When I was reading this psalm,
for lack of a better word to express this, I felt it. I felt
it. And I thought, that is what I
need the Lord to do for me. Just what's expressed in this
79th psalm. And I've entitled this message,
What I Need the Lord to Do for Me. Now, in these first three verses,
we're given a reference to the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem. The psalmist says, O God, the
heathen are coming to thine inheritance. Thy holy temple have they defiled. They've laid Jerusalem on heaps. The dead bodies of thy servants
have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and
the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their
blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem, and there
was none to bury them. Now, this took place literally. How gruesome that must have been.
But here's what I get out of this. This is what sin feels
like in a believer. If we're believers, we are his
inheritance and his temple. And these things literally happened.
The heathen have come in and desecrated the temple. They've
leveled Jerusalem. They left the dead bodies of
thy saints to be carrion for the vultures. But this is what
sin feels like to a believer. Defiled, destroyed, and dead. That's what sin feels like to
a believer. If you have a Cambridge Bible,
my top heading over this psalm says the desolation of Jerusalem
and the miseries of the church. And like I said, when I read
this psalm, I thought that's what sin feels like to me. Look what he says in verse four.
We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a
derision to them that are round about us. So these are the people
of God. So these are the people of God.
What's he done for them? Look at them. And David is grieving
over the reproach he would bring on the gospel, or Asaph, I guess
who wrote the song, is grieving over the reproach he's brought
on the gospel. He says in verse 5, How long,
Lord? Wilt thou be angry forever? Shall
thy jealousy burn like fire? Now there the psalmist confesses
in this statement that this is all his fault. The Lord has reason
to be angry with us. He has reason to be jealous because
of our unfaithfulness. But how long? He felt as though
he had been cut off. Justly so. And he says, Lord,
how long is this going to last? Verse six, he says, pour out
thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon
the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name. Now notice he
says, pour your wrath on the heathen that have not known thee.
Now that word known in the Hebrew can just as easily be called
loved. Adam knew his wife Eve, and he's
asking him to pour out his wrath on those that have no love for
him. and those who have not called upon his name. And I'm thinking
about this. I mean, 1 Corinthians 16, verse
22, Paul says, If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let
him be anathema, maranatha. Let him be damned upon the return
of the Lord. And that's the way the psalmist
felt. Somebody that doesn't love Christ, if they end up dying
that way, they ought to be damned. Amen? Amen. That's true. And that was the way David or
the psalmist felt. He says in verse seven, this
is the way these people who have invaded Jerusalem have treated
your people for they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his dwelling
place. And once again, that's what sin
feels like in a believer. I've been devoured and laid waste. Now, in verses 8 through 13,
David gives some very specific requests. He's asking the Lord to do some
things for him. And these are things that I need
the Lord to do for me. Now, salvation. I can say this
with such conviction. Salvation is what the Lord does
for you. It's not what you do for him. It's what He does for
you. And how desperately I need the
Lord to do these things for me. And you do as well. Now, let's
look at these things that the psalmist specifically asks for. He says, first of all, in verse
8, Oh, remember not against us former iniquities. Now, some say that this means
don't remember the iniquities of our fathers and punish us
for them. I don't believe that's what it
means. I guess you can read it that way if you want, but he's
saying don't remember my sins. Now, if you're a sinner, this
is something you desperately want to have for yourself. You
want the Lord himself to not remember your sins. Now, I need
for the Lord to not remember my sins. Can God forget? You
know, it seems a thing impossible, doesn't it? I mean, God is God.
He's omniscient. He knows all things. He never
forgets anything. You know, there's a lot of sins
that I've committed that I don't even remember. Don't even remember.
God remembers every one of them if I'm outside of Christ. He
never forgets. So how is it that he can forget? It seems a thing impossible.
