to bear their sins in his own
body on the tree, to pay the price of justice, to satisfy
justice for the soul that sins it shall die and the life is
in the blood and he poured out his precious blood, his lifeblood,
his infinitely pure lifeblood for those people that they might
be made the righteousness of God in him. If he's determined
such a complete salvation and he's God, how will he not keep
me through every calamity? God will keep me through every
calamity. He performs all things for me. Verse three, he shall send from
heaven and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me
up, Selah. He sends from heaven. Our God
sends from heaven. We live in such a materially
minded world that people don't like to think of anything to
do with eternity and yet most people still have a sense that
there is something more. They have a sense that they have
a soul that will never die even though they live in a body that
they know must because they see death all around them. But God
sends from heaven. He sent bread from heaven to
his people wandering in the wilderness daily, providentially. For his
own purposes, he sent them bred from heaven in the wilderness.
He sends angels from heaven. He sends angels from heaven to
fight for his people. To bring truth to his people.
He sent his son from heaven. When the fullness of the time
was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under
the law to redeem those who were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
He sent his son from heaven to save his people. He sent his
spirit from heaven. That comforter, Jesus said, I
must go back to my father and then we will send the comforter.
And it's that comforter who comes and irresistibly calls the sheep. My sheep hear my voice. A stranger
they will not follow. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. As Abraham went out to rescue
Lot when he heard of his peril, Christ went out to save his people
from their sins. Call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. Who did he come to save? His
people from their sins. And he cried on the cross, it
is finished, for he had saved them. A soul would have swallowed
David up, so to speak. So Satan would have my soul condemned
to hell. But God Most High shall send
from heaven and save me. Now, Selah, you know what this
word means? It means stop. and think and
meditate and chew it over. Think about this. He shall send
from heaven and save me from the reproach of him that would
swallow me up. Stop and think and meditate. God's eternal purposes cannot
be thwarted. However great the current calamity
in the flesh might appear, his purposes cannot be thwarted.
God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. He shall send
his mercy and his truth to his people. Why do they always go
together, mercy and truth? Because mercy is only the mercy
of God when it's based on gospel truth. There is no mercy from
God without gospel truth. Only on the grounds of the gospel
truth of what Christ has accomplished is God able to be merciful to
sinners. Verse four. My soul is among
lions, and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the
sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their
tongue a sharp sword." Who is speaking in this verse? Well,
David, you would say. David, obviously. Yes, of course
it's David. It's David. But isn't it also God's children
in a state of calamity? How many of you have experienced
anything where you can say Metaphorical equivalent of this, my soul is
among lions, I lie even among them that are set on fire, even
the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue
a sharp sword. God's children in calamity, God's
children knowing how Satan would have them taken down to hell. But you know above all who is
speaking, as it is with all of the Psalms, above all who is
speaking is God's Son, is our Lord Jesus Christ. when He walked
this earth for us, for His people, for sinners. God's Son partaking
of the children's flesh as we saw a couple of weeks ago in
Hebrews 2. The children have partaken flesh, we're clothed
in it this morning, but He came. Likewise, he came and partook
of the children's flesh. Why? That through death he might
destroy him that had the power of death. That is the devil.
God's son partaking of the children's flesh to destroy those that would
destroy them. Satan and his legions. Tempted
and attacked on all sides, yet without sin, was our Lord Jesus
Christ. He was surrounded, if you read
Psalm 22, bulls of Bashan have surrounded me. He was in that
turmoil, he came into this furnace of attack. Calamities were experienced
by David, by us all in the flesh, in this veil of tears. Calamities
are what we experience, it's part and parcel of life. But
above all, the man of sorrows experienced these calamities
as he walked this earth, representing his people with his people in
him. For we were crucified with Christ
if we're his. When he went to that cross and
bore the burden of the wrath of God, his word tells us that
we were crucified with him, that we might also be raised with
him to newness of life. The man of sorrows was in that
situation as he walked this earth. of lions being all around metaphorically. He was acquainted with grief,
it says. He was made sin for his people
that they might be made the righteousness of God in him. Father, if it
be possible, he prayed, if it be possible that this cup of
the judgment of the wrath of God be taken from me, if it be
possible, but not my will, but thy will be done. What is the
will of him? That of all that the father gave to him before
the beginning of time he should lose nothing. And how can that
only be accomplished that their sin debt be paid? So he must
go. He must drain it down. He must drain every last dreg
of that cup of the wrath of God against the sin of his people.
Verse 5. Be thou exalted, O God, above
the heavens. Let thy glory be above all the
earth." We're in this time state where all these things go on
and calamities arise, but God is above all things. God is exalted
not above just the earth, but above the heavens. He overrules
the whole earth. He's glorified in His Son who's
accomplished the salvation for which He was sent from heaven.
Be thou exalted. You see how true praise arises
from an understanding. in the heart of what salvation
is really about, of what God has purposed and of what he has
accomplished. Look at verse six. They have
prepared a net for my steps. These that would drag me down
to hell have prepared a net for my steps. Saul's army seeking
David and his followers, they've prepared a net for my steps.
