Psalm 57, I'm taking the title
for the message from what is said in verse 7, and I could
have used many other verses, but this verse particularly caught
my attention. My heart is fixed, or my heart
is prepared. Salvation is a matter of the
heart. God does a heart work in us, he's done a work for us,
and he does a hard work in us. Christ in you, the hope of glory,
my heart is fixed. Or as a marginal reference, has
my heart been prepared, been prepared? I will sing, oh God,
my heart is fixed. I will sing, I will sing of thy
glory, and I will praise thee, I will praise thee. So the title
from verse 7, my heart is fixed, or my heart is prepared. Both
are true. Both are true. The heart of the
believer is fixed upon the exalted, victorious Lord Jesus Christ. Our heart is fixed upon Him.
And we can also say our heart has been prepared by Him to serve
Him, to worship Him. to serve Him and to worship Him.
Saving faith is always looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. He
has fixed our heart by giving us a new heart that
loves Him, that believes Him. Now, notice in the subtitle to
this Psalm 57, al-taskit means destroy not, destroy not, David
prays for safety from his enemies when he was running from King
Saul, when he fled from Saul in the cave, and also the word
Mictam, which means a golden psalm or a precious secret psalm
of David, for he revealed unto us the secret of his strength
and the joy of his heart. The Lord Jesus Christ was all
of David's hope. While David was fleeing from
King Saul, his father-in-law, he was also fleeing to the King
of Glory in his heart for refuge and strength to give him grace
to help in his time of need. You remember our Lord said in
Hebrews chapter 4, Seeing we have a great high preacher that's
passed into heaven, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of
grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in our
time of need. Psalm 46 said, God is our refuge
and strength, very present help in trouble. Turn back over there.
Psalm 46. Again, this is one of my favorite
psalms. Psalm 46 verse one, God is our
refuge and strength, a very present help. a very present help in
trouble. He is always our help. There
is no helper like him. We look unto him to provide all
things for us in salvation, don't we? Now, look at verse one. Be merciful unto me. David, how
many times throughout the Psalms, I looked this up today, the word
mercy, just looking up the word mercy in the book of Psalms is
used 99 times. 150 Psalms, and the word mercy is
used 99 times. Be merciful unto me, O God. Be merciful unto me. My soul
trusteth in thee, yea, in the shadow of thy wings. That's close,
isn't it? The shadow of thy wings. Symbolic
language, I will make my refuge. Make my refuge trusting in him,
trusting in thee, until all these calamities, all these troubles,
all these problems are gone. A wise man taught of God will
pray and ask for mercy. The publican did, and he received
mercy. Blind Bartimaeus did, and he
was healed. He asked for mercy. The leper
cried for mercy, and the Lord healed him. That's a good place
to be as a sinner before God's throne. As my old friend used
to say, we come to God as mercy beggars. Mercy beggars, needing
mercy. David said in Psalm 51, and this
is a well-known psalm, turn back to Psalm 51. Psalm 51, where
he cries out, verse one, Psalm 51, have mercy upon me, O God,
according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of
thy tender mercy. Blot out my transgression. Blot
out my, wash me throughly from my iniquity, cleanse me from
my sin, for I acknowledge My transgression and my sin is before
me. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. What do sinners need? Mercy. What do we need? Mercy. Mercy. So we come to God
as a mercy beggar, and I've never read one time in the scripture
where God ever turned away a mercy beggar. Every needy sinner that
came to the Lord Jesus Christ The Lord met their every need. That will encourage us to come
to Christ, to call upon Him. It's right to pray for mercy.
It's right to seek mercy where it's found. Where is mercy found? Not in the law, but in Christ. Turn over one page to Psalm 59
verse 16. I will sing of thy power, verse
16, Psalm 59. I will sing aloud of thy mercy
in the morning, for thou hast been my defense and my refuge
in the day of trouble. Unto thee, O my God, I will sing,
for God is my defense and he's the God of my mercy. He's the
fountainhead and the well of mercy. Since God is the God of
mercy, he's called the God of all grace, he's called the Father
of mercy, who delights to show mercy, it's most fitting, therefore,
we should seek mercy where it's found, in Christ Jesus. He delights to show mercy. He
delights to show mercy. Someone said, mercy is God not
giving us what we do deserve. For we deserve nothing but judgment.
