Psalm 140. Psalm 140. I'm entitling the message from
what is said in verse 1. Deliver me and preserve me. Deliver me and preserve me. And then the same essence is
repeated again in verse 4. Keep me, O Lord. Deliver me,
O Lord. Keep me and preserve me. Keep
me. keep me." Now for sure we cannot
keep ourselves. We're helpless in that effort
to keep ourselves. Now we can rightly apply this
psalm unto David for it says in the introduction there, a
psalm of David. So the Lord gave him this prayer
and this heart's desire by inspiration. David did have many and very
malicious enemies who actually sought to kill him. His own father-in-law, Saul,
who was the king before David, actually took a javelin and tried
to thrust David through with it. His own son, Absalom, turned
against him. His own wife, Michael, Saul's
daughter, made fun of him. So David did have many enemies
and the Lord did preserve him. The Lord did protect him. He
cried to the Lord for help and was heard and was delivered.
Do you remember from Psalm 121? Turn over there for a minute. Back to Psalm 121 where it says,
I lift my eyes unto the hills, verse 1, from which cometh my
help. Well, my help cometh from the
Lord, which made heaven and earth. he will not suffer thy foot to
be moved he that keepeth thee will not slumber behold he keepeth
Israel he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep
so the Lord will preserve us the Lord will keep us we can
even make a broader application to this to the greater David
the greater David is the Lord Jesus Christ He certainly had
very many enemies who took counsel together how they might destroy
Him. They gathered together, Pilate, Herod, the Jews, and
the Gentiles all gathered together against Him, against the Lord's
Christ to do whatsoever they wanted
to do, but they did what God determined before to be done.
And the Lord Jesus Christ would ultimately made to triumph over
all his enemies, being raised from the dead, seated in the
heavenlies, when he by himself purged our sins, sat down on
the right hand of God, having accomplished all of our salvation,
remember from Revelation 6, you remember that verse I told you
was a key verse, he went forth conquering and to conquer, and
he did, and then we read that blessed promise we are more than
conquerors through him that loved us so he has given us the victory
we are victorious in him and we can say it was the Apostle
Paul thanks be unto God for that victory that we have in Christ
Jesus but I want to look at this psalm in another light in another
way and this is the first thought that crossed my mind when I started
looking at this psalm where it talks about David started praying
for deliverance from the wicked man to be preserved from the
evil man from the violent man from the proud man from the evil
speaker and then he talks about war he talks about the day of
battle and again as I looked at this psalm and I don't when
I sit down to prepare a psalm I and prepare a message for you. I don't just lightly consider
the Word of God. I mean, I look at it intensely
and meditate on it and read it and reread it and rethink it
and look at it again. But I kept coming back to this
one thought, this wicked man, this evil man, this old sinful
Adam nature that we are plagued with today. I can identify with
these things in my own heart with the conflict and struggles
of my own sinful flesh. The writer of Hebrews in Hebrews
12 talks about the sin that does so easily beset us. Distract us Catch us off guard
Now let me ask you some questions. I think Every believer can identify
with this because we're all Believers or like Elijah said men of like
passion What is the greatest? What do you find the greatest
hindrance to your prayers your prayer life? What do you find
to be the greatest hindrance to your prayers? I? Well, I tell you what my greatest
hindrance is, is my sinful self. My sinful self. The Lord Jesus
Christ oftentimes got alone and prayed all night. I don't know
anything about that kind of prayer. I really don't. If I can pray
for maybe a few minutes, a few minutes, it would be, it would
be a blessing. My sinful self, my fallen fleshly
nature is a great hindrance, not only to prayer, but how about
worship? How about worship? I mean, I
would really one time really like to worship in spirit and
in truth. And someday we will without any
hindrance of the flesh. You know, it's our desire to
praise the Lord, to worship Him, and yet we're so disfleshed. Can't you identify with Paul
when he says, Oh, wretched man, who can deliver me from this
body of death? I know the religious self-righteous
man cannot identify with what I'm saying. He thinks he lives
above sin. He thinks he doesn't have any
battle or conflict with sin. Well, he's deceived. He deceived. It is a sinful flesh that wars
against our spiritual nature and Paul calls that a warring
in my body. The flesh against the Spirit.
