Would you turn to the 143rd Psalm?
I don't, I mean 43rd. Judge me, oh God, and plead my cause against an
ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from the deceitful
and unjust man, for thou art the God of my strength. Why dost
thou cast me off? Why go I mourning? because of
the oppression of the enemy. Oh, send out thy light and thy
truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring
me unto thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles. Then will I
go unto the altar of God. Unto God, my exceeding joy, yea,
upon the harp will I praise thee, O God, my God. Why art thou cast
down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet
praise him who is the health of my countenance, And my God. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for who
you are. How we thank you for the complete
salvation that is in your son. Lord, what a. What a blessed
grace. That you would cause us to know
you. Lord, we ask that you would cause by your grace your gospel
to be preached in the power of your spirit. We pray that you'd
speak. To each heart here, according
to your will. Lord, we ask for the forgiveness
of sins and the cleansing from sin. And how we thank you for
the forgiveness of sin and the cleansing from sin. Lord, we
ask for grace to love you more, to see more of your beauty. We
ask that we might be enabled to rest in our son. Now speak
for Christ's sake, be with all your people wherever they meet
together. Those that are going through trial, we pray for your
blessing on them. In Christ's blessed name, we
pray. Amen. As is usual, we're going to look
at these Psalms in the light of first the Word of Christ,
and only going to spend a few minutes on that, because I want
to then look at it as the Word of David. But first, the Word
of Christ in verse 43. Who is the only one who could
unequivocally say this? Judge me, O God. Judge me, O
God. There's only one who can say
that, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Judge me, oh God. What a statement. Judge me, oh God, and plead my
cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from the deceitful
and unjust man. Now, what a description of man.
Ungodly, unmerciful, deceitful, and unjust. Verse two, for thou
art the God of my strength. This is his complete trust in
his father. Thou art the God of my strength.
The strength I have comes from my God. That's the words of God
the Son. Why dost thou cast me off? And I have no doubt that that's
the same thing as why have you forsaken me? He was cast off
and he was forsaken in his experience. Why go on mourning because of
the oppression of the enemy? And I think of the Lord mourning.
That's just an incredible thought. But remember when he said, my
soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. And now he mourned
as he was cast off by his father as the sinner substitute. Oh,
verse three, oh, send out thy light and thy truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me unto thy holy
hill and to thy tabernacles. I love that scripture. Yet have
I set my King on my holy hill of Zion. And this is what our
Lord is praying for. Then, verse four, then, Will
I go unto the altar of God? Now what's an altar for? Sacrifice. Then will I go to the altar of
God? And look what he says after speaking
of the altar of God unto God, my exceeding joy. Looking unto Jesus who for the
joy that was set before him endured the cross. the joy he got of glorifying
his father on the altar. Then will I go into the altar
of God and to God my exceeding joy. Yea, upon the harp will
I praise thee, O God, my God. And here is his faith. Why art
thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope in God. When he was totally cut off and
saw nothing, he still hoped in God. Hope thou in God, for I
shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and
my God. How clearly we can see these
as the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. But now let's consider
these as the words of David. Judge me, O God. This is David
speaking. Judge me, O God, and plead my
cause against an ungodly nation. Now, what I think is almost amazing
is every commentator I read on this passage of scripture said,
David is not talking in generalities. He's talking about a specific
incident. He says, judge me about that.
I'm innocent there. Judge me on that. Make my light
to shine forth. Now, really? Didn't David say in Psalm 43
too, enter not into judgment with thy servant? For in thy
sight shall no man living be justified." David was not saying,
in this case, let me be judged. No. I don't care what it is,
if it has anything to do with me or you, it's bad. In and of
itself, it's bad. It's sinful. Somebody says, well,
my motive was right. No, it wasn't. No one, not one
action, not one action, not one desire, not one thought. Can
I say, judge me? Oh God, I'm okay here. No, what
David is speaking of is that of a justified sinner. Now, if
you believe justification, if you believe that what Christ
did actually justified you, And don't ever forget what justification
means. If I'm justified, that means
I don't have any sin. That means I'm sinless before
God. That means I stand without guilt before God. Now, if you believe that what
Christ did justified you, you know what you can say? You can
say, judge me, oh God. Judge me. You know that the righteousness
of Christ will stand before God's judgment without guilt. And then
he goes on to say, plead my cause. Now you see, we have a lawyer,
an advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what happens with
every one of his clients? They're found out to be not guilty. What a lawyer. He's never lost
a case. And all of his clients, every
single one of them without exception are made to be not guilty. Don't you want him pleading your
cause? Now he is speaking in light of the gospel, judge me
and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Now the marginal reading in my
margin says against an unmerciful nation. unmerciful. Oh, deliver me from the deceitful
and unjust man. Deliver me from me, the deceitful
and the unjust man. Deliver me from the deceitful
and unjust man. Deliver me from the deceiver.
deliver me, but I know who my biggest enemy is, and we're going
to see this from verse two. Four, thou art the God of my
strength. Don't you know in your own experience
that you do not have any strength? The only way you can believe
is as he causes you to by his strength. The only way you can
love is as He causes you to. The only way you can persevere
in the faith is as He causes you to. Paul said, I can do all
things through Christ which strengthens me. I can believe through Christ
which strengthens me. But the Lord also said, without
me, you can do, anybody know the next word? Nothing. He didn't say hardly anything.
