I'm kind of homesick for a country
which I've never been before. No sad goodbyes will there be
spoken. ? But time won't matter anymore
? ? Beulah land, I'm longing for you ? ? And someday on me
I'll stand ? ? There my home shall be eternal. Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land. I'm looking now across the river
where my faith will end in sight. There's just a few more days
to labor, then I'll take my heavenly flight. Beulah Land, I'm longing for
you, and someday on thee I'll stand. There my home, ? Shall
be eternal ? Beulah land, sweet Beulah land ? Beulah land, I'm
longing for you ? And someday on thee I'll stand There my home
shall be eternal, Beulah land, sweet Beulah land. Let me mention our special services
this week. Friday evening, we will begin
at 7.30. There will not be a service this
Wednesday evening, but Friday at 7.30 and then Saturday morning
at 10. And our regular time on Sunday
morning, no service next Sunday night or the following Wednesday
night. So keep that in mind. And I hope
I see all of you next Friday evening. Lord willing. Amen. Be in prayer for the meeting,
these men as they come to preach. We're looking forward to the
special time. If you will, open your Bible
with me today to Psalm 13. Psalm 13. How long wilt thou forget me,
O Lord? Forever? How long wilt thou hide
thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel
in my soul? Having sorrow in my heart daily,
how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? Consider and
hear me, O Lord, my God. Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep
the sleep of death. Lest mine enemy say I have prevailed
against him, and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. But I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy
salvation. I will sing unto the Lord because
he hath dealt bountifully with me. We read that this is one
of David's psalms. We're not told at what age he
wrote the psalm. You know, in a few of the psalms,
he tells us that he wrote them in his old age. For instance,
in Psalm 37, he said, I have been young, but now am old. When he wrote that psalm, he
was old. But this psalm could be the experience
of every believer at any time in his life, whether he be young,
middle-aged, or old. As long as we are in this world,
This is the experience of the children of God. And I'm going
to divide the message into three parts. Trouble, trouble is the
first part. Prayer is the second part. And
triumph will be the third part, the Lord willing. Some people
have entitled this psalm the how long psalm. the how long
song, the howling song. But I want us to look at it this
morning as a song of trouble, prayer, and triumph. First, David
begins in trouble. Now his trouble was not family
trouble. It wasn't health problems or
financial problems. That was not his trouble. You
know, many Christians at one time or the other experienced
one or the other of these troubles, family trouble. And David did
have family trouble. There's no doubt about that,
but that's not the trouble he's talking about here in this Psalm. And you know, family trouble,
the Lord Jesus Christ told his followers to expect family trouble. When he said this, Think not
that I am come to send peace on earth. I'm not come to send
peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at
variance against his father, and the daughter against her
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And
a man's foes shall be they of his own house. He said that,
of course, because the gospel divides. The gospel separates
from the believer and the unbeliever. And many times it's in the same
family. One is a believer, one is an
unbeliever. And the prophet Micah asked this
question, can two walk together unless they be agreed? And there
is no agreement. between a lost person and a saved
person. Because a saved person wants
to live and desires to live for the glory of God. A lost person
wants to live and does live for himself, herself, for their flesh. No, but that wasn't David's trouble
here. It wasn't family trouble. As
far as we know, it wasn't health problems. God's people have never
been promised a life exempt from sickness. Many of God's children
have suffered for years, suffered physically for years. And God
has redeemed us, body, soul, and spirit. I understand that,
but the redemption of the body is future. As long as we live
in this world, in this body, even God's children are subject
to suffering and pain, sickness of body. And it wasn't financial
problems. David was a king. Sometimes God's
children do have this problem as well, this trouble as well
in this world, financial trouble. But none of these things, as
I thought about this, none of these things, it wasn't family
trouble, it wasn't health problems, it wasn't financial trouble that
David was in at this time. Well, what was his trouble? It
was, for a child of God, the worst kind of trouble. Let me
say that. His trouble for a child of God
was the worst kind of trouble. You say worse than family trouble?
