If you would, open your Bibles
to start with 2 Samuel chapter 6. I want to start here in 2 Samuel
chapter 6 and then most of the time we'll spend in Psalm chapter
63. When I'm asked to preach twice
in one day, it gives me a whole new appreciation for our pastor.
We're blessed to have a pastor who fills the burden to bring
a message from the Lord to us time after time. And it's a work. It's a work. And I thank the
Lord for our pastor and pray the Lord will bless us today
as we worship as he's there in Louisiana today. But King David,
the sweet psalmist of Israel, He was a great king, wasn't he,
and a great writer, and God used him mightily to write the Psalms
that we turn to so often when we struggle. And as Brother Streeter
told us this morning, God said about him that he was a man after
his own heart, but we also saw this morning in the Sunday school
time that David, like us, he was a sinner. And like us, he
fell into sin and needed to be restored. David was a man saved
by the grace of God. And he was a man who loved to
worship God. You can't read the scriptures
and not see that David loved to worship God. And I want us
to see just an example of this here in 2 Samuel 6, verse number
12. You notice it says, And it was
told King David, saying, The Lord hath blessed the house of
Obed-Edom and all that pertaineth unto him because of the ark of
God. So David went and brought up
the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom into the city of
David with gladness. And it was so, that when they
that bear the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed
oxen and fatlings. And David danced before the Lord
with all his might, and David was girded with the linen aphid. You know that last statement
there, David was girded with the linen aphid. David, he put
aside his kingly robes, those things that distinguished him
from others, and he wanted to worship with the people of God,
just like the people of God. You see that here, and it says,
So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of
the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. And
as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michael, Saul's
daughter, looked through the window and she saw King David
leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in
her heart. And they brought in the ark of
the Lord and set it in his place in the midst of the tabernacle
that David had pitched for it. And David offered burnt offerings
and peace offerings before the Lord." Now you cannot read that
passage there, can you? And not see that David loved
to worship with the people of God. Now, if we fast forward
a few years later, David has to flee Jerusalem because his
son Absalom was attempting a coup against him and would have David
killed. And so David has to flee from
Jerusalem and away from the ark of God, that symbol of the worship
of Jehovah. He had to flee. And you remember
at first, Zadok and the priest, you imagine if you're trying
to flee, the last thing you want to do is go grab the ark. But
they knew how much David loved to worship God. And so Zadok
and the priest, they went and got the ark and started to follow
David out into the wilderness with the ark. And you remember,
David said to them, he said, carry back the ark of God into
the city. If I shall find favor in the
eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again and show me both it
and his habitation. So David flees out into the wilderness. And that's what I want us to
look at this morning. I want us to look at a Psalm
that he wrote when he was out in the wilderness. Look over
in Psalm chapter 63. Psalm chapter 63. Psalm 63, verse number one. Imagine
David out there fleeing from his son, the heartache that he
experienced out there. The son that he had loved, the
son who he had forgiven after he had done some horrible things,
and yet now he must flee from the city. And he writes, he says,
oh God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, oh God, thou art my God. Early will I seek thee. My soul
thirsteth for thee. My flesh longeth for thee in
a dry and thirsty land where no water is. O God, thou art
my God. You know, for those who have
a low esteem of God, that statement doesn't mean very much. But for
those of us who God in his grace and mercy has shown us just a
glimpse of just how great of how majestic God is and just
how insignificant we are. Men and women of the dust, right? And yet David could say, oh,
God, they aren't my God. My God, you're my God. Our Lord Jesus Christ, you remember
on the day that he rose again from the dead. You remember what
he told Mary to tell his disciples? He told her, he said, you go
to my brethren and you tell them I ascend to my father and your
father. To my God and your God. Oh God, you are my God. This word God here, the second
word translated God, it's the name of God, El. El, that is
the Almighty, the all-powerful Almighty One. David, what he
is actually saying here is, God, you are my Almighty One, my Almighty
One. The Almighty gives all of himself
to his people. Listen to me, he gives all of
himself, the almighty self that he is,
he gives all of himself to all of his people. You know, our
minds, we're not able to think as big as God. So we think of
God giving part of himself to all of his people. But that's
not what the scripture teaches. God is a perfect being, and he
doesn't do anything in part. God gives all of himself, all
that he is, to us as his people. He's not capable of partial or
imperfection action. You say, you mean to say that
all of God as a believer is yours, is ours? Yes. That's not what
I'm telling you. That's what the scripture tells
us. That all of God, that's what Paul said, if God before us,
who can be against us? He that spared not his own son,
but gave him for us all, how shall he not with him freely
give us all things? Well, someone might think, but
David, you're in so much trouble right now. You're fleeing like
a bird into the wilderness. It sure doesn't look like the
Almighty is yours. Has Satan ever brought that thought
to your mind when you're in trouble in this life? He has to me. You sure don't look like all
of God is yours. Oh yes, David would say, wherefore
should the heathen say, where is now their God? Now that we're
in trouble, our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever
he hath pleased. For I know that the Lord is great
and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
listen, whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in
earth and in the seas and in all deep places. Don't judge
your relationship to God and God being given himself all to
you by your circumstances in this life. David had every reason
to not write this song. But God blessed him with this
assurance, with this comfort, that God, you are my God. May we be able to say that this
morning. In spite of all of our troubles and struggles and sins,
oh God, you are my God. And who could not think of the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ when he was hanging upon the
tree, when he was suffering for our sins, for the sins of his
people? You remember, he cried out, he said, my God, my God,
why has thou forsaken me? Why have you turned your back
upon me? Well, we know why God had turned his back upon his
son is because he bore our own sins on his body to the tree.