He said nothing. And so truly God is the strength
of every believer. For thou art the God of my strength.
Why dost thou cast me off? And David's talking about how
he felt. Have you ever felt cast off by
God? Cast off. That's how David felt, cast off.
Why go I mourning? because of the oppression of
the enemy. Now, he's talking about mourning
over sin. Now, this is a blessed thing,
to be enabled to mourn over sin. It's one of the, it's the second
beatitude. Blessed are they that mourn. And how sin oppresses the believer. It's his deadly enemy. It oppresses
the believer. It's never okay, is it? It's
never okay. It's always a reason to mourn
your own personal sin. It's not something you're indifferent
about. It's not something you're okay with. Mourning, like the
death of a loved one. The reason you mourn is because
there's nothing you can do to make it better. When you mourn
over the death of a loved one, you can't bring it back, can
you? And this is mourning because of the oppression of the enemy. Notice he didn't say my enemies,
but he said the enemy, the enemy. He wasn't talking about Ahithophel.
He wasn't talking about Absalom. He wasn't talking about his many
enemies. Who is the enemy? Me. Me. The oppression of the enemy. My old man, my old nature, my
sin. Now, Satan is the enemy. I wouldn't
discredit that in any way. Satan is the accuser of the brethren.
He's an enemy, a great enemy. And
I don't want to have anything to do with him. I love the way
the angel said, the Lord will rebuke you. When I hear preachers
say, I rebuke the devil, oh my gosh, I think you're under his
complete control when you say something like that. How foolish.
But him being deadly, anyhow, I'm looking to the Lord to protect
me from him, but I am, I am my own worst enemy. my sin." And
he goes mourning because of the oppression of the enemy. Now,
look what he prays for in verse three. He says, Oh, send out
thy light and thy truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring
me unto thy holy hill and unto thy tabernacles. Now, what is
David praying for? First of all, light and truth. Light and truth. The light of the gospel. And I love where the Lord said
in John chapter eight, verse 12, I'm the light of the world.
And he is speaking of that in reference to that woman who was
taken in adultery in the very act. There was no doubt about
the guilt of this woman. And yet he said to that woman,
woman, where are those thine accusers? They're not there. Hath no man
condemned thee? No man, Lord. Neither do I condemn
thee. Go and sin no more. Now, I need continual light. As to the fact that there's nothing
for me to be condemned for because of what Christ did for me. I
need to have that placard before my face at all times that in
Christ, I am without guilt. Let thy light be before me. Let
thy truth. I love the way the Lord said,
I am the truth. Uh, you know, I think it's always interesting
that there are athletes who like to call themselves the truth.
I've, I've seen that with several athletes. I'm the truth. No,
no. Uh, if you say I'm the truth,
your own conscience would condemn you immediately. But the Lord
is the truth. He's the truth concerning the
true character of God. He's the truth concerning my
true character. And he is the truth concerning
how God can save me by his grace through what Christ did. Now,
notice he says two things about light and truth. Let them lead
me. I don't want to be led by myself,
do you? I don't want to Fall prey to my own inclinations and
my own understanding. Let thy light and thy truth lead
me. Please lead me. Don't leave me
to myself. The worst thing that could happen
to me is for me to have to leave myself. I'm sure to go off into
the ditch. Let them lead me. Can you pray
that prayer right now? Lord, let your light and your
truth lead me. Lead me not to my own understanding. And then he says, not only let
them lead me, but let them bring me. I want to be brought, don't
you? Let them bring me. into thy holy
hill and to thy tabernacles. Let them carry me to the place
where I need to be, thy holy hill and thy tabernacles." And
this is another way of saying, let me be found in Christ. I
want to be in your holy hill. Who's the only one there? Yet
have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. But you know who
else is there? Everybody in here. And I want
to be brought to that place, his tabernacles. The tabernacles,
he is the tabernacle. And this is just another way
of saying, let me be found in Christ. So that all you see is
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the continual desire of
every believer. Let me be found in Christ. I
don't wanna be found anywhere else. Verse four, then, Well,
I go unto the altar of God. Now what's the altar for? Sacrifice. That's all it's for. That's talking
about the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. When you lead me
and when you bring me, you know where I'm going? The altar. The
altar of sacrifice. That's talking about the work
of Christ. And you know that even in heaven, Even in heaven, when we don't
have any sin, who are we going to be worshipping? And in what
light will we be worshipping? The Lamb slain. And I don't understand
this, but I do know this. in heaven, even when we don't
have any consciousness of sin, we'll know the only reason we
are there is because of the Lamb slain. And we're going to be
script in that choir worthy is the lamb that was slain. And even now the, the altar now
I thought about this glorious altar that, you know, Christ,
one of the glorious things about Christ, he's, he's the priest. who brings himself as the sacrifice
on the altar of his own body. He is our altar. He's everything in our salvation.
