We turn back to that 79th Psalm. We've enjoyed having Andrea Groover
with us this weekend. She is the daughter of Cody and
Wynham Groover, the missionaries to Mexico, and she's one of my
favorite young people, and I hope I'm one of her favorite old people.
We enjoyed having her so much. Psalm 79, verse 11, once again. Let the sighing, you know what a sigh is, let the sighing of the prisoner
come before thee. A prisoner is someone who is bound,
locked up and they cannot get out. A prisoner is someone who
is not at liberty to walk out of his cell. If he could walk
out of his cell, he would not be a prisoner, would he? He's
locked. He cannot get out. In reality, you can't understand
what it means to be set free unless you understand what it
is to be a prisoner. A prisoner who cannot get out. You know, somebody that believes
in the notion of free will, and by free will, I think I always
need to clarify what I mean. You do what you want to do. Everything you do, you do what
you want to do. We all have a will in that sense,
and you're doing what you want to do right now. But by free
will, I'm talking about a will that has the moral ability to
choose the good over the evil and to save themselves by that
choice. That's what I'm talking about,
free will. God loves everybody. Christ died for everybody. God
wants to save everybody. But as to whether or not you'll be
saved, it's totally in the hands of your free will, whether you
will accept what he did or reject what he did. If you believe that, you don't
know anything about being a prisoner. You've not really learned what
it is to be a sinner. You've never seen your need of
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. A prisoner, like Peter, remember
in the book of Acts, being bound with two chains. Now, in this
thing of being a prisoner, we cannot do what we want to do. We can't go where we want to
go, and we have a debt that we cannot pay. If I'm a prisoner,
I'm bound to my sinful nature. I can't deliver myself from that,
and I'm bound to the law of God, obligated to keep it, obligated
to fulfill its demands, even though I am not able. And when you owe a bill, you
don't call the person you owe and say, hey, I'm not able to
pay it. Oh, OK. It's all right. No, we're obligated
to pay that which we owe. So bondage is being restrained,
being restricted, being unable to go where we want to go and
is having a bill to pay that we cannot pay. And the prisoner sighs. He sighs. A sigh is a nonverbal
expression, but it is an expression. A sigh comes from a burden. A sigh comes from a desire to
be unburdened. A sigh comes from a conscious
disability or inability to lift that burden. A sigh comes from
a dissatisfaction with the state of being you're in and the inability
to do anything about it, and you sigh. You grow from your heart before God, you
say, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this
body of death? Let the sighing of the prisoner
come to thy ears." That's what David asks. David, the man after
God's own heart, he feels like he's a prisoner. And he doesn't
like being a prisoner. And he sighs, and he says, let
that sigh come before thee, before your ears, the only one who can
do something for somebody who's bound, the only one who can set
you free. Now, I know this, the only one
who can do something for me is him. You can't do anything for
me. I can't do anything for you.
The only one who can truly help me is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the Lord understands this
sigh. He can interpret this groan.
He knows exactly what it means because He Himself groaned in
the flesh. Lord, let this unexpressed but
full of meaning sigh come before thee." Now, perhaps this can
be better understood by looking at it in the context of this
entire psalm, Psalm 79. Now, I have a King James Cambridge
Bible, and at the top of the page, Describing the 79th Psalm,
it says, the desolation of Jerusalem and the miseries of the church. I think that that is a very accurate
description of what's going on in Psalm 79. The desolations
of Jerusalem and the miseries of the church. Let's read these
first three verses together. language is so poignant and powerful. Oh God, the heathen are coming to thine
inheritance. Thy holy temple have they defiled. They've laid Jerusalem on heaps. It's been leveled to the ground.
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,
nothing but dead corpses laying all over the place." Now, this
refers to something that literally took place in the ransacking
of Jerusalem. The heathen have sacked Jerusalem,
they've come into the temple, and they've defiled it. And that
word defile is the same word that was used with reference
to Jacob's daughter, Dinah, being raped. She was defiled. It's the same word used with
reference to coming in contact with death, a dead body. You're defiled. It's the same
word used with reference to leprosy, being defiled by leprosy. It means to be contaminated. to be utterly unclean. And isn't that what sin makes
us feel? Defiled. Contaminated. Compromised. Unclean. Jerusalem has been leveled. Vultures
and wild beasts eat the flesh of the dead bodies of thy saints.
