Psalm 28. I'm taking the title,
Psalm 28 from verse 7. I'm taking the title from the
words found here in verse 7. The Lord is. The Lord is my strength. The Lord is everything to the
believer. Christ is all and in all. In
Him dwells all the fullness of a Godhead bodily and in Him we
are complete. The Lord is. The Lord has always
been from everlasting to everlasting. The Lord is. He is my strength. He's the strength of our redemption,
the strength of our salvation. He's my strength and my shield.
My heart trusteth in him because every spiritual blessing God
has for his church is in him. It is a wise, right thing to
trust Him. I like what it says in Psalm
62. When are we to trust Him? All
the time. Trust Him at all times, you people.
Pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us. My heart
trusted, and I'm trusting in Him, and I am helped. Therefore,
my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song, with the song,
the song of my heart. I'll praise Him. I'll praise
Him. So the title that I've chosen
is, I trust in the Lord and I am helped. I trust in the Lord and
I am helped. I'm benefited. What a blessing
to be given faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I trust Him and
I'm helped. I'm blessed in Him. I think of
the wise man Solomon in Proverbs, don't turn, but I'm gonna read
it to you. Proverbs 3, verse 5, trust in the Lord with all
that heart, lean not unto that own understanding, in all thy
ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy heart. So trust in
him at all times, you people. The Lord is my strength and my
shield, he's my song, I trust him and I'm helped. I'm
helped. I'm blessed by trusting him.
Now truly, those who are led by his grace to trust him and
believe the Lord Jesus Christ are those who have been mightily
blessed and helped of him. For the scripture says, you remember
in John 15, he said, without me, he said, you can do What? Nothing. It's impossible
to trust the Lord without the Lord enabling us to do so. We
are what we are by His mighty, sovereign grace. All that we
are, all that we know, all that we have, all that we ever will
be is by His grace and His grace alone. You remember the Apostle
Paul said, but by the grace of God I am what I am. and his grace
which was bestowed upon me was not in vain. Grace is never in
vain. Grace is always effectual. But
I labored, he said, more abundantly than they all, yet not I but
the grace of God. The grace of God. Excuse me, but the grace of God
which was with me. The grace of God is never in
vain. I'm blessed in him. Now, look at verse 1 and 2 for, unto thee, unto thee will I cry. How many times have we seen this
in the Psalms? David says, I cry unto the Lord.
And that's the cry of faith. That's the cry of faith in praying
unto the Lord. Unto thee will I cry. Now, where
else can we go to have our prayers answered? but unto the Lord. Unto thee will I cry, O Lord,
you're my rock. Be not silent to me, lest if
thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down to the
pit. All the Lord has to do for us to perish in our sin is just
leave us to ourselves. We love darkness rather than
the light. We drink iniquity like the water. If the Lord is
silent to us, if he just simply takes his hand off of us and
leads us to our own devices, the pit is our certain place
of eternal ruin. Verse two, hear the voice of
my supplication. when I cry unto thee, when I
lift up my hand toward thy holy oracle, or toward thy tabernacle. And I like the immediate answer
he receives in verse 6. Blessed be the Lord, because
he hath heard the voice of my supplication, the voice of my
crying unto the Lord. You know, true sincere heart
prayer doesn't need to be uttered verbally. It's the cry of the
heart. The Lord looks on the heart.
Prayer is the heart cry unto the Lord, and it doesn't have
to be verbal. Just in your heart. Isn't that the way we pray? I
know when we come here, we pray publicly. But when I'm just myself
here studying, I don't audibly speak things to the Lord, but
I cry in my heart. I unbear my heart unto the Lord
and take my burden to the Lord. Twice in these two verses, verse
1 and 2, David said, unto thee will I cry, And then he says,
I cry when I cry unto thee. When I cry, I will cry, and when
I cry, I cry unto thee. A cry here is an expression of
sorrow and distress, and it's a call for help. Notice
to whom we direct our cries and our prayers and our pleas are
unto the Lord. Are unto the Lord. I noticed I don't normally do this. I used
to all the time. Monday night football, that was
a big thing with me. I made my fiancé promise me that
on Monday night when we got married that she would watch Monday night
football with me. And that lasted for a while.
