Wouldn't it be wonderful this
morning to literally be sitting at the feet of Jesus? One day we will be there at his
feet, those of us who know him. But this morning, the best we can do is to sit
at his feet by reading and studying his word. which he has given
to us and I would like for us today to look at Psalm 143. If you will turn to Psalm 143
and verse 10 is my text. I was reading a couple of weeks
ago a book and The author, for some reason, pointed us to this
verse of scripture, Psalm 143 and verse 10, and I turned and
read the text, and I had two things happen to me. First of
all, I thought, I've never seen that before. Has that ever happened
to you? That's the wonderful thing about
God's word, isn't it? It's different from any other
book. I've read this text many times, I know, because I've read
through the scripture several times. I know God's word is quick
and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword, the scripture
says. And how many times do we read
the word of God which speaks to us of the living word? The
written word and the living word. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. That is, the eternal Son
of God came into this world, Jesus of Nazareth. You cannot
separate, really, living word from the written word. But God's
word is so wonderful, it's so precious to God's children. And we experience this as we
go through life, we read the word of God, and then we see
it. We've read it many times, but
then it just speaks to us. It just jumps off the page, as
it were, to us. That's the first thing that happened.
I saw this text, it seemed like, for the first time. Teach me
to do thy will, for thou art my God. Thy spirit is good. Lead me into the land of uprightness. I said two things occurred. First
of all, I thought I saw it for the first time. And secondly,
I began to sermonize, to sermonize this text. And so, the Lord willing,
that's the way we will look at it in just a few minutes, but
I want to make several comments before we come to the text. There
are 150 Psalms in the scripture. Most of them were written by
David, not all of them, but most of them were written by David.
And there are seven of these 150 psalms, which are called
by men penitential psalms. And by that word, penitential
means a psalm in which the author is repenting and expresses his
sorrow for his sin. Now, the one of these seven,
which is the most familiar, I'm sure, is Psalm 51. And if you
would like, turn back there to Psalm 51. And there's so much in this Psalm
that shows us David as he is sorrowful for his sin and expressing
his repentance. It begins, have mercy upon me,
O God, according to thy loving kindness, according unto the
multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me truly from mine iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions
and my sin is ever before me. And we see here, no doubt, in
this psalm, and we won't read on, but verse after verse, we
see David in repentance and expressing his sorrow and desiring to be
once again in fellowship with his God and Father. According to the title of that
psalm there, Psalm 51, And men have put these titles
on to these Psalms. We have no indication that the
titles are inspired, but certainly the title there was when Nathan,
when God sent Nathan, David's prophet, to David to tell him,
thou art the man. Thou art the man. after David,
the title there says, after David had gone in to Bathsheba. In
other words, after David was guilty of the sin of adultery,
and then the sin of murder, having her husband killed and battled,
he was responsible. Then a period of time went on
and David was, he was not aware of this sin. You say, can a believer? Be like that? Yes, absolutely. David was a believer, guilty
of sin, and yet that not being brought to his attention or to
his heart, or if it was, it was somehow moved out of his conscience. But God, in faithfulness, sent
his prophet to him and said, David, thou art the man. And
when you read that passage there in 2 Samuel, of that experience,
what God said unto David was, thou art the man, now listen. Yes, thou art the man that committed
adultery. Yes, thou art the man that had
her husband killed, yes. But what God said is, thou art
the man that despiseth me. In other words, after all the
goodness, all the goodness that David had experienced, and I
would say the same for all of us who have been saved by the
grace of God. After all the goodness, the mercy,
the grace that God Almighty has bestowed upon us, Then for us
to sin against him is to despise him, to despise his wonderful
love and mercy, and to treat him in such a way. Penitential
Psalms. And it seems to me, I said there's
seven of these 150 Psalms which are called Penitential Psalms,
and it seems to me because of that that Psalm 51, which no
doubt David was repenting of his actions with Bathsheba concerning
the murder of her husband there. But it's caused the writers,
the commentators to try to say each one of these seven Psalms
was a result of the same experience. In other words, because of the
same guiltiness of David. But David, think about this,
David was a penitent long before he was guilty of sin with Bathsheba. He was, long before that, he
was a man. The scripture says a man after
God's own heart. He was a man who knew what it
was to repent for sin. He knew what it was to sorrow
over sin, long before he was guilty of that. He was like every
child of God. Every child of God in this room
this morning, David and you, David and myself, we are alike
in this, that when God began a work in our hearts and saved
us, he created in us what the scripture, what Paul calls a
new man. But he doesn't erase, he doesn't
take out the old man. And so there is a constant struggle
in the heart of a believer between the new man and the old man.