Yes. Worse than health problems? Yes.
Worse than financial problems? Yes. What was his trouble? It was trouble of soul caused
by an enemy. Look in verse two. He mentions
the enemy at the last part, his last how long. How long shall
mine enemy be exalted over me? Now, let me ask this question. Who was this enemy? Who was this
enemy that David has reference to? Let me make two points. First, we know that this enemy
was not God. You might say, well, preacher,
that's a strange statement to make, that his enemy was not
God. How could God possibly be any
man's enemy? Well, we all know God is love. How could you even intimate that
God might be someone's enemy? Well, it is true that God is
love, but it is also true that we are all fallen, sinful individuals
by nature. And the scripture says that we
are enmity with God. In Romans chapter five, the apostle
Paul wrote, for if when we were enemies, in other words, there
was a time, he's writing to believers, And he says, for if, when we
were enemies, there was a time when we were all enemies of God. For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more
being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. David's sin, like your sin and
my sin, had separated us from God. He said, in sin did my mother
conceive me. He recognized that from birth
he was a sinner. He was born a sinner. Original
sin, we call it. No one comes into this world
without sin. And that automatically means
that we are considered by God as his enemies because of our
sin. See, sin strikes out at God. Sin, if it could, would dethrone
God, would push God off the throne and take control. That's what sin, that's what
Satan desires. Someone might say, well, isn't
God everyone's father? He is the creator of every man,
that's true. And in that sense, we might talk
of him as the father of all men, as the creator of all men. But
no, he's not the father of all men. How did you become your
father's son? How did you become your mother's
son, your mother's daughter? By birth, right? By birth. And unless and until a person
is born of the Spirit of God born again, he cannot be considered,
she cannot be considered a child of God. I want you to turn with
me to John chapter one just a moment. The gospel of John according
to one, Chapter one. I apologize for this sound system. Something must have happened
since Wednesday, but I'm gonna try not to be too loud. But John chapter one, notice
in verse 12 and 13. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power. And if you have a marginal reading,
you see that word power, the right, or privilege. To as many
as received him, to them gave he power, the right, the privilege. Now notice, to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born,
even to them which believe on his name. You say, what does
that mean? To believe on His name is to
believe in Him. If you look above this in this
chapter, look at these three names. First, the Word. To believe on Christ is to believe
on Him as the Word, the eternal Word, the eternal Son of God. And then He's spoken of as the
life in verse In verse four, and him was life. He said, I
am the way, the truth and the life. And no man comes to the
father, but by me. And then he is the light. He's, he's called the light in
verse eight. He was not, John was not that
light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. Do you believe
on Christ? as the Son of God, the eternal
Son of God, one with the Father and God, the Holy Spirit, who
was made flesh, who is the life. There's no spiritual life. We lost that spiritual life when
our father, Adam, sinned. And God had told him that in
the day that he ate that fruit, he would die. And we all come
into this world spiritually dead. And Christ is the life. And there's
no life, he said, because I live, you shall live. Life is in Christ,
eternal life, spiritual life is in Christ. As many as received
him, even to them which believe on his name, believe that he
is the son of God, that he is life and light. That without
him, we're all in darkness. We have no understanding of the
things of God. They're spiritually discerned,
and without him we have not the spirit of God. Which were born,
notice that in that verse that follows, which were born not
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God. If you believe this morning,
I know sometimes people are confused because of some of the messages
that preachers preach. If you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, you are born of God. You are born of God. I think sometimes people are
under the idea that the new birth is some kind of real traumatic experience a person
has and and you can talk about that and tell about how it affected
you physically and things like that. No, the best sign that
you have been born of the spirit of God is that you believe in
Christ, that you receive him as the word, as the life, and
as the light. If you do, you've been born of
God. Well, it wasn't God. Let's go
back to our Psalm. That's the first thing. We know
that this enemy was not God. Well, that's the first point.
