Would you turn with me to the
116th psalm? Now, before we read the whole
psalm. Verse. Three. The sorrows of death. Compass me. and the pains of hell get hold
upon me." Who is the only one who could say that? Those are the words of the Lord
Jesus. Only he could say the sorrow of death and the pains
of hell. You know, when people say, I'm
going through hell, I feel bad for that person and somebody
needs to deal with that. A lot of those. When someone says, I'm going
through hell, I'm sure they're going through a difficult time,
but not like this. So these are the words of the
Lord Jesus as we consider this psalm. He says in verse one,
I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his
ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. The
sorrows of death compass me, and the pains of hell hold upon
me. I found trouble and sorrow, then
called I upon the name of the Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee,
deliver my soul, Gracious is the Lord, and righteous, yea,
our God is merciful. The Lord preserveth the simple.
I was brought low, and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my
soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou
hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my
feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in
the land of the living. I believed, therefore have I
spoken. Perhaps you will remember that
Paul quoted this in 2 Corinthians 4.13. A rule of faith, I believed. Therefore, have I spoken. I was greatly afflicted. I said
in my haste, all men are liars. What shall I render unto the
Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation
and call Upon the name of the Lord, I will pay my vows under
the Lord now in the presence of all his people. Precious in
the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. O Lord,
truly, I am thy servant. I am thy servant and the son
of thine handmaid. Thou hast loosed my bonds. I
will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving. and will call
upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows in the Lord
now, in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the
Lord's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye
the Lord." Let's pray. Lord, how grateful we are for
our Redeemer, for our Savior, for our Lord, for our King, your
blessed son. We ask in Christ's name that
your gospel would be preached in the power of your spirit and
that we, by your grace, would be enabled to worship him. Lord,
we confess our sin. Lord, we can't. Come into your
presence without some awareness of our sin and our sinfulness,
but how thankful we are. That we are in your son. How we thank you that in him
is no sin. And Lord, how we. Long to. See him as he is and we'll be
like him. We pray for your mercy upon. Our rulers, the problems in the
world, the wars in the world, we pray for your mercy. We pray
that you'd let. Order our steps in your word
and let no iniquity have dominion over us. Bless us for the Lord's
sake and be with all your people wherever they meet together.
In Christ's name we pray, amen. Now the 113th through the 118th
Psalms are known as the Hallel. I don't know if I'm saying that
right. They're called the Hallel Psalms. And these are the Psalms
that the Lord was singing with his disciples right after the
Lord's table before Gethsemane. You remember both in Matthew
and Mark's account, it says after they sang a hymn, or the word
is actually a psalm, they sang these psalms, and I think there's
something very poignant about thinking of the Lord singing
these psalms before he was going to death, because these are the
psalms that were sang before the Passover. And the Lord knew
he was the Passover. And they were singing these psalms. And I think that this makes these
words particularly poignant to think of the Lord singing this
right before his death. And this psalm is also quoted
by Peter in Acts chapter 2 on the Great Sermon on Pentecost
and that passage that Paul quotes Acts chapter four, verse, I mean,
second Corinthians chapter four, verse 13, he said, he calls this
the spirit of faith. We have believed, therefore we
have spoken. Now I don't think we give that
enough attention. We believe, therefore we speak
and Paul calls this the very spirit of faith. Verse one, I love the Lord because he has
heard my voice and my supplications. Now we love the Lord. We love
him, don't we? We love his attributes. No one
loved him the way the Lord loved his father. I love the Lord because he has
heard my voice and my supplications because he has inclined his ear
unto me. Therefore will I call upon him
as long as I live, which is eternally. Verse three, the sorrows of death
compass me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me. I found trouble and sorrow. Now, as I said, every one of
us have felt trouble. We felt sorrow. We felt perhaps
we're going to die. Many feelings like this. And we might have even thought
I'm going through hell. No, we're not. And I would not
diminish anyone's trouble, anyone's sorrow, but none of us understand
the horrors of complete wrath of God. The Lord Jesus did. He bore the full equivalent of
hell and put it away. But here he says with regard
to his experience on the cross when he was forsaken by his father,
The sorrows of death compassed me about, the pains of hell got
hold upon me. I found trouble and sorrow, then
called I, verse four, upon the name of the Lord, O Lord, I beseech
thee, deliver my soul. He dealt with the silence of
God, but it never caused him to quit praying. I beseech thee,
O Lord, deliver my soul. Remember his soul was made an
offering for sin. Deliver my soul. Verse five, gracious is the Lord
and righteous, yea, our God is merciful. Now here are the three
reasons the Lord was going through this. He's gracious. Oh, how gracious that he would
give his son for people like me and you. Gracious. You know, I think it's awful
the way our flesh will find objections to the Lord. We'll get mad. Why
does he do this? Why didn't he do that? The objection,
gracious, is the Lord. Second, righteous. Why was Christ hanging on a cross?
