Okay, Lord willing, Psalm 86. Psalm 86, I'm taking the title
from what is said in verse 5 and what is said in verse 15. Let's
read those two verses. Psalm 86, verse 5. For thou,
Lord, art good and ready. I like that, good. He's good
and ready. He's good and ready to forgive. You need forgiveness? Well, he's good and ready. And
he's plenteous in mercy, plenteous in mercy. Unto all them that
call upon the Lord. Down to verse 15, he expands,
but thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, gracious, long-suffering. There it is again, plenteous
in mercy and plenteous in truth. Now what a great subject to think
upon. Our Lord is Plenteous in Mercy.
That's going to be the title of the message. Our Lord is Plenteous
in Mercy. What a great subject to think
upon. Every attribute of God is great
to think upon. We think about all the characteristics
and all the attributes of God. I love that book of Arthur Pink
on the attributes of God. He did a good job on that, written
back almost a hundred years ago, but it was a good, good piece
of work that he did. What a great subject to think
upon our Lord, our God, and our Savior. Delights to show mercy. You know who delights to show
mercy to? Sinners. That'll encourage us. Sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. Grace is God giving us what we
do not deserve, justified freely by his grace. 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. Mercy
is God not giving us what we do deserve. I like what it says
in Psalm 136. You remember Psalm 136? Every
verse in Psalm 136, it says, the mercy of the Lord endures
forever. The mercy of the Lord, it endures
forever. Aren't you glad? His mercy is
not temporary amnesty. It's eternal mercy, eternal grace. The Apostle Paul writes about
it this way, not by works of righteousness, which we have
done, but according to His mercy. He saved us by the washing and
regeneration of God the Holy Spirit. And Jeremiah writes about
it this way, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. It's His mercy, and His mercy
is sovereign mercy, isn't it? It's eternal mercy, it's fetching
mercy, calling mercy. We don't merit mercy, nor do
we deserve His grace, But we serve the Lord, the Lord we serve
is both merciful and gracious, ready to pardon, ready to forgive,
and He's plenteous in redemption. You remember Psalm 130 verse
7? He's plenteous, plenteous in redemption. Now this psalm
is called, as it says there in the heading of the psalm, Psalm
86, a prayer of David. or Psalm of David, a prayer of
David, and a prayer is praising the Lord for his goodness, for
his wonderful works for the children of men. As we see the cry of
this believer, David, before the throne of grace, may the
Lord be pleased to make this our prayer right now this evening. Lord, hear my prayer. Bow down
thine ear, O Lord, and hear me. Well, I am poor, I am poor and
needy. Before our great and gracious
God, real prayer is an act of worship. Prayer is an attitude
of submission to the sovereign will of God. Don't we pray when
the Lord taught his disciples to pray? You remember what he
said? Pray that the Lord will be done. Thy will be done on
earth Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven. And Paul writes about it this
way, about praying, about thanksgiving. He said, Rejoice evermore, pray
without ceasing, and in everything give thanks. This is the will
of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Verse 1, bow down thine
ear, O Lord, and hear me, for I am poor and needy. And then
again in verse 6 and verse 7, he cries out again, give ear,
O Lord. You remember that old saying,
lend me your ear, would you hear? Give me your ear, O Lord, unto
my prayer, the cry of the heart. Attend to the voice of my request,
my supplication, in the day of my trouble. My prayer, my trouble,
I will call upon thee, for thou will answer me." God will answer
the cry of his children because he hears their cry. Because he
is a living God, he can hear our prayer. Now, I thought about
this example. You remember when Elijah faced
down those 750 prophets of Baal? And they had a contest as to
see who is God. Elijah said, God that answers
by fire, He indeed will be God. You remember those prophets of
Baal, they cried from the morning to the evening, O Baal, hear
us! O Baal, hear us! And they jumped
up and down on their altar they had made. They cut themselves
and they were bleeding. And Elijah mocked them and said,
won't you call upon, won't you call a little louder? Maybe you're
gone to sleep or he's on vacation. And after they'd done all they
could do and Baal did not answer, he did not hear her because he's
a mere idol, Elijah repaired the altar of the Lord, remember?
