Would you turn back to the 107th
Psalm? Let's read this 43rd verse once
again. Whoso is wise and will observe, give close attention to these
things, these things that have been said in this 107th Psalm,
even they shall understand the loving kindness. And that word
loving kindness is the word that's usually translated mercy. Even they shall understand the
mercy of God. Now, wouldn't it be something
if you and I leave this place with some God-given spiritual
understanding of the mercy of God. I pray that that's what
takes place. Now, I've entitled this message,
Then They Cried Unto the Lord. And once again, here is something
that I pray that takes place in the heart of everybody here,
beginning in this pulpit. Then they cried unto the Lord. Now, in this 107th Psalm, the
psalmist gives four different scenarios. He talks about not
having a place to live, not having a place of habitation. And then
he talks about being in prison. And then he talks about being
sick and diseased and starving. And then he talks about a storm
and a ship being out on a storm in the sea. And all of these
things are given to illustrate to us what sin is and what sin
does to us. And after each of these scenarios,
we read these words, look in verse 7. or verse six, then they cried
unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of
their distresses. Verse 13, the second scenario,
then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saved
them out of their distresses. And then in verse 19, then they
cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their
distresses. And once again in verse 28, then
they cry unto the Lord in their trouble and he bringeth them
out of their distresses. Now, I pray that God would enable
me and you to cry unto the Lord in our trouble and him bring
us out of our distresses. Now, the psalmist begins with
these words in verse one, And he calls upon us to join with
him in this glorious employment. He says, oh, give thanks unto
the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Now he calls upon us to give
thanks for these two reasons. One, because he's good. And two,
because His mercy endures forever. And I think it's really interesting.
You'll notice looking at this verse one, the word endureth
is in italics. It was placed there by the translators,
and it seems to kind of put mercy in time. Lift that out. His mercy forever. It's eternal. It doesn't dwell
in time. It's eternal. The Lord is good. He is essentially good. He is the definition of good. It's
not a standard that he lives up to. I love it when the rich
young ruler came up to the Lord and he said, good master, what
good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And the
Lord knew why this man came up to him. He said, I'm a good man,
and I'd like to elevate myself to your goodness. You're better.
What can I do to be like you? And he replied, why callest thou
me good? There's none good, but one only,
God. Only God is good. And do you know that God is good
all the time? Whether you and I perceive it
or not, God is good all the time. That's who he is. And you know
what we say to that? Amen. God is good. And his mercy, his saving mercy
is eternal. If you've been shown mercy, you've
always been an object of his mercy. Before time began, you
were an object of his mercy, and you always will be an object
of his mercy. Now, the one qualification for
mercy is what? Having no merit. If you have
no merit, if you have no personal merit tonight, right now, beloved,
you're a candidate for mercy. That's the one qualification. Now, look what he says in verse
2. He says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Let them
say, he's good. Let them say, his mercy endureth
forever. This is something that ought
to be coming from our lips. The Lord is good. Go give thanks
unto the Lord for he's good. For his mercy endureth forever. And I love this language, let
the redeemed of the Lord. say so, whom he hath redeemed
from the hand of the enemy. Now we know something about this.
You see, the Bible knows nothing of a potential redemption. It
knows nothing of a redemption being offered to anybody up to
their acceptance or rejection. It knows nothing of a universal
redemption where everyone is redeemed. And let me tell you
something. If you believe that He redeemed everybody by His
death and died for everybody, you're going to have to come
up with a better plea on judgment day than He died for me because
that's not enough. If he died for everybody and
some of those people wind up in hell, that's not enough. You're
going to have to come up with something better than that. And
beloved, that's not something I want to ever try to do. The
only hope I have is that he died for me and I would make no other
plea. And that's what the psalmist
is doing. He says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath
redeemed a successful particular redemption. I love that scripture, being
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. Now, let the redeemed of the
Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. You
know who my enemy is? My sins. That's my enemy, my
lusts, my self-righteousness, my pride, my envy, my greed,
my sin. Just go on and on. That's my
enemy. And that's who I need to be redeemed
from. Oh, redeem me from my enemy. And look what it says He did
with these people in verse 3. And He gathered them out of the
lands from the east and from the west, from the north and
from the south. These people that He redeemed,
He's gathered them together. Now, He gives us the first picture
regarding these people whom he has redeemed, they wandered in
the wilderness, in a place where there was no bread, there was
no food, a desert place with no life. They found no city to
dwell in. They didn't find a place they
could call home. They didn't find a place where
they could dwell. Hungry, verse 5, thirsty, their soul fainted
in them. They didn't have a dwelling place.
