Let's turn, if we could, to the
119th Psalm. We'll look at the last eight
verses. I had a couple of looks this
morning when I said I was preaching from Psalm 119. Not the whole
chapter. OK, we're going to start in Psalm
119, verse 169. Let my cry come near before thee,
O Lord, give me understanding according to that word. Let my
supplication come before thee, deliver me according to that
word. My lips shall utter praise when thou has taught me thy statutes.
and my tongue shall speak of thy word for all thy commandments
are righteousness. Let thine hand help me, for I've
chosen thy precepts. I have longed for thy salvation,
O Lord, and thy law is my delight. Let my soul live and it shall
praise thee and let thy judgments help me. I've gone astray like
a lost sheep. Seek thy servant, for I do not
forget thy commandments. So in studying this passage of
scripture, I think it's important that we consider what's before
it and the context in which it's written. And so I asked myself
a few questions when I was looking at this. And the first was, who
is speaking? Who is our speaker and what does
he have to say? Well, we know here that our speaker
is David from some of the things he's saying previously, but this
is David, the psalmist, but he's also the speaker. We can tell
about him who is he's one who has desired but not attained. He is one who can see the other
side of the river, but then he finds he has no way to cross.
He's someone who is lost. who has no understanding, power
or ability to produce or gain what he needs. He speaks as one
who is at the mercy of another, not only for understanding or
words of wisdom, but for life itself. He says, Let my soul
live and it shall praise thee. And so we see a little bit about
who the speaker is. And so who is he speaking to?
Well, he's speaking to God. the Lord of heaven and earth,
the one with whom we have to do, believers and unbelievers,
the one who holds the Lamb's Book of Life. These are the words
of a sinner, one who has been made by God to see his sin, his
guilt before God, and his inability, his nature, a nature that cannot
produce what God requires, the nature that only is sin. And
so this is not something that comes through self-revelation
or through low living. This is only something that the
Lord can show us. So if you would turn over to Isaiah, chapter
six, familiar passage of scripture. In verse one, in the year that
King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high lifted
up. And his train filled the temple.
Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. And with
twain he covered his face. And with twain he covered his
feet. And with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone because I'm a
man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of the people of
unclean lips. So Isaiah saw here that he was corrupt, that he
was unclean. And in seeing the Lord high and
lifted up, he saw that he stuck out and that he wasn't supposed
to be there. He said, I'm not like everybody else here. How
do you know that, Isaiah? We read on. Woe is me, I'm undone,
I'm 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.
You see, it's only when we see who the Lord is and it exposes
our weakness and what we are, that it's his glory, his holiness,
what exposes what we lack. Job said, Yea, the stars are
not pure in his sight, how much less is man that is a worm. As
the Lord further revealed who he was to Job and the whirlwind,
he saw something of his power, his glory and his sovereignty. Job's only thing that he could
say is, Behold, I'm a bottle in the presence of seeing who
God was. He saw that he was a sinner. He was in bondage to sin with
no ability to believe or to produce righteousness before God. This
is an eternal death sentence. There's nothing we can do. If
the Lord is merciful enough to show you and I our sin and that
there's nothing that we can do to change our state before God,
that we're unfit, unable and obnoxious before God, standing
alone, a sinner in the hands of a holy God. What a mercy it
is. Somebody might say, well, how's
that a mercy? That sounds terrible to find yourself that way. Well,
If we're left here, and that's all we're left at, is we will
only find despair. But I'm thankful that we're given
God's word and that for his faithfulness to it. And I read of an able
and a willing savior, a savior that came to save sinners like
me. And so when the Lord makes us
to see that we're nothing but sin and we can do no else, then
this is a mercy unto us because the gospel is for sinners. So. In going through this, I wanted
us to understand a little bit about the psalmist's urgency
in these words that we read. So go back to our text, if you
would. Psalm 119. In saying that he was a sinner.
Because in Psalm 169 it says, Let my cry come near before thee,
O Lord. And these words are in contrast
to almost everything that's before it. So if you turn back to verse
11, we're going to look at just a few of these verses. You could
almost pick any of them, but Just just to look at a few, so
first eleven that word have I hid in my heart that I might not
sin against the first sixty seven. Before I was afflicted and I
went astray, but now I've kept that word and over to verse one
sixty five. Great peace have they which love
bylaw and nothing shall offend them. Lord, I have hope for that
salvation. and done thy commandments. My
soul has kept thy testimonies. Can anybody say that? I mean,
how? I mean, what confidence that he can write and say these
things? Yet when we pick back up here
in one six verse one sixty nine, let my cry come near before the
Lord. So what we see is one writer
said this, and this is I found this helpful in studying this.