With the twelve stones and poured those twelve barrels of water
on the sacrifice that was laid out. And he cried that sixty-three
word prayer, Lord let it be known this day thou art God. And fire
fell and consumed the sacrifice, the altar, and the water. He
answered God, heard the prayer of Elijah, and he answered. He's the same today, yesterday,
and forever. He does not change. That I would
encourage us to call upon the name of the Lord. Call upon the
true and living God. We can be confident He will hear
us. Because the Lord Jesus Christ,
He ever lived to intercede for us. What's He doing right now?
He's interceding for us. He ever lived to intercede for
us on the throne of God. The Lord does hear the prayer
of His saints. I'm confident of it. I'm confident
of it. Turn back over here to Psalm
66. Psalm 66, look at verse 16. Psalm 66, verse 16. Come and hear, all ye that fear
God, I will declare what He hath done for my soul. I cried unto
him with my mouth, and he was extolled, and he was extolled
with my tongue. I exalted him. If I regard iniquity
in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. But verily God, verily
God hath heard me. He attended to the voice of my
prayer. Blessed be God, which hath not
turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me. He heard the prayer
of David, and God heard, hears the prayers of his people. Remember
in Philippians chapter four, the apostle Paul said, let your
request be made known unto God. You have a request? Yeah? Well, let it be known unto God.
Bow down thy ear, O Lord, and hear me. And here's the reason
we see here why I'm poor and needy. I'm poor and needy. You know, that statement just
in the book of Psalms is repeated 20 times. I am poor and I'm needy. I need him. Let me show you just
one of them here. Turn back a few pages to Psalm
70, verse 5. Psalm 70, verse 5. Look at verse four, Psalm 70,
beginning of verse four. Let all those that seek thee
rejoice and be glad in thee. Let such as love thy salvation
say continually, continually, let God be magnified, but I'm
poor and needy. Make haste unto me, O God. Thou
art my help, my deliverer. O Lord, make no tarry. I'm poor
and needy. Doesn't that describe us? I'm
poor and I'm needy. We have, because of our spiritual
poverty, Because of our boundless need of mercy, we call upon the
Lord to have mercy upon us. The publican did. God be merciful
to me, the sinner. And the Lord said, that man went
down to his house justified. He will meet all our need. I
am poor and needy. My God shall meet, supply all
your need according to his riches in glory through the Lord Jesus
Christ. I love verse two. Preserve or keep my soul. For
I am holy, or one whom thou hast favored, been gracious unto his
people. God's gonna keep us. God's gonna
save us. O thou, my God, save thy servant.
Save thy servant that trusteth in thee. What would be good prayer
for a poor, needy sinner? Lord, save me. Have mercy upon
me. Keep my soul. Hedge me about.
Guard us. Protect us. Defend us. He's our defender. God before
us and he is who can be against us. because I'm one whom you
have favored in that covenant of grace. And he's made us holy
in Christ, or one whom thou has chosen. We can be assured the
Lord will take care of his children. He will never leave us. He'll
never forsake us. He says, I give my sheep eternal
life and maybe they'll be okay. He said, no, they'll never perish.
No man can pluck them out of my hand. I like the word there
he uses, save thy servant that trusteth in thee. I'm your servant. I'm your servant. His servants
delight to trust him at all times, you people. How many times did
the Apostle Paul call himself the servant of the Lord? You
know what's the high title? The Lord Jesus Christ, he's known
as the servant of God. Behold my elect, my servant,
whom my soul delighteth. Remember Isaiah 42 verse 1. And we trust in him at all times.
He has saved us from all our sin. Call his name Jesus. He
shall save his people from their sins. Sins. Original, actual, past, present,
future, sin of omission, commission, all our sins have been put away
by the blood of Christ. And he will continue to deliver
us finally and totally. The Lord will exalt us together,
give us grace now and glory forever. Grace and glory. Look right across
the page, Psalm 84 verse 11. He gives us all grace now and
glory forever, and that comes from verse 11 in Psalm 84. The Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord God will, the Lord God,
the Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he
withhold from them that believe, that walk uprightly, O Lord of
hosts. Blessed is the man that trusteth in thee. Blessed is
that man that trusteth in the Lord. Now look at verse 3. Psalm
86 verse 3. Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for I cry unto Thee daily. Or as the marginal reference
has, I cry unto Thee all the day. All the day long. We're to pray without ceasing.