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. God's mercy is not giving us
what we do deserve. What do we deserve? Judgment.
I don't want that. I want mercy. I want mercy. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed. They're new every day, every
morning. We studied last week, Psalm 86,
15, where it said, his mercy, he's plenteous in mercy. His
mercies are unfailing, they're new every day. You remember Psalm
136, I think we looked at that last week, from everlasting to
everlasting, thou art God, the mercies of the Lord are from
everlasting to everlasting. His mercies are eternal mercies. He doesn't show us mercy one
day and then stop the next. They're new every morning. We
know His mercy is sovereign. He will have mercy on whom He
will have mercy. It's not of Him that willeth
nor of Him that runneth, but God that shows mercy. His mercy
is my greatest need. I need mercy. I need mercy. You remember what it says in
Ephesians 2, but God, who is rich in mercy for his great love,
wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sin, he quickened
us together with the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, be merciful unto
me, O God, be merciful unto me. And then he says, look at verse
one again, Psalm 57, my soul trusteth in thee. We trust in
the Lord. When are we to trust Him? We
trust Him at all times. Trust Him at all times, you people.
Pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us. Look right across the page at
Psalm 56. Verse three, what time I'm afraid,
I will trust indeed. In God, I will praise his word. In God, I have put my trust. I will not fear what flesh can
do to me. You remember Psalm 62, we're
to trust him at all times. Trust him at all times. You people
pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. He has all power to save us. He has all righteousness to justify
us. He has all grace to sustain us,
all wisdom to enlighten us. Trust him at all times, at all
times. I found this statement some time
ago in a bulletin and I copied it out and stuck it on my computer
screen. It was written by Thomas Brooks
in 1680. I like those old, old writers. because they all, for the most
part, believed grace, salvation by the grace of God. Thomas Brooks
said, God in himself has all power to save you and defend
you. He has all wisdom to direct you.
He has all mercy to pardon you. He has all grace to enrich you. He has all righteousness to clothe
you, all goodness to supply you, all happiness to crown you. Well,
we serve a great God, don't we? God who is rich in mercy for
his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead, quickened
us together with Christ. Now, look at the last part of
verse 1. In the shadow of thy wings I'll
make my refuge. It's a good thing to do to find
refuge in the place that God has provided. The Lord Jesus
Christ is our refuge. He's our hiding place. In the
shadow of thy wings, I'll make my refuge until all these troubles,
all these calamities are passed. And really, that's our whole
life, isn't it? Man is born of woman, a few days and full of
trouble. Till all these calamities be passed, where do we find our
refuge? Where do we find our rest? In
Christ, in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the shadow of his wings, Like
little helpless baby chicks, they find their refuge from the
storm under the wings of that mother hen. And when the storm
comes up and she holds out her wings, those little bitty chicks,
they run underneath mama and she hugs them up. And that's
what we do when we're in trouble, when we need help. And the Lord
has provided such a gracious refuge for us. Turn over here
to see if we can find some. Psalm 36 verse 7. Psalm 36 verse
7. How excellent is thy loving-kindness,
O God! Therefore the children of men
put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly
satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make
them drink the river of thy pleasures, for with thee is a fountain of
life. In thy light shall we see life. How excellent is thy lovingkindness. We put our trust in him who is
our refuge, in him who is our redemption, in him who is our
reconciliation, in him who is our righteousness alone. Now look at verse two. Our prayer, I will cry, and that's
the cry of the heart. That's what true prayer is. Sincere
prayer is the cry of the heart. The cry of the heart. God looks on the heart. You don't
need to speak a word. Just cry in your heart. And that's what prayer is. It's
the cry of the heart unto God most high. unto God most high,
unto God that performeth he performeth. Now notice the two words all
things are italicized. That means that the translators
have added those words to help clarify the statement. And in
this case, it does help. God performs all things for me. Everything God demands of us,
the Lord Jesus Christ has performed for us. His past performance
is a guarantee of our salvation. However exalted our enemies may
seem to be, our great God and Savior is higher. He has no rival. For there is none higher, he
can easily defend us and deliver us and defeat all our enemies. Remember from Revelation chapter
