Psalm 57 will be our study this
evening. As I normally do, I try to find
a verse for a title to the message, and I'm entitling this message
this evening from the words found in verse 7. My heart, my heart
is prepared. My heart is fixed. By nature,
we have a wicked heart, deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked, Jeremiah says. But the believer's heart has
been fixed in that God has given us a new heart. Oh God, my heart
is fixed. And when our heart is fixed and
when we're made new preachers in Christ, the fruit of that
is I will sing praise unto thee. I will sing praise unto thee.
My heart is fixed. where my heart is prepared, as
the marginal reference has. So we could use that as a title,
or I thought about this, using verse two as the title for this
message. I will cry unto God most high,
and I repeat this phrase quite often during my preaching the
gospel for the last 40-some years. unto God that performeth all
things for me." I just love that statement. Salvation is not based
upon my performance. Salvation is based upon His.
And He's done all things well. He's performed all things well.
So much so that God speaks from heaven, said, this is my beloved
Son. I'm well pleased in Him. I'm
well pleased in Him. My heart is fixed. He performeth
all things for me. The heart of the believer is
fixed upon the exalted and victorious Lord Jesus Christ. We can also
say that our heart has been prepared to serve him and worship him.
Our heart has been prepared to serve him and worship him. It's
a great honor to be a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
if you look at the introduction to this psalm, Psalm 57, the
subtitle of the psalm is to the chief musician of Tasketh Mictam
of David when he fled from Saul and when he sought refuge in
a cave, in a dark, old, dreary dungeon of a cave. David was
seeking to hide from his enemies. But while he's seeking to hide
from his enemies, he's seeking mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ,
isn't he? That word, altasket, means destroy
not. You see that in the marginal
reference? Destroy not. David prays for safety. He prays
for safety. And the word miktam means a golden
psalm. or it means precious, a secret
psalm of David, where he reveals unto us the secret of his strength
and the joy of his heart, doesn't he? Mercy. God's mercy. God's merciful unto his people
in the Lord Jesus Christ. While David was fleeing from
King Saul in body, he was also fleeing to the King of Glory,
the Lord Jesus Christ, in his heart for refuge and strength
for grace to help in time of need. And that's what led me
to read that Isaiah, excuse me, Hebrews chapter four. Let us
therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain
mercy and find grace to help. Find grace to help in time of
need. Our Lord, you remember in our study from the book of
Matthew chapter 11, he said, all you who are laboring heavy
laden Come to me and rest. Come to me and rest. And you
shall find rest for your soul. If you hold your place there
and turn back a few pages to Psalm 46. Psalm 46 verse 1. Another one of my favorite verses.
Psalm 46 verse 1 talking about our refuge. Our refuge. Psalm 46 verse 1. God is our
refuge and strength. A very present help in trouble. You ever been in trouble? God's
our refuge, and God is our strength. Therefore, will not we fear,
though the earth be removed, though the mountains be carried
into the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be
troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof?
There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city
of God, the holy place of tabernacles of the Most High, God is in the
midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall
help her and that right soon. He is our refuge. He is our strength
because he's all. Remember Paul writes in Colossians
3, Christ is all and in all. He's all in all. Now, verse 1. Be merciful unto me, oh God. This is our constant need, isn't
it? This is our constant plea, isn't it? Mercy, mercy. I'm a
mercy beggar. I'm a mercy beggar. I beg the
Lord for mercy. A wise man who's taught of God
will pray and ask for mercy and seek mercy where it's found.
Where's mercy found? Not in the law. You can't go
to the law and find any mercy there. All you find there is
judgment, judgment, judgment. But in the Lord Jesus Christ,
there is mercy. The publican cried unto the Lord,
be merciful to me, thee sinner. Remember, God said he went down
to his house justified. I'm going to call upon God for
mercy, mercy. We know that God delights to
show mercy. You remember Psalm 51, David prayed, have mercy
upon me, O God, according to thy love and kindness. According
to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my sin. Wash me from my sin. The foolish and the self-righteous,
like the Pharisee that will brag on himself and condemn all others,
he won't seek mercy where mercy's found. He'll go back to establish
the righteousness of his own. Pharisee and the self-righteous.