Now, can you imagine what it would be to be homeless? To not
have a home to go home to tonight. You walk out the door, where
are you going? Now, where am I going with this? There's only one dwelling place
for a believer. Where's that? Jesus Christ himself. David said, one thing have I
desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after. that I may
dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold
the beauty of the Lord and inquire in his temple." Moses said, thou
has been our dwelling place. Now your home, if you have a
home, that's the one place you're comfortable. That's the one place
you feel like you can be yourself. That's the one place where you
feel like you're welcome. Any room is open. Any place is
open. You're totally welcome in your
own home. Look what happened in verse five. Hungry and thirsty, their soul
fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble. And he delivered them out of
their distresses. And so he led them forth by the
right way that they might go to a city of habitation. They
were given a dwelling place. They were given a home when they
cried to the Lord in their trouble. Now, I know this. I say this
pretty much every time I preach. The only place I want to be found
is in Christ, my dwelling place, my home. Number one, that's the
only place I feel comfortable. That's the only place I feel
any liberty. That's the only place I don't feel fear is if
all God sees when he sees me is he sees me in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's our dwelling place. That's
our place of habitation. And you cry to the Lord. This
is where you're going to be put in this dwelling place, my own
home. where I'm welcome, where there's
no place off limits for me. I can go anywhere I want in my
own home, and I can be secure and saved and safe in my home. Now, a dwelling place. Now, sin
causes me to have no dwelling place, but oh, by His grace,
He gives me a dwelling place. Now, begin reading in verse Eight,
oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for
his wonderful works to the children of men. For he satisfies the
longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. You
find me one longing hungry soul and I'll show you someone he
satisfies with his goodness. to long for Him, to long to be
found in Him, to long to have His righteousness, to say with
Paul, Oh, that I may win Christ and be found in Him. That longing. Oh, you get complete satisfaction
by simply being found in Christ. Now here's the second image he
gives us in verse 10. Such as sit in darkness. and in the shadow of death. Now
here's what sin feels like to a believer such as sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death being bound in affliction and iron
and that word bound is translated 10 of the 12 times being in prison. Because they rebelled against
the words of God and contend the counsel of the most high,
therefore he brought down their heart with labor. They fell down
and there was none to help. Now, this is what sin feels like
to a believer. You're locked up and you don't
have the ability to get out. You can't pull yourself up by
the bootstraps. You can't just walk out of prison. You know,
there's never been a believer who believes in free will. Not
one. You know better than that. You
know something about the sinfulness of your nature and you know something
about feeling locked up and bound in this prison. Now, we know
that this being bound is our fault. Look in verse 11. Because
they rebelled against the words of God and they contend the counsel
of the Most High. My being bound to total depravity
and total inability is all my fault. I'm not gonna blame Adam. Yes, I inherited his nature.
Yes, I was charged with his sin. But my sinfulness, my, and this
being bound has something to do with two things. I have a
nature that's dead in trespasses and sins that I can't change.
And I stand before a law that I can't keep. That's the chains
that hold a believer in inability in his own experience. He has
a nature that he can't change, that he can't make right, and
he's got a law before him that he cannot keep. Verse 12, therefore, My prison
is my doing. It's because of my rebellion
against the words of God, my contemning the counsel of the
Most High. Therefore, he brought down their heart with labor.
They fell down and there was nobody to help. You're by yourself,
you're isolated, you have fallen down and there's nobody to lift
you up. Now, when you're brought to that
place, what do you do? This happens to everybody who's
brought to that place. Verse 13, then they cried unto
the Lord in their trouble. and he saved them out of their
distresses. That's only when we see we're
imprisoned by sin and that we're held in chains by a law we can't
keep and a nature that we can't change that we're going to cry
to the Lord. No one has ever cried to the
Lord unless they've seen this about themselves. And you know
what they do? They say, Lord, save me. That's
what they prayed, isn't it? Look once again in verse 13.
Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saved
them out of their distresses. How often have you cried, Lord,
save me? Save me. Look down from heaven
and save me. I've fallen down. I've got nobody
to help me. If you don't help me, I won't
be helped. I need you to save me. And what's He do? He saved them out of their distresses
and brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and break
their bands asunder. He brought them out of that awful
place by breaking the bands that were holding them down, a broken
law and a nature dead in trespasses and sins. And here's what he
did. He justified me before that law to where I stand before that
law without guilt. And he gave me a new nature,
a new heart that wasn't there before that can now look to Him
and believe and call upon His name. That's what He does for
these people in this state of prison. And then the psalmist
says, Oh, that men would praise the Lord in verse 15 for his
goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men,
for he had broken the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron
asunder. That's what he does for us when
we're in prison like that. He takes care of our. Prisoner
ship by cutting the bars asunder. Now look what he says in verse
17. Here's the third scenario. Fools. You know, it's a serious thing
to call a man a fool. Very serious thing. But have you ever said
to yourself, I'm the biggest fool to ever live? I'm a fool. And look what he says about himself.
Fools, because of their transgression and because of their iniquities,
are afflicted Now he's given us a picture of someone who is
diseased. And the first picture is sin,
is somebody that doesn't have a home. The second person is
somebody in prison. And this third picture he gives
us is somebody who is diseased and starving to death. Look what he says, verse 18. Their soul abhorreth all manner
of meat. and they draw near unto the gates
of death. Now, if you're a sinner, you
know that you're a fool. And you believe yourself to be
a fool, and you know everything is all your fault. It's your
transgressions and then your iniquities that have brought
on this disease. Now, sin is compared to a disease
to a believer. You know, Dave said, my loins
are filled with a loathsome disease, and there's no soundness in my
flesh. But it's a disease we got that's all our fault we have
it. We know it's ever been our fault that we have it. I remember,
for some reason I was thinking about this. When I quit smoking
cigarettes, the doctor told me, I was 30 years old, and the doctor
told me, if you continue to smoke, you'll die. And it's when I'd
had some kind of lung surgery and I had chemo-pneumonia or
something like that. And I pictured myself not quitting
and dying. And I was laying there in the
coffin, And Lynn and Aubrey were looking at me crying, because
I was dead, and I knew this is all my fault. I brought them
into this position, a disease that's all my fault. Well, sin,
oh, sin is like a disease. And when you have it, you know
it's all your fault, your sins and your iniquities. Verse 18,
their soul abhoreth all manner of meat. Sin makes you lose your
appetite for the word of God. Now, when you have no appetite
for the word of God, when you have no appetite for the preaching
of the gospel, something's wrong. You're getting close to death.
He said, they're drawn nigh to death. That's what happens when
you, you know, when you get really sick, you lose your appetite.
Verse 19, then when they were drawing near unto the gates of
death, then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble. There
we have it again for the third time. Then they cry unto the
Lord in their trouble, and He saveth them out of their distresses.
He sent His Word, and what? Healed them. And delivered them
from their destructions. He sent His Word. Now, this is
so important. He sent His Word, the Word of
God. The Word of God is the Word, the message, from the Word, the
written Word, the Scriptures that reveal the Word, the living
Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is no healing apart
from the Word in all three of these senses. Now, He sent His
Word and healed them. Now listen to this Scripture
from 1 Peter chapter 2. It's a quotation from Isaiah
53. Who his own self bear our sins
in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live
unto righteousness by whose stripes, anybody know the rest of the
words? You were healed. Now the only healing this sinner
knows anything about or the healing that His stripes give me. No self-medicating, no doing
things to make myself better. The only healing I know anything
about is that healing He accomplished for me. By His stripes you were
healed. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is that flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Oh, the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ for our healing. Verse 21. Oh, He says again after thinking
of this glorious deliverance. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children
of men and let them sacrifice the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and declare His works with rejoicing. You know, every time you think
of what the Lord has done, you think everybody ought to worship
the Lord. Everybody ought to rejoice in
who He is and what He's done. And we want everybody to do it,
don't we? Now, verse 23, he gives us the fourth scenario. They
that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters,
these see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep,
for he commandeth and raises the stormy wind. Who did it?