You remember Galatians chapter 5. For the flesh lusteth against
the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary
the one to the other so that you cannot do that which you
would. no wonder the Apostle says over
here but I see another law of my members warring against the
law of my mind bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which
is in my body so let's take a look at this
psalm in this light now as far as I know as far as I know I
don't have any physical enemies Or as far as I know, I don't
have anyone who's plotting my death, planning to murder me. Not that I know of. If there
is, I don't want to know. I just don't want to know. Although I do have a confession
to make. I have been, when I come to work
early in the morning, I have been coming through that front
door out there and locking myself in the building. Because from
time to time, people stumble in here asking for money. And
some of these stores here locally next door have been robbed several
times. Down the street, they've been robbed several times. So
just kind of as a... You say, you big chicken. Yeah,
yeah, you're right. You're right. But when I sit
back here in my office with that door shut, somebody walk in the
front door here, I don't, you know, they could be in here as
long as they're quiet. I'd never know they'd be in here.
If my truck's sitting out front there and you try to get in the
building and the door's locked, you understand why. Just come
to the back door and knock on the back door and I'll let you
in. But as far as I know, I don't have anybody trying to take my
life or do me bodily harm or rob me. But I do have enemies. I do have enemies. And chiefly,
It's old Tom. It's my own wicked sinful heart
that is still yet deceitful and desperately wicked, full of wicked
pride and self-righteousness. Now I know the self-righteous
man doesn't have any problems with this, but those who are
taught of God who know something of their own wretched nature
something of the holiness of God If you don't know anything
about your sin, you'll never seek a Savior Righteousness in
Christ. So with that introduction, let's
look at verse 1 Deliver me O Lord deliver me
O Lord Now deliverance has to come from
the Lord He has to be the one In fact, he's called in Scripture
the Deliverer. He is the Redeemer who delivers.
Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man, myself. And preserve
me from the man of violence. Deliver me from my wicked self.
And preserve me from the evil man that I yet am. I can identify with the Apostle
Paul when he said, old wretched man that I am. For as Job said, I've been reading
through the book of Job, in the last chapter of Job, after God
whittles him down and strips him and puts him in the dust,
Job said, I've heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but
now my eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself, I hate myself,
I repent in dust and in ashes. You see, the only hope we have
to be delivered from our sin and preserved by grace is the
Lord Jesus Christ Himself. For He came for this very purpose,
to set us free from the bondage and dominion and captivity of
sin. He said, I've come to set the
captive free. We can be assured of this. Those
who are delivered by the Lord Jesus Christ, His blood and righteousness
will be preserved by His power. Those who are delivered by the
Lord, He's not going to leave us alone. He will preserve us
by His power. We'll be reading 1 Peter 5, we're
kept by the power of God. He translated us out of the kingdom
of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. Now look at
verse 2, further description of my sinful self, which imagine
We imagine mischief in the heart. Continually. Continually. Look at those two words. Imagine
mischief and then continually. Continually are they gathered
together for war. What? The imagination of my heart. They war together against me. Mischief of the heart. of the
heart, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."
Mischievous of the heart, mischievous heart, sinful heart, wicked heart,
vile nature. They are continually gathering
together to wage war against my new nature I have in Christ
Jesus. Remember from Genesis chapter
6 where the Lord says every imagination of every thought is only evil
continually Look at verse 3 they have sharpened
their tongue like a serpent Adders poison snakes poisons under their
lips Sela think about that a while Paul uses this in Romans 3 where
he talks about there's none righteous. No, not one. I There's none to
understand it. There's none to seek it after
God. We have this venom of sin in this flesh. That is all this
flesh can produce and that is sin, sin, sin. We read in John 6, you remember,
it's the spirit, the quickness, the flesh, the flesh profits
nothing. How come it doesn't profit? It's
sinful. That which is born of the flesh, what is it? Flesh. That's all there ever will be. Capable of nothing. What does
the flesh produce? Nothing but sin. Nothing but
sin. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. Now, look at verse 4. Keep me.
