Psalm 86 will be our study this
evening. I'm entitling the message from
the words found in verse 5 and down again in verse 15. Our Lord
is plenteous in mercy. Plenteous in mercy. You see that
in verse 5? For thou, Lord, art good, ready
to forgive, plenteous in mercy unto all that call upon him.
There's mercy for plenty. All who would call upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved. Verse 15, but thou, Lord, art
a God full of compassion. He's full of grace. He is long-suffering. Again, he repeats the statement.
He's plenteous in mercy. Plenteous in mercy and truth. Mercy and truth. Mercy and truth. Does that remind you of a scripture?
Look right across the page, Psalm 85 verse 10. I think we'll look
at this next week. Remember that verse 10? Mercy
and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. All God's attributes are satisfied
in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, I'm entitling that
message, the message this evening, from those two verses. Our Lord
is plenteous in mercy. Now what a great subject to think
upon. God's mercy. God's mercy to us. God's mercy
to us. What a topic to think upon. Our Lord, God, and Savior delights. The Scriptures teach that He
delights to show mercy. He delights to show mercy to
sinners. Poor and needy sinners. Just
like you. Just like me. He didn't come
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. We know that God
is gracious, it says there. God is gracious and God is merciful. Now what's the difference between
grace and mercy? I've given this to you before,
but it's worth repeating. We know that grace is God giving
us what we do not deserve, right? We're justified freely by his
grace through the redeeming blood of Christ. His mercy is God not
giving us what we do deserve. What do we deserve? The wages
of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. So the mercy of the Lord, we
know from studying Psalm 136, you remember that whole Psalm
in every verse says the mercy of the Lord endures forever. The mercy of the Lord endures
forever. How long has God been merciful?
As long as he's been God. That's the eternal, eternal mercy.
Now we know from reading the scripture and from our own experience,
we do not merit mercy, do we? Nor do we deserve His grace.
But the Lord we serve is both merciful and gracious unto His
people. As we read just a moment ago
in Exodus 34 verse 6, don't turn, let me just read it to you again.
The Lord said to Moses, the Lord God, passed by and proclaimed
the name of the Lord, the Lord God, the Lord God merciful, gracious,
long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth. He has not changed. The same God that said that to
Moses those thousands of years ago, He's the same God that has
the same message for us today. God is merciful. God is gracious. He's ready to
pardon, ready to forgive for one reason. for Christ's name's
sake, for Christ's sake, because it pleased Him to do so. He's
plenteous in redeeming and redemption. Let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous, plenteous
redemption. Now, Psalm 86, as I pointed out
in the reading there, is called a prayer of David, a prayer of
David. It's a psalm of David. And we
see the cry of this believer before the throne of grace. And
may the Lord be pleased to make this our cry unto the Lord this
evening. Before our great and glorious
God, make this our prayer, David's prayer. Let's own it and take
it for ourselves. Real prayer is an act of worship
and humility before God. Prayer is really praising our
God. We thank God, don't we, for his
mercy unto us. Real prayer is an act of worship.
Prayer is an attitude of submission to the sovereign will of God.
Didn't our Lord teach us to pray, thy will be done, our Father
which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Remember from
1 Thessalonians chapter 5, where we read about, rejoice evermore,
pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks, for this
is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Prayer,
a privilege we have to call upon our God in prayer. That's a privilege.
It's a privilege. Now, verse 1, we'll combine verse
1, verse 6 and 7 together. Bow down thine ear, O Lord, and
hear me, hear me. He has to bow down because we're
so low. Bow down thine ear, O Lord, and
hear me, for I am poor and needy. I am poor and needy. Now, that
statement is made in the book of Psalms many, many times. Blessed
are the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of God. Remember
Matthew 5? I am poor and needy, but that statement's made 20
times in the book of Psalms. Now look at verse six. Give ear,
O Lord, unto my prayer. Attend to the voice of my supplication.
In the day of my trouble, I will call upon thee, for thou wilt
answer me. I think of that word, trouble.
Man is born of woman in a few days and full of what? Trouble.