Satan and his Demonic powers have prepared a net for our Lord
Jesus Christ. You can read of it in Revelation
chapter 12 where the woman that is seen gives birth to a child.
And the child comes from the woman and the dragon stands there
ready to devour the child as the child comes from the woman.
And all the dreadful things that happened in those times when
Christ was born and Herod had all the little boys under two
years old murdered because of what he thought was a threat
to him. All of these things happened. All of these things where they
were seeking to destroy Christ. They prepared a net for my steps.
My soul is bowed down. They have digged a pit before
me. Now look. Into the midst whereof they are
fallen themselves. satan devised the downfall of
christ at the cross in scheming christ's crucifixion satan fell
into the very pit that he had devised for christ this is the
destruction of christ that he be crucified and in this in in
so doing in so doing he fell into the very pit in so doing
In murdering the Prince of Life, in so doing, Satan fell into
the very pit he thought he had prepared for the Son of God.
He fell in there. He's destroyed. Christ had actually
come. He bound the strong man of the
house and plundered his goods, those people that he held in
thrall to sin. Christ's soul was bowed down.
He is full of heaviness, we read. If it be possible that this cup
pass from me, nevertheless. Now, Selah. Again, stop. Think. Meditate on these things. The calamities of this time state
are the lot of all flesh at some stages. There's the calamity
of death that is all around us, and it is a calamity. It's a
dreadful thing. You know the truth of God, it
doesn't make the pain of feeling it, of mourning, of loss, any
less intense. There is but a step, said David
to Jonathan, between me and death, but Christ has come in our flesh
to destroy that ultimate calamity for his people. We read in 2
Timothy 1 verse 10, that Christ has abolished death. Think of
what a headline that would be. Death is abolished. It's abolished
for His people, for He has abolished it. The result, my heart is fixed. Oh, you're in calamity, David.
You're in the most severe trial. My heart is fixed, oh God. My heart is fixed. I will sing
and give praise. My heart is fixed in a storm
of calamity, but I'm anchored. I'm fixed to the rock, which
is Christ. I'm secured by God's grace from
eternity. Secured by it. He knows his people. Isn't that a blessing? I heard
somebody say, one of you will tell me who it was that said
it, but he said as he gets older, he finds it harder and harder
to think on the things that he knows about God. But bless God,
it's God that knows him that matters. God knows him. And isn't
that a wonderful comfort? My heart is fixed on that fact.
God knows me. He's done all things for me.
He's secured me by His grace from all eternity. It's not my
wavering decision here and now that's made me a child of God.
It's not me being better than the rest deciding for Him that's
made me a child of God. No, God doesn't say this. God
says in Isaiah 43 verse 6, He says, Call my sons from afar. Do you notice? Think about it.
Call my sons. They're already his sons. When
did he make them his sons? Before time began, in eternity.
What does he do in time? He redeems them and calls them.
Call my sons from afar. They were sons before they were
called. Nothing can move it. Romans 8, 35. Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword,
or any other calamity. No. In all these things, we,
his people, in Christ, are more than conquerors. And what does
it lead to? It leads to praise. Verse 7,
I will sing and give praise. You know, we only really know
true praise. We only really know true worship
when we know and experience and feel in our hearts what it is
to be saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the doing
and dying of the one who came and stood in our place. Verses
8 and 9. Awake up, my glory, awake, sultry and harp. You see,
he's still in calamity in the cave, fearing for his life. I
myself will awake early. I will praise thee, O Lord, among
the people. I will sing unto thee among the
nations. Who has cause to praise God?
Who has cause to worship God? Those who know something of God's
salvation. Those who know something. Yes,
I know we need to know more, but those who know something
of God's salvation. Salvation from sin. Salvation
from divine justice. Look, my soul, at what His grace
has accomplished. Oh, then you'll want to praise
Him. Praise Him, praise Him. Jesus, my blessed Redeemer. Praise
Him, praise Him. Look at what He's done to save
me from my sins. Praise Him. Calamities are but
a fleeting experience, but God's salvation is eternal. Verse 10. For thy mercy is great unto the
heavens. God's mercy is great. And thy
truth unto the clouds, the truth of God, the truth of what He's
accomplished, of what He's done, of what He set out to do, of
how He has accomplished it all, of how His will cannot be thwarted,
of how every single one whom the Father gave to the Son shall
be there They shall stand on their feet, as Ezekiel's vision
of the valley of dry bones showed. The flesh came upon them, and
they stood on their feet, a mighty army, with all the soldiers in
their ranks. And I've told you many times
before, but it's worth saying again, if you look at horse guards
parade, when they're trooping the color, if there's one missing
from those ranks, you see it, don't you? If there's one stone
missing from the temple, you see it. But they will all be
there, for he has saved them, saved to the uttermost. Verse
11, Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let thy glory be
above all the earth. This is a cry of praise from
a state of calamity because of all that God has done. My heart
is fixed. My heart is fixed, O my God.
Mercy reaches down to the lowest depths of sin and death and degradation
and lifts up to the highest height of heaven and glory and salvation. This, if you're a child of God,
this is your destiny. The highest heights of heaven
with God. Praise God. My heart is fixed
despite all the calamities that surround me. Amen.