Pray without ceasing. We don't need to remind the Lord
to be merciful unto us because he is merciful. But we cry for
daily mercy. We cry for daily grace to help
in our time of need. Believers gladly take their place
before the throne of his grace. I use that phrase all the time
as mercy beggars. Didn't our Lord say, let us therefore
come boldly unto the throne of grace, verse 16, Hebrews 4, seeing
we have a great high priest that's passed into the heavens, let
us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may
obtain mercy, obtain, not attain, obtain mercy and find grace to
help in our time of need. Boy, that's all the time, isn't
it? No wonder we're crying to Him daily. Daily we're crying
to Him. Look at verse 4. Rejoice, the
soul of thy servant. Save thy servant, and then cause
me to rejoice. We rejoice in the Lord always,
and again I say rejoice. Rejoice, the soul of thy servant. For unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift
up my soul. That's what worship, worship
has an object. We lift up our soul to the Lord.
Remember Isaiah 45, he said, look unto me, all you labor heavy
laden, I will give you rest. We lift up our soul unto him,
looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the author and finisher
of our faith. We look at him and to him, all
that he is, all that he's, has done all that he is doing, and
it rejoices our soul, does it not? As we look unto him, it
rejoices our soul. Now, I want to use verse eight,
look down to verse eight, and I want to use this to show us,
and it gives us a description, it makes a description, it gives
a good description of the character of our God. Look at verse 8,
among the gods, I'll go back to verse 5 in a minute. Among
the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord, neither are there
any works like unto thy works. There is no God like our God. How many times he said, I am
God, beside me there is no other. There's no God like our God,
nor any works like his works. His works. Now, turn to Psalm
111. One, one, one. I like that number.
I can't mess it up. One, one, one. That's one I can't... Any way you say it, it's right.
One, one, one. Psalm 111. The works of the Lord, verse
two, are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is honorable and glorious.
His righteousness endures forever. He has made his wonderful works
be remembered. The Lord is gracious, full of
compassion. He's given meat unto 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 hand are verity, truth, and judgment. All His commandments
are sure. They stand fast forever and ever,
done in truth and uprightness. He sent redemption unto His people.
He commanded His covenant forever. Holy and reverent is His name.
The works of the Lord are wonderful. Salvation, now listen to me.
Don't miss what I'm saying here. Salvation is my works. Did you
know that? His, not ours. That makes salvation to us grace
by the grace of God. He accomplished salvation. He
actively obeyed the law of God. He actively laid down his life
for us. He accomplished, he said, I finished
the, what? The work you gave me to do. You
see, salvation is all his doing, his work. He obeyed the law of
God for us. He honored the law of God for
us. There is none like thee, O Lord. None like thee. Now that Psalm,
rather that verse eight, the reference is to, Exodus 15-11,
remember when God delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage in a part
of the Red Sea and they came out on the other side and all
the Egyptians were dead, the Pharaoh and his army were dead,
and the children of Israel sang that song unto Moses? Well, this
is part of that song. Exodus 15 verse 1 through 11,
verse 11 says, who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises,
doing wonders? And still and see the salvation
of the Lord. That's what God gave to Moses
to say. Now, I want to use verse 5 and
some other verses here. In this psalm, the Lord tells
us who He is and what He does. A good description of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Look at verse 5. For thou, Lord,
art good and ready to forgive. The Lord is good. The Lord, everything about Him
is good. His wrath is good. His love is
good. Everything about God is good. Now we have no goodness in us,
do we? There's none good, no, not one.
But the Lord, our God, is nothing but goodness. Remember that young
rich ruler came to the Lord and said, good master, what must
I do to inherit eternal life? He said, why do you call me good?
There's none good but God. He's saying, I'm God. I'm good. The Lord is good. He is good. Everything about Him is good.
Good. Everything He does for us and
in us is good. All things work together for
good to them who love God. The Lord is good in everything
He does. The Lord is good and everything He does is good. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? Whatever he does is right. The
Lord is good, and then it says again in verse 5, the Lord is
ready. He's ready. The Lord's ready.
