Let us open our Bibles this evening
once again to Psalm 19. I'll point out to us again, as
we read this Psalm, Psalm 19, that it easily divides itself
into three divisions. The first division, is verses
1 through 6. And in this division, we read
of God's book in creation. And that book tells all men that
there is a God. The second division in verses
7 through 11, and I spoke from this division this morning, tells
us of God's written book. and the excellence of the book,
the word of God, the Bible that we have. And then the last division
that we will look at tonight, beginning with verse 12, we have
a prayer and I've called it a very beautiful and a very useful prayer
for all of us. But let's read the entire Psalm
again. The first division, God's book
of creation. The heavens declare the glory
of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth
speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no
speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line
has gone out through all the earth in their words to the end
of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle
for the sun. which is as a bridegroom coming
out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end
of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it, and there's
nothing hid from the heat thereof. Now, beginning with verse seven,
God's written word, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting
the soul. The testimony of the Lord is
sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are
right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than
gold, yea, than fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, By them is thy servant
warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward. Now with
verse 12 begins the prayer. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from
presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over
me. Then shall I be upright, and
I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the
words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in
thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Before we look
at the words of this prayer itself, I want to say two things about
its author, that is, David. Two things about the author of
this prayer. First, David was a saint of God
who knew something about prayer. He was a saint of God who knew
something about prayer. And I just mention a few things
that We know that this servant of God knew about prayer, and
I trust that each of us may learn these same things. First of all,
he knew, David did, that true prayer originates in the heart. True prayer originates in the
heart. I want you to keep your places
here, but look back with me to 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel chapter 7, at these words
of David, when God had told him that he was going to build him
a house. Remember, David had a desire
to build a house for the Lord, a structure, an edifice of stone,
wood, and the way that his son Solomon built, but God would
not allow David to do that. But God did tell David, I will
build thee a house. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the son of David. The Lord Jesus Christ reigns
upon the throne of David. And that throne is an eternal
throne. But here in this passage of scripture,
if you look in verse 27, David said, For thou, O Lord of hosts,
God of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant, speaking of himself,
saying, I will build thee an house. Therefore, therefore,
because of what God had said, because of what God would do,
therefore have I found it in my heart, or hath thy servant
found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee. We know, or at least we all should
know, that salvation is a heart work. It's a heart work. It's not something from the outside. It's not turning over a new leaf
or anything like man's religion would tell people to do. You
notice that word, therefore, in this verse of scripture, in
David's words. Therefore, David prays from his
heart. He finds this prayer in his heart
because of what God had done. What God had done for him, not
what he could do for God, but rather what God did for him. Salvation, again, it's a heart
word. It's coming to rely upon what
God has done. Not upon what we can do to impress
God, to win God's favor, no. But to rest in what God himself
has done for us. The apostle Paul in Romans 10
and verse 10 declared, that man believeth unto righteousness
with the heart. The heart must be engaged. I know the heart in scripture
includes the understanding, it includes the affections, it includes
the will. And every part of man's heart
is engaged in true faith. We must first of all hear the
gospel. We must hear who Christ is and
what he has accomplished. And then our heart must go out
toward Him and love for Him and our will to follow Him, to take
up our cross and follow Him if we would be His disciples, to
forsake all for Christ. But my point here tonight simply
is this, that prayer is a matter of the heart. My family and I have watched
a series recently called My Crazy Vacation, My Family's Crazy Vacation. And it was about a family from
Canada, a man and his wife and two sons. The oldest son, I believe,
was 11 years of age and then one younger. And they leave Canada
and they are on their way for a vacation that's going to last
several months, if not years. And they are going to a very
secluded place in India. And it's a place where the monks,
Buddha, the Buddhist monks live. And for some reason, this man
wanted to take his family there and just see how primitive the
conditions were. But on their way, it's interesting,
they get on a cargo ship and they cross the ocean. And I think
the first place they came to land was Russia and then into
China. in Tibet and into India. That's where their ultimate goal
is, this place in India. But here's what I wanted to mention
tonight, why I bring this out. They go through Tibet and maybe
another country and to India where there's Hindu worshipers. And I thought to myself, Hinduism
must be Satan's masterpiece. It really must. How those poor,
benighted people worship many gods, and they are the most grotesque-looking
creatures and idols, and one of their gods was called the
monkey god. Can you imagine, and that's exactly
what Paul tells us about in Romans chapter one, isn't it? How that
man, having the knowledge of the true God, but did not wish
to retain that knowledge, has turned to these gods that he