Now, the second point, we know that every reconciled child of
God has three real enemies. We know this. We've all heard
it from, I guess, the first time we began to hear about the things
of God. We have three real enemies, every
child of God. If you are one of his children
this morning, you have three real enemies. Your adversary,
the devil, is one. That's one of your enemies, the
devil. And he goes about, Peter tells
us, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Then another one is the world. the world. Now what do we mean
by the world? We're not talking about the earth.
We're not even talking about all the people in the world.
But what we mean by the world as our enemy is, is the thinking,
the philosophy of this world. That's a real enemy to a child
of God. What is the philosophy? What
is the thinking of this world? Eat, drink, and be merry. You
only go around once. You only live once. Enjoy it. That's the philosophy of this
world. Do unto others before they can
do unto you. Accumulate all the wealth, all
the power, all the fame. The philosophy of this world.
That's an enemy that every child of God has. And a third enemy
is what we call the flesh. So we've got three enemies. We've
got Satan, who is our adversary, the devil. We've got the world
that's always pulling, always inviting, always enticing a believer
to come and go with us. Throw in your luck with us. You
read about it in Proverbs chapter one, don't you? And the flesh. Now what do we mean by the flesh?
Well, in Romans chapter seven, think about this. Here's the
apostle Paul writing this letter, and he's served the Lord since
the Lord saved him and called him. But he said this in this
chapter. He said, for I know that in me,
in me, here I am an apostle, and all that I've been used of
God in preaching the gospel and establishing churches in this
world For I know that in me, parentheses, that is in my flesh,
in my flesh. He kind of corrected that or
defined it, made it more clear what he was saying. For I know
that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For the will is present with
me. But how to perform that which is good I find not. What do we
mean by the flesh? We mean that part, that unrenewed
nature that every person has by birth. That which is born
of the flesh is flesh. We're given a new nature, a new
heart in the new birth, but that old nature, what he calls the
flesh there, is not eradicated, it continues with us. In other
places, Paul calls it the old man. Now, one of these three,
I believe, is the enemy that David has reference to here in
this psalm. And personally, I believe it
was especially the flesh, the third enemy that every child
of God has. What else could cause David to
ask these questions? First of all, how long wilt thou
forget me? Well, David, that's a foolish
question. Well, sure it is. For a child
of God, for a man of God, a man after God's own heart like David
was, a writer of the Psalms, That's a foolish question. He
knew that God cannot forget anything to begin with, and he's sure
not going to forget one of his own. You know, in Isaiah 49, we read,
but Zion said, now Zion here may refer to the church, but
Zion said, the Lord hath forgotten me. That's what David says here,
isn't it? How long, Lord? How long wilt
thou forget me? What a foolish question. But
yet, because of the flesh that remains in us, sometimes we ask
foolish questions, such questions as that. We feel like God has
forgotten us. You read Psalm 73 and you see
that there in that Psalm, don't you? Surely God is good to Israel,
but as for me, God's forgotten me. How long? That's what the
flesh can do to a person. Cause you to doubt God's love
and question God's faithfulness. That verse in Isaiah said, but
Zion said, the Lord hath forgotten me and my Lord hath forgotten,
or forsaken me rather. The Lord hath forsaken me and
my Lord hath forgotten me. And God says, can a woman, forget
her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son
of her womb. Yea, they may forget, yet will
I not forget. No, God has never forgotten and
never will forget one of his children. How long wilt thou
hide thy face from me? Now this is something that a
child of God may experience, and for various reasons. for
various reasons. One reason, and David tells us
this in one of the Psalms he wrote, one reason that caused
God to hide his face from him, and will cause God to hide his
face from you maybe, or from me. This is what he said, in
my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. Now what does
that sound like? That sounds like boasting to
me, does it to you? That sounds like pride. David
said, in my prosperity, everything was going well. Everything was
going well with me and mine. And in that condition, I said,
I shall never be moved. Here I am. Nothing's going to
move me. Nothing's going to cause me any
problems. I've arrived. And God said, or David went on
to say, thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled. I read, I
think it was this morning or yesterday, about Nebuchadnezzar. Great man. Powerful man. And he had a dream. And in his
dream, he saw this tree that just grew and it was so large. And all the birds came and lodged
in that tree and everything was there. But he didn't know what
it meant. What's this dream telling me? And so, you know, they call up
Daniel again. Oh, that's such a wonderful story.