The Lord did. Now, he's talking about a storm out on sea. I've
never been out on storm out on sea, but I've heard there's something.
I mean a boat going up and down and up and down, the waves knocking
them back and forth. I mean no matter how big the
boat is, it's nothing before the sea and the storms. And what
happens? Verse 25, "...for he commandeth
and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof."
They mount up to the heaven. They don't go down again to the
depths. Their soul is melted because of trouble. They're scared
to death. They reel to and fro and stagger
like a drunken man and are at their wit's end. They've reached
the end. They've lost all hope. They don't know what to do and
they say, I have absolutely positively no control in any of this. Here I'm up and down, up and
down. I'm at my wits end and there's
not a thing I can do about it. The point behind this is the
Lord sent this storm and we have no control and then we read these
words again. You know when you find out that,
you know when you pray about something when there ain't nothing
you can do about it? Really not until then. Now, the
fact of the matter is we can't do anything about anything. But
it takes us a while to figure that out. And then when we figure
it out, by His grace, putting us up on that storm, up and down
and up and down, and you're brought to your wits end, you got nowhere
else to turn. Verse 28, then they cry unto
the Lord in their trouble, and He bringeth them out of their
distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so
that the waves thereof are still. You remember the disciples in
the boat? Lord, don't you care that we're perishing? He gets
up, peace, be still. And the scripture says, there
was a great calm. And the disciples looked at each
other. They said, what manner of man
is this that even the winds in the sea obey him? But that's
who he is. The storm you're on, oh, he'll
make it a great calm. The waves thereof are still,
verse 30, then are they glad because they be quiet. So he
bringeth them into their desired haven. And I know where that
is. That's in Christ. That's the desired haven I want
to be in. That's the place of safety. That's the place of security. You know, you're in a haven,
you're in a bay, the waves and wind can't get to you. You're
safe in there in Christ. And he says again, I love the
way he does this in verse 31. He says, Oh, that men would praise
the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the
children of men. Let them exalt him also in the
congregation of the people and praise him in the assembly of
the elders. Everybody ought to. I love that
Psalm 150. Let everything that hath breath
Praise the Lord. Now in verses 33 through 38,
he starts talking about the character of God, the character of the
God of the Bible. You see, the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. And in verses 33 through 38,
he tells what the Lord does. In verses
33 and 34, he tells what he does to good people. And then in verses
35 through 38, he tells what he does for sinners. Here's what
he does for good people. Look at the beginning in verse
33. He turneth rivers into a wilderness. I got plenty of water. He turns
you into a wilderness, a desert place. And the water springs
into dry ground. a fruitful land into barrenness
for the wickedness of them that dwell therein." Now, this is
what he does to good people. But look what he does for his
people, verse 35. He turneth the wilderness, the
barren, dry place into standing water and dry ground into water springs. And there
he maketh the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city
for habitation. He gives them a place to live,
sow the fields, and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase.
He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly,
and suffereth not their cattle decrease. That's what he does
for his people. He turns the people who had plenty into nothing,
he turns those who have nothing into having plenty. Isn't that
glorious, the way the Lord works? You know it's good news to you
if you have nothing. You don't like it if you have plenty. Now,
verse 39, again, I think this is amazing. Again, they're minished
and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow. Does
it have to happen again? Do you have to be brought low
again? Do you have to be diminished
again? And that's what that word means. The biggest problem that you
and I have right now, President Tibbs, you want to know what
your biggest problem is? Do I want to know what my biggest
problem is? Listen real carefully. It's a
high opinion of yourself. Now, can I make good on that
from the Word of God? Well, I'm going to be preaching
on it in a couple of weeks, but Paul said, In Romans chapter
12, this is our response to grace. He said, I beseech you by the
mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And
be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace
given me to every man that's among you. Here's the first thing
he says when he talks about proving that good and acceptable and
perfect will of God. I say to every man that's among
you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think,
but to think soberly as God has dealt to every man the measure
of faith. You see, the higher opinion I
have of myself, the lower opinion I have of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if I think I'm anything, He's not everything to me. It's
only when you are nothing that He is all. And that's so. You can't think
of yourself as to what you are in yourself low enough. Now,
we realize also what we are in Christ. In Christ we're complete.