Their blood is shed, and nobody's there to bury their bodies. What
a gruesome picture, and that is what our sin does. I can see this with regard to
me and sin and its defiling nature. Now, let's look in verse 4. He
says, We are become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and
a derision to them that are round about us, a laughing stock. These are the people of God. The reason this troubles a believer
so much is he believes that he himself has brought this reproach
upon the name of the Lord. And you know, that's something
that very much troubles me. The thought of bringing reproach
on the name of the Lord. What he says in verse 5. How
long, Lord? Will thou be angry forever? Shall
thy jealousy burn like fire? Now, when he says this, the psalmist
is saying we've brought all of this on ourselves. We've provoked
you to anger and jealousy by our sin. But how long are you
going to remain mad? How long? You know, the psalmist
says this throughout the Psalms, this thing of how long. Look
in Psalm 13. You said this. Verse one. How long will thou
forget me, O Lord, forever? How long will thou hide thy face
from me? How long shall I take counsel
in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall
my enemy be exalted over me? How long is this going to keep
going on? Psalm 74. Verse 9. We see not our signs. There is
no more any prophet, neither is there any among us that knoweth
how long. Psalm 80. Verse 4. Oh Lord God of hosts,
how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people? Now,
he's not saying you don't have a reason to be, but he's saying
how long is this going to go on? Look in Psalm 89. Verse 46. How long, Lord? Wilt thou hide
thyself forever. Shall thy wrath burn like fire? One more, Psalm 90, verse 13. Return, O Lord. He felt like
the Lord had left. Return, O Lord. Let it repent
thee concerning thy servants. Now, a believer cannot be satisfied
to remain in this state. He realizes that he's got himself
into this mess. It's all his fault, but he says,
how long? How long am I going to deal with
this? Turn back to Psalm 79, verse 6. He says. Pour out. Thy wrath upon the heathen. that
have not known thee, or another way to say that is they've not
loved thee. They've not known thee, and they've
not loved thee, and that's their crime. And they've not called
upon thy name, for they have devoured Jacob and laid waste
his dwelling place. Now in the next five or six verses,
the psalmist asks for nine particular things. When he's in this state
of how long he's miserable in this state, he wants out of this
state and he asked for nine specific things. Now, these nine things
are things I'm praying for myself. I'm asking for myself. These
are nine things that I'm asking for this church. These are nine
things that I'm asking for God's people everywhere. Nine specific
things that are greatly needed. He says, first of all, in verse
eight. Oh, remember not against us. Former iniquities. My marginal reading says the
iniquities of them that were before us, but I like the way
it's stated in our text, don't remember our former sins. Now you think about your sins.
You think about your sins, and I tell you this one desire I
have regarding my sins that I remember. Now, most of my sins I don't
remember. I felt bad about them, but I forgot about them. But
even the ones I forgot about, the ones I remember, this I know.
I don't want the Lord to remember them. Oh, remember not against us our
former sins. Now, here's the question. How
can God forget? God, who knows all, How can he
forget my sins? I haven't forgotten. Well, Hebrews
chapter 8 verse 12, I think this is a wonderful verse of scripture. He says, I will be propitious
to their iniquities. Now, what's that word mean? That's
a big word. I will be propitious. That means I will be appeased. I will be appeased through the
blood of my Son. I'll put their iniquity away.