But I was watching that football game Monday night when that player
had that collision. It looked like a routine play
to me, but he stood up and fell backwards flat on his back, cardiac
arrest. And I noticed what those players
did. They were crying to the Lord.
Now, I don't know how sincere they were, but they were crying
for help, weren't they? I mean, they were totally helpless,
and they knew it. Where else can we go in a time
of need? Or they were praying for their
dear friend and teammate, and both teams, both teams, they
prayed, they prayed, they cried. They cried unto the Lord. I hope
that was insincerity and truth, but the point I'm making is they
had nowhere else to go. They couldn't appeal to anybody
else but to God Almighty to have mercy on that young 24-year-old
boy. Notice he said, unto, I cry unto
the Lord, he's my rock. He's my rock. We're told in scripture
to let our request be made known unto God. Unto the Lord our rock, he alone
is immutable, unmovable, and the solid foundation of all our
hope and our help. As I said earlier, 24 times in
the book of Psalms, we read about the Lord is described as our
rock. Now, we're not going to look
at all 24 of them, but turn back a couple of pages to Psalm 18. Turn over there to Psalm 18,
verse 1 and 2. Psalm 18, I will love thee, O
Lord, my strength. Psalm 18, verse 2, the Lord is
my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, and my strength. Boy,
that's everything, isn't it? And whom I'll trust, my buckler,
my shield, my horn, my salvation, my high tower. Boy, he's everything. I'll call upon the Lord, who
is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from my enemies.
He's my rock. And then, turn back to your bookmark,
and just across the page in Psalm 27, Verse five, for in the time
of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret
of his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me upon a rock. And then in Psalm 61, it talks
about the rock. In Psalm 62, thou only art my
rock and my refuge. My hope is in him. And he's talking
about here the foundation, the foundation of faith. the foundation
that God has laid in Zion, and we know that foundation is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the tried stone, the precious
cornerstone. I like what the Lord says in
Deuteronomy 32. The Lord is the rock and his
work is perfect. And then he makes this statement.
How should one chase a thousand? and two put 10,000 to flight,
except their rock, capital R, had sold them or promoted them,
and the Lord had shut them up. For their rock, small r, is not
as our rock, large r. They had a rock, talking about
the enemies of God. They had the rock of their flesh,
the rock of their armies. He said, their rock's not like
our rock, capital R, even our enemies themselves being judges.
We read a moment ago in Matthew 16, the Lord said, upon this
rock I'll build my church and the gates of hell. We've seen
that in the revelation. We read about and studied about
the end of Satan, the beast, and the false prophet. They all
end up, where did they end up? In the pit. In the pit. Upon this rock I'll build my
church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Now notice particularly in verse two now, he said, when I cry
unto thee, I'll lift up my hands toward thy holy temple, or oracle,
or tabernacle. Now in David's day, the temple
wasn't constructed yet. They still had the tabernacle.
Solomon is the one, David's son, who built the temple. We've studied
that, haven't we? But it says in the Holy Oracle,
that is, upon that mercy seat in the Holy of Holies, upon that
mercy seat where the blood was put on that mercy seat before
the Lord, covering the law of God, covering our sin. And that is type and picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he's saying here, in essence,
when he's looking toward the mercy seat, he's saying, I'm
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, my sacrifice for my sin. Even
David, all those Old Testament believers, their hope was in
the same person that our hope is in, the Lord Jesus Christ. When I cry, I lift up my hands
or I look toward that sacrifice, that coming Christ of God. who
is called Christ our mercy seat. Christ our mercy seat. Christ
our mercy seat. The holy of holies, or the holy
place, or the tabernacle, the whole tabernacle was the type
of Christ, where atonement was made upon the mercy seat. If
we would gain access unto God, who is the absolute holy God,
we must come through the mediator that's been provided, and we
know that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our mercy seat. He is our
atonement for sin. I'm thinking about this today
when I was praying and crying unto the Lord. I'm thinking about
where he says there's one God and one mediator between God
and men, that is the man Christ Jesus. So he is our mediator. Lord, thank you for that mediator.