And many times the old man gets the ascendancy. Most of the time,
no, the new man does. But when the old man does, then
what do we end up doing? We become sorrow for our sins. I doubt there's a person, there's
a child of God in this room this morning who in this past week
has not asked God to forgive you, I know I have, of a particular
sin. Not just, Lord, forgive me for
all my sin. No, there's something, more than
one probably, that God at the time we did it, we committed
it, maybe not in the moment, but it wasn't long till we were
convicted. I shouldn't have done that. I
shouldn't have said that. God, forgive me. God, have mercy
on me. That's the life. That's the experience
of every child of God. And it wasn't, David, if all
seven of those Psalms, if he wrote all seven of them, they
didn't all have to refer to that one experience there. When Paul
in Romans chapter 7 cried out, oh, wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from this body of death? It wasn't that he had
just committed some great sin at that particular time. No,
that's the experience of a child of God as we go through this
world. Oh, wretched man, as he confessed, in my flesh, In my
flesh dwelleth no good thing. His flesh, my flesh, your flesh. The Lord Jesus Christ said that
which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of
the spirit is spirit. So this is one of those penitential
Psalms. Now what is true David was in
trouble when he wrote this psalm. And part of the chastisement
that God told David that he would experience because of that sin
with Bathsheba and Uriah was that the sword would not depart
from his family. And many believe that David wrote
this psalm, Psalm 143, when he was fleeing from his son Absalom. Absalom tried to take the throne
away from his father and become king. He stole the heart of the
people away from the king. David had to run for his life.
And those that were loyal to David had to flee with him. Many
believe he was in trouble. There's no question about that
when he wrote this psalm. But David, like many, like all
of God's people, experience trouble in this world. The scripture
says that man that is born of woman is full of trouble. You
see, trouble's in this world because of sin. If there were no sin, when Adam
and Eve were first created and placed in the Garden of Eden,
there was no trouble. They could never have had any
trouble. There was no sickness, no fear of death. There was no
fear. No, it's only after sin came
into God's creation. Came in by man, yes, by Adam. But with sin, it's like a, you
just think of it like this. You see these railroad trains,
and you've got the What's the first car? Locomotive. Forgive me. You can tell this
is not in my notes. But you've got the locomotive
up there in the front, maybe two or three of them. And then
you've got car after car after car. It may go on for a long
time, right? Well, sin. Think of sin as the
locomotive. And car after car after car,
trouble, sickness, alienation. Misunderstandings. Debt. All of these cars came in because
of sin. All of them. Trouble. In Psalm 50, David quoted the
Lord as saying this, call upon me in the day of trouble and
I will deliver thee. And that's what we see him doing
here in this Psalm. It is a day of trouble with him.
and he is calling upon the Lord. Now I want us to look down these
verses, if you will, follow with me. Verse one, hear my prayer. Psalm 143 in verse one. Hear my prayer, O Lord. Give
air to my supplications. In thy faithfulness answer me,
and in thy righteousness. Now you say, David asked to be
heard. He asked to be heard, yes, not
as though he did not expect and know or doubted that God would
hear him, but he asked, and this is showing his earnestness, his
earnest desire that God would hear him and attend to his prayer. This is showing his sincerity. Hear me, notice, hear me for
your faithfulness. Hear my prayer, O Lord, give
ear to my supplications, and thy faithfulness answer me."