But what was brought to my mind when I was thinking about this
is when Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, his train filling
the temple, and he said, woe is me. Woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. I
dwell in the midst of the people of unclean lips for mine eyes
have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. And what happened next? A seraphim brought a coal from
the altar. Don't miss that. He brought a
coal from the altar, the altar sacrifice. Now, this altar is
so significant, when Nadab and Abihu decided they could light
the incense with some fire other than the fire off the altar,
what happened? Fire came down from heaven and
devoured them. They dared to approach God in
some other way than the blood of Christ. And that's what took
place. And I think it's so awesome the
way Moses said, don't cry. He said this to Aaron. He said,
don't cry. Well, he just saw his two sons consume with fire. Don't cry. They had it coming.
He said, I will be glorified in them that approach me. And
the only way I can approach God and glorify God is through the
altar, through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I'm
going to approach your altar. Now those seraphims that came
with that coal with tongs from off the altar and touched his
lips said, your iniquity is pardoned. Your sin is purged. Now that's what the altar of
the Lord Jesus Christ brings to us. Then will I go unto the altar
of God, unto God my exceeding joy. Now, it is only when we
go to the altar that God becomes our exceeding joy. You see, sin's
taken care of. I stand before God without guilt,
and He is my exceeding joy. Yea, upon the harp will I praise
thee, O God my God, Now, I love to think of that as Christ playing
the harp, and it is, but wouldn't you have loved to hear David
play the harp? I mean, the way his use of this
musical instrument to glorify his father. I will on the harp
while I praise thee, O God, my God, I will be to them a God. And they shall be to me a people. The promise of the gospel. Now,
David repeats what he'd said in Psalm 42. He said this twice in Psalm 42.
And there are some people have actually said that Psalm 42 and
43 are actually part of the same Psalm. I don't believe that.
I mean, David repeats himself all the time, but what a repetition.
Let's look at this repetition. Verse five. Why art thou cast
down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in
turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet
praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God. Now, once again, David is speaking
to himself and brought this out last week and it's worthy of
being heard again. David's not listening to himself,
he's speaking to himself. If you listen to yourself, it's
always going to bring you down. It's always going to be contrary
to the gospel, the things that arise out of our hearts. They're
always wrong. And David is not giving himself
the chance at this time by the grace of a chance. That's not
a good word to ever use. But David is is seeking to not
listen to himself, but to speak to himself. Why are you cast
down? Why are you cast down? Every
look within will cast you down. Every look. I remember Henry
Mahan used to say this, and I always thought this was so good. If
you look to yourself, you'll be discouraged. You look to others,
you'll be disappointed. You look to Christ, everything's
great. Why art thou cast down on my
soul? You're looking to yourself. Why
are you filled with turmoil from within, hope thou in God. Now he's talking about the God
of the Bible. It's not talking about some kind of vague idea
of some deity out there. Talking about the living God,
the God of absolute control. the God in whose hand you are,
the God who's glorious, the God who's too wise to err, too kind
to be cruel, who knows everything, and the God who has made you
accepted in the beloved by what he did. Hope in God. That's good counsel, isn't it? Hope in God. You know, there's a reason to
always hope in God and be encouraged in God. He's glorious. Hope thou
in God for. I shall yet praise him. In this life. And throughout
eternity, I shall yet praise Him." Isn't that what you want
to do? I'm not talking about showing everybody else how you're
praising the Lord. A lot of times when people say
that, it irritates me. Because I know, not when it's
real. I always love it when it's real.
But religious people, you know, they always use the term, praise
the Lord, praise the Lord. And I just think, you know, I
don't want to listen to you trying to convince me of your piety
and your religiosity. But every believer desires to
praise the Lord from their heart. I shall yet Praise Him. Have you ever praised Him as
He ought to be praised? No. Even your praise and my praise
falls far short, infinitely short of what it ought to be. But we
know because of God, I shall yet praise Him. In that heavenly
choir, I think he's really talking about heaven because our praise
always falls short here. Every time I've ever tried to
praise him, that's not enough. That's not real enough. That's
not sincere enough. It always falls short. Everything
that has anything, as long as I'm involved, it's always going
to fall short. And I think when he's talking
about yet, he's talking about that time in that great heavenly
choir when he will praise him as he ought to be praised. Don't you look forward to doing
that? To praising him as he ought to be praised. And look what
he says last. I shall yet praise him who is
the health, the salvation, That's the word, the salvation. He is the salvation of my countenance
and my God. Now, what is better than having
God as your God? Let me remind you, if God be
for us, Who can be against us? Oh God, my God. Okay.