Trouble. Our Lord said, in this world
you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome. When we pray, we desire that
the Lord would hear our prayer. Hear our prayer. Hold your place
there. And look back here at Psalm 66. Psalm 66, verse 19. When we pray, we incline the
ear of the Lord to hear us. Psalm 66, look at verse 19. But verily, or truly, God hath
heard me. He hath attended to the voice
of my prayer. Blessed be God, which hath not
turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me. He hears our cry. He hears our prayer. Because
he is the living God, he can hear our prayer unto him. Here's another reference. Turn to Psalm 138, verse six. 138, verse six. Psalm 138, verse six, though
the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly, but the
proud he knoweth far off. Though I walk in the midst of
trouble, thou wilt revive me. Thou shalt stretch forth thine
hand against the wrath of my enemies, and thy right hand shall
save me. Though the Lord be high, yet
he hath respect unto the lowly. Bow down thine ear, O Lord. The
Lord will perfect that which Concerneth me, thy mercy, O Lord,
endureth forever. Forsake not the work of thy own
hands. Mercy the Lord does endure forever. I am poor and needy, yet the
Lord thinks upon me. Turn back to Psalm 70. Psalm
70, we've seen this recently in our study. And as I said,
this phrase here, I'm poor and needy, you can find 20 references
in the book of Psalm. Psalm 70, verse five, I am poor
and needy. Make haste unto me, O God. Thou
art my help. Thou art my deliverer. O Lord,
make no delay, no tearing, because I'm so poor. I'm spiritually
bankrupt. He lifts the beggar from the
dumb hill and sets him among the princes. I am needy and he
meets our every need. God meets all our need according
to his riches in glory through the Lord Jesus Christ. I am poor,
aren't you? I'm needy, aren't you? Christ
is our sufficiency. He's our sufficiency, all things.
I'm poor and needy. Now, look over here at verse
two, Psalm 86 verse two. Preserve my soul or keep me. We're kept by the power of God.
We don't keep ourselves no more than we save ourselves. He saves
us and then he keeps us, doesn't he? He gives us eternal life
and we'll never perish. Preserve my soul for I am holy
is the word. But notice the marginal reference,
one whom thou favorest. one whom thou hast chosen. And
this word, I looked it up today, this word holy, in other Psalms,
the word is also rendered, in other places, saint. Every believer
is a saint. Didn't they just recently have
a St. Patrick's Day? When was that,
Sunday? We don't observe any days or
anything like that, but I don't know the history behind St. Patrick,
but it usually goes back to Catholicism, because they make certain people
saints, but every believer is a saint, every believer is made
holy in Christ, and every believer is preserved in Christ, O thou
my God, save thy servant. Save thy servant, and that's
our prayer, isn't it? Save the son of thy handmaid. Salvation, we come back to that
cardinal truth, that salvation's of the Lord. Salvation's of the
Lord. We know that we cannot do anything
to save ourselves. We can't do anything to put away
our sin. Our salvation is of the Lord. Save thy servant. Save
thy servant, and I like this phrase here, that trusteth in
thee. We trust the whole of our salvation. We trust Him to save
us. We trust Him. We commit all of
the keeping of our soul and our salvation unto Him. He saved
us from all our sins and He will continue to deliver us finally
and totally. The Lord will exalt us together
with Him. He gives us all grace now and
glory forever. Look right across the page, Psalm
84 verse 11. He gives us grace now and glory
forever. Psalm 84, 11, for the Lord God
is sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and
glory. He gives us all grace now and
glory forever. No good thing will he withhold
from them that walk uprightly. Oh, Lord of hosts, blessed is
a man that trusteth in him. Now look at verse 3. Be merciful
unto me, O Lord, for I cry unto thee all the day. Be merciful
unto me. We often use that phrase, we
come to the Lord before the throne of grace as mercy beggars, don't
we? We don't come to the Lord demanding anything. We come to
the Lord and we say with the publican, Lord, and like the
leper said, Lord, if you will, you can heal me. You can make
me whole. And the Lord said, I will. God,
be merciful to me, thee sinner. Remember the publican cry, be
merciful unto me, O Lord. Well, I cry unto thee daily. The margin of reference says
there every day. I know that we can get involved in our daily routine,
can't we? I know when I worked, and I worked
long hours most of the time when the job I had 30 years ago before
I came here, but I was very involved because my job required a lot
of thinking and troubleshooting and hands-on, and a lot of times
I'd just get so involved in my work and reading and troubleshooting
and different things that I wouldn't even think upon the Lord. But in reality, the Lord is always
giving us a heart of prayer before Him. Even when we're occupied
with other things, we still have in our heart His presence, and
we are mindful of Him. When we get a time to meditate
and slow down and think, what do we think upon? We think upon
the Lord. We think upon the Lord. Now, verse four, and because
the Lord is merciful unto us, and because we cry unto him every
day, rejoice the soul of thy servant.