And then he's called the intercessor. He intercedes for us. He's able
to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him, seeing
he ever lived to make intercession for us. And then he's called
our advocate, our advocate. You remember 1 John? What is
that? Chapter 2? When you sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. We
have a mediator. We have an intercessor. We have
an advocate. And all those things and all
the fulfillment of those offices are all in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is still yet our mediator.
He is still yet our intercessor. He is still yet our advocate
for sin, isn't he? We lift up our empty hands as
mercy beggars unto him who is able to supply our every need
according to his riches in glory through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Only that which God has provided, you remember his name is Jehovah
Jireh, the Lord will provide, Genesis 22. When Isaac asked
Abraham when they went to worship upon Mount Moriah, where is the
lamb? Abraham said, God will provide
himself a lamb. He provided himself as the lamb. Only that which God provides
will God accept. Christ is everything in our salvation. Now our cry, David says here,
Lord, don't leave me alone. Don't leave me alone, don't be
silent to me, lest I end up in a pit of eternal destruction.
Now, I was thinking of this. A psalm came to my mind as I
was reading back over this. Turn to Psalm 40, about the pit. In the book of Job 33, when the
young preacher Elihu came on the scene and rebuked Job and
his three friends, He said, deliver them from going down to the pit,
for I have found a ransom. And he says here in Psalm 40,
look at verse one, I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined
unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of
a horrible pit, out of the ivory clay, and set my feet upon a
rock. There's that rock again. and
established my goings, he put a new song in my mouth, even
praising to our God. Many shall see it and fear, shall
trust the Lord. So he brought me up, he set me
up, he tuned me up, and made me to praise the Lord. He brought
us up out of that horrible pit. Lord, don't leave me to myself. because the pit is where we will
end up. If the Lord will simply leave
us to ourselves, we should certainly perish under his just holiness,
for we are not deserving of the least of his mercies, but rather,
what have we earned? What do we deserve? We don't
deserve mercy, do we? Wages of sin is death. I like
what Jacob said. when he was going to meet his
brother Esau, and he feared that his brother was going to kill
him. Remember, Jacob stole that birthright away from his older
brother. And he cried unto the Lord, I'm
not worthy of the least of your mercies, but Lord, would you
deliver me right now? I need help. I'm not worthy of
it, but Lord, I need your help. When Jacob met Esau, it was a
good meeting. It was a good meeting. We thank the Lord that there
is mercy with him. He delights to show mercy. We
gladly take our place before the Lord as mercy beggars, as
mercy beggars. The Lord has never, now think
about this. That's why David said with confidence
down here, verse six, I cried unto the Lord, blessed be the
Lord. He had heard the voice of my
supplications. Because he approached the Lord as a mercy beggar in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, upon the blood and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, he was confident that God would
hear his prayer. Thank God there is mercy with the Lord. He delights
to show it. We take our place before him
as mercy beggars. The Lord has never turned away,
I've never read one time where the Lord has turned away a mercy
beggar, not one time. Blind Bartimaeus, Lord have mercy
upon me. The woman with the issue of blood,
Lord have mercy upon me. Everyone who approached him in
their need and called out for mercy, the Lord showed mercy. The publican
in the temple, what did he cry? I know what the Pharisee said.
The Pharisee bragged on himself and was condemned. He went to
the pit. But the publican cried out for mercy. Lord, be merciful
to me, the sinner. And you know what the Lord says
about that man? He went down to his house justified rather
than the other. With the Lord, there is mercy,
plenteous. He delights to show mercy. He's
plenteous in mercy. That's why he says, come boldly
to the throne of grace that you may obtain mercy and find grace
to help in our time of need. Now, let's look at verse 3, 4,
and 5. Here's what we all deserve and
what we are. Draw me not away with the wicked
and with the workers of iniquity. Here's what we are. We're wicked.
We are workers of iniquity. We speak peace to their neighbors.
Peace, peace they say when there is no peace. But mischief is
in their hearts. Give them according to their
deeds, according to their wickedness, the wickedness of their endeavors.
Give them after the work of their hands. Render to them what they
deserve because they hate God. They hate God. That's what it
says in verse five. Because they regard not the works
of the Lord. Now they regard their own work.
They regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of
his hands. He shall destroy them. Now is that just? Absolutely. Is that right? Absolutely. And he will not build them up.
He'll tear them down. And he will destroy the wicked.
Draw me not away with the wicked. I don't want what I deserve.
Do you? I want mercy. Have mercy upon
me, O God. You remember Psalm 51, according
to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender
mercy, blot out my sin. Notice the description here of
the wicked unbeliever, workers of iniquity that masquerade as
doing works unto the Lord. And again, I referenced that
scripture in Matthew 7 where those Pharisees said to the Lord,
Lord, we've done these many wonderful works in your name. Look what
we've done in your name. And he said, it's nothing but
iniquity. I don't know you. I don't recognize you. I don't
recognize the works you've done. Away with it. It's iniquity.
They speak peace, he says there, to their neighbors. They proclaim
peace, peace. with God upon the ground of their
doing, upon the ground of the work. Not seeking peace with
God through the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't propose terms of peace.
We declare peace has been made through the blood of Christ between
God and his people. The false prophet in Jeremiah's
day and in our day, they say, peace, peace, when there is no
peace made. How many times do religious people
say, make your peace with God? Or someone will say, well, I've
made peace with God. A man who says that is ignorant
of God, because you cannot make peace with God. That's why the
Lord Jesus Christ had to die to reconcile us unto God. He
said their hearts are full of mischief, evil. The heart is
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Our Lord
said to those Pharisees, they honor me with their lips and
their mouth, but their heart, and that's the problem, their
heart's far from me. They regard not the works of
the Lord. See verse five. They regard not
the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hand.
He shall destroy them and not build them up. They regard not
the works of the Lord over the operation of His hand. Now, recently
we studied Psalm 111, remember? Psalm 111. And that Psalm 111
talks all about the works of the Lord, doesn't it? In Psalm
111 it says, 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 makes us to remember his wonderful
works, honored the law of God for us, magnified the law of
God for us, put away our sin by the sacrifice of himself. But those here, they regard not
the works of the Lord. The unbelieving have no regard
for the true and living God. no regard for His sovereign works
of providence, no regard for the sovereign work of salvation.
They actually think that salvation depends upon them. They say God done all He can
do, and now the rest is up to you. That's not so. Salvation is what
the Lord has done for us, not what we do for Him. Romans 9
plainly said, is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but of God that showeth mercy. What did we study else? That
verse over there in Titus chapter 3. Verse 5, I think it is. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. So
salvation is not by works, not ours, but his. They regard not
the work of his hand. Now think how wonderful his works
are that he has done for us. To regard not the works of the
Lord, how wicked is that? To go about to establish a righteousness
of your own and not submitting yourselves unto the righteousness
of God, cry to the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believe it, but to go about to establish a righteousness
of your own and people who do that, They think they're morally pure. I think we're doing the Big Ten.
We live under the Ten Commandments. We're doing the Big Ten. You know what the law of God
says? Tell me, He said, you that would
be under the law. Do you hear what the law says?
The law says, cursed is everyone that continues not at all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. To infringe
in one little jot or tittle of that law. And there's not just
the big 10, there's the big 700 rules and laws. To infringe in
one point of the law is to be guilty of all the law of God.
That's why the gospel declared by the works of the law shall
no man be justified. They regard not the work of his
hand. How pitiful is that? Judgment
is absolutely certain for those who go about to establish their
own morality, their own righteousness, thinking that they're good enough
to satisfy God. You know, the question comes
back, how good do you have to be to enter into God's presence? How good do you have to be? As
good as God? As righteous as God? As holy
as God? Oh, preacher, that's impossible. You remember over here just a
couple pages, Psalm 24, we'll probably look at that maybe in
a few weeks. Who shall ascend into the hill
of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place?
He that hath pure hands, and he that hath a clean heart and
pure hands, who hath never lifted up his soul to vanity. Well,
that just slammed the door on me. That slammed the door on
every other sinner. We can only ascend unto the hill
of the Lord in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. They have no
regard for the works of the Lord. He shall destroy them. He will
not build them up. Vengeance does belong unto the
Lord. He will deal with them in due
time. These shall go away into everlasting
punishment. He said, depart from me, ye cursed,
into everlasting fire. Thank God he delivered us from
the pit by his grace. Now, in closing, verse 6, 7,
8, and 9. Blessed be the Lord, because
he hath heard the voice of my supplications. We bless the Lord who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. And he says
here, verse 7, the Lord is my strength. The Lord is my shield. My heart trusts in Him. Trust
in Him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before Him.