manufactures, and as someone said, he'll always manufacture
a god, that he can control, not the God of the Bible, not the
God who is sovereign ruler over all. Oh no, man will always manufacture
in his mind a God or a number of gods that he or she can manipulate. It was sad to see them pass through
that episode, I thought, and especially the man, I thought,
Here's a man of the house, man who's responsible under God for
his wife and for his children and what they believe, what they
are taught. Because after all, the scriptures
tell us that man is the head of the home. And he was so impressed
that his oldest son at least seemed to be spiritual. seeing
that paganism and the worship of the many false gods, how his
young son was impressed with that. Aren't you thankful today? And you children here tonight
should be thankful that you have a father and a mother who teach
you the truth from the word of God, from the scriptures, that
there's one God, And He is the Lord God. And He is the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. But my point again is these prayer
wheels. I mean, some of those things
were hard to turn. And especially the little boys,
they'd try to turn that wheel. They had to get some help to
turn that wheel. And I guess as it turns around,
it it goes to a certain god or up
in the heaven somewhere. And then, other than that, they
take these prayer requests and they write them out like, what
would we call it, a ribbon or something like that, and place
it on a line, and of course it's very windy there, and supposedly,
as the wind blows, That prayer goes up to God. How foolish. But you see, it's
a spiritual deception, isn't it? Men of high degree of learning,
PhDs, can be ensnared in this false religion just as much as
a person who has no formal education. Why? Because it's a deception
of Satan. Prayer, to think that there's
some kind of mechanical way to pray. No, prayer must be a matter
of the heart. And our Lord warned against repetition,
didn't He? Now that some people just repeat,
so-called Christian people just repeat the same prayer over and
over. They've learned it and they say
it by memory. No prayer. I'm saying this that
David, this prayer that we're looking at tonight, the author
of this prayer, he knew something about prayer. And he knew that
prayer must be a heart work. It is a heart work. And he knew something else about
prayer. He knew that God answers prayer
according to His will. According to God's will, He answers
prayer. If we have this confidence, that
if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. Some people have the idea that
if they get together with some other people and ask for things,
that God is duty-bound to grant them what they ask. We ask, not
our will. This is the way the Lord Jesus
Christ taught us to pray. Father, not my will, but thy
will be done. And David knew that God, yes,
he answers prayer. He grants the request of his
people, but he does so according to his will. And he knew this as well, that
God answers prayer. He does, he answers prayer. Let me show you one example back
again in 2 Samuel chapter 15. David knew that God answers prayer. He answers according to his will,
but he answers prayer. And second, Samuel chapter 15
in verse 31. And this is when David was fleeing
from his own son, Absalom. Remember, Absalom tried to steal
the kingdom away from his father, David. And David had to flee,
had to run. And one of David's counselors
was named Ahithophel. And the Bible tells us that Ahithophel's
word was just like an oracle of God. And here in this verse,
chapter 15 and verse 31, word comes to David. One told David,
saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. Notice
David's prayer. Notice how short it is. Effectual
prayer doesn't have to be long. Many people think, well, you've
got to pray an hour, or, you know, you've got to pray so long.
No, these prayers, like we read up here, are called ejaculatory
prayers, and they can be, Hannah prayed in her heart, remember
that? You don't have to speak your words out, articulate your
prayer, but in your heart. Hannah prayed, and she prayed
an effectual prayer, didn't she? She prayed for her son, and God
gave her a son, Samuel. That's what Samuel means, isn't
it? Ask of the Lord. But here, when David heard that
this counselor of his, who he knew, he knew that his word was
true and right, and notice what he prayed, David said, O Lord,
I pray Thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. And you read on the story, we
won't do it tonight, but you know, God answered that prayer,
didn't He? Ahithophel told Absalom, you
better go now. You better go now. If you're
going to defeat your father, if you're going to take the kingdom
away from him, don't wait until tomorrow. And one of David's
loyal counselors gave Absalom counsel, no, you better wait. Do this, do that, and do the
other. And the providence of God gave
David the time he needed and those with him to escape. So first of all, this prayer
that we're looking at tonight is a prayer of David who was
a saint of God who knew something about prayer. He knew a good
deal about prayer. And second, David was a saint
of God who knew something about sin. And I mention this because
part of this prayer has to do with forgiveness. I know this from the word of
God. that David knew that he brought
sin with him into this world. He knew that. Because in Psalm
51, in his prayer of repentance, he prayed and he said, in sin
did my mother conceive me. I was shapen in iniquity. In
other words, he knew something about what men have come to call
original sin. that a person doesn't become
a sinner by sinning. That's what some people would
like to believe, that you come into this world and you just
have a clean slate and you're on probation. No, David knew
that a person sins because he is a sinner. A woman sins because
she is a sinner, born, shapen in iniquity, conceived in sin. We bring sin with us into this
world. He knew that. And he knew this too. He knew
that all sin is ultimately against God. Against thee and thee only
have I sinned, O God. You say, well, David, you sinned
against Bathsheba. Yes. You sinned against her husband. Yes. But all sin is ultimately
against God. Sometimes we've heard and we've
seen stories where someone is a victim of a crime. And the
person who's convicted of the crime, who's guilty of the crime,
they appear in court and the victim says, I forgive you. Well,
that's good, I'm sure, for that person to be able to do that.