He doesn't plead his faithfulness, but God's faithfulness. God is
faithful. Our God is the faithful God. That means He's the truth, and
His Word, whatever He has said, you can count on it. You can
depend on it. You can believe on it. You can
rest upon it. You can rejoice in it. Why? Because God Almighty changes
not. He is faithful. And then he says,
for thy righteousness sake, or in thy righteousness. Now that's
just like saying, for Christ's sake. Really. Hear my prayer, O Lord, give
ear to my supplications, in thy faithfulness answer me, and in
thy righteousness. In other words, for Christ's
sake. God only hears prayer for Christ's sake. God only forgives
for Christ's sake. Now when he says, for thy righteousness,
Christ is our righteousness. He is the righteousness of God. That's what the New Testament
declares unto us, for he has made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Christ, hear my prayer, oh God,
for Christ's sake. When we pray, and I know most
everyone knows from the New Testament that we must pray in Christ's
name, But it means more than just tacking that on to the end
of your prayer. It means recognizing God will
hear me. I have an audience with God for
Christ's sake. I come dressed in his righteousness
and he hears me. If I dare come in my own righteousness,
trusting in my own goodness, my own faithfulness, He's not
gonna grant my prayer, my request. No, for Christ's sake. Notice
the next verse, verse two. And enter not into judgment with
thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. Now that sounds a whole lot like
one of the other penitential psalms, Psalm 130, when David
said, if thou, Lord. Now think about this. If thou,
Lord, shouldest mark iniquities." I get the picture here. Here's
God, and He's keeping a record. And here's one, two, three, four,
and then slash over. There's five. There's ten. There's
one. Lord, if thou shouldest mark
iniquities, all my sins, you keep a record of them. Lord,
if you would do that, then He said, O Lord, who shall stand? In other words, who would be
saved? If it depended upon us, as he
says here in this verse, in thy presence, no sight, in thy sight
shall no man living be justified. No man is justified by what we
do. That's what he's saying. Because
our sins are so great. If it was just one sin, it doesn't
have to be hundreds of sin or thousands of sin, if it's just
one sin. If we do not have some way to
atone for that one sin, to cover that one sin, then God is not
going to declare us just or righteous. He just ain't going to do it.
And that's the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what the word atonement means. It means to cover. And he's covered
our sins with his precious blood. Yes, Abraham was justified. He lived in this world, but he
was not justified by his faithfulness. He was not justified by his goodness
or his righteousness. He was declared just. by the righteousness of Christ
being imputed unto him. Paul wrote in Romans 3, being
justified freely by his grace. I love that word freely, don't
you? Freely. You know, there's no free lunch.
You've heard that saying, haven't you? There's no free lunch. You
see these different advertisements and they'll tell you, you know,
there's so many bottles of this free and so many of that free. There's nothing. Oh yes, there
is something free in this world. And that is God's salvation. Being justified freely by his
grace. It wasn't free to Christ. He
had to pay. But don't you come, don't you
come thinking to pay anything. No, being justified freely by
his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. I want
to get down to my text. Let's go on, three and four.
His trouble was real, for the enemy hath persecuted my soul. He has smitten my life down to
the ground. He hath made me to dwell in darkness
as those that have been long dead. Therefore is my spirit
overwhelmed within me, my heart within me is desolate. And I
would just say this, if this was written at the trouble of
his son, what greater grief could a father have than for his son
to treat him like Absalom treated David? I saw a father one time fighting
with his son. I mean, fist fighting. And I
thought to myself, that's one of the saddest sights I believe
I've ever seen in my life. His trouble was real. There's
no question about that. Verses five and six. I remember
the days of old. I meditate on all thy works. I am used on the work of thy
hands. I stretch forth my hands unto
thee, my soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land." He was
in trouble and he used the means that God has given us when in
trouble to seek help. You notice the first thing he
did, he remembered. They remembered former days.