And he was suffering in our place, suffering for our sins. But how
different his cry upon the cross than this comforting word from
David. Oh, God, you are my God. My friends, when we feel overwhelmed. You ever feel overwhelmed? I'm
the first to confess, there's many times in this world I feel
overwhelmed. But when we feel overwhelmed,
whether it be because of our sins, you ever feel overwhelmed
because of your sins? I do. I find, as Paul, that when
I would do good, evil is present with me, and the things that
I wouldn't do, those are the things I do, and the things that
I would do, I can't find a way to do them. Overwhelmed by sin. If we feel
overwhelmed by the hardness of our heart. You ever felt overwhelmed
by the hardness of your heart? I have. I want my heart to be
on fire and in love with God for his great mercy and love
wherewith he's loved me and sent his son to be my savior in the
propitiation for my sins and yet I find my heart is hard and
not what I want it to be. You ever feel overwhelmed because
of unbelief? I do. You ever feel that you
know these things are true, but you just struggle to find it
within yourself to believe? Overwhelmed by so many things. And yet, in the midst of all
that, you know, there's so many more I could mention. Sickness.
Sickness can overwhelm you, can't it? Sadness. And just the general
challenges of life. That's when, from our hearts,
we must say, in faith, oh God, you're my God. In the midst of
all this trouble, in the midst of being overwhelmed, in the
midst of all that I'm not that I should be, Lord, you're my
God. And that's enough. Like I said,
if God's for us, even if we're against ourself, who can be against
us? Now notice going on here in verse
one, he said, early will I seek thee. Early will I seek thee. Now this word early implies not
only a sense of early in the morning, But it speaks of eagerness,
of urgency, of priority, to seek God with urgency, with priority.
Now, some of you may not be morning people. So your best time of
the day may not be the morning. I've met some people that were
not morning people. I'm a kind of a morning person.
I get about the most use I'm ever going to get out of myself
is about the first 15 minutes. And then it goes all downhill
from there. But it's not speaking necessarily a first thing in
the morning. It's talking about our best time, whatever those
best times are, you know, to be eager, to make it a priority,
to seek the Lord. You know, the Lord Jesus said,
he says, seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. and all these things shall be
added unto you. There's responsibilities that
we have in life and yes, we have to work and we have to take care
of our homes and our children and all of those things. And
God knows that. He knows that. He's the one who
put us in this world with all these commitments and obligations
that we have. And yet the Lord Jesus still
said, seek you first the kingdom of God. and His righteousness
and all these things, they're gonna be added to you. You'll
have the things that you need. And you know, here's a wonderful
truth to think about. Those who seek the Lord will
find Him. Those who seek the Lord will
find Him. How do we find Him? We find Him
by faith. We find our Lord by faith. The scripture says that without
faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God
must believe that he is. And that's not just talking about
believing that he is the great I am, that I am, that God exists,
but that he is who he said he is in his word, that he's a God
ready to pardon. God's more ready to pardon than
we're to seek forgiveness and pardon. Must believe that he
is and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek
him. All who seek the Lord will find
him. I remember when I was at one
time in my life under very severe conviction for sin. God had taught
me just a little bit of his holiness and of his righteousness, and
that he would by no means clear the guilty. And I knew, beyond
the shadow of a doubt, that I am guilty. And I felt the burden
of my sins upon me. This is the verse that the Lord
used in that time in my life. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is. He is who he said he is. a God
that's ready to pardon, a God who's full of mercy and grace
for sinners, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently
seek Him. And maybe this morning you're
struggling. You're struggling with that burden of your sin,
and you know you've offended a holy God. Come to the Lord
Jesus Christ in faith, even right now. You say, well, how do you
know everyone who seeks the Lord will find him? I know that because
no man by nature seeks God. There's none good, no, not one.