We do rejoice in the Lord. And again, I say rejoice. For
unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. I look to thee, I
look to the Lord for every blessing, every mercy we have. When we
lift up our soul unto the Lord, we look at Him and to Him and
all that He has done for us and all that He is doing for us.
When we look at Him and think of all that He has done for us,
what does that do for us? It rejoices our soul, doesn't
it? It rejoices our soul to think everything He has done, He is
doing and will do. That rejoices our soul, doesn't
it? We are the true Israel which worship God in the spirit, rejoice
in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the Lord. Now,
I'm going to come back to verse five, but look down to verse
eight. He says in verse seven, in the
day of my trouble, I'll call upon thee for thou will answer
me. Now, verse eight says, among the gods, there is none Like
unto thee, O Lord, neither are there any works like thy works.
All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before
thee, O Lord, and shall glorify thy name. Now notice verse 8,
among the gods, small g, small g. There is none like our God. You put all the gods, line up
all the idols, add them all up. Zero. Zero. They're nothing before,
nothing before our God. You remember, I like what David
did in Psalm 115. Turn over there. When they ask
him, David, where is your God? Where is your God? Psalm 115,
not unto us, O Lord, verse one. Psalm 115, verse one. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name. Give glory for thy mercy and
for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is now their God? Our God's in the heavens. He
has done whatsoever he has pleased. Their idols, or their gods, are
silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths,
but they speak not. They have eyes, they have, but
they don't see. They don't see. They have ears,
but they can't hear. Noses, they have, but they don't
smell. They have hands, but they handle
not feet. But they can't walk. They can't
speak. They that make them are like
unto them, so is everyone that trusted them. The idols are dead,
and those who trust in dead idols are dead yet in their sin. They have no spiritual life in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is like unto thee? Now, remember
when the children of Israel were delivered through the Red Sea,
and on the other side, you remember that song that's recorded in
Exodus 15? And verse 11 says, who is like
unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like unto thee,
glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, and doing wonders? You remember the message in that
day Moses declared, stand still and see the salvation of the
Lord? Among the gods, there's none like our God. There's none
like our God. We read in Exodus 34, the Lord
passed by before Moses and proclaimed his name, the Lord, the Lord
God, merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness, true, keeping
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and
sin. Blessed is that man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. You see, there is no God like
a true and living God. Like the Lord, our God and Savior,
Jesus Christ. There's no God like Him. Now, and then it says, neither are
there any works, the last part of verse 8, there's no works
like His works. There's no work like His work.
There's a good reference on that if you look at Psalm 111. Psalm
111. Our salvation is not based upon
our works. Our salvation is based upon His
work, right? He prayed, Father, I've finished
the work you gave me to do. Look at Psalm 111. Verse 3, His work is honorable
and glorious, and His righteousness endures forever. He has made
His wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full
of compassion. He has given meat to them that
fear Him. He will ever be mindful of His
covenant. He has showed His people the
power of His works. that he may give them the heritage
of the heathen. The works of his hands are verity
and judgment. All his commandments are sure.
They stand fast forever, and they're done in truth and uprightness.
That's his work, his work of salvation. Thinking about one
other scripture, if I can find it here. Turn over here to Psalm
92, look at verse four. Psalm 92, talking about the work
of the Lord. Our salvation that we enjoy by
the free grace of God is based upon the redeeming work of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the priestly work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Psalm 92, look at verse four. For thy Lord has made me glad
through thy work. You see that? His work. I will triumph in the works of
thy hand. Oh Lord, how great are thy works. and thy thoughts are very deep."