It is right to pray for mercy, and it's right to seek mercy
where it's found, in Christ. Turn just one page. If you have
Psalm 59, I hope I've got the right verse here. Psalm 59 verse
16, but I will sing of thy power, yea, I will sing aloud of thy
mercy in the morning, for thou hast been my defense and my refuge
in the day of my trouble. Unto thee, O my strength, will
I sing, for God is my defense, here's a statement I want to
get out, and the God of my mercy. You see that? He's the God of
my mercy. He's the God of all grace. We
studied, remember 1 Peter chapter 5? And he's a God, he's a God
of my mercy. He comes from the sovereign throne
of almighty God, the God of my mercy. Now someone might ask,
what is the difference between grace and mercy? Well, grace
is God graciously giving to us what we do not deserve. He gives
us graciously, sovereignly, all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Of His fullness have we all received
grace for grace, grace for grace. We're justified freely by His
grace. I can't hear enough or tell you
enough about the sovereign grace of God and the sovereign mercy
of God. So grace is God graciously giving
to us what we do not deserve. What is a good definition for
mercy? Mercy is God not giving us what we do deserve. What do
we deserve? The wages of sin is death. So
mercy is God not giving us what we do deserve, for we deserve
nothing but judgment. Judgment. Judgment. Think about
this. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed. Because His compassion does not
fail. They're new. It's new every morning. We read about His mercy in the
Word of God so many times. We know His mercy is sovereign.
He said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. His mercy
to us is undeserved. It's not by work of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us. We
know that He is plenteous in mercy. Plenteous in mercy. Look over here at Psalm 103. He's plenteous in mercy. Psalm
103. Another one of my favorite Psalms. Psalm 103. Look at verse eight. He's plenteous in mercy. You
can't run the storehouse dry. Psalm 103, look at verse eight. The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, plenteous in mercy. He's plenteous in mercy. He will
not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. He
has not dealt with us after our sin, nor rewarded us according
to our iniquity. For as the heaven is high above
the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath He removed our transgression from... He's
plenteous in mercy. He's plenteous in mercy. He has
a storehouse of mercy. His mercies are unfailing. They're
new every morning. His mercies are eternal. His
mercies endure forever. His mercies are sovereign. And
think about this. When Moses asked the Lord, show
me your glory. Remember Exodus 33? And God said,
I'll be merciful to whom I will be merciful. Show me your glory.
God's greatest glory, showing mercy, is this sinner's greatest
need. I need mercy. I need mercy. You
remember in Ephesians chapter two, we read there, God, who
is rich in mercy, for his great love were with he loved us, even
when we were dead in sin, had quickened us together with the
Lord Jesus Christ. So back to Psalm 57. Be merciful
unto me, O God, O God, be merciful unto me. For my soul trusteth in thee,
yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge until these
calamities be overpassed. David said, I'm trusting thee.
I'm trusting thee for deliverance. That's what true saving faith
does. True saving faith doesn't look
to ourselves. True saving faith looks to the
Lord Jesus Christ. You remember Psalms 62, we're
to trust him at all times, ye people. Pour out your heart before
him. God is a refuge for us. So we
trust him, just not when we're in trouble, but we trust him
as believers. We trust him all the time. Where else can a guilty soul
look for grace to help in our time of need but unto Him? He
has all power in heaven and earth to save us. He has power over
all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as the
Father hath given Him, John 17. He has all righteousness to justify
us. justified freely by his grace.
He has all grace to sustain us and to keep us. Remember 1 Peter
1, verse 5, we're kept by the power of God through faith. He
has all wisdom to enlighten us. He's made unto us wisdom. In
him are hid all our treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And
then it says, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge.