Keep me, O Lord. Keep me. Keep me from the hands
of the wicked. I'm talking about these wicked
hands. Preserve me from the violent
man. I'm talking about this violent man. Who have purpose to overthrow
my goings. Our only hope, help and happiness
is for the Lord to keep us and preserve us. Remember from Psalms
17 where David said, keep me as the apple of thine eye. Keep
me as the pupil, the apple of thine eye. Guard me, watch over
me, protect me, hedge me about. I often pray, Lord, don't leave
me to myself. Our own sinful self with purpose
to overthrow us and to cast us down. Now, I'm just really being honest.
I don't know any other way to be than to be honest and to tell
you what we really are in the flesh. I do believe, but can't
you identify with the man that said in Scripture, Lord, help
my unbelief? Help my unbelief? Look at verse
5, the proud, oh, the proud have hid a snare from me. and cords
have they spread a net by the wayside they have set jinn's
traps for me and then again he says Selah think about that the
proud the proud Proverbs 16 said pride goeth before destruction
and the haughty spirit before fall nothing more harmful to
a believer than the pride of self-righteousness, than the
pride of self-righteousness. Nothing more strongly condemned
by the Lord than pride, pride. You remember the publican prayed,
Lord I thank you, I'm not like other men are. And the Lord said
of that man, he went down to his house condemned, condemned. Pride, religious sinful, self-righteous
pride. Pride will keep us from trusting
Christ. It will. Pride will cause us
to despise others. Pride will cause us to, listen
now, pride will cause us to miss the Lord Jesus Christ. Pride
will cause us to miss faith. Pride will cause us to go about
to establish a righteousness of our own. Lord keep me from
being full of pride. Sela, think about that. Pride,
pride, pride, proud of heart. The old man said proud of race,
proud of face, proud of place, and the deadly thing is to be
proud of grace. Humble before God. But yet we
all have this old Adam nature full of religious sinful pride now you see our problem no wonder
David cries Lord deliver me Lord preserve me look what he says
in verse 6 now here's here's the prayer realizing all the
enemies we have within without I said unto the Lord Thou art
my God. Hear the voice of my supplications,
O Lord. I said unto the Lord, Thou art
my God. Hear the voice of my supplications. Let us make this our prayer.
In verse 6 down through verse 11, let us make this our prayer
always. You know when the Lord in Matthew
6 taught His disciples how to pray? Thy kingdom come, Thy will
be done, on earth as it is in heaven." And then He taught us
this way, deliver us from evil. Deliver us from evil. And then
again, in His high priestly prayer in John 17, the Lord prays for
us and He says, keep them from evil. As far as I know, unless I'm
totally ignorant, I don't really have any problems with the devil
attacking me. As far as I know. I'm always
quite amazed as religious folks when some religious man ends
up making a great disaster of his profession and he turns around
and blames it on the devil. Well, the devil's not his problem. problem with his own wicked heart.