And when you're in the midst of trouble and everything is
dark and everything seems to be hopeless, think back. David could think back, you know,
one day I killed a lion. One day I killed a bear. How
did I do that? God, God gave me the strength. God helped me. One day I killed
a giant. How did he go forth to fight
Goliath? In the name of the Lord. And
he conquered, didn't he? He remembered. And yes, when
you're in darkness and gloom and despair and everything seems
against you, remember, hey, it hasn't always been like this.
I've known some sunshine in my life. I've lived on the sunny
side of the street some of my life. Remember, this too shall
pass. It'll only be here for a short
while, because I'm only going to be here for a little time.
And then he said, I lift up my hands, stretch forth my hands
unto thee. That's a sign of prayer, isn't
it, in the word of God. He stretched forth his hands.
And he said, my soul is like, you see this, the ground sometimes
here in our area during the summer, a hot summer, 100, 110 degrees,
and the ground just begins to break open. What's hungry, thirsty,
crying out for water, for drink. He said, that's the way my soul
is. That's my soul. That's what I'm experiencing.
Yeah, he knew trouble. And then verses seven and nine,
this really spoke to me. Hear me speedily, O Lord. My
spirit faileth. Hide not thy face from me. You
know, the scripture says the effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much. Well, I say my prayers. Do you? You ever get in earnest? Fervent? He did. Hear me speedily, O Lord. My
spirit faileth. Now notice this. Hide not thy
face from me. You know, most people, when they
pray, this is what they pray. Hide not thy hand from me. Hide not thy hand from me. Thy
hand is full of riches. It's full of all kinds of good
things. Hide not thy hand from me. No,
no. David said, hide not thy face
from me. In other words, it's you, Lord,
that I seek. It's not what you can give me.
It's not what you can do for me. No, God, I need thee. I want to see thee. I want to experience thee, O
God. Earnestness in prayer. Now, I want to do some sermonizing
with my text. First of all, the petition. Teach me to do thy will for thou
art my God. Now let that sink in. Teach me
to do thy will, for thou art my God. Now listen to me. How does God become anyone's
God? How did he become David's God? You say, well, there's only one
God, amen. Well, he's everyone's God. Well,
amen, but no, he's the God of some people in a special way. You say, well, how is that? The new covenant, the new covenant
that God said that he would make with the house of Israel in those
days. And one of the promises of that new covenant is, I will
be their God and they shall be my people. The only way that
God becomes, in this sense, this personal sense, the only way
that God becomes my God or your God is through Jesus Christ. There is no other way. There
is no other way. And as I thought about this,
I thought about the fact that when the Lord Jesus Christ was
hanging upon the tree, being made a curse, For the scripture
says, curse it is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. You say,
why was he made a curse? Why was Christ made a curse?
Because his people were cursed. We were cursed because of our
sin. And to deliver us, deliver his
people from the curse of the law, he became a curse. He was made a curse. And as he
was there on that tree, he cried out, my God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? And you know the answer to that.
He was forsaken. As mysterious as it is, he was
forsaken there while hanging on the cross by his God, that
God might become your God, might become my God, my God. Teach me to do, he didn't say
teach me to know thy will, or teach me to hear thy will. And
listen, where will we learn the will of God? He prayed, teach
me to do thy will. Where will we learn the will
of God? You say, well, I'm going to learn
the will of God out in the forest. I love nature. I love to be out
in the forest and the trees around me and the wind blowing in the
brook, you know, rippling down over the rocks. And, oh, it's
beautiful, isn't it? Oh, it is. And we see God's handiwork
in creation. But that's not where you're going
to learn the will of God. The only way and the only place
you're going to learn the will of God is right here. This book. This book. Teach me to do thy
will. I don't wanna just hear thy will.