How can it be? In Hebrews chapter 8, verse 12,
here's how it can be. God says, I will be merciful. And that word merciful is propitious. It's not just some kind of general
mercy. It's propitious. I will. He didn't say I will if. He said,
I will be propitious. to their iniquities and their
sins and iniquities, I will remember no more." Now, the word propitious,
through the person and work of Christ, God is propitiated. Now, what does that mean? That's
a big word. We don't hear it much. Through the work of Christ on
the cross, God's reason for anger for me was removed. It's gone. Christ put away my
sin. When the publican was praying
in the temple, beating on his breast, saying, God, be merciful
to me, the sinner, the worst man to ever live. When he said,
God, be merciful, same word. God, be propitious. Do something about my sin. I'm
not just asking for him to quit looking at it and act like it's
not there. No, I'm asking him to do something about it. Be
propitious. Put it away. And you know what
the Lord said about that man? He said, I tell you that man
went down to his house justified. Now that's what happens when
God is propitious. Your sin is put away. And you're
justified. And the reason God can't remember
your sin is because there's nothing, absolutely nothing there to remember. And this is real. This is not
just pie in the sky. Every believer has their sins
put away to this extent. God doesn't remember them. And
I don't understand how this can be. It's amazing to me to think
in heaven. When the Lord looks at me now,
and especially in heaven, He's going to not remember any of
my sins. He's gonna look at me as altogether perfect. Always have been, always will
be. That's what justification is. I need that. I need for the Lord to not remember
my sins. And then he says in verse eight,
let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us. And that word prevent
actually means proceed. Let thy tender mercies speedily
precede us, for we're brought very low. Now what are his tender
mercies? I read somewhere where God's
tender mercies are the equivalent of the New Testament word grace. David said, have Mercy upon me,
O Lord, according to Thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of
Thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly
from my iniquities and cleanse me from my sin. And when David
was writing Psalm 51, he was not confessing his sin the way we
do when we say, Lord, please forgive us of our sins. And we're
not even thinking about it. It's just automatic in prayer the
way we do that. And I don't even know how much we mean it when
we say it. But David had some specific sins on his mind. He
was guilty of cold-blooded, premeditated murder. He was guilty of adultery. He was guilty of a horrid abuse
of power and abuse of people. He was guilty of the most grotesque
hypocrisy. And he had all this on his mind.
He wasn't just given some kind of general confession of sin. He said, according to the multitude
of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Make them
gone! Tender mercies. Now, he said,
let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us or precede us. Now, here's the fact. I need
His grace to go before my sin. You see, if He deals with me
in my sin, He's got to punish me because He said, shall not
the judge of the earth do right, I'll by no means clear the guilty.
So I need His grace before my sin. I need Him to precede me. I need His, in every aspect of
grace, I need His grace to come before me in divine election.
And Him to choose me not because of anything He sees in me, but
simply because He's gracious. Because He does it. I need His
grace to precede me in redemption to where He redeems me. He's
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world before I even commit
the sin. I need something done about my
sin before I even commit it. I need preceding grace. I need
His grace to precede me, to justify me. Just to say, you're justified.
I need His grace to preserve me, to come before me, before
the sin, before the action. I need everything to be out before
me. I need God to do something for me. And that's what the psalmist
said, let your tender mercies, that grace that puts away sin,
let it go before me. Let it be before me, because
I'm brought very low." And that's why he wanted this speedily.
If I don't want grace in a hurry, I'm not serious about grace,
am I? No, I want it in a hurry. Let thy tender mercies speedily
precede us. And then he says next, in verse
9, help us, O God of our salvation. for the glory of thy name. I need help, for vain is the help of man. Help us, oh God of our salvation. I think every believer can so
much identify with that Syrophoenician woman when she comes up with
this great need. Lord, have mercy on me. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. I can't think of a greater need
than that. And she came so respectfully. Lord, she came with this great
need. And the scripture says, he answered
her, not a word. Anyone that's never dealt with
the silence of God, I don't believe has ever dealt
with God, period. He answered her, not a word. Do you know the scripture says
she continued to cry? The disciples said, send her
away, she crieth after us. And then the Lord replied, I'm
not sent, but to the lost sheep. of the house of Israel. I didn't
come to save everybody. You know what the scripture says
she did? Then she came and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me. If you don't help me, it's over
for me. I need help. And then the Lord said, it's
not right. It's not meat. It's not fit to
take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. And she said,
that's the truth, Lord. That's the truth, but the dogs
eat of the crumbs that fall from the Master's table. I need, I
need your help. Oh, I need the Lord to help me.
I need the Lord to help me to believe. I need the Lord to help
me to repent. I need the Lord to help me to
love. I need the Lord to help me to continue in the faith.
