In Psalm 86, if you have your
Bible open, we read here where David is saying, bow down thine
ear. He's in prayer unto God. He says,
bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my soul, for I am holy. O thou, my God, save thy servant
that trusteth in thee. Be merciful unto me, O Lord,
for I cry unto Thee daily. Rejoice the soul of Thy servant,
for unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For Thou, Lord, art
good and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto all them
that call upon Thee. Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer,
and attend to the voice of my supplication. In the day of my
trouble I will call upon thee, for thou wilt answer me. Among
the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord, neither are there
any works like unto thy works. All nations whom thou hast made
shall come and worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify
thy name. For thou art great, and doest
wondrous things, Thou art God alone. Teach me Thy way, O Lord. I will walk in Thy truth. Unite my heart to fear Thy name. I will praise Thee, O Lord, my
God, with all my heart, and I will glorify Thy name forevermore. For great is Thy mercy toward
me, and Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. O God, the proud are risen against
me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul,
and have not set thee before them. But thou, O Lord, art a
God full of compassion, and gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous
in mercy and truth. O turn unto me, and have mercy
upon me. Give thy strength unto thy servant,
and save the son of thine handmaid. Show me a token for good, that
they which hate me may see it and be ashamed, because thou,
Lord, hast opened me and comforted me. As I read this psalm and
reflected upon it somewhat, I think it is evident throughout, not
only in this psalm, but throughout the scriptures that David was
never reluctant to express his full dependent and trust in the
Lord. The Lord surely was his deliverer
and his salvation, and David had sole confidence and trust
in the Lord. Now beloved, this is a well that
never runs dry. The Lord is our sufficiency and
He is our provider, our sustainer, and certainly in this life we
know that there are many who do not have the spiritual ability
to draw as it were, water from the wells of salvation. And therefore
they have a great lack in their life. They are very needy, very
poor and very needy. I remember when the Lord Jesus
Christ was talking with the woman at the well in John chapter 4,
and this has always been a challenge to me to think upon it and to
talk with the Lord's people about it, and especially to talk to
those that are strangers to the Lord, that they would come to
see the truth of this. When the Lord Jesus was speaking
with the woman at the well, John 4, verse 13 and 14, Jesus answered
and said to her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. Now the water he's talking about
here is the water out of Jacob's well. They were at Jacob's well
and she was drawing water from that deep well to satisfy her
natural thirst. And the Lord Jesus said, Whosoever
drinketh of this water will thirst again. They are going to thirst
again. Now this water is typical and
represents all of the wells of the earth. that men would drink
from, which they hoped to slake their thirst through. But we
know that there's only one well that provides the living water,
and that living water is satisfying And that satisfaction is the
Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 14, But whosoever drinketh
of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. He will
never get thirsty again, but the water that I shall give him
shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life. In other words, as David did,
he came to the place one time, when he looked to the Lord, for
the satisfaction of his life and soul. And he began to cry
unto God daily for what he needed. He cried to God daily for those
things that his life required. He was fully dependent upon the
Lord. He drew out of this well that
all of the provisions that he had need of would be met. And so there are some things
here that I want to call to your attention quickly. He said in
verse 3, Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for I cry unto thee daily. Now in verse 2 he said, Preserve
my soul, for I am holy. Now David was a holy man just
as God's people are holy now and have always been holy through
the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians
1 and 4 says, According as He hath chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. God so loved us that He gave
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as our representative. He lived
and died a vicarious death on our behalf that His righteousness
might be imputed to our account and His holiness would be imparted
unto us. And so we're holy as David was
holy through Christ. And there's no other way to be
holy. You can quit this and start that and quit something else
and begin another program in your life of do's and don'ts,
and it'll never make you holy. But a relationship, a living,