In the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge. We had a reference
to that last week in Psalm 36, remember? The shadow of thy wings
will I make my refuge. As a little helpless baby chick
finds refuge from the storm under the wings of the mother hen,
so believers seek refuge under the wings of Almighty God. Naomi,
you remember our study in the book of Ruth. Naomi said to Ruth,
the Lord recompensed thy work and a full reward be given thee
of the Lord, God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to
trust. We trust him. This also is a
reference to Exodus 25, 22, a reference to the mercy seat. And you can go back and read
the description of the mercy seat. But on each end of that
mercy seat was the cherubims with their wings covering that
mercy seat. And that mercy seat is where
the blood on the Day of Atonement was put on that mercy seat that
covered the law that had been broken, the law written on tables
of stone in that box. And we know the blood of Christ
cleanses all. Sin is the transgression of the
law. And the blood of Christ cleanses us from all our sin.
God said there, I'll meet with you around that mercy seat. So under the shadows of the mercy
seat, we find our refuge, don't we? We find our refuge. Our prayer is, Lord, let me hide
under your almighty wings daily and find strength and grace and
mercy in times of calamity. The days of wickedness, when
they come, when the wicked come against me, hide me until they're
gone, and then take me home where all calamities will be over forever. We sung a moment ago, hide me,
oh my savior, hide, until the storm of life is passed. And
one day, this passing life will be done. And one day we'll be
with the Lord, there'll be no more pain, no more death, no
more sickness, no more darkness. One glorious time of worship. Now look at verse 2. I will cry,
I will cry unto God most high. David often begs the ear of God,
I cry unto the God most high. He said in Isaiah repeatedly,
remember I am God, beside me there is no other. I'm the only
just God and Savior. Now look unto me, come unto me,
I will cry unto God. He's the most high God. Is there
any higher than God? You can't appeal, you know, they
make a lower court judge who'll make a judgment, and then they
appeal it to a different circuits of judges, and then it'll finally
go to the Supreme Court, go to a higher court. Well, there's
none higher than God. He's the final word on all things. He rules in heaven, he does according
to his will in the army of heaven among the habitants of this earth
and no one can stay his hand and no one can say unto him,
Lord God Almighty, what doest thou? He's the most potentate
God. Potentate. That means he's sovereign. He's the most high, potentate
God. And then I'll cry unto God that
performeth all things for me. Now, salvation is a performance.
Salvation is a work the Lord Jesus Christ performed for us,
for us. Our prayers unto the Most High
God. In Psalm 115, the heathen said,
David, where is your God? Remember what David said, our
God's in the heavens. He's done whatsoever he is pleased.
However exalted our enemy may seem to be, our great God and
Savior is higher. He has no rival, for there's
none higher. He can easily defend and deliver
us from anyone, anything. He's performed all things for
me. I was driving down the road the
other day. and listening to the news. And there was a commercial on
there about investment strategy, investment strategy. Everybody's
looking at the stock market and the turmoil in the stock market.
And this company was encouraging people to invest with them. And
then they had a disclaimer. They were talking about their
performance, how it was being, and then he said, our past performance
is no indication of our future performance. So our past performance
doesn't guarantee our future. He said the future is uncertain.
Not with the Lord Jesus Christ. His past performance is a guarantee
of our salvation. of our salvation. He performeth
all things for me." Notice the two words there, all things have
been added by the translator. You see that in italicized print
there. All things have been supplied
and rightly so. But the Lord has performed all
things for us. He has reconciled us to God. All things are of God, 2 Corinthians
5.18. Whatever the Lord undertakes
for us, He will accomplish for us. And He's accomplished all
things for us. In Job 23, I've got this written
down. He's of one mind who can turn
Him. Job said, He performeth the thing that's appointed for
me, and many such things are with Him. He performeth the things
that are appointed for me. He's not appointed us to wrath.