I need His help. Help us, O Lord, help us. Can you, Lord, help
me. There's no way, or there's nothing
we shouldn't pray that. Lord, help me. Help me, I need
your help. Help me by your grace. And look
at his reason. He says in verse nine, help us,
O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name. This is my
reason I want you to help me, because it'll glorify you. Now,
let me ask you a question. With regard to your personal
salvation, if you're brought into heaven,
would you believe yourself to be the clearest illustration
of just how much salvation is by grace? And he would get all
the glory. I'm the man that would most clearly
illustrate that salvation really is all of grace. And he gets all the glory in
my salvation. Now, he says, help us, Lord,
for the glory of thy name. And next, he says in verse 9,
and deliver us. And that word is literally rescue
us. David said, mine iniquities are
more than the hairs of my head. Therefore, my heart faileth me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver
me. Be pleased, O Lord, to rescue
me. I need rescued. I need delivered. Now, when you absolutely, positively
cannot save yourself, you know what you need? You need the Lord
to rescue you. I need rescued. Like Peter, when he began to
sink, Lord, save me, rescue me. I need the Lord to deliver me. And then he says in verse nine,
and purge away our sins for thy name's sake. I need my sins purged
away and only the Lord can do that and I need the Lord to purge
away my sins. Now this word purge is the same
word that is translated in the Hebrew atonement. Atonement. I need my sins atoned for. I
don't just need them forgiven. I need them atoned for. You see,
if my sins are atoned for, that means they're put away. That
means they're cancelled. That means I bear them no more.
That means I can truly sing my sin over the bliss of this glorious
thought. My sin not in part but the whole
has been nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Now the
most simple illustration of atonement is the great day of atonement. You can read about that in Leviticus
chapter 16 and it'll do us all good to remember what took place
on that great day of atonement. Happened once a year. The high
priest took two goats One goat was slain, the sin offering. Where there's sin, there's got
to be death. And there was a substitutionary
goat that was slain as a sin offering. That blood of that
goat was brought into Holy of Holies, sprinkled on the Ark
of the Covenant. There was blood all over everything.
Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins.
That goat died representing the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But there was another goat, the live goat, and he's called the
scapegoat. And the high priest would go
into that scapegoat after the blood was shed, and he would
put his hands on the head of the sacrifice, on the horns,
and he'd put them on there. And then he would pray over the
sins of Israel, and what that represented was the sins of Israel
being transferred to that goat. And then a fit man took the goat
into the wilderness and led it away into a land of forgetfulness,
is what the scripture says. And the sins were gone. And what
that typifies is my sin literally, and what happened before I was
born, happened before time began, but my sin literally left me
and came into the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. who his own
self bear our sins in his own body on the tree. And if he bore them, you know
what that means? I don't. Sin can't be two places at once. If he bore them, I don't. And just as truly as my sin became
his personal sin, his personal righteousness becomes my personal
righteousness. Now that's what happens when
sins are purged. David said, purge me with hyssop.
What was hyssop? Remember it was that branch that
was used to take the blood and put it over the door. Same word,
purge me with hyssop. Oh, let me be found in the house
with the blood over the door where God says, when I see the
blood, I will pass over you. That's what I need done with
my sins. I need to be purged away. And I love the way the
psalmist uses this argument. He says, purge away our sins
for thy namesake. For thy namesake. I'm not asking
you to do this because of anything in me. I'm not asking you to
do this because I deserve it or because I'm sorry or because
I'm trying to do better. Forgive me. Do it for Christ's
sake. Be ye kind. tender-hearted, forgiving
one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." We want
our sins purged away, and we know the only argument with God
is for Christ's sake. That's what God responds to,
for Christ's sake. Verse 10, Wherefore should the
heathen say, Where is their God? Let him be known among the heathen
in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants,
which is shed. Now this is one of those what
they call imprecatory prayers where David is, there's a lot
of them in the Psalms. But he is, if somebody does me
wrong, should I pray that the Lord would attack him and do
vengeance against him and bring his wrath upon him? No. No, I
shouldn't do that. I shouldn't do that. What David
is doing, wherefore should the heathen say, where is their God?