6, he went forth conquering and to conquer. He performeth all
things for us, for us. Look right across the page, it's
Psalm 56 verse 9. When I cry unto thee, then shall
my enemies turn back. For this I know, for God is for
me." God is for me. If God be for us, who can be
against us, Paul said in Romans 8. I will cry unto God most high,
unto God that performeth all things for me. All things. Whatever the Lord undertakes
for us, He will accomplish it, and it will be absolutely successful,
right? We cannot accomplish our salvation. That's impossible. But with the
Lord Jesus Christ, all things are possible. God, who has begun
a good work in you, He will perform it. He will perfect it until
the day the Lord Jesus Christ comes back. He performs all things
for us. Sin put away. That's His performance. Righteousness established for
us, that's His performance. Let me read this to you, found
in Job 23 verse 13, But He is of one mind who can turn Him,
and what His soul desireth, even that He doeth. He performeth
the thing that's appointed for Me, Job 23 verse 14, He performeth
the thing that's appointed for Me, Many such things are with
Him. Our salvation is by His appointment. He's appointed us unto salvation
in Christ Jesus. Isaiah 44 says this, He is my
shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure. That's what God
says of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Good Shepherd, the Great
Shepherd, He shall perform all my pleasure. And He did. You remember Isaiah 53.10 where
it says, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Everything he does, the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us,
God made it to prosper. Joseph of old, you remember he
was sold into slavery by his brothers. And God raised him
up to be a king and governor there in Egypt. And God made
everything that he did to prosper. And he's a type and picture of
Christ. Everything the Lord Jesus Christ undertook for us, it prospers. He performed all things for us.
Salvation is his performance, not ours. Based upon his performance,
not ours. Now, look what he did in verse
three. He shall send from heaven. Now
who performed that? Our Lord performed that. He shall
send from heaven from the highest resources possible. The Lord
Jesus Christ came down from heaven. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law. He shall
send from heaven and do what? Save me. Remember what the angel
told Joseph, called his name Jesus, he shall save his people
from their sin. He didn't try to save them, make
an effort to save them, or put them in a savable place. He saved
them when he put away their sin by the sacrifice of himself.
He shall send from heaven and he shall save them from every
enemy. Everything against us, our sin,
death, hell, and judgment, the Lord Jesus Christ has saved us
from our sin, being made sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He saves us from
the reproach of him that will swallow us up. God shall send
forth his mercy. God shall send forth his truth.
Now, this is mercy personified. mercy in a person. This is truth
personified. He sends forth mercy and truth
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember our Lord said of himself,
when Thomas said, show us the way, and he said, I am the way,
I am the truth, I am the life. God shall send forth mercy, sovereign
mercy, effectual mercy, and his truth. Now I've got written in
my Bible here, Psalm 85, 10 for reference. Remember, mercy and
truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Reconciliation happened at the cross. God was in Christ, reconciling
us unto himself. Mercy and truth. Turn over here
to Psalm, or rather the book of Proverbs. Let's see if we
can find Proverbs 16. This is an interesting verse. Proverbs 16 verse 1, the preparations
of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
Proverbs 16 verse 2, all thy ways, all the ways of a man are
clean in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth the spirits. Commit
thy work unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. For the Lord himself hath made
all things, yea, even the wicked, for the day of evil. Everyone
that is proud in his heart is an abomination to the Lord. Though
hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished. Now watch verse
6. Here's that mercy and truth again.
By mercy and truth, iniquity is purged. By mercy and truth. Iniquity is purged. By the fear
of the Lord, men depart from evil. By mercy and truth. It's
like that verse, purpose and grace. They all go together,
don't they? That God might be a just God
and Savior. Now look at verse 4. Psalm 57. David said, my soul's among lions. He's talking about his own family
that was hunting him. Remember he said he felt like
a hunted bird. My soul's among lions, those
who would devour me. You remember what Satan's called
a roaring lion? My soul's among lions. I lie
even among them that are set on fire. They hated David. Even the sons of men whose teeth
are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword. David had his enemy, didn't he?