He's good and He's ready to forgive. You remember that prayer of old
Nehemiah? Nehemiah 9, 17. For thou art
a God ready to pardon. He's ready to pardon. Ready to
justify sinners based upon the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. He's ready to forgive based upon
the shedding of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, based
upon the righteousness that he established for us. Believers
have experienced His goodness from all our sin, as David did. Remember, David prayed to the
Lord in thanksgiving. Blessed is that man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Psalm 32. Blessed is that man
whom the Lord has covered all his sin. That's a blessed man,
isn't it? God's ready to forgive based
upon the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not based upon
my faith. Not based upon my repentance.
Not based upon my doing, my deed, my merit. Solely based upon His
blood and His righteousness. He's ready to forgive. The Lord
is good. He's ready to forgive. Thirdly,
He's plenteous in mercy. He says that in verse 5. He's
plenteous in mercy. And again, down to verse 13.
For great is thy mercy toward me. Thou hast delivered my soul
from the lowest pit, from the pit of sin and death and guilt
He delivered us. You remember Psalm 51? Have mercy
upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according
to the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Blot out my sin. There
is plenty of mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ to save His people
from all their sin. You cannot exhaust the storehouse
of His mercies. They're new every morning. His
mercy endures forever. Psalm 136. Turn over there. Psalm
136. Psalm 136. Verse 1. All give thanks to the
Lord. Psalm 136. For He is good. His mercy endures
forever. Oh, give thanks unto the God
of gods, for His mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the
Lord of lords, for His mercy endures forever. To Him who alone
doeth great wonders, for His mercy endures forever. To Him
that by wisdom made the heavens, for His mercy endures forever.
And I'll let you read the rest of it. But you got the idea?
His mercy's forever. because He is forever and ever
and ever. I am the Lord, I change not.
Therefore, we sons of Jacob are not consumed. And then down to
verse 15, the fourth thing we see, the Lord is full of compassion. See that in verse 15. But thou,
O Lord, Jehovah our God, full of compassion. What is that? He's full of love. God is love. We read that in the 1st John,
remember? So many times, 1st John. God
is love. God is good. God is merciful. God is eternal. God is sovereign.
God is love. Now, what do we know about his
love? It's eternal. He's loved us with an everlasting
love. His love is effectual. With loving kindness, he draws
us into himself. Having loved his own, he loved
him to the end. And his love is sovereign love.
Hail sovereign love that first began, a scheme to rescue fallen
man. Hail matchless, free, eternal
grace that gave my soul a hiding place. His love is sovereign.
He said to Moses over there in Exodus 33, I will have mercy
upon whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. You see, to say that God loves
everyone To say that God loves everybody without exception,
that's not what this book teaches. The love of God is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. To say that God loves everybody
without exception, and yet some wind up in hell anyway, well
then his love got nothing to do with salvation. You see what
I'm saying? Those for whom he loved, they
cannot perish. He loves his own, having loved
his own, he loved them to the end. And His love is manifested
in us. The love of God is shed abroad
in our heart by the Holy Spirit. The fifth thing we see here,
the love of God is gracious. Gracious. Look at verse 15. But
thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, gracious. He's full of grace. You remember
John chapter 1? where the forerunner of the Lord
Jesus Christ declares that He's full. He's full of mercy. He's full of grace. Grace upon
grace. Of His fullness have we all received
grace for grace. He's full of grace for our salvation
is all of grace. Every aspect of our salvation
is by the grace of God. Not by anything we have done,
but according to His grace. He saved us. Not of works. Not
of our works. We have, and we see in the Word,
we see electing grace. He chose a people unto salvation.
It's called a remnant according to the election of grace. It's
called saving grace. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that knowledge of yourself is the gift of God.
It's saving grace. It's calling grace. It's fetching
grace. He called us out of darkness
into His marvelous light, that we should show the praises of
Him who called us. And then the sixth thing we see,
the Lord is longsuffering. You see that in verse 15 as well.