I'll be appeased. I'll be satisfied. The blood
of my Son will wash it away. His righteousness will be given
to them. I'll be propitious." That's what the word means. I
will be, not I might be. I will be propitious to their
iniquities. Let's read it together. Hebrews
chapter 8. I want you to see this. Hebrews
chapter 8. Verse 12. For I will be merciful. And that
word merciful is also translated perpetuous. I will be perpetuous. I'll be appeased concerning their
unrighteousness. And because of that, their sins
and their iniquities will I remember no more. And this is what I want. This is what I greatly desire
for the Lord not to remember my sin. And there's only one
way that the Lord cannot remember my sin. And that's for there
not to be any sin there to remember. And that's what his perpetuatory
work does. He makes it to where I do not
have sin. Here's my desire. Here's the
desire of my heart. Lord, don't remember against
us my sin. Isn't it wonderful to think that
according to the Word of God, God can look at you and not remember
any of your sin? How can that be? Through the
work of Christ. He was manifested to take away
our sins, and in Him is no sin. Now, do you have this desire?
Oh, don't remember against us former sins. What he says next
in verse 8, let thy tender mercies, here's the second thing he asked
for, let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us, precede us, go before
us is what the word means. For we're brought very low. Now, God's tender mercies, I
think of what David said in Psalm 51, he said, turn there back
a few pages to Psalm 51. He's confessing his sin at this
time. And he says, have mercy upon
me, O God, according to thy loving kindness. According to the multitude
of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me throughly
from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sins." Now, he talks
about those tender mercies, and he says, oh, that those tender
mercies might go before me, that they might precede me. And I
think I have some understanding of what that means. I need His
grace to come before me. What do you mean by that? I need Him to choose me without
any reference to me. That's what election is. It's
preceding grace, isn't it? The children being not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand. Not of works, but of Him
that calleth. I need His grace to go before
me, because if it doesn't go before me, if it waits till after,
it can't have anything to do with me. He said, I by no means
clear the guilty. I need His grace to precede me.
Justification to precede me. There's nothing I can do to earn
it. I need Him to say, you're justified. I need His redeeming
love to precede me. I need Him to redeem me before
I do anything. I need Him to forgive me. If
I wait for Him for me to do something to get forgiveness, I'm not going
to get it. I need His forgiveness to precede me. I need all His
tender mercies to come for me, preventing preceding grace. Let me show you something in
Psalm 119. Here's an example. Psalm 119, verse 33. Psalm 119, verse 33. Teach me,
O Lord, the way of thy statutes. If you don't teach me, I won't
be taught. But if you teach me, I shall keep it unto the end.
Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law. Yea, I shall observe
it with my whole heart, but I won't unless you first give me this
understanding. Verse 35, look at this. Make
me to go in the path of thy commandments, for therein do I delight. But
if you don't make me to go, I won't go in the path of your commandments.
So make me to, cause me to. Verse 36, incline my heart. Do you see how this is a proceeding
race? This comes before. My heart will be inclined to
covetousness. If you don't incline it, away
from that. I need you to do that before
me. I need your grace and your mercy to precede me and prevent
me. Verse 37, turn away mine eyes
from beholding vanity. You see, if you don't turn my
eyes away from beholding vanity, that's what they'll behold. So
I'm asking you to prevent me, precede me in this thing, turn
away my eyes. Lord, I'm asking you to do that
right now. Cause me to seek only you. Quicken thou me, give me
life in thy way. Verse 38, establish thy word
into thy servant who's devoted to your fear. If you don't establish
thy word first to me, it won't be established. I'll be as unstable
and unsettled. Turn away my reproach, which
I fear, for thy judgments are good. Behold, I have longed after
thy precepts. Quicken me in thy righteousness."
Now, God's grace is not in any way God's response to me and
you. God's grace is His response to
Himself. And this is what I need. I need His grace to precede me,
to go before me, to do something for me. He saved us and He called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. Don't you need this preceding
grace? Lord, don't remember my sins.
Cause them to be blotted out. And let your tender mercies go
before me and precede me. I need preceding grace. Back to Psalm 79. He says in verse 9, Help us. Help us, O God of our salvation.
You ever heard that saying, God helps those who help themselves?