What a great work of redemption. What a great work of salvation
that he has accomplished for us, for us. Thou art God alone. Now, what time I have left here,
I want to look at verse 5 and verse 15 and kind of fill in
the spots here. There is given these attributes
of God, And we have a good description of our Lord Jesus Christ who
is God our Savior. Look at verse 5. For thou, Lord,
art good. The Lord is good. O taste and
see, the Lord is good. You remember Psalm 34, 17? O
taste and see that the Lord is good. Our God said, I am God,
beside me there is no other. The Lord our God, He is good. Everything about Him is good.
Everything about Him is good. We have no goodness in ourselves,
do we? There's none righteous, no not
one. There's none that do us good, no not one. Everything
about Him is good. Good, everything about Him is
good. And everything He does for us is good. Everything He does for us is
good. It's good, it's good. All things, and we know that
all things work together for good to them who love God, to
them who are called according to His purpose. The Lord is good,
and the Lord is good at everything He does. He's good at everything
He does. The judge of all the earth will
do right. So there's one attribute that
He gives us here. The Lord is good. The Lord is holy, and the Lord
is eternal, and the Lord is good. The second thing he mentions
here is the Lord, for the Lord, for thou Lord, not only art thou
good, ready to forgive. He's ready to forgive. The prayer of Nehemiah, he prayed,
Lord, thou art a God ready to pardon. Ready to pardon. He's
ready to justify sinners based upon the atonement of Christ.
not based upon my faith, not based upon my repentance, not
based upon my obedience. He's ready to forgive based upon
the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember in Ephesians
chapter four, where the apostle Paul tells us to love one another
and to forgive one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven us. Thy Lord art ready. to forgive. Ready to forgive. Now, here's the third thing.
Our Lord is good. Everything about Him is good. The Lord is ready to forgive
our sin. Blessed is that man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. And then the third thing we see
here is the Lord is Plenteous in mercy. Plenteous in mercy. Look down at verse 13. It talks
about the mercy of God again. For great is thy mercy toward
me. Thou hast delivered my soul from
the lowest hell. Thou hast delivered my soul from
death. Because God is what? He's merciful. God is merciful. You remember
what David prayed? In Psalm 51, don't turn, let
me just read it to you. Have mercy upon me, O God. Psalm
51, verse one. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to thy love and kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender
mercy. Blot out my transgression. Wash me throughly from my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. The Lord will have mercy. He
will have mercy. He's plenteous in mercy to save
His people. You cannot exhaust the storehouse
of God's mercy. Remember we read in Lamentations
chapter 3, His mercies are new every morning, great is His faithfulness. God saves us by His mercy, not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
His mercy. He saved us. And then the fourth
attribute we see here, by Lord Jesus Christ, Down in verse 15, Thou, O Lord,
art a God full. He's full. He's full of compassion. He's full of compassion. We studied
in Matthew 14 on Sunday, when the Lord saw that crowd that
was sick, they were in need of healing, and they were hungry,
The Lord was moved with compassion. And what did he do? He healed
them and then he fed them. He cared for them. And he's the
same today. The Lord is full of compassion.
That means he's full of love. God is love. God is love. Here in his love,
not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the sacrifice for our sin. His love for his people is eternal. He's loved us with an everlasting
love. His love toward his people is effectual. It's effectual
love. Having loved his own, he loved
them to the end. His love is sovereign. Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated. His love is sovereign. He will
have mercy on whom he will. You remember Exodus 33? The Lord
said, I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So his love is sovereign. His love is manifested and shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And then we read about
His love. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the
love of God that saves His people from their sin. God loves His people with everlasting
love. He'll never stop loving His own.