Because God is righteous. All sin must be punished. And God has made a way to be
righteous and righteously justify sinners through what was going
on on the cross. Righteous. Yea, our God is merciful. He delights in mercy. That's why the Lord is hanging
on the cross with the sorrows of death and hell, experiencing
it all in his own body because God is gracious, because God
is righteous, because God is merciful. Can you say amen to
that? That's who he is. Verse six. The Lord preserveth. The simple. Really what the word means is
stupid. Stupid. Is that you? I was brought low and he helped
me. Now I think of how the Lord was
brought low. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. that though he was rich, yet
for your sakes, he became poor, that you through his poverty
might be rich. Oh, how low he was brought. And
I don't understand it. You don't understand it, but
we, we believe it. He was brought low that we might
be made rich. And he helped me. He raised him from the dead. Return
unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully
with thee. Now this is after his work. What
did the Lord do after his work of creation? He rested. That wasn't because he's tired,
he's worn out. No, he just looked at what he
did and said, it's good, and he rested. What did the Lord
do after his mighty work of salvation on the cross? The scripture says
he sat down. He sat down. He rested not because he was
tired, but because his work was finished and he was very good. And that's why he says in verse
seven, returning to thy rest. Oh, my soul. You see, he rested
eternally before this, didn't he? in complete satisfaction. And he goes through this period
when it's not a rest, when he has dealt with the sins of his
people. And, but now return to that rest. Oh, my soul for the Lord has
dealt bountifully with thee for verse eight, thou has delivered
my soul from death, mine eyes from tears. Remember his strong
crimes and tears in the garden of Gethsemane. and my feet from
falling." This is talking about his complete deliverance, his
resurrection in complete deliverance. This is what this is a reference
to. Verse nine, I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. Now, remember when those Sadducees
were questioning the Lord about the resurrection and he said,
God's not the God of the dead. He's the God of the living. Heaven
is the land of the living. You know, everybody there lives.
And I'm not just talking about physical life. I'm talking about
spiritual life, the land of the living, where God is worshiped,
where God is adored, where Christ is seen as altogether lovely,
the land of the living. He says, I will walk before the
Lord in the land of the living. Verse 10, I believed, therefore
have I spoken. Now hold your finger there and
turn to second Corinthians chapter four. Verse 13, 2 Corinthians 4, verse
13. We, having the same spirit of
faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have
I spoken. We also believe, and therefore
speak. The spirit of faith, I love that.
The spirit of faith. What does a man believe? What
he says. What he preaches publicly. That's what he believes. Someone
that had attended church here quit coming here and started
going somewhere else. And they called me about something.
And I said, well, you're going to I don't even know if I call it
the church, because I'm not going to call a place where the gospel is not preached
the church. I said, do they preach election there? And this person
replied, well, I don't know. I've never heard it. I don't
know what he believes. I've never heard it. Well, that answers
that question, doesn't it? I love it when they said, when
they asked the Lord about his disciples and his doctrine. And
he says, why are you asking me? Ask them that heard me. They'll
tell you what I preached. Now, I believe the Bible is the
inspired word of God. I preach it as such. You believe
it as such. You wouldn't be here if you didn't.
I believe everything the Bible says with regard to the character
of God. And you know what proves it?
I preach His character. I preach His holiness. I preach
His absolute sovereignty. I preach His justice and righteousness. I preach His power. I preach
His love. And I'm not putting the emphasis
on me doing this because you're in this just as much as I am.
This is what you stand for. If you're a believer, we speak
what we were. Somebody says, I hope he didn't
mean what he said. He did. He did. What you say is what
you believe. I believe that the righteousness
of Christ is the only grounds of acceptance before God, that
there is no other righteousness. I preach it. We don't put enough
emphasis, I don't think, on this verse of scripture. I believed,
therefore have I spoken. This is the spirit of faith. Verse 10, I believe, therefore
have I spoken. I was greatly afflicted. He's talking about his time on
the cross. I said in my haste, all men are
liars. This was realized on the cross,
and you know, all men are liars. Is he saying, well, when I got
in too much of a hurry, I said something I shouldn't have said,
that all men are liars, when in fact they're not? No, of course
not. Let God be true and every man a liar. And I am so, you
know, even when I'm preaching the gospel, I'm so acutely aware
of the fact that I'm a liar. You say, well, why do you expect
us to listen to you? Well, because I expect you to
listen to what God says. You're a liar too. You're a liar. Everything we do is a misrepresentation
of the truth. We're always trying to project
something. But thank God, God's true. Though all men are liars,
we have God's word and God's people, the only honest people.
Now listen to me. The only honest people are people
who see that they're nothing but liars in and of themselves.