lasting union with Christ will make you holy, and you'll be
holy not only as men, but men may not see holiness in you,
but God will see it, and that's the thing that's necessary. God's
people are holy through the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus. Okay, and then
he says, I cry unto thee daily. Now, this crying to God for a
believer is something that is, I think, is just according to
their nature, their new nature. The new nature in a believer
causes him to cry unto God. He cries to God. His dependence
is up on the Lord. He needs the Lord. He needs His
grace. He needs His kindness. And the
first thing I thought about when David was crying to God was for
pardoning and enduring mercies. I read in, I think it's Psalm
136 where over and over again it speaks of the mercy of the
Lord enduring forever. Now there's no one that has lived
as long as I have that does not realize that they need to be
pardoned on a daily basis. On a daily basis, we need pardoning
from the Lord. The Bible says in 1 John 1 and
7 that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from
all sin. Well, every believer knows that
they get tainted as they go through this world, and they need the
pardoning and the enduring mercies of the Lord. Look in verse 5,
For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive, and plenteous
in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. And so David looked
to the right place, did he not? For pardoning and enduring mercy. He looked unto God, who is ready
to forgive His people, who is ready to cleanse His people from
all unrighteousness. And God is plenteous in mercy
unto all them that call upon Him. Surely, are we not grateful
for that? Plenteous in mercy, and I've
experienced Plenty of mercy in my almost 73 years. Plenty, plenty of mercy. And so beloved, I'm here this
morning to vouch for this verse of Scripture. You look to this
well, and you'll find plenty of mercy. in it. Okay? And then in the second place,
I thought about the sanctifying grace of God. And I'm sure that
we need to be crying to God daily for that. This grace that sets
us apart to serve our God in our generation. the grace that
sets us apart. Oh my friend, many, many times
we get so confused as to what we can do for the glory of God. What we ought to be doing in
order to honor our Lord, in order to reflect the great feeling
we have toward the Lord, the indebtedness that we feel toward
the Lord, and we want to be set apart fully, wholly unto God. We want to be used for His honor
and His glory. And we want His will and His
purpose to be done. Cry unto God, O believer, daily,
that the Lord will sanctify you by His grace. Set you apart. We've been set apart already
in the covenant of election, in the covenant of grace. But
daily, on a daily basis, set apart anew to what God would
have us as a part of His church to be doing. And then I think
also for the joy of our souls. Many, many times, you know, the
Bible says rejoice in Philippians chapter 4. Rejoice. And again, I say rejoice. And the Lord's people need to
look at verse 4 here. He says, Rejoice the soul of
thy servant. Rejoice the soul of thy servant.
In other words, is it in God's hands to make me rejoice? Well, David seemed to think so.
He didn't say, well now I've got to go to a certain program, get on a certain program,
or I've got to go to a certain place in the country to some
kind of a promise keeper meeting or some other type of service.
He just looked to the Lord. That's the well we were talking
about. And the Lord can rejoice the
soul of His servant. He can do that. And you know,
when you've been in the way for a long time, a long, long time
in the way, You need many, many times to be rejoiced in a special
way and in an unusual way. There are many afflictions to
the Lord's people in this world, and if their soul is going to
ever rejoice, my friend, it will be as God rejoices the soul of
His servant. He said, For unto the O Lord
do I lift up my soul. I lift it up that you will rejoice
it. And I'm looking for the joy of
the Lord in my life. And in verse 12, look at it.
He said, I will praise Thee, O Lord, my God, with all my heart,
and will glorify Thy name forever and ever. So the Lord will rejoice
the soul of His servant, and he'll be able to praise the Lord. The Lord only can do this. And then, preserving power. Look at verse 2. He said, preserve
my soul. Preserve my soul. He looked to
God to preserve him. We're in this world, this waste-howling
wilderness, and there are many, many things that could take us
out of this world in a hurry. Verse 16, he said, O turn unto
me, and have mercy upon me. Give thy strength unto thy servant. Preserve me with your strength.
Oh, and Paul mentioned in Ephesians that we are to be strong in the
Lord and the power of His might. God can give us of His strength. Of His strength. And beloved,
you feel more and more the need of it. It is your strength. is
sapped away by different and various things in this world,
more and more of the strength of God to preserve you. God's
strength can hold us up, support us, and enable us to endure. And then I thought also about
the provisions, and I mentioned a little about that a few minutes.