Never stop loving his own. And then again in verse 15, here's
the fifth attribute, the Lord our God is gracious. He's full
of compassion, and the Lord our God is gracious. He's full of
grace too, isn't He? Full of grace. For our salvation,
we know, is all of grace. Every aspect of our salvation
is of grace. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not of work
that any man should boast. We read recently from John chapter
one, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld
his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and full of truth. Of His fullness have we all received
grace for grace. He's full of grace and He's full
of truth. He's plenteous in mercy and truth. The last part of verse
15. His grace is sovereign grace.
And then in verse 15, the sixth attribute that He mentions here,
God is long-suffering. God is long-suffering. You remember
the Scripture of 2 Peter 3? God is long-suffering to usward.
His people, His elect, not willing that any should perish, but all
should come to repentance. The Lord is long-suffering to
His people. Think about this. Before we ever
knew the Lord in saving mercy, He knew us. And one day, He crossed
our path with the Gospel. And one day, He taught us the
truth. The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal,
the Lord knoweth them that are his. One day he crossed our path
with the gospel, revealed himself unto us, and made us willing
in the day of his power. He was long-suffering to us,
and he still is. The seventh attribute that is
mentioned there in verse 15, he's plenteous in truth. He's
plenteous in mercy. He's long-suffering. And He's
plenteous in mercy, and then He's plenteous in truth. Everything
about Him is true. You know, there's something God
cannot do. Did you know that? He cannot change. I'm the Lord,
I change not. God cannot lie. Everything He
speaks in His Word is absolute truth. Absolute truth. Absolute truth. And here's the
blessed part about that. It's His truth that sets us free. Our Lord said, you shall know
the truth, and the truth shall set you free. The Lord identified
Himself as the way, the truth, and the life. Now notice, God uses the truth
to teach us. Look back up at verse 11. Teach
me thy way, O Lord, and I will walk in thy truth. When He teaches
us His way, it's the way of truth, He causes us to walk in the way
of truth. We seek God as is prescribed
in the scripture, to seek the true living God in the truth,
in Christ who is the truth, and that causes us to unite. David
prayed, teach me thy way, and I'll walk in thy truth and unite
my heart. United to Christ, being one with
Him, that causes us to fear His name, to worship His name, to
worship His name. Now, the last thing I want to
consider for a moment about His work here is mentioned in verse
8. Neither are there any works like
unto thy works. And when we think of His work
that He's done for us, All that he has done for us in his obedience,
in his faithfulness, he honored the law of God for us perfectly
in word, deed, and thought, motive, he honored the law of God for
us, and then in his precept, and then he honored the law of
God in its penalty. There are no works like his work
that he accomplished for us in saving us. His work of redemption
is perfect. The Lord Jesus Christ established
perfect righteousness for us. His work of salvation is perfect.
He saves us with a perfect salvation. He saves us with an everlasting
salvation. His works are great. His works
are great. And that leads us to what it
says in verse 12. I will praise thee. I will praise
thee. When you consider all that He
is, and consider all of His attributes, all of His characteristics in
saving mercy, that leads us to rejoice in the Lord, as it says
there in verse 4. Rejoice the soul of thy servant.
And then it says, I will praise thee. I will praise thee. I can't
help but think of that Psalm 103. Turn over there. We've got
a few minutes. Turn over there to Psalm 103.
Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, verse 1, Psalm
103, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,
who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases,
who redeems thy life from destruction, who crowns thee with loving kindness
and tender mercies. You can't get away from his loving
kindness and his tender mercies toward us. Now, let's read the
last few verses in Psalm 86. Turn unto me, verse 16, and have
mercy upon me, O God. Give strength unto thy servant. Give us your strength. I'm your
servant, a willing, loving bond servant. Save me. Save the son
of thy handmaid. Verse 17, show me a token for
good that they which hate me may see it and be ashamed because
thou, Lord, hath helped me and thou, Lord, hath comforted me. The Lord has helped us. God is
our refuge and strength of every present help and trouble. He
is our help and He is our comfort. He's our helper and He's our
comfort. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil, for Thou art
with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort
me. And when I think of comfort,
the Holy Spirit is called the comforter. Our Lord said, when
the Comforter has come, He'll take the things of Christ and
reveal them unto us. So the Comforter, the Holy Spirit,
comforts us with Christ and Him crucified. We read in Isaiah,
comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sin. That's comfort, that's help,
that's salvation in Christ Jesus.