We believe that. We rejoice in it. But our completeness
is in Christ, not in ourselves. And we have to be minished and
brought low again and again and again. 39, again, they're minished and brought
low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow. But here's the way
the Lord does. He pours contempt upon princes
and causes them to wander in the wilderness where there is
no way. The somebodies, the princes, what's He do? He pours contempt
on them. And He causes them to wander
in the wilderness. They don't know what's going
on while it's taking place. Yet, verse 41, saideth he the
poor. Well, it's a good thing to be
poor, isn't it? Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. To have nothing to recommend
you to God, here's what he does for that person. Yet saideth
he the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like
a flock. Now the righteous, shall see
this and rejoice." We rejoice in the
way the Lord works. We rejoice in what the Lord does.
The righteous, and that's a description of every believer, the poor are
the righteous. I've made this statement many
times. All the righteous believe themselves
to be wicked. And all the wicked believe themselves
to be righteous. Isn't that so? Now the righteous
shall see this and they'll be glad. They'll rejoice. And all
iniquity shall stop her mouth. Iniquity is not even allowed
to say a word about this. This is God. No room for their comment. They
have to keep their mouth shut about this. And then the psalmist
says, who so is wise and will observe these things. We'll pay
careful attention to these things that we've just gone over. What's the theme of this psalm?
They sinned, they were brought low, they cried, and the Lord
delivered them. That's the theme of this psalm.
They were given a dwelling place when they cried. They were brought
out of prison when they cried. They were healed of their disease
when they cried. When they were on that storm,
oh, when they were brought to their wits end, they cried. And the Lord healed them and
saved them out of all their distresses. And you see your own life story
written in this psalm, don't you? Now, who's those wives? and will understand these things,
even he shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. Now, like I said, that word loving
kindness is the word that's most often translated in the Old Testament,
mercy. Mercy. Now, I've already said
previously that the one qualification for mercy is having no merit. What a blessing it is when I'm
brought to see that, that I really don't have merit. I don't have
any. You know, that's hard to get hold of. It's hard to get,
because we say it when we, we say we believe it, but I don't
know how much we believe it. If, you know, you'd have nothing
but joy if you always believe that, because you'd always be
looking to Christ and resting in Him. There wouldn't be any
unbelief. You'd just be resting. But let me tell you these three
things about God's mercy that are always true. First, God's
mercy is always sovereign. That means he has mercy on whom
he will have mercy. It's up to him as to whether
or not you're going to have it. Totally. You don't have any control
in it. You can't get him to do anything.
He is sovereign. He doeth according to His will.
So the first thing I need to understand about mercy is mercy
is up to Him. It's not up to me. It's up to
Him. But here's the next thing I want
to say about God's mercy. It's absolutely free. There's no works you need to
perform to have it. It's always free. Free grace. Somebody says, well,
that's redundant. If it's grace, it's free. Yeah,
I like redundancy. Free grace. Sovereign grace.
Free grace. Sovereign mercy. Free mercy.
I like that, don't you? It's always free. That means
there's not one thing I need to bring God and give him in
order for me to give it to him. I come empty handed. Foul I to
the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, or I die. But understand this,
too. It's always sovereign, it's always
free, and it's always saving. Everyone who gets mercy is an
object of God's salvation. But God, who is rich in mercy,
For the great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
are you saved. Now who's wise, and we'll observe,
pay attention to these things, look at them closely. Go back
and read this psalm again and again and again. Who so is wise? and observe these things, even
he shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that you would give
us this wisdom to observe to carefully see these things. For Lord, we do see these things. And Lord, we ask that you would
give us this understanding, this heart understanding, this heart
delight in thy loving kindness. And Lord, we confess we need to be minished. made small over and over again. Lord, we're so ashamed that we
could ever have a proud, self-righteous thought. Lord, teach us what it is to
glory only in the cross of Thy Son. Bless this message for Christ's
sake. In His name we pray. Amen.