There's none that seeketh after God. There's none righteous. So if you this morning have it
in your heart to seek the Lord, you will find him. Why? Because God put that desire in
your heart. And he hasn't said to the children
of Israel, seek you me in vain. God didn't say seek me just so
that we would seek and not find him. He's more ready to be found
than we are to seek. In fact, he's the one who's drawing
us. He's the one who's drawing you
this morning. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's calling
you to his son to be saved. And notice David goes on here
in verse one, and he says, he says, My soul thirsteth for thee. Have you ever thirsted for the
Lord? My soul thirsteth for thee. Oh,
that today we might be thirsty for the Lord. That may sound
strange, but it's a blessing to thirst for the Lord. The Lord
Jesus said, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness. Why? Because they're the ones
who are going to be filled. It's a blessing to be thirsty. Are you thirsty this morning?
I believe you have some thirst or you wouldn't be here. Lots
of things you could be doing today, right? Are you thirsty? I'm thirsty to know that God
has forgiven me by his grace. I'm thirsty to know that, to
know it in my heart, to have that assurance that in his grace,
he's forgiven me through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm thirsty to know that as I stand in front of you, a sinner who
confesses I'm a sinner, that I'm robed in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And before God, I am as perfect,
as holy as His Son is, just as righteous as if I had never sinned. I'm thirsty to know more of God. When I first wrote down my notes,
I wrote down to know more of God. I don't need to know more
about God, I do, but I need to know God more. Knowledge is good,
but only if it leads us to know our God more, to be able to walk
with him and to talk with him and to fellowship with him. Thirsty,
David said, my soul thirsteth for thee. And then he says, well,
before I go to the next point here, in another psalm, he wrote
this. He said, as the heart panteth
for the water brook. You know the picture there? Picture
there is of a deer who's running. That deer is being hunted either
by a human or another animal and he's running and he's running
and he's thirsty. And David says, as the heart
paneth after the water brooks, so paneth my soul after thee,
O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for
the living God. When? When shall I come and appear
before God? May God give us that thirst this
morning, and may he fill that thirst. In his mercy and grace,
may he fill our thirst. And then he says, my flesh longeth
for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. He desired with his whole self
at this time As we saw, David didn't always, that wasn't the
story of David at all times in his life. Saw that in the Sunday
school lesson. But at this point, God in his
mercy and grace created that passion, that longing in his
heart for God. He earnestly desired that he
might enjoy the presence of God. And truly, this world, I think everybody would confess
this world is a dry and thirsty land where no water is. This world and all the things
of the world, they have no spiritual good, no spiritual water to satisfy
the thirst of our souls. Now don't misunderstand what
I'm saying. There is a lot of good that God's blessed us with
in this world. If you have a wife that loves
you, a husband that loves you, if you have children, if God's
given you a job and he's given you a means to take care of your
family, and all these things, if you have your health or if
you've ever had your health in this world, those are good things.
But those things will not satisfy your soul. Yes, there's people in this world
apart from Christ that they, humanly speaking, they live a
good life, what people would call a happy life. But there
is always an emptiness within them. Why? Because our souls
can only be satisfied when we find our peace and our hope and
our joy and our comfort and our life in the Lord Jesus Christ. I look out in this group, and
there's people of all ages. Those of us who've lived a little
bit longer, there's several young people here. Listen to me. Listen to the psalmist here.
As you set out what you want to do in this world, what you
set your ambitions on, your life to reach, yes, work hard. Attempt to do the best that you
can. Whatever the Lord gives you to do, do it with all your
might. But above all, set your heart to know the Lord
Jesus Christ. Because apart from him, if you
live your life and it's a good life and you miss knowing him,
what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? There's no water in this world
for us spiritually. Notice verse two. I promise that
I won't go on a lot longer here. He said, to see thy power and
thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. To see,
he longed to see the power and the glory of God. Well, wait
a minute, David. You're out there in the wilderness.
Can't you see the power and glory of God out there? Don't you know
the stars, there wasn't lights like there are today and he was
out there in that desert, in that wilderness. Don't you know
the stars just lit up and the moon lit up where he was at? And he could see the hills out
there and he could see God's creation and all of those things. And David, can't you see the
power and glory of God? Yes, I can see some of God's
power and glory. That's not enough. That's not
enough. Yes, God gives us some manifestation
of his power and of his glory out there, but not like he does
in the sanctuary. That's what David longed for,
to see the power and glory of God as he had seen it before
in the sanctuary. But David, you know what's in
the sanctuary. You know the ark of God is there
and you know what happens there. Can't you just be out there in
the wilderness and do just as good as if you were to go to
the sanctuary? Apparently not. Apparently not. Why? Because David longed. He
longed to go to the sanctuary where God most clearly and most,
I don't know in a better way, most clearly manifests his power
and his glory to us as he reveals the power and glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ. As he reveals to us his power
and being able to choose a sinner. and to redeem a sinner, and to
call a sinner, to save a sinner, and one day to glorify a sinner. Where do we hear that clearly?