So Psalm one sixty nine, it says from the beginning all the way
up to verse one sixty nine, you have a building. And the psalmist
grows more bold the further we get into the psalm. And it's
almost like you get the illustration of seeing the Lord's face. He
got closer and closer to having an understanding and praising
the Lord and seeing who he is. And the closer he came to seeing
the Lord's face, when he saw the Lord's face, it exposed inner
weakness. And he saw who he was before
the Lord and it exposed all that he lacked and all that he wasn't.
And so that's what these verses are. And so we're going to spend
the next few minutes here studying what these verses are. And you're
going to notice two things in each of these verses. First,
you're going to notice a confession and where you have a confession
of sin, the confession is evidenced by a need. You can't find one
without the other. The second thing that you will
find is a hope. And so you're going to find that
in each of these verses, a confession and a hope. My acknowledgement
of my sin debt before God is evidenced by my desire to have
it paid. The means thereby I cannot provide,
and this is where we find hope. So verse 169, let my cry come
near before thee, O Lord. His confession, I have a hopeless
condition and I need help. And then I'm crying unto you,
Lord, that you'll hear me. And notice the way that he asks,
the first word he approaches the Lord, the way he approaches
him, he says, let. So permit, if you will, this
is my desire. I have no guarantee that you'll
hear me at all, but let, if you will, Lord, let my cry come near
before you. And then he says, oh, Lord, He
came to the right place, you see, in seeing that the Lord
is holy and that he was a sinner and that the only place that
he could get any help at all is from the Lord. He says, oh,
Lord, Matthew nine eleven. The scribes and Pharisees say
the apostles, they say, why is your master with publicans and
sinners? Why is he over there with them? The Lord, perceiving
what they had said unto him, he said, May the behold me not
a physician, but they that are sick. So you see, if this is
the physician that came to heal the sick and who were sinners.
And so that's why the sinners were there with where the Lord
was. And so his confession of this hopeless condition, let
my cry come near before thee. David's hope in this is give
me understanding according to thy word. And one thing about
understanding that's important that we heard a lot about this
morning is that it's given. This is not something that is
learned or earned. Turn, if you would, over to First
Corinthians, chapter one. Starting verse 17. For Christ
sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom
of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but unto us which are saved is the power of God. For it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will bring to
nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews
require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach
Christ crucified, under the Jews a stumbling block, and under
the Greeks foolishness. But under them which are called
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God. So what we take from that is
the world by wisdom knew not God. This is not something through
any manner of learning or theology that someone can come to this
understanding. This comes only through revelation
of the Holy Spirit through the Word, through the preaching of
the Word. Understanding the things of God
is only given. We do. And this is something
that our pastor says to us often that I often need to be reminded
of it. This is good. We don't go to
the word to confirm what we do believe. We go to the word to
find out what to believe. And so what this is saying is
otherwise you're going to twist the word to conform to what you
bring to it, saying, well, I believe this. Let's go find a verse that
supports what it is that I say that I'm going to believe. You
can find it and make it say anything you want. But we go to the Word
to find out what to believe. And so, once I find that I go
to the Word on what to believe, I'll find out it's no longer
what to believe, it's a home I believe. That salvation is
found in Christ, not in a doctrine, not in learning. Salvation is
in Christ. So let's go back to our text,
if you would. Psalm 119. Verse 170, let my supplication
come before thee. Here we find the next confession,
confession of simpleness. How do you say that? Well, a
supplication is a plea, a plea for mercy, a plea to be found
under grace. Can I just approach God for this?
Well, I can. You can. But you'll die. I can't
come before the Lord by myself. I'm sinful. I'm diseased, I'm
sick, I'm an abomination before I got it in and of myself. The
only way is through Christ, our substitute. And so if you would
turn over to Esther, chapter four. Give an illustration of
this. There is a man that was condemned
to die. He was a nobody. He had no ability or right to
fight for his life before the king. But the king was the only
one who could pardon him. So I've got to get there. I've
got to get before that king so that I can be pardoned. But the
only way to see this king was to come into his inner court.
And this inner court was somewhere that you could only be called
into. You couldn't just go in there. But if you did go in there
and the king didn't call you and didn't extend his golden
scepter, that was the only way you could speak to him. Otherwise,
you were put to death. And so this this is what we're
reading about here. In verse eleven, chapter four,
and all the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces
do know that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come under
the king into the inner court who is not called, there is one
law of his to be to put him to death, except such to whom the
king shall hold out the golden scepter that he may live. But
I have not been called in come into the king these thirty days.
And so this man has asked Esther to come into the king. Because
he knows he can't come before if he steps before her, before
the king, he knows he's dead in the same way that we heard
this morning, Matthew seven, the men and women would stand
before the Lord saying, Lord, Lord, many wonderful works that
we've done in thy name. He said, Depart from me. I never
knew you. I don't know who you are. And
they were cast out. And so this is the same thing
that's going to happen to this man if he comes before the Lord.