As far as I know I don't have any problems with Satan attacking
me, the Lord had dealt with him. But the problem I find is my
own wicked self, my own wicked thoughts, my own wicked heart. I said to the Lord, thou art
my God, hear the voice of my supplication. Now Here's our
only recourse. I said to the Lord, to the Lord,
Lord you know my heart, you know my case, you know how desperate
I need you. I'm reminded of what Peter said
as we studied Sunday morning, when the Lord said, will you
also go away? Remember what he said? Lord,
to whom shall we go? Nowhere else to go. our only
recourse and remedy for deliverance and help from our yet sinful
condition is the Lord thou art the Lord I like what it says
there thou art the Lord my God the Lord is my God he got our
Savior see what he's saying here same thing Thomas said when Thomas
said unto the Lord Jesus thou art my Lord and my God David
said in Psalm 23 the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want
the Lord I said to the Lord thou art my God hear the voice of
my supplication now look at verse 7 Oh God the Lord you're the
strength of my salvation now that's our hope he's the strength
of our salvation my salvation thou has covered my head in the
day of this battle. He's my salvation and He's covered
our head. He not left us defenseless in
this warfare. In 1st Timothy we find these
words, fight the good fight of faith. He not left us defenseless. In Ephesians chapter 6 we read
this. Remember when it talks about taking and putting on the
whole armor of God and then he says is take the helmet of salvation
and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God and then turn
to 1st Thessalonians for a minute 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 1st
Thessalonians chapter 5 look at verse 8 1st Thessalonians
5 verse 8 but let us who are of the day be sober putting on
the breastplate of faith and of love and for a helmet the
hope of salvation, for God hath not appointed us to wrath, but
to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Thou art my salvation,
thou hast covered my head." He's not left us defenseless. He's
covered us. He's given us a helmet of salvation. He's given us the sword, the
sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Now look at
verse 8. Grant not, O LORD, the desires
of the wicked, further not his wicked device. The desire of the wicked, the
device of the wicked, lest they would be exalted. Lord don't
leave me to myself. Grant not the desires of my wicked
heart, further not my wicked thoughts, lest I be exalted in
religious pride and unbelief." Lord grant it not. Grant it not. Grant it not. Now look at verse
9. As for the head of those that
compass me about, Let the mischief of their own
lips cover them. Let burning coals fall upon them. Let them be cast into the fire,
into the deep pits, that they rise not again. Let not an evil
speaker be established in the earth. Evil shall hunt the violent
man to overthrow him." Now here's... and again I apply
all that to myself. Lord, restrain my wicked thoughts. Lord, restrain my wicked actions. Lord, restrain my wicked deeds. Let them be destroyed. That's what he's praying here.
Let them be destroyed. Root out, burn them up, cast
them into the deep pit, cast them into the fire. Every thought,
imagination, Contrary to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,
let it be burned up. Let it be cast into the pit.
Let them be cast into the deep pits, never to be brought forth
again. Lord, restrain me, keep me. Let
the evil speaker and the violent man be oversold, that wicked
old Adam nature. I want him crucified. I want
him put out of business and one day he will be fully and finally
and completely when we put him in the dust, put him in the ground.
Let the evil speaker, the violent man, be overthrown, cast down
and not established in our heart and in our soul. Now we're going
to see something about that. Let not the evil speaker be established
in the earth. Look what it says in the neighboring
Psalm 141 verse 3. Set a watch, O Lord, before my
mouth. Keep the doors of my lips. How many times have we said something
and you thought later, boy, I wish I would have said that. I wish
I would have not. Let not the evil speaker be established
in the earth. You and I see right here Isn't
this the same exact thing that the Apostle Paul is writing about
where he talks about putting off the old man with his deeds
and crucifying the flesh? To me it's saying the same thing
as what Paul writes over here. Turn to Ephesians chapter 4.
Ephesians chapter 4, verse 22. Ephesians 4, verse 22. Verse 21 says, "...if so be that
ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is
in Jesus the Lord Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former
conversation of the old man, which is corrupt according to
the deceitful lust." Don't you see the parallel there? And be
renewed in the spirit of your mind, that ye put on the new
man which after God is created in righteousness and through
holiness, wherefore putting away lying, evil, speaking, speak
every man the truth with his neighbor, for we are members
one another. Be ye angry, sin not. Let not the sun go down upon
your wrath. Don't give place to the devil.