Remember? But to obtain salvation by our
Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot accomplish our salvation,
that's impossible. But the hope of our salvation
is this, He performed all things for us. Righteousness, faithfulness,
redemption, reconciliation, all these things we have in Christ,
He performed all things for us. And then Isaiah writes this,
He is my shepherd, Isaiah 44, 28. He writes, The Lord is my shepherd and shall
perform all my pleasure." My pleasure. He's the good shepherd,
the great shepherd, the chief shepherd. I will cry unto God
most high, unto God that performeth all things for me. This book
teaches that salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the
Lord. I preached that on the radio
last Sunday. I've got it posted on Sermon
Audio. You can go there and give it a listen. Fifteen minute message. Salvation is of the Lord and
it's origination, it's execution, it's application, it's sustaining
power, and it's ultimate perfection. Verse three, he shall send from
heaven. Here's how he performed all things for us. He sent from
heaven. He shall sin from heaven, and
he did, didn't he? Call his name Jesus. He shall
save his people from their sin. He shall sin from heaven, and
what shall he do? He shall try to save me. He shall
attempt to save me. No, he shall sin from heaven
and save me. God doesn't try to do anything.
He doesn't try to save anybody. He does all of His pleasure.
He shall send from heaven and save me. In the fullness of time,
God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
to redeem them that were under the law. This is exactly what
the Lord did for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. God sent the Lord
God Jesus Christ to save His people from their sin. from reproach of him that would
swallow me up? Think about this. What would
be the reproach of him that would swallow us up? Our sin. Our sin would swallow us up.
He saved us from our sin. God made him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. He saved us from The penalty of our sin against
God. And then he says, Selah. Think
about that. Amen to that. God shall send
forth his mercy and his truth. These two blessed words, mercy
and truth. Mercy and truth. Turn over here
to Psalm. You remember this Psalm 85? Mercy
and truth. Solomon writes about mercy and
truth. By mercy and truth, iniquity is purged. Look at Psalm 85 verse
10. Psalm 85 verse 10. Mercy and
truth are met together. Where did that happen? In whom
did that happen? Mercy and truth are met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. That's reconciliation. That's all the attributes of
God being reconciled in the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Mercy can be extended, not at the expense of truth and peace
can be given not at the expense of righteousness. Enable God
to be a just God and Savior, just and the justifier of those
who believe in Him. Look at verse 4, David said,
Psalm 57 verse 4, My soul, my soul is among lions, and I lie
even among them that are set on fire. This can be said of
David and also the greater David, the Lord Jesus Christ. Even the sons of men whose teeth
are spears and arrows and their tongue is a sharp, sharp sword. David, like Daniel, remember
Daniel was cast into the lion's den and the Lord set his angel
and stalked the lion's mouth. David, like Daniel, was among
lions that sought his destruction. Daniel was delivered from the
lion's den, so was David. Satan, we studied in 1 Peter
5, is called a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. But
God sent his angel and destroyed his dominion, crushed his dominion. The seed of the woman crushed
the serpent's dominion, didn't he? No weapon that's formed against
thee shall prosper, Isaiah 54, 17. Remember, our Lord said to
Peter, when Peter bragged so much on what he was not going
to do and what he was going to do, I'll never be offended. I'll never deny thee. I'll die
with you. And the Lord said to him, Satan
had desired to have you that he may sift you like wheat. But
I pray for you that your faith fail not. Peter was no match
for Satan, was he? But the Lord interceded for him,
the Lord prayed for him. Verse 5 and verse 11, be thou exalted, O God, above
the heavens. Let thy glory be above all the
earth. And he repeats that again in
verse 11. Be thou exalted, O God, above
the heavens. Let thy glory be above all the
earth. Be thou exalted. This is every
believer's desire. The Lord Jesus Christ, his exaltation
and his glory. God hath highly exalted him and