And so over in verse five. So we send Esther. It came to
pass on the third day that Esther put on her royal apparel and
stood in the inner court of the king's house, over against the
king's house. And the king set upon his royal
throne in the royal house and over against the gated house.
And it was so that when the king saw Esther, the queen, standing
in the court, that she obtained favor in his sight. And the king
held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand.
So Esther drew near and touched the top of the scepter. Then
said the king unto her, What wilt thou, Queen Esther? And
what is thy request? It shall be given thee to the
half of the kingdom. So what we see here is Esther
approaches him as the picture of our Lord Jesus Christ being
the mediator between me and God. I can't come into his presence
because I have no right. But I've got to send someone
who has favor in his sight, who he'll even hear. And he'll always
hear the Lord. He'll always hear the Lord Jesus
Christ. So I have confidence that if he goes in my place,
that the Lord will hear him for Christ's sake. And he speaks
and pleads for me. And what's beautiful about this
is the king is said, what will thou? It shall be given me before
she even ask. Whatever you're going to ask,
it's going to be given to you because who's asking? And so
if the Lord pleads for me and pleads for my salvation, it'll
be given because it's the Lord asking for it. So Christ, my
representative for the father, he pleased my cause. I'm accepted
and can always approach the father. And so the hope back in our text,
someone I team, let my supplication come before the his hope is found
in deliver me according to that word. You turn over to Isaiah
43. But now, thus saith the Lord
that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy
name, and thou art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall
not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall flame kindle upon
thee. For I am the Lord, thy God, the Holy One of Israel,
thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba for thee, since thou wast precious in my sight,
and thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. Therefore
will I give men for thee and people for thy life." And what
these precious promises are in the Lord's word. If the Lord
said it in his word, he'll do it. He said, I'm the Lord, I
change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. The glory of his name depends
on the surety of his word. And if you said it, it's done.
And we're arrested back to our text. Verse 171, we're going
to read David's confession in 171 and 172, because they go
together. My lips shall utter praise and
in 172, my tongue shall speak of thy word. And what the key
word here is, is shall. That means not yet. That means
I want to, but I can't. But when you do for me, his hope
is found is when now has taught me the statutes, then shall my
tongue speak thy word, which is all thy commandments are righteousness. When now has taught me until
you do for me, I won't. When David said, created me a
clean heart of God. This is not something that is
to be reformed or fixed, washed off, cleaned up, made appealing. This is something that the old
man, the old heart, it's corrupt. It's not going to get any better.
It's not going to, no amount of cleaning it, trying to fix
it is going to make it any more than what it is. It's, it's,
it's sin. And so the illustration that
I have is in college, I had an old car, had an old Mustang and
it kept breaking down and I would attempt to replace it with parts
and replace something and something else would break down. Todd only
knows this too well because he had to pick me up so many times
and take me to my house or to the repair shop to one thing
or another for probably a year with this car. I didn't have
any money so I just had enough to replace it and if I wanted
it to run I had to learn how to work on it. So I'd replace
things on this car, keep breaking down and no matter what I did
it just kept breaking down. But then one day my car troubles
were over. And so that day came when I got
a new car. See, the old car couldn't be
fixed. No amount of new parts, trying to fix it, trying to do
maintenance on it was going to make it work because it was bad.
It was no good. And so I had to get a new car.
And so that's what the picture of this, create in me a clean
heart, oh God. This is saying, the heart I have
is wicked and evil, and no amount of trying to make it do something
that it doesn't want to do is going to be appealing before
God. I need a heart that's clean, one that the Lord's created in
me to make me love him, because otherwise I won't. So until the
Lord creates in me, I'll never speak his word. But when he does,
then I'll say all thy commandments are righteousness. And in looking
at that word, it's almost we would almost read it. Thy commandments
are righteous that the word he uses is righteousness. And so
I looked up that word to find out a little bit more about it.
And he gave me four things. And I think this this helped
me. So the first was straight paths and the definition for
righteousness. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness. So we're not veering from side
to side. This is a straight path. The
second thing that it gives me is justice. He that is righteous,
let him be righteous still. This is a this is a judgment,
a state of being the Lord declaring me to be righteous. Let him be
righteous still. There's going to be no change
in that judgment once it's been laid. The third thing that I'm
giving is deliverance. Hearken unto me, you that know
righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. And so
this speaks of the new heart and the new nature. This is deliverance
from that old nature. That's what this righteousness
speaks of. The fourth thing, this is what really blessed me
in seeing this is what is so and what ought to be so. If you
would turn back to Psalm 15 and this, I believe, illustrates
what this is saying. The psalmist asked the question,
Lord, who shall abide in that tabernacle? Who shall dwell in
that holy hill? Who's going to be in heaven?