Let him be known among the heathen in our side by the revenging
of the blood of thy servants, which is shed. Now, the point
being, we feel bad about how the name of the Lord has been
blasphemed because of us. Don't you fear bringing reproach
on the name of the Lord by your life? By sin? I fear that. And I don't want
it to happen. And if it happens, when it happens,
if it happens, when it happens, I want the Lord to do something
for me. Do something for me. Don't let it be seen that I'm
no different than anybody. No, do something for me. let
your make yourself known let him be known among the heathen
in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants
which is shed. Verse 11. Let the sighing of the prisoner
come before thee. The sighing of the prisoner Now,
a prisoner is someone who's in prison. He can't just walk out. He's
in jail. And he can't get out. If he could get out, he wouldn't
be a prisoner. Where's free will here? Well,
no such thing. He's in prison. He's not at liberty
to walk out of his cell. Paul described it this way, we
know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. Now this is the sighing of the
prisoner. He feels like he's a prisoner to sin. A prisoner to sin. Now, the sighing of the prisoner. A sigh is a nonverbal expression
that says so much. The sigh before God that he interprets
is that desire to be free. A sigh is something that only
God could interpret. That sigh of, oh, wretched man
that I am. Is there ever a time when you
don't need to say that? Ever? Oh, wretched man that I
am, that's the sigh, the sigh. Let the sighing of the prisoner
come before thee and be heard by the one who can interpret
exactly what that sigh is. You know, I think more is said
by our sighs than any of our words. More is said by our feelings
and our thoughts and our emotions than anything we can say. Let
the sighing of the prisoner come before thee." And look what he
says next in verse 11. According to the greatness of
thy power, preserve those that are appointed to die. Now what
I need, I need preserved. I need preserved. How desperately
I need Him to preserve me. To keep me from hardening. To
keep me from becoming complacent. To keep me from becoming fatalistic
and indifferent. To keep me coming to Christ. To keep me seeing my need of
Him. To keep me loving Him. to keep me calling upon Him,
to keep me in a state of continual repentance. I need Him to preserve
me. I need to cause Him to keep me
coming to Christ. I need to cause Him to continually
show me my utter need of the Lord Jesus Christ. I need Him
to preserve me, to enable me to see the beauty of Christ,
and to not grow tired and weary with the gospel, but it's always
fresh and powerful to me. The only way that will happen
is if He preserves me. I need to be kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation. I need preserved. I need to be
put in His strong hands. I need to be kept from falling. I need to be kept. Now unto him
that's able to keep you from falling. And I need to be presented
faultless before his presence with exceeding joy. Oh, I need
preserved. You know, I love the preservation
of the saints, don't you? The only way we persevere is
by being preserved. I need preserved. And then he says in verse 12,
And render unto our neighbors, the nations that have done this
to us, our neighbors round about, sevenfold into their bosom their
reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord. Now, not wherewith they reproach
me, but wherewith they reproach thee. You see, if you love the
glory of Christ, You're grieved when someone reproaches his gospel,
when someone reproaches his character, when someone reproaches his attributes,
when someone backs off and doesn't tell the truth regarding him.
You're grieved. And that's what the psalmist
was grieved with. The reproach wherewith they reproach thee.
He says, render to them sevenfold. I need to be filled with zeal
for his glory to where That's how I feel. I'm so grieved by
people reproaching him that that's the prayer of my heart. I need
to be filled with a zeal for his glory. Now, in gaining these
things, the psalmist says, so we thy people and the sheep of
thy pasture. I need to be his people and I
need to be one of his sheep. Because if I'm one of his sheep,
that means the Lord's my shepherd. And if the Lord's my shepherd,
I shall not want. So we thy people and the sheep
of thy pasture will give thanks forever. We will show forth thy
praise to all generations. Now I need the Lord to do these
things for me. Don't you? I need the Lord. to not remember my iniquities. I need the Lord to have his tender
mercies precede me in every sense of the word, to go before me.
I never want to be standing on my own. I always want him out
there in front of me, preceding me. I need him to help me. I need him to deliver me. rescue
me. I need him to purge away my sins,
to make atonement for my sins so I don't have them anymore.
They're gone. They're put away. I need him to do something for
me. I need the sighing of the prisoner
to come up before his holy ears. I need him to preserve me. I
need him to cause me to seek his glory. And I need him to
make me to be one of his people and one of his sheep. That's
what I need the Lord to do for me. May he do this for all of
us. Let's pray.