But I just hope that the perpetrator of the crime doesn't think that
because his victim forgave him, that that sin has been forgiven. I was on a jury pool one time
and the lawyer asked me, he asked me, he said, who can forgive
guilty person? I said, God, he's the only one
who can forgive. And they didn't want me to serve
on the jury. But that's true because all crimes,
all sin is ultimately against God. David knew that. Against
thee and thee only have I sinned. And he knew also, and this is
a wonderful thing, he knew also that there's forgiveness with
God. He did know that. He knew that there was forgiveness
with God. Turn over to Psalm 86 with me
just a moment. 86 in verse 5. This is truly an
amazing verse. Reading along through the Psalms
and you come up upon this verse and it just Startles you, it
just stands out. Psalm 86 in verse 5. For thou,
Lord, art good, notice this, and ready, ready to forgive,
and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. God
is more ready to forgive the sinner than the sinner is to
seek forgiveness. In fact, if it were not for the
grace of God and the power of God in causing a man to seek
forgiveness, no one would ever seek forgiveness. Never asked
to be forgiven. But God is ready to forgive. And he knew this also. He knew
that God is able to wash one Think about this. He knew that
God is able to wash one that is guilty and make that one whiter
than snow. Wash me, he said, cleanse me,
purge me with his, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. And I believe he knew this also.
He knew that sin brings death. Sin brings death. You know, James
in the New Testament tells us this. He said, every man is tempted
when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when
lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. When it is finished,
it bringeth forth death. When David that night was walking
on the palace roof and saw that beautiful woman bathing herself,
and lust immediately sprung up in his heart, concupiscent. That lust immediately sprung
up in his heart, but it ended in death, just like James tells
us. Sin, or lust, when it is conceived,
bringeth forth sin, and when sin is finished, it bringeth
forth death, death. We say, we have a saying about
sowing to the wind and reaping the whirlwind, and David, he
did that, didn't he? He sowed to the wind and he reaped
the whirlwind. And we see the death that took
place, the death of his young child. The death of others, other of
his sons as well. In fact, the sword did not depart
from David's house. So we have a prayer here we're
going to look at hurriedly now from a man who knew something
about prayer and he knew something about sin. First of all, verse
12, David prayed for cleansing grace. For cleansing grace. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. just described God's Word as
perfect, pure, and clean. And when he looked into the Word
of God, and the same is true of you and of all of us, when
we look into God's perfect, pure, clean Word, it's like a mirror,
a mirror that we look into and we see the need of cleansing. In Psalm 119, he said, I have
seen an end to all perfection, but thy commandment is exceeding
broad. Now, when David has to be cleansed
from secret faults, he's not talking about sins that he did
in secret. He thought was in secret and
nobody knew about it. That's not what he's talking
about. What he is speaking about here is sins of ignorance. Sins that we are guilty of. Many times we don't even realize
that we're guilty of sin. In the law, maybe you want to
turn back here to Leviticus chapter 4. But God had an offering, a
sacrifice for the sins of ignorance in Leviticus chapter 4. In verses 1 and 2 we read, And
the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel,
saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the
commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be
done, and shall do against any of them, the man shall sin through
ignorance. Look down to verse 13. Leviticus
4 and verse 13. And if the whole congregation
of Israel sinned through ignorance, look at verse 22. When a ruler
has sinned and done somewhat through ignorance against any
of the commandments of the Lord. And verse 27, and if any one
of the common people sinned through ignorance. There are sins of
ignorance. which may have been committed,
as John Gill said, having been done unobserved and through inadvertency,
or were forgotten that they were done, or were done through error
and mistake. These sins are what the apostle
calls in Hebrews, the errors of the people. They're straying
out of the way through ignorance, through inadvertency. And I like what one of the writers
said. This passage here in Leviticus,
which deals with the sins of ignorance, the New Testament
verse that coincides with it, 1 John chapter one and verse
nine, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. David
prayed for cleansing. Is there ever a day Is there
ever a day when we do not need to pray? Those of us who know
Christ as our Lord and Savior, is there never a day that we
do not need to pray and ask the Lord to cleanse us, to wash us
from our sins? You say, yes, but they've already
all been washed. I know that, but as we do commit
sin, It's not going to change a person's relationship as far
as his being a son of God, but it does concern our communion
with God when sin comes between us and our Heavenly Father. Now
here's a second thing about this prayer. David prayed for preventing
grace. Verse 13, keep back thy servant
also from presumptuous sins. He prayed for preventing grace.