Lord, who's going to be with you? He that walketh up rightly and
worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart, he that
backbites not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor,
nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor. In whose eyes a
vile person is condemned, but he that honoreth them that fear
the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt,
and changeth not. He that putteth not out his money
to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these
things shall never be moved. And so, as a believer, can't
we say amen to this, that it's what's right, it's what is so,
and what ought to be so. And so go back to verse seventy
three. One seventy three left on hand,
help me. So what saw this as a confession
of I need the Lord's help, that woman that had the demon possessed
daughter that came to him and said, Lord, you don't have mercy
on me, said he answered or not. But she kept coming and saying,
Lord, have mercy on me. It said that I'm not sent, but
into the lost sheep of the house in Israel. I'm not sent unto
you. But she kept coming and it said that she worshipped him
before she got what she wanted, said that she worshipped him.
She didn't even know that he would even do anything for her.
But she worshipped him as Lord. Lord, help me. And this is the
confession and cry of the psalmist and of and of everyone who needs
mercy. Lord, help me. This is what Is
expressed by Jeremiah when he says, heal me, O Lord, and I
shall be healed. Save me and I shall be saved.
This is saying, if you don't do this for me, I won't be these
things. I need your help. And this is
a plea for the Lord. In 173, he says, like that hand,
help me, for I've chosen my precepts. This is his hope for I've chosen
by precepts. All of my hope of salvation is
found in this. The Christ must do it all. And
whatever his lot may be, there may I be also. I choose his way
over my way. I stand with him in condemning
my sin. And I know that if I've chosen
him, it's because he chose me first. I never would have chosen
him unless he had chosen me. He made me so I could love him
all his ways. I choose God's way over my way
in condemning my sin. Verse 174, back to our text.
I have longed for that salvation, oh, Lord. His confession is,
I don't know if I have it, but I desperately desire it. I've
longed for that salvation and my hope is found in. And I law
is my delight, and this scares me if I stand in my works, I
don't want to be found under the law, I don't want to look
at that and then compare it to myself, that's frightening. But
the thing is, his salvation is not found without the law, because
we're dealing with a just God and he can't just overlook the
law because it's his law. And so for him to remain just,
it must be satisfied. And so in Christ, I kept the
law perfectly. No record, nothing. Oh, satisfied
and full. I have nothing. The law can't
look at me and find anything that makes me wanting. Verse
175. He says, let my soul live and
it shall praise me. Confession is that I'm lost,
sold in sin. I'm unable and I'm unwilling
to be anything else but this. I'm condemned not only in this
life, but the next, because he said, let my soul live. This
is more than just our life here. This is the second death. And
so if you're looking for a reason in me to save me, you will find
it. And my hope is found in this.
Let thy judgments help me, because remember, we're dealing with
a just God. If I'm free in Christ, he says, by the law, because
you can't punish sin twice. That wouldn't be just. Most people
are scared of judgment day and rightfully so, because they're
guilty. But to them who are in Christ, they have no fear because
we have no fear because he bought me. He owned me. He owns me. He paid for me. He paid a ransom
for me. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus, no condemnation. So I don't have
anything to worry about if I'm in Christ, it's been paid for.
And the last verse, verse 176, I've gone astray like a lost
sheep. This is his confession. I'm sinful,
empty, faithless. My love's cold. This is grievous
to me. I deal with it every day. I never
get better. I think I've gone too far this
time. The Lord's just going to block
me out. I've gone too far. This is what I can ask for forgiveness
for these things. But for this, it's too much.
I'm guilty. I've gone astray like a lost
sheep. And my hope is found in this. Seek thy servant. My plea. Lord, seek me. Don't leave me,
Lord. Seek me. How do I know he will? Because he said, I'll never leave
thee. nor forsake thee. Ben drew near unto him all the
publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes
murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.
And he spake unto them this parable, saying, What man of you, having
a hundred sheep, if you lose one of them, doth not leave the
ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost,
until he find it? And when he had found it, he
laid it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he called
together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with
me, for I found my sheep, which was lost. I say unto you that
likewise joy shall be given in heaven over one center that repented
more than ninety nine just persons that have no need of repentance.
And so how did the shepherd react when he found that lost sheep?
Did he discipline it? Did he break its legs for running
away and said you'll never do that again? No, he said he was
rejoicing. He said he put it on his shoulders.
If I'm one of his sheep, I'm going to have to be brought home
the same way. I've gone astray. Lord, seek that servant. I'm
going to have to be carried on his shoulders all the way so
that I can't wander off. I can't worry about not keeping
up with him and getting lost again. I'm going to be carried
safe on the master's shoulders the whole way. And so may the
Lord bring us to a place where we can confess our sin and inability
and look unto him as our hope and our salvation and found in
Christ alone.