Read the book of Daniel, especially those first chapters about his
experience. And Daniel comes in, and Daniel
makes it clear every time, it's not me. But there's a God in
heaven who reveals secrets, who reveals dreams. And this is your
dream. You're that tree. And that tree
was cut down. And for seven years, it was taken
advantage of. And that's you. Now, Daniel told
him, now repent, repent, turn. Of course, what happened? After about a year, I guess,
you know, things got to going well. He got over that little
scare, that little scare that came by that revelation. It's like a man or a woman, you
know, they have a little scare, something happens in this life,
some problem, and they get real religious for a few days. Twelve months pass by. I guess
Nebuchadnezzar had forgotten all about that dream and that
interpretation, and he said, is not this great Babylon? Oh, one of the wonders of the
ancient world. Is not this great Babylon that
I have built? I did all this. What happened? He lost his mind,
didn't he? God put him out in the pasture
land. They fed him with grass for seven
years. His hair grew like feathers. A wild man. And you know, when
God in mercy restored his mind to him, what was the first thing
he said? There's a God in heaven who reigns
and rules over all. All the psalmists, they said,
I had arrived and I made that foolish statement, that proud,
boastful statement, I shall never be moved. And Lord, you just
hid your face from me. Oh my. And I was troubled. I was troubled. How long shall
I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? You
know, in this trouble, he, like all of us, he began to scheme. And this is the way this is going
to work out, or this is the way this could work out, or this
is what I can do. All kinds of schemes come into
our mind, and they're all foolish. They're all foolish. Taking counsel,
he said, how long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow
in my heart daily? You see, to take counsel in your
soul, no, to take counsel in the word of God, that's where
we find counsel, that's where we find wisdom, that's where
we find instruction when we are in trouble. You say, well, preacher, you've
said that believers all have three enemies. How are we to
deal with these three enemies? Well, as concerning the devil,
James said, resist him and he'll flee from you. Just resist him
and he'll flee from you. But as to the flesh and the world,
I believe our Lord said, watch you and pray that you enter not
into temptation. You may think, most of us do,
that we could never do, we could never fall. We read about Peter,
we read about David, read about Jonah, others. Why does the Lord tell us about
the falls of these men? Why? To warn us, to warn us. We have enemies. And we must
watch and pray. And that's the next thing. David
continues in prayer. Verses three and four. Consider
and hear me, O Lord, my God. Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep
the sleep of death. Lest mine enemies say I have
prevailed against him, and those that trouble me rejoice when
I am moved. In times of trouble, Prayer is
always the best option. And I see in David's prayer,
it's not just saying his prayers. Someone said, well, I say my
prayers every night before I go to bed. Lord, I lay me down to
sleep. I forget the rest of that prayer.