We hear it in the sanctuary as we hear what people call the
foolishness of preaching. God is chosen by the foolishness
of preaching to save those that believe. And that's where we
see God's power and His glory manifested. Here, here where
we come to hear God's Word preached. Some weak man like me gets up
here and tries to preach. And I can fumble and stumble
and all that, and God and His power and might can still take
it and bless it to your heart and show you the Lord Jesus Christ
and make you thirsty for Him. It's in the sanctuary that God's
chosen to clearly manifest the Lord Jesus Christ. not only his
power, but the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Where
do we see God's glory? We see it as we hear of his blessed
son. This statement I take directly
from something Charles Spurgeon said about this psalm. He said,
a weary place and a weary heart makes the presence of God more
desirable. A weary place and a weary heart
makes the presence of God more desirable. If there is nothing
without or nothing within to cheer our souls, how refreshing
it is for us to find our all in the Lord Jesus Christ as he's
presented in the sanctuary. There's no way I could try to
say that any better than that. Nothing without, nothing within
to cheer us. how precious it is in those times
to be able to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to find
our all in all in him. If we have him, we have everything,
regardless of how dire things look for us today in our life.
Now, I'll finish up here quickly. Look at verses three through
six. David said, because thy lovingkindness
is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will
I bless thee while I live. I will lift up my hands in thy
name. My soul shall be satisfied as
with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with
joyful lips when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee
in the night seasons. You see, when God demonstrates,
he manifests his lovingkindness to us, Those are the best times
and the best times we'll ever have in this life is when God
in his loving and see his loving kindness. We don't deserve. We
don't deserve God to display his love towards us, do we? But
when he does, there's no better time in life. Maybe this morning. You yearn, yearn for that time
when the Lord manifests himself to you in love. Oh may he do
so out of his grace and mercy to me. I had some other verses
for us to look at. Let's quickly, let us look at
Psalm 36. Psalm 36. Verse number five. I'll restrain from making any
comments. Let's just see what the Lord says here. Psalm 36,
verse 5. And try to, as we read these,
read these as words for you, believer. Thy mercy, O Lord,
is in the heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy
righteousness is like the great mountains. Thy judgments are
great deep. O Lord, thou preservest man and
beast. How excellent is thy lovingkindness,
O God! Therefore the children of men
put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly
satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make
them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the
fountain of life, and in thy light we shall see light. O continue
thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee, and thy righteousness
to the upright in heart. I said I was going to restrain
from comments, so I will. And there's nothing to add, nothing
I need to add to that. In closing, look at verse number
seven of Psalm 63. The psalmist said, because thou has
been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. Now we just saw in the last Psalm,
when you read, therefore in the shadow of thy wings, naturally
what we think he's gonna say, therefore in the shadow of thy
wings, I'm gonna trust. And that's what it says in Psalm
36. We just read that, but that's
not what he says here. He says, therefore in the shadow
of thy wings, I will rejoice. I'm gonna rejoice. David's life
was a mess. His life was a total mess. His throne had to flee from Jerusalem,
and his son had come in to take his place, and yet, in spite
of all that, in faith, David said, therefore, in the shadow
of your wings, I'm gonna rejoice. By faith, Lord, today I'm gonna
rejoice. I'm gonna rejoice for all the
good things that you've done for me already. Can't you say,
believer, God has been good to us? He gave his only begotten
son that we might live through him. Us who were enemies, us
who were opposed to him, God sent his son to live and die
for us, to suffer shame upon the cross and to redeem us from
our sins. I'm gonna be joyful today. I'm
gonna be joyful, Lord, under the shadow of your wings for
what you've already done for me. And Lord, I'm going to rejoice
for what you're still going to do for me. I know this morning,
a lot of you are struggling with different things in your life.
I have no doubt if you get an audience of two, there'll be
someone who's struggling. There's lots of struggles in
this life, isn't there? But I can say to every believer
here, for you, the best is still to come. The best is still to come. You
say, you mean things are gonna get better for me in this world?
I don't know. I don't know any more than you.
God hasn't told us that. But he has told us that our Savior's
gone to prepare a place for us. That we may be where he's at.
And that in his presence there is fullness of joy forevermore. And so I know beyond a shadow
of a doubt for every believer, for you, no matter what your
life's like today, the best is still to come. Thank God for
his mercy and his grace. Let's be dismissed in a song.
Thank you.