Actually, the opposite is true. He helps those who cannot help
themselves. We're talking about that Syro-Phoenician
woman this morning. The Lord said, I'm not sent but
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Did she turn on her
heels and go away? No. You know what she said? Help
me. Help me. Lord, help me. I need your help. I need you to. This is what I
need. I need this. I need you to not remember my
sins. I need you to give me preceding grace, grace that goes before
me, grace that paves the way before me. And I need you to
help me. I need you to help me to believe.
I need you to help me to repent. I need you to help me to love
you. I need you to help me to love my brother. I need you to
help me to forgive and to forgive. So from the bottom of my heart,
I need your help. Lord, help me, because I can't
help myself. If you don't help me, I won't
be helped. So, Lord, help me. Help us, O
God, of our salvation. And look at his argument for
doing it. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy
name. Now, if the Lord helps me, you
know what that's going to do? That's going to magnify his grace.
That's the only way I can be helped, is by his grace. And
if he helps me by his grace, you know what it's going to do?
It's going to magnify his grace. So, Lord, help me for the glory
of thy name. I'm poor and needy. Help me.
Help me to trust. Help me to come to you. Help
me for the glory of your name. And the next thing he says in
verse nine is deliver us. Deliver us. That word means literally
snatch us away. Rescue us. And I believe the
best illustration of being rescued by the Lord is when Peter was
walking on the water to go to the Lord. I love to think about him doing
that. Lord, if it be thou, if it be
thou, bid me come to thee on the water. The Lord said, come
on. He climbs out of that boat and
he's walking on the water to go to Jesus. But the Scripture
says, he saw the wind boisterous. Now, when he was looking to the
Lord, he was walking on the water. As soon as he looked somewhere
else, he began to sink. And what did he say? Here's the
most effectual, powerful prayer. Lord, save me! Save me! Snatch me out! Rescue me! I'm going down. And if you don't rescue me, I'm
going down. Lord, deliver me. Rescue me. And look what he says next. Verse
9, And purge away our sins for thy name's sake. Lord, I need you to do something
about my sins. There's nothing I can do about
my sins. I need you to do something about my sins. Now, purge away
my sins. Now, that word purge is the same
word that's usually translated in the Old Testament, atone.
Atone. Make atonement for my sins. What's that word mean? Well,
it means to cover. To disannul. To cleanse. To forgive. To pardon. To put away. To make reconciliation. I need Him to do something about
my sins. And here's what I need Him to do. Nothing I can do about
Him. I come into His presence. Lord,
do something about my sins. Purge Him. Put Him away. And
that's what the Lord did on the cross. Hebrews 1.3 says, He by
Himself. I love that verse of scripture
with no help from me, no help from you. He by himself purged
our sins. When he done that, he sat down
on the right hand of the majesty on high. Lord, do this for thy
namesake. And when I'm talking about my
sins, my sins that are ever before me, My sins that I can't purge
away. Lord, purge them away for your
name's sake. What's that mean? For Christ's
sake. That's what it means. I'm not saying purge away my
sins because I promise I'll be good and straighten up and fly
right. I want to straighten up and fly right. I want to be good.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not looking for an excuse
to stay in my sin, but I'm saying this. The only reason my sin
can be purged away is for Christ's sake. If you've got to look for
a reason in me to do it, it won't happen. So do it for Christ's
sake. Ephesians 4.32 says, Be kind,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you. Oh, purge away our sins for thy
name's sake. Verse 10. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is their God? Don't let the heathen have a
reason to say this. Don't let them say, where is
their God? They claim to be followers of God and followers of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look at them. Where is their
God? I don't see Him acting on their behalf. I don't see any
evidence of a work of grace on them the way they talk. Where
is their God? I don't see Him. No, let them
say there's their God. There he is. We can see him by
his acting in our behalf. Wherefore should the heathen
say, Where is there God? Let him be known among the heathen
in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants
which is shed. And here's our text, verse 11. Let the sighing. Let the sighing. That sigh of the prisoner, that one
who is bound and can't get out. Let the sighing of the prisoner
come before thee. Now, here's how God responds
to this sigh. Turn back to Exodus chapter 23,