He's longsuffering. Plenteous in mercy. He's longsuffering. The Lord is not willing that
any should perish. He's long-suffering. He's long-suffering
to us-ward. Now, people want to make that
to be universal. You know, God's not willing that
any man should perish. Well, He's trying to do His best
to save all men everywhere, but they just won't cooperate. That's
not the God of the Bible. That verse said God is long-suffering
to us-ward. Who's He writing to? The elect
of God. He's long-suffering to His people,
not willing that any of them should perish. They can't because
Christ died for them, put away their sin. The Lord is very patient
with us. Even before we knew Him, He knew
us. He knew us. The foundation of
God standeth sure. Having this seal, the Lord knoweth
them that are His. The Lord overlooked our years
of unbelief and rebellion until he crossed our path with the
gospel, revealed himself unto us, and made us willing in the
day of his power. Psalm 110, verse 3, thy people
shall be willing in the day of God's power. Blessed is the man
whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee. He longs
suffering toward us. Oh, thank God. Thank God, I can
remember one time when I was about 25 years old, I was running
a piece of equipment, a dozer and a bunch of weeds, high weeds,
and I didn't see this guide cable tied down to the ground and I
snapped it. And that cable flew up over the high power 30, 40,000
watt, volts rather, power line. It came down, hit me right on
my back. should have killed me instantly. I should have been
dead before I knew Him, before God gave me His purpose. That
thing, that cable hit the ground and it threw the breaker on the
line before it hit me. If it hit me first, I'd have
been fried. I'd have been fried like a grasshopper
with a magnifying glass. I'd have been fried. But the
Lord, He was long-suffering to me. And I can think of some other
occasions too, and the work I did was dangerous work. I was young
and rambunctious and I did a lot of things that were dangerous.
Blew up things. Things exploded right in front
of me. The Lord longsuffering. The Lord longsuffering. He's
longsuffering toward His people. And then He's plenteous in truth.
You see that verse? He's plenteous in truth. He plenties
in mercy. Mercy and truth are met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Plenties in
truth. When he speaks, he speaks absolute
truth for he is truth. His word is absolute truth and
the final authority on all issues. This is the final word. God is
God. And He teaches us His truth.
Our Lord said, you shall know the truth, and the truth will
make you free. When the Lord teaches us His
truth, we delight to walk in His way. Look at verse 11. Psalm
86. Teach me thy way, O Lord, I will
walk in thy truth. Now, truth is a person. The Lord said, I'm the way, the
truth. And because truth is a person, everything that person speaks
is absolute truth. The only time I speak the absolute
truth is when I say, thus saith the Lord. Right there, that's
what God says. Everything else, you better check
me out on it. Teach me thy way, O Lord, for
I will walk in thy truth. Unite my heart to fear thy name. The last one is found also in
verse 15. But thou, O Lord, art a God full
of compassion, gracious, long-suffering, plenteous in mercy, plenteous
in truth. His works of redemption are great. Great are the works of redemption.
Look at verse 8. Among the gods there is none
like unto thee, O Lord, neither are there any works like thine
works. His works of redemption are great.
His works are great. There are no works like His works,
as we read a moment ago in Psalm 111. His works are wonderful
and gracious. For all our salvation is accomplished
by His doing, His works. You remember, He said, My meat
is to do the will of Him, and it's that man to finish His work.
And that Calvary 3, He said, is finished. It's done. It's
accomplished. His work of redemption is perfect. The Lord Jesus Christ established
for us and obtained for us eternal redemption and established for
us a perfect, justifying righteousness before God. His work of salvation
is perfect. He saves us with an everlasting
salvation. And that leads the believer to
do this. Verse 12, I will praise thee. Now, when
we know who he is and what he's done and what he's doing, We
call upon the name of the Lord and we say with David, bless
the Lord, oh my soul and all that is within me, bless his
holy name. I will praise thee, oh Lord, my God with all my heart. I glorify thy name. Forevermore. Forevermore. That's the occupation
now, and it will be the occupation forever. Worthy is the lamb that
was slain to receive all honor, power, glory, and blessing both
now and forever and ever. Let's read verse 16, 17, and
we'll be through. Oh, turn unto me and have mercy
upon me. Give thy strength unto thy servant.
and save me. He keeps saying that, Lord, save
me. I'm your servant. Show me a token for good, that
they which hate me may see it and be ashamed, because thou,
Lord, you're my help and you're my comfort. Comfort. Comfort you, comfort you, my
people. You remember Isaiah 40? 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 do comfort me. Psalm 23, Isaiah
40, Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. Glide to her that her
warfare is accomplished, her iniquity is pardoned, for she
hath received of the Lord double for all her sin. He's plenteous
in redemption. He's put away our sin forever.
For as the east is from the west,