Don't give him a foothold. Put off the old man with his
deeds. Starve him out. Now, look at verse 12 and 13. I know that the Lord, He will maintain the cause. The Lord will deliver me, preserve
me, keep me, and He will maintain the cause. God who hath begun
a good work in you, He will finish it. He will perform it. He will
perfect it. We need not despair. Even though
there's a daily battle, warring the new nature against the old
nature, the flesh against the spirit, we need not despair. I know that the Lord will maintain
the cause of the afflicted. And we are afflicted. We are
afflicted. And He will maintain the cause
of the right, those made right in Christ. Afflicted and poor. Afflicted and poor. How many
times have we seen that statement throughout Scripture? I am poor
and needy. In the book of Psalms, it's several
times. I'm poor and needy, but yet the
Lord thinketh upon me. Here's our only refuge, our only
hope. The Lord will maintain and sustain
us in all of our infirmity. You remember we read in Romans
7, who shall deliver me from this body of death that I'm dragging
around this old sinful carcass? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. You see with his stripes we're
healed. When the Lord is pleased to make us new creatures in Christ
Jesus, The old nature is not eradicated. The old sinful Adam
nature is not eradicated or destroyed. Thank God it is subdued. God's
cause becomes our cause. His glory becomes our cause. The glory of the gospel becomes
our cause. I like what David said. This
says, a young shepherd boy when Israel was facing off the Philistines
and Goliath the giant, remember? We'll see it as we go through
1st Samuel when we get to chapter 17. And his older brothers accused
David, why did you leave those sheep out there without a shepherd? What are you doing down here,
you naughty little boy? You just came down here to see
what's going on. David came down there to execute
the enemy. And he said these words to his
older brothers, is there not a cause? Is there not a cause? You see, David's cause was the
same as God's cause, the glory of God. Well, you know the outcome
of that story. You know who won that battle?
David. Even though they tried to...
Old King Saul said, now, if you're going to go out and face that
giant, let me give you some armor. And let me give you a helmet
and a sword. David wasn't a soldier. He was
a shepherd. Well, he laid all that aside
and took that little shepherd's sling and a smooth stone. And the giant fell down dead.
Is there not a cause? You see, David's cause was the
same as God's cause. His glory. I know that the Lord
will maintain the cause of the afflicted. If our cause is His
glory, He will maintain us. He will bless us. Surely, verse
13, surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name. Now,
who are the righteous? Now, none of us are righteous
in ourselves, are we? The only righteousness we have
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Lord our righteousness. Surely the righteous, oh, they
give thanks. they give thanks to the name
of the Lord. You remember Psalm 92 where it
says, it's a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without work. David
wrote that in Psalm 32. Paul quotes it in Romans 4. Believers
do give thanks unto his name and everything gives thanks for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. All that we are, the Lord made us. He made us,
new creatures in Christ. All that we know, well the Lord
taught us. Who made you to differ from another?
All that we ever will be is by His grace and His grace alone. The upright, the last part of
verse 13, the upright shall dwell in thy presence. those made upright." You see,
in Adam we're falling. We have to be uprighted. We can't upright ourselves. We're
dead in sin. He must upright us. And the upright shall dwell in
His presence forevermore because the Lord says, I'll never leave
them nor will I forsake them. One thing I have desired of the
Lord, and that will I seek after." You remember Psalm, don't turn
to me, I'll read it to you. One thing I desire of the Lord,
and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the
Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord,
and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble he
shall hide me in his pavilion, in the secret of his tabernacle
shall they hide me upon the rock. And now shall my head be lifted
up above mine enemies round about me. Therefore will I offer in
his tabernacle sacrifices of joy, I will sing, yea, I will
sing praises unto the Lord." Now I hope I've helped you, I
hope I've not confused you, but these are the things that I see
as a believer and the experience of my heart and others in the
Word of God as well have Like the Apostle Paul, Isaiah, Job, others, we are sinners. Sinners saved by His grace. But we are still sinners. Never, never graduate from your
sinnerhood. If you do, you're in trouble.
It's nothing but pride. Think what I used to be, as those
religious folks say around Around, I don't know about down in the
central part of Kentucky, but around here the religious folks
say, well, I used to be a sinner. Okay, what are you now? I am
a sinner saved by God, glorious grace, only a sinner, only a
sinner.