And if you disagree with that, with regard to yourself, you've
lied to yourself. It's that simple. All men are
liars. Verse 12, what shall I render
unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? You think of the benefit, now
the Lord's saying this and we say it too, don't we? The benefits,
the saving benefits, the grace, the mercy, the kindness. What,
bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that's within me, praise
his holy name, bless the Lord, my soul, and forget not all of
his benefits. The benefits from our great benefactor. Verse 13, he says, I'll take
the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. Now,
I thought of this cup. The Old Testament and the New
Testament both speak of this cup. The dregs of the cup the
wicked will drink. I'll wring them out in the book
of Isaiah. I think of the Lord in Gethsemane's garden when that
cup passed before him. And when he saw that cup, the
scripture says he sweat great drops of blood because he knew
the content of that cup. And you and I, I realize we can't
understand this. We can, we can talk about it,
but we can't understand it. But that's talking about him
drinking into his own body, our sin. He bear our sins in his
own body on the tree. How this works, we don't know,
but the Lord took the sins of his people off of them, put them
in that cup, the Lord drank them. And now that cup is filled with
grace because the sin is gone and we drink the cup of salvation
because he drank the cup of our sins and put them away. And now
we drink this glorious cup of salvation. You know, every time
we take the Lord's table, we celebrate that salvation. I hope we celebrate it every
day and every minute. The cup of salvation. He says,
I'll take the cup of salvation and we'll call upon the name
of the Lord. You know, the Lord calls on the
name of his father. We call on the name of his father.
Verse 14, I will pay my vows unto the Lord
now in the presence of all of his people. Now, have you ever
vowed a vow to the Lord? I dare say you probably have.
I know I have. Have you ever kept it? No. Should you? Yes. Should you have made the vow
in the first place? No. No. But there is one who kept his
vow. Remember in Jonah chapter 2,
the great prayer of Jonah from the fish's belly, which is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I'll pay that which
I vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. And understand this. He vowed to his father to do
whatever it took to glorify his father and save his people. He
vowed a vow. This is the will of him that
sent me, that of all which he has given me, I should lose nothing,
but raise it up again at the last day. He kept his vow. When he said it is finished,
he's saying the vow has been kept. I will pay my vows unto
the Lord now in the presence of all his people." That's what's
going on right now. We're hearing about his vow. And aren't you thankful he kept
his vow? Now verse 15, precious in the sight of the Lord is the
death of his saints. What I thought about, really,
I thought about burying Paul Daniel, you know, not too long
ago. And this is the word that came
to me, and this is true of every believer when they die. Precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. John chapter 17, verse 23, the
Lord tells us with regard to his father and his people, thou
has loved them as thou has loved me. Believer, when you die, it's
precious to the Lord. What a hope. Precious to the
Lord. in the sight of the Lord is the
death of his saint, his sanctified ones. Verse 16. Oh Lord, truly, I am thy servant. I am thy servant and the son
of thine handmaid. Thou has loosed, thou has set
free my bonds. Now I love the way This is stated. Have you ever heard the Catholic
prayer, Mother Mary of God, have mercy on us poor sinners? God
doesn't have a mother. God has no mother. Mary was the
physical mother of the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
no question about that, but God doesn't have a mother. Christ
Jesus was the son of God's handmaid and Mary said the same thing
about herself. Remember in Luke chapter two
when she called herself, let it be done unto thy handmaid
as thou has purposed. This is an answer to this psalm. Oh Lord truly I am thy servant,
I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid. Thou has loosed
my bonds. And that is once again a reference
to the resurrection. Somebody says, doesn't any of
this have any dealing with us? Yeah, it does. I'm not dealing.
I mean, yes, David wrote this. He experienced all this. But
that being said, just the fact that when he talked about hell
got hold of me, nobody can say that but the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's the way I want us to remember this psalm. Yes,
in every psalm you can read it as David's words, as your words.
I'm thankful for that. But these are preeminently the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he says in verse 17, I will offer to thee the sacrifice
of thanksgiving." He's already offered the sacrifice for sin.
And now he offers the sacrifice for thanksgiving. And I will call upon the name
of the Lord. You know, it's so glorious to
think of the Lord Jesus calling upon the name of his father.
We do it. Lord, save me. But oh, him calling
upon the name of his father. It's beautiful to think about.
He adored his father. He once again says in verse 18,
I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his
people. Who is the only one to pay his
vows? This can describe no one but the Lord Jesus Christ. He
paid his vows. We might have made him, but we
didn't pay him. He made him and he paid them.
Complete salvation for all of his people. I will pay my vows
under the Lord now in the presence of all his people in the courts
of the Lord's house. This is talking about the church.
In the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem.
Now he calls upon his people, the church, Jerusalem. Praise
ye the Lord. As I praise the Lord, you do
the same thing. What a beautiful song.