In verse 1, or a few minutes ago, but in verse 1, we see where
David admitted his poverty. He said, for I am poor and needy.
Bow down by an ear, O Lord, hear me, for I am poor and I am needy. Now, I don't know whether it
could be said that David was poor in the sense that he was
penny less or that he somewhere or another didn't have of this
world's goods, but he was poor in soul and in spirit. And I'm
sure that there were times when David was cut off from even the
earthly blessings of God when he was fleeing from those that
were pursuing him, and when he was suffering out in the wilderness,
when Saul was after him, and when Absalom and his men were
pursuing him, and It's wonderful to be able to have confidence
in God wherever you are and whatever your circumstances are. And you
know when there's a great expenditures, there must be some supply, some
real supply of the provisions. And so David, he looked at God. Look at verse 10. For thou art
great and doest wondrous things, thou art God alone. The Lord
is great and many of us have experienced how that God opened
His hand and provided the need of every need of our lives. The Scripture says He opens His
hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing. And so
God is great and He does wondrous things in providing for His people. Don't go away from this well
and look to the handouts of the world to provide your needs. Look to this well. God will provide
your needs. And I think of the many around
us who do not have such a God and such a well to go to. Even
the neighbors next door, we know and we heard this week that they
were making meth out here in this garage, here on the back
of the lot, and they were arrested. And I thought about their poor,
poor souls and their need of this well. and how the people
are so in need that they would turn to something of that measure
in order maybe to provide their needs. I don't know that much
about their circumstances, but I do know this. Admit your poverty
and come to this well. And I do know that God is a God
who will provide. He faithfully provides for all
of those who cry daily unto Him. And then the next thing and the
last thing that I want to mention is the guiding mercies of our
God. David cried daily for the guiding
mercies of our God. You know, look if you will at
verse 13. For great is thy mercy toward
me. David says, and thou hast delivered
my soul from the lowest hell. He knew that God had delivered
him, and if you were to look back quickly to Psalm 48, and
look at the last verse of Psalm 48, You'll see what this all
meant to David. He said, for this God, in verse
14, is our God forever and ever. This God that delivered me from
the lowest hell. This God is our God forever and
ever. And He will be our guide even
unto death. Even unto death He will be our
guide. Now beloved, there's a certain
thing, and young people sometimes feel this, they feel very little
urgency maybe to seek God for guidance. Because they feel like,
in some way or another, they feel like maybe that they have
time. Don't you see what I'm saying?
Is that they have time that if they happen to go the wrong road,
that they will have time to come back, and they will have time
to start again, and they'll be able to take the other fork in
the road later, and maybe do something right some time or
other. but beloved for the child of
God. Oh, how we need to cry daily,
Lord, guide my feet into Thy way. Lord, show me Thy way. and enable me to walk in it.
Now the older you get, the more urgency there is in the cry of
the heart toward God that he will guide you even unto death. And David assured us that he
would be our guide even unto death. And so, beloved, I cry
out this morning to God on your behalf and my own that the Lord
would revive our hearts and that we would come to this well and
we would look nowhere else but unto God for guidance, that He
would guide our feet in the way that we would know the will and
way of the Lord. And it's so important as we come
down toward the end of our lives, especially that we know how to
set our affairs in order, and how to put things in line where
they ought to be, and what to do with those things that God
has entrusted us with. It's so important that God be
our guide forever, and even unto death. And so daily, David, I'm
sure, was praying this way, knowing that he said on one occasion,
there's but a step between me and death. And he knew that and
I'm sure that he was crying out to this one who said he would
be his guide even unto death. And so may we all do this and
look to the Lord with our hearts and cry unto God daily and never
forsake this well. It's the only one that has the
living water in it. And so look to God in faithfulness,
and may God bless you. And Brother Mitch, if you would,
you come and finish the hymns, and then Brother Randy is going
to bring