But David had a captain. of his salvation, who would not
let David despair. David, like Daniel, you remember
Daniel in the land of Babylon? Daniel was among the lions that
saw his destruction. Daniel was delivered to the lion's
den, remember? And was delivered by the Lord
Jesus Christ, like David. Satan is called a roaring lion,
seeking him, he may devour. But God sent his angel and shut
the lion's mouth in the case of Daniel. And when Satan came
after Peter, when the Lord told him, Satan had desired to sift
you that he may have you. And the Lord said, I prayed for
you. I prayed for you that your faith fail not. That your faith
fail not. You remember this scripture,
don't turn, let me just read it to you. In Isaiah 54, no weapon
that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that
shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the
heritage of thy servant, of the Lord, and the righteousness is
of me, saith the Lord. No weapon that form shall prosper
against you. That's because the Lord causes
all his grace toward us to prosper. Now look at verse 5 and verse
11. We'll consider these two verses
together because it's repeated. Be thou exalted, O God above
the heavens. How high above the heavens is
our God? Let thy glory be above all the
earth. Again, he repeats that in verse
11, be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let thy glory be
above all the earth, all the earth and all the heaven. God
is high above. This is every believer's desire,
the exaltation and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul said,
God forbid I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ. God hath highly exalted him.
and giving him a name which is above every name, that at that
name every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ is exalted
to the right hand of God having put away our sin. Christ therefore
of necessity deserves all honor and glory. That's the eternal
song of redeem, isn't it? Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
to receive all honor, glory, blessing, and power both now
and forever. The believer's desire is for
Christ to exalt Himself in us. Christ in you is a hope of glory,
and therefore we desire to exalt Him. Be thou exalted, exalted
high above the heavens, high above the earth. Now, verse 6. They have prepared a net for
my steps. That's what David's enemies planned
for him. They prepared a net, a trap,
and my soul was bowed down. They've digged a pit before me
into the midst whereof They are fallen themselves. Here they
plot and plan against David, and yet God turned all their
plans against them. Oftentimes, the plot of the enemy
to destroy the sanctity of God becomes the destruction of their
own soul. This was true in the case of
King Saul pursuing David. God delivered him into David's
hand. Those who sought Daniel's destruction
in the lion's den, you remember what happened to them? They ended
up in the lion's den themselves and the Lord had his way with
them. You remember in the book of Esther,
Haman built the gallows for Mordecai, the servant of God. And Haman
ended up being hanged on those gallows he prepared for Mordecai. Joseph sold his brethren into
slavery, and Joseph ended up on the throne
in Egypt. The Jews sought to destroy the
Lord Jesus Christ, but ended up bringing destruction upon
themselves by the hand of the Romans. in 70 A.D. David ends this psalm with words
of praise and thanksgiving in verse 7 down through verse 10. Let's look at verse 7 for a minute.
My heart is fixed, or my heart has been prepared, O God. My
heart is being prepared. Now, you remember David is called
a man after God's own heart. Salvation indeed is a heart work. It's God doing a work not only
for us, but it's God also doing a work in us. Christ in you,
the hope of glory. When the scripture talks about
our heart, when he says my heart is fixed, he's talking about
a believing heart. With a heart man believeth unto
righteousness. Now often we use this And we
do this when we talk about don't believe with your mind, believe
in your heart. And we always point, we point
here, but really it's not talking about the physical heart in our
chest. When he's talking about, when
scriptures talk about the heart, it's our mind, it's our understanding,
it's our will, it's our affections, everything that makes us the
core person that we are. That's our heart. With the heart,
man believeth unto righteousness. When Philip was sent to preach
the gospel to the eunuchs, And he did so from Isaiah 53, preaching
Christ and Him crucified, wounded for our transgression, and bruised
for our iniquity. And the eunuch asked Philip,
what hinders me to be baptized? And Philip said unto him, if
thou believest with all your heart, you may. And he said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. That's believing with the heart.