or Exodus chapter 2, I'm sorry. Exodus chapter 2, verse 23. Can you sigh? Can you groan? Verse 23, And it came
to pass, in process of time, that the king of Egypt died,
and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage And they cried. And their cry
came up unto God by reason of the bondage, and God heard their
groaning. And God remembered his covenant
with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. These people are
sighing their descendants of these ones that I made this covenant
with. And God looked upon the children
of Israel. And I don't know of a more amazing
verse than this. God had respect. To them. Not God felt sorry for
them. Not God was disgusted by them,
but God had respect to them. That's sighing. That's connected with bondage. And bondage is connected with
liberation. Whenever there's somebody in
bondage and sighing under that bondage, There's somebody that
the Lord Jesus Christ is going to set free. And somebody the
Lord Jesus Christ set free is one with him. That's the reason
he sets them free. And somebody that's one with
him, God respects them. Now, this is an amazing concept,
but if you're a believer, the God of glory respects you. That's hard to get hold of, isn't
it? But it's so. through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let the sign, verse 11, of the prisoner, Psalm 79, come before
thee. And then he says, according to
the greatness of thy power, preserve thou those that are appointed
to die. Preserve us. You know, if the
Lord doesn't preserve me, if the Lord doesn't keep me, you
know what's going to happen? I'm going to fall. If He doesn't
preserve me, there's no doubt about it. If He doesn't preserve
me by His power, by His mighty power, I will fall. Therefore, I cry, Lord, preserve
me. Now unto Him that's able to keep
you from falling and to present you faultless before His presence. with exceeding joy to the only
wise God our Savior, be honor and majesty, dominion and power,
both now and forever. Lord, preserve me. Lord, keep
me. I know what will happen if you
don't. So, Lord, I'm asking you, for Christ's sake, preserve those
that are appointed to die. And then he says in verse 12,
And render unto our neighbor sevenfold into their bosom, their
reproach, wherewith they have reproached us, O Lord?" No. No. You see, the reason he says,
render to them sevenfold into their bosom, their reproach,
their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee. You see,
we're on the Lord's side. Not on man's side. On the Lord's
side. And somebody's against the Lord,
I'm against them. Now, what am I doing? All I can
say is I'm on the Lord's side. And when someone is against the
Lord, I say, render to them sevenfold unto the bosom the reproach wherewith
they've reproached thee. David, turn over Psalm 139. Psalm
139. David had been talking about
all the blessings of the gospel and how the Lord had been so
good to him. He says in verse 17, how precious
also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. Psalm 139, verse 17. How precious also are thy thoughts
unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them.
If I should count them, they're more in number than the sand.
When I wake, I'm still with thee. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked,
O God. Depart from me, therefore, ye
bloody men, for they speak against thee." That's the problem. He's
not talking about the way they speak against him. They speak
against thee wickedly. And thine enemies, they take
thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that
hate thee? And am I not grieved with those
that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them thine enemies. Now
search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts,
and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the
way everlasting." Now, you see, David's language. Somebody says,
well, that's unloving for David to say something like that. No,
David loved the Lord. That's why he spoke like this.
He loved the Lord. So he says, "'Render unto our
neighbors sevenfold unto their bosom their reproach, wherewith
they have reproached thee, O Lord. So we thy people and the sheep
of thy pastor will give thee thanks for ever.'" We shall show
forth thy praise to all generations. And here is what the prisoner
asked for. That prisoner who's sighing in
his bondage. Lord, don't remember my sin. Let your mercies, your tender
mercies, precede me, prevent me. Help me, deliver me, purge
away my sin. Don't let the heathen have a
reason to say, where is their God, but cause them to have a
reason to say, there is their God by what you're doing for
me. Hear the sighing of the prisoner.
Preserve us, and don't let your enemies blaspheme your name.
Let your name be glorified. So we, thy people, the sheep
of thy pastor, will give thee thanks forever. We should show
forth Thy praise to all generations. And isn't that what you want
to do? Show forth His praise to all generations. O Lord, let
the sighing of the prisoner come before Thee. Let's pray together.