I wanna do thy will. And then the second thing, we
see a confession. And oh, I like this as I thought
about it. Notice what he said. Teach me
to do thy will for thou art my God. Thy spirit is good. Oh, that blessed me. Thy spirit
is good. He's talking about the Holy Spirit,
and that's one of his titles. We find that again in Nehemiah
9 in verse 20. Thou gavest also thy good spirit
to instruct them. He's called the good spirit,
this is his title, and it's taken from his nature. First of all,
remember what the Lord told that rich young ruler? He came running
up to the Lord and kneeled down and said, good master, what must
I do to inherit eternal life? And the Lord said, why callest
thou me good? There's none good but one, that
is God, thy good spirit. The Holy Spirit, He is God as
the Father and as the Son. He is God. Yes, He's called the
Good Spirit from His nature, and He's also called the Good
Spirit because of His work. His work, for the fruit of the
Spirit is in all goodness. I was reading. the life of a pastor in England
in the late 1700s, William Jay, by name. Some of you may have
his morning and evening exercises. He was pastor for over 50 years
in Bath, England. But he tells in this book a reminiscence
of various men, various pastors that he met. John Newton was
one of them. But he tells about the man who
preceded him as the pastor there of that church, the first pastor
of that church. His name was Tupin, Mr. Tupin. Mr. Tupin one day filled his
pockets with little pebbles, little rocks. And he went to
hear George Whitfield preach. And the reason he filled his
pockets with rocks, he was going to try to disrupt the service
as best he could, throwing rocks at George Whitefield if the opportunity
presented itself. But as George Whitefield preached
the gospel, he said the first thing that God did, he removed
the rock out of my heart of flesh. And then I began to remove the
rocks out of my pockets. The Lord saved him. He was in
his 40s, I believe, when he died, just a young man. Who did that? Who so worked in
that man's heart? And who worked in your heart?
The Good Spirit. The Good Spirit, the Holy Spirit. When we were not seeking God,
He came seeking us. He came looking for us, and He
knew where we were, if we're one of His children today. He
knew exactly where to find us. Wasn't that good? What if He
had left us alone? What if He had passed over us?
He does many people. The good spirit, and He regenerated
us. He gave us a new life. And He
sealed us with Himself until the day of redemption. Oh, you
just go on and on and look at the work of the Holy Spirit.
No wonder He's called the Good Spirit. Aren't you thankful today
for God the Holy Spirit, as well as God the Father? who elected,
who chose his people, and God the Son who redeemed his people,
God the Spirit who calls his people and gives us a new life.
And then notice that last thing. Lead me into the land of uprightness. What land is that? What land is a land of uprightness,
of righteousness? of holiness. Well, I'll tell
you some things about that land. It's a land that has only one
gate. And Jesus is that gate. That's
right. It's a land where only righteous
people dwell. No one that is an unbeliever
or a liar enters into that place, no one. It's a land where there's
no troubles. It's a land where there's never
again any misunderstanding. Have you ever had a misunderstanding
maybe with your wife or your husband or your neighbor or some
brother or sister in Christ? Just a misunderstanding and it
grieves you, doesn't it? Can you imagine a land where
there's no misunderstandings, where God's people dwell together
in unity and peace and love and tranquility? Lead me, the psalmist
said, unto the land of uprightness. And I'll tell you one more thing
about this land. It's the land, the scripture
says, where there is no night. There is no night. And there's
no sun. And there's no moon. Well, you say, well, there must
be night then. A land where there's no night.
And yet there's no sun and there's no moon. No, no, it's a land
where there's no night. Why? Because the lamb. L-A-M-B, the Lamb. John the Baptist looked at him,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and said, Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sins of the world. There's no knife there because
the Lamb is the light of that city, the glory of that city. I prayed earlier. You heard me. Maybe you didn't understand what
I was saying. But I prayed that none of us
would leave this building this morning exactly as we came in. That God would use this message
in our hearts and in our lives to make a difference. Whatever
difference it needs to be, I don't know. But we don't come here just to
Because it's Sunday morning, do we? We come here to hear from
God. We come here to be blessed, to
learn the Word of God. And I trust that's what the Lord's
done for us here today. We're going to sing number 337,
and we'll be