By His almighty grace, our hearts have been changed. He's given
us a new heart. He's made us new creatures in
Christ Jesus. He's nigh them of a broken heart.
Save us such as be of a contrite spirit. That's what He does when
He gives us and when He regenerates us and He makes us new creatures
in Christ. Grace has changed our mind. We
now think upon Him. We set our affection on things
above. Grace has changed our understanding. He's enlightened
us. He's commanded the light to shine
in our hearts, to give us the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace has changed our
mind. Grace has changed our understanding.
He's given us an understanding that we might know Him that is
true. Grace has changed our will. Man has a will but has fallen
to prey. He makes us willing in the day
of his power. Race has changed our affections.
We now, man by nature hates God, the true and living God. We now
love him, not like we ought to, but we love him because he first
loved us. We love him and now we hate ourselves. Wasn't that
the experience of Saul of Tarsus when he was that self-righteous
Pharisee? He's in love with himself. But when God saved him by his
grace, you remember what his testimony was then? O wretched
man that I am, who shall save me from this body of death? I
thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That was the experience
of Isaiah when he saw the Lord Jesus Christ high and lifted
up. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty. Remember what Isaiah
said? Woe is me, I'm undone, I'm a
man of unclean lips. Wasn't that the experience of
Job? When Job said, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the
ear, wherefore now my eye seeth thee, wherefore I hate myself. That's what happens when God
gives us a new heart. We see ourselves as sinners,
we see God is holy, and we see the Lord Jesus Christ as our
all and in all. My heart is fixed. Our heart
is not frustrated, but fixed upon the object of our faith,
What is the object of our faith? Our heart is fixed on Christ. He said, look unto me and be
you saved. My heart has been prepared or made ready to worship
him, to honor him, to wait upon him, his good providence, to
serve the Lord with gladness and to witness to others of the
greatness of our God and to sing of his goodness. My heart is
fixed, O God, my heart is fixed. I will sing, what are we singing
of? I will sing of my Redeemer, of
His wondrous love to me. Awake up, my soul, and that's
the word there, my glory, my soul. Awake with the intimate and sing praise
unto Him, the psaltery, the harp. I myself, I wake early in the
morning. And I'll praise Him. I will praise
thee, O Lord, verse 9, among the people, among God's people. I'll praise Him among the Lord's
people. And I'll sing unto thee among
the nations. Among the nations I'll sing unto
thee, unto thy truth. David, sit over here in Psalm
138. I will praise thee with my whole
heart before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. I will worship
toward thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness
and thy truth for thou has magnified thy word above all thy name. I will praise thee. I will bless
thee. O Lord, among the people, I will
sing unto thee, even among the nation, even among the heathen.
You remember the heathen came to David and said, David, where
is your God? They knew where their God was.
I could pat him on the head. David said, our God's in the
heavens. He's done whatsoever he has pleased. Our God is no
mere idol. Thy mercy, again verse 10, is great unto the heavens. His mercy is from everlasting
to everlasting. Mercy and truth. You can't get
away from that, can you? Mercy and truth are met together.
Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let thy glory be
above all the earth, the glory of God, where the glory of God
shines in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember Moses
asked the Lord, Lord, show me your glory. And remember what
the Lord answered back. He said, I will be merciful to
whom I will be merciful. That's his glory, to show mercy.
God's greatest glory is my greatest need. His greatest glory is to
show mercy as my greatest need. Not by works of righteousness,
but we have done but according to His mercy. According to His
mercy, He saved us. I will sing of the mercies of
the Lord.