given him a name which is above every name. that at that name
every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord. Christ is exalted to the right
hand of God having put away our sin. Christ therefore of necessity
deserves all the honor and glory. That is the eternal song of the
redeemed, isn't it? Worthy is the lamb that was slain
to receive all honor, glory, blessings, and power both now
and forever. The believer desires for Christ
to be exalted Not only at the throne of God, but for Christ
to be exalted where? Right here. Right here. Christ in you is a hope of glory. Verse six, they have prepared a net for
my steps. Talking about a trap. Just like
they set a trap for the Lord Jesus Christ, didn't they? They
prepared a net for my steps, my soul is bowed down, We studied
that Sunday there in Matthew 26, his soul being in great agony,
sweat as it was, great drops of blood. My soul is bowed down,
they've digged a pit before me into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Oftentimes the plot of the enemy
to destroy the sanctity of God become the destruction of their
own soul. This is true in the case of Saul
pursuing David. God delivered him out of Saul's
hand. Those who sought Daniel's destruction
in the lion's den ended up in the lion's den themselves with
their families. Haman, you remember in the book
of Esther, Haman built the gallows for Mordecai to be hanged. Guess who got hanged? It wasn't
Mordecai, the servant of God, it was Haman. Joseph's brethren
sold him into slavery, and they ended up 400 years in bondage. The Jews sought to destroy the
Lord Jesus Christ, but ended up bringing destruction upon
themselves and their families. You remember, they cried, Matthew
27, we're going to see this in a few weeks, they cried, His
blood be on us and our children. It still is. Judgment still on
the people today. David ends his psalm with words
of praise in verse 7 down through verse 10. My heart is fixed,
O God. My heart's been prepared. I will
sing praise because my heart's fixed. My heart is fixed. Now, when the Scriptures talk
about our heart, we often say our heart, my heart. And we often
point to this physical organ in our body. But when the Scriptures
talk about the heart, it's not talking about this organ in our
body. When the Scriptures speak about
with a heart man believeth unto righteousness, it's talking about,
when it talks about in the Scripture our heart, it includes our mind,
our understanding, our will, and our affections, all things
that make up who we really are. Our heart, our mind, our understanding,
our will, our affections. With a heart man believeth unto
righteousness with a mouth. Confession is made unto salvation. By his almighty grace, our hearts
have been changed. He's given us a new heart. Grace
has changed our mind. We now think upon him. Grace
has changed our understanding because he's given us an understanding.
Grace of God, the grace of God has changed our will. He's made
us willing in a day of his power. Grace has changed our affections.
We now love him. and we hate ourselves. As Job,
Isaiah, and Paul said, oh wretched man that I am. My heart is fixed. Our heart is not frustrated but
fixed upon the object of faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our heart
is established upon the foundation of faith. Behold, I lay in Zion
for a foundation of stone. So our heart is fixed, not frustrated,
Fixed upon Christ, looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ, the author
and finisher of our faith, and our hearts been prepared or made
ready to worship Him, to honor Him, to wait upon Him, to serve
the Lord with gladness, and to witness to others, and to sing
of His goodness. Verse 9 and 10 in closing, I
will praise Thee. That's worship. That's worship. I will praise Thee. He's worthy
of our worship. I will praise Thee, O Lord. O
Lord, among Your people, I will praise Thee, and I'll sing unto
Thee among the nations. And he's talking here about the
heathen. He's talking about the Amalekites, the Hittites, the
Jebusites, and all those other items that surrounded Israel.
David said, I'm going to sing about the Lord before the pagan
people. For thy mercy is great unto the
heavens. That's how great his mercy is.
His mercy is great unto the heavens. It's an eternal mercy. And thy
truth, thy truth. The Lord Jesus cried, He said,
I am the truth. He said, you shall know the truth,
and the truth, the truth, it's the truth that sets us free. It's the truth that sets us free.