And I'm helped. I'm helped by trusting the Lord.
No one else can help. Therefore, my heart greatly rejoices. And with my song, I'll praise
him. The Lord is their strength, the
strength of their salvation. He is the saving strength of
his anointed. His anointed is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the anointed prophet, priest,
and king. And then he says, I love these
four things here. Save thy people, bless thy people,
bless your inheritance, We're heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ. Feed them and rule them and lift them up forever
and ever. Lift them up forever and ever.
Our hope we have in Him is a good hope through grace. A good hope
through grace. The Lord is my strength. The
Lord is my strength. Look right across the page at
Psalm 27 verse 1. You see it right across the page
there? Psalm 27, verse 1. The Lord is my light. He's my
strength. The Lord is my light, my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. And whom shall I be afraid? The
Lord is my strength. Although we are weak, frail,
sinful creatures, Christ is the strength of all our salvation. He is the true vine, and we're
blessed in Him. Christ is our shield. We take
the shield of faith. He is our protection. He is our
defense from enemies seen and unseen, foreign and domestic. He is our shield. He's our protection. My heart trusts in Him. This
is the evidence of being born again. This is the evidence of
having true faith. It's trusting Him. I trust Him, as it says there,
my heart trusted Him. Now, when Scripture talks about
our heart, we often think about, you know, it's my heart. Not
with my head, but with my heart. But when we read that in the
Scripture, it's talking about our whole being. Our mind, our
will, our thoughts, our affections, who we really are, our whole
person. In us, we trust the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says,
I'm helped. I'm helped by trusting Him. I'm
hindered greatly by trusting me. There's no help. There's no help in me or any
other. There's help in Him. God is our
refuge and strength of every present help and trouble. My
heart is trusting Him. That's evidence of a new heart,
of a believing heart. And the fruit of trusting Him
is, I'm helped. The Lord is our helper. That's our confession. Therefore,
my heart greatly rejoices. Therefore, I love that word,
therefore. Therefore, my heart, bless the
Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy
name, my heart, greatly rejoices. The Apostle Paul, remember what
he says, where the true Israel which worship God in the spirit,
they rejoice in Christ Jesus. And we have, we have, what is
that? No confidence in the flesh. You
thought I forgot, didn't you? No confidence in the flesh. I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord. And with my song, I'll praise Him. Verse 8, the Lord
is the strength, the strength of their salvation, the saving
strength of His anointed. The Lord Jesus Christ is anointed
in all of His office as prophet, priest, and king. Verse 9, save thy people. Well, that's
exactly what Christ did. Call His name Jesus. Why? He
is what He's called. Savior, call his name Jesus,
that means Savior. He is what he's called. What
did he do? He saved his people from their sin. Sins and sin,
sin and sin. What we do and what we are. The
noun and the verb, what we do and what we are. Save thy people,
he did. Christ saved us with his blood,
justified us, and then blessed them. We are the inheritance
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are his people given unto
him in that eternal covenant of grace. Feed them. He feeds us with the word of
life, the word of truth. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. He makes me to lie down in the
green pastures of His Word. He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness
for His name's sake. That's Psalm 23. Save thy people. Bless thine inheritance. If you
saved your bulletin on Sunday, you can go to your back page
on the bulletin and these four things are written there. Save
thy people. Bless thine inheritance. Feed
them or rule them. He is our ruler. He is our good
shepherd, our great shepherd, our chief shepherd. And then
lift them up. We sing that song from sinking
sand. He lifted me from shade to night to plains of light.
Praise His name. He lifted me. He lifted me. Lift them up forever. And that's
what salvation... He saves us. He saves us with
an everlasting salvation. With an everlasting salvation. Remember, He said about His sheep,
they hear Him, they follow Him, He loves them, and He gives them. eternal life, and they shall
never perish. Never perish.