He prayed that he would be kept from presumptuous sins as well
as all other sins. Now this enforces the truth that
in man, you know this is so, but let me remind us of it. This
enforces the truth. Here we have a man of God. The
scripture describes him as a man after God's own heart and yet
he is praying and asking God to keep him back from presumptuous
sins. You know what presumptuous sins
is? It is to sin knowing that you're
going to sin and just do it anyway. Just go on in spite of the fact
that you know it's wrong. Keep back, but this enforces
the fact that there still remains in every child of God. He was
a son of God, a saint of God. There still remains in every
child of God, that which we refer to as the flesh or the old man. And even though the flesh no
longer reigns in a true believer, It still remains. It still remains. Now, I know some people try to
teach that men and women live without sin in this world, but
that's an awful mistake. That's an awful error for anyone
to embrace because the word of God certainly doesn't teach that. Notice he said that he would
be innocent from the great transgression. What is that, the great transgression? Well, there are probably as many
ideas and suggestions as there are writers on this song. Some say it refers to the great
sin, to the much wickedness, heinous transgressions, and many
other suggestions. But one writer, and I think this
is the best maybe, he said this, keep back thy servant from presumptuous
sins, and then I will not be guilty of the great transgression. In other words, from committing
one presumptuous sin usually follows a whole litany of other
sins. when a person sins presumptuously. Now third, David prayed for sanctifying
grace in verse 14. Sanctifying, so he prayed first
of all for cleansing grace, secondly for preventing grace, thirdly
for sanctifying grace. Let the words of my mouth and
the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight. He mentions two particular areas,
the mouth, the words of his mouth, and the meditation of his heart. And let me just say this about
the words of a believer's mouth. It goes without saying that no
unclaimed words, according to what Paul tells us in the New
Testament, Colossians chapter eight, no unclaimed words should
proceed out of a believer's mouth. He said, but now you also put
off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication
out of your mouth. So no unclaimed words, no lying
words should proceed out of a believer's mouth. Again, the apostle said,
wherefore putting away lying, every man speak the truth with
his neighbor. There should be no unkind words
which proceed out of a believer's mouth. Be ye kind, tenderhearted. There should be no idle words
that proceed out of a believer's mouth, which we must give account
one day at the judgment. And I would just remind us of
this, James the Apostle said, for in many things we offend
all. If any man offend not in word,
the same as a perfect man, a mature man, the same as a mature believer,
and able also to bridle the whole body. And then he speaks of the
meditation of his heart. The meditation, what do we think
on? What do we meditate and muse and turn over in our minds? Paul said this, finally, brethren,
whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever
things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if
there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on These
things. Meditate on these things. Things that are true and honest
and lovely and of a good report and virtuous. Think on these
things. And the last thing about this
prayer, David prayed to his Lord. You notice he said in the last
part of the verse, Oh Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. It is not enough to know that
Jesus Christ is the Redeemer, but we must know that He is my
Redeemer, our Redeemer. And the thing about Christ being
the Redeemer, remember this, He is the Redeemer and He is
the redemption price. His blood is at redemption price. We're not redeemed with corruptible
things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. I pray that
we would profit from looking at this prayer of this man and
God teach us to pray like the disciples came to his to their
master that day and said, Lord, teach us to pray. Teach us to
pray. God, teach us. Teach us to pray. To believe God, to trust God,
to call upon God. All right, David, let's sing
a hymn.