You know, a prayer that children learn to pray. I say, no, if
David didn't say his prayers, David prayed. There's a difference. There's a difference. And I see
that. I see the intensity here in David's prayer, his fervency. Look! Notice he says, consider. That word means to scan. Scan. Look. Look. See my condition. I'm at the point of death. That's
what he says. Look, have you ever prayed in
such a need? I mean, prayed with such fervency
here, as we see here, with such fervency. You had such a need,
such a difficulty, and you got down to business with God. You
were not worried so much about flowery speech No, you were calling
upon God in sincerity, and that's what David is doing here. I think
I see in his prayer something similar to what I read in one
of Moses' prayer. There came a point when the children
of Israel were coming from Egypt to the land of Canaan, 40 years
there in the wilderness. There came a point that Israel
had so provoked God by their unbelief that God told Moses,
he said, I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit
them. And I will make of thee, Moses. In other words, I'm just going
to whittle this whole nation down to nothing. The only thing
that's going to be left is you, Moses. And I'll make from you,
still be the nation of Israel because he was an Israelite,
I'll make from you a greater nation and mightier than they. I mean, God's patience, God's
patience had almost come to an end, hadn't it? And then we see
Moses step up and intercede and pray for his people, for his
nation. Moses said, now, if thou shalt
kill all the people, if that's what you want to do, if that's
what you do, that's what God said he would do, I'll just kill
all of them and I'll make a great nation from you, Moses. And Moses,
he prayed, he stood in the gap, didn't he? Now if thou wilt kill all this
people as one man, and this is what's going to happen. Then
the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak saying,
because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the
land, which he swear unto them, therefore he has slain them in
the wilderness. In other words, he said, now
Lord, if you do that, What's going to happen, all these
nations have heard the fame of how you brought this people out
of Egypt, opened up the Red Sea. They're going to hear, and this
is what they're going to say. Oh yeah, God had the power to
bring them out of Egypt, but he didn't have the power to take
them into the land of Canaan. In other words, he's praying
for God's glory, God's glory. And that's what David is doing
here in this prayer. He prays for the Lord's help.
And notice that word, lest, L-E-S-T. Verse four, lest my enemy say. Lest my enemy, help me Lord,
help me Lord. Lest my enemy, the flesh, the
world, or Satan, whichever one it was, unless they appear stronger,
In other words, he's praying for God's glory. Yes, he's asking
for help, the help that he needed, surely. But his appeal is, Lord,
help me or this is what's going to happen. My enemy is going
to triumph over me. And it's your glory. It's your
glory that's involved here. Notice the last part of the psalm,
David finishes in victory. And that's typical of many of
the psalms, and you know that's typical of a believer's life. We start off in trouble, send
trouble. We pray, we call upon the Lord,
and we end in victory. That's typical of every child
of God. First thing he said is, I have
trusted in thy mercy. The idea is, I have trusted in
thy mercy, I still trust in thy mercy, and I will always trust
in thy mercy. Mercy. It is of the Lord's mercies
that we're not consumed. You know, I looked up the word
mercy, there's 150 Psalms And in at least a third of them,
mercy, God's mercy is mentioned. In fact, there's one Psalm, Psalm
136, it has 26 verses, and in every verse, God's mercy is celebrated. The mercy of the Lord forever. Mercy. In Lamentations chapter
three, You know, we read that his mercies are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The
way to triumph is to trust in God's mercy. David said, I have
trusted, I am trusting, and I shall continue to trust. There'll never
be any cause to doubt the mercy of God. Why? Because God, is immutable. He doesn't change. He's the same
today as he was yesterday. And secondly, he said, my heart
shall rejoice in thy salvation. Now, the salvation here is not
a soul salvation that he's talking about, but the salvation of the
trouble that he was in at that time. It had not come yet. When he penned this psalm, it
had not come yet, but he rejoiced in it by faith as though it had
already been granted. And third, I will sing unto the
Lord because he hath dealt bountifully, favorably, kindly toward me. As I said, and I'll close with
this again, this psalm pictures The life experience of every
child of God. We begin in trouble, we call
or look unto the Lord, and we finish in triumph. And that's
not only our life experience, but that's the experience we
have many times as we go through this world. Trouble? Yes. God hasn't promised us that we
will not have trouble. In fact, he has assured us we
will have trouble in this world. calling upon the Lord and triumph,
victory coming, victory coming. May the Lord bless His word.
Amen.