[0:00] We can begin by singing from Psalm 103 and verse 8 to 13.
[0:21] The Lord our God is merciful and he is gracious, long-suffering and slow to wrath, in mercy plenteous.
[0:33] He will not chide continually, nor keep his anger still. With us he dealt not as we sinned, nor did we quite our ill. For as the heaven and its height, the earth surmounted far, so great to those that do in fear his tender mercies are.
[0:51] As far as east is distant from the west, so far is he from us removed in his love all our iniquity. Such pity as a father hath unto his children dear, like pity shows the Lord to such as worship him in fear.
[1:10] We'll sing these verses. The Lord our God is merciful and he is gracious, He will not chide continually, nor keep his name.
[2:01] Our God is merciful and he is gracious, nor keep his anger still. When us he dealt not as we sinned, nor did we quite our ill.
[2:26] For us from heaven and his life, the earth surmounted far, so great to those that do in fear. The earth surmounted far, so great to those that do in fear. The earth surmounted far, so great to those that do in fear. The earth surmounted far, so great to those that do in fear.
[2:38] are yeah yeah I'll teach this mission from the west, so I can't be.
[3:21] From the street to the midst of all the living with thee.
[3:40] Such is He as the Father of the children here.
[3:58] Like many angels the Lord to such as worship in India.
[4:20] Shall we pray? Lord, we would give you thanks that you are the unchanging God.
[4:42] The psalmist was able to say that you are merciful and gracious and slow to wrath through his own experience.
[4:54] And we can say the same. That as we look at life and the various things we have gone through, over it we can write, The Lord our God is merciful and He is gracious.
[5:13] Long suffering and slow to wrath in mercy clenteous. It's good for us that that's the case. Because the reality of our spiritual state is that we are always in need of your mercy.
[5:33] And we realize that your mercy is something very great. It's more than pardon. Although it's always connected to your pardon.
[5:48] But your mercies are wide ranging. And along with forgiveness, you provide other spiritual benefits and blessings.
[6:01] And we pray, Lord, that as we have our communion weekend, that that would be very real in our hearts. That we would be coming to it as those who are penitent.
[6:17] But also as those who are expectant. And that we would realize that, as the psalmist says elsewhere, that goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our life.
[6:34] And these two things are together. Your goodness and your mercy. We thank you, Lord, that you thought upon us when we were far from you.
[6:49] And you arranged your own method of delivering us from our sins. And we know about the gospel and what the Savior suffered instead of his people.
[7:05] And what he is now engaged in as their prophet, priest and king. And we thank you, Lord, for the fact that in addition to us being active, that the Savior is active.
[7:24] And that he is involved in our service. And that he is involved in it according to his roles.
[7:37] That he is our prophet, our teacher. He is our priest who sympathizes with us and helps us. And he is our king who can protect us as we meet together.
[7:54] Protect us from spiritual attack. From the devil's distractions. From a whole range of things that may happen within us.
[8:08] In order to prevent us getting conscious contact with himself. But we do pray, Lord, that as we have our communion season.
[8:23] That interaction with Jesus would be very real. And that we would appreciate in a spiritual manner.
[8:37] That he is working for our good. So we pray that whatever is said through his word would be good for our souls.
[8:50] And that by the Holy Spirit we would be affected by it all. We thank you that the Lord's Supper is a means of grace.
[9:03] And as we head towards it. That we would be marked by anticipation. And also that once it is over.
[9:15] We know that the blessing is not confined to the moment. And therefore this channel, this means of grace.
[9:31] Can flow alongside us into the days ahead. And we live very much in a world where we need divine help. There's lots of things that are detrimental to us in a spiritual way.
[9:49] And therefore we need your heavenly provision. And we pray that what you provide this weekend. Whether through fellowship.
[10:00] Or through what's done in public. That you yourself would cause it to have long term effects. So Lord remember us as we're here.
[10:13] And bless us. Remember those who maybe are prevented from coming. And we ask you Lord to bless them where they are. Remember any who are not well.
[10:25] We pray that you would meet with them where they are. And that they would discover. That you are the God who knows where his people are. And can minister to them.
[10:39] So be with us Lord we pray in our service. We ask you to keep us. With the devil away from us. And from any schemes he has against us.
[10:52] At this particular time. That you would prevent that happening. So remember us then in our service. And pardon us we pray. For Christ's sake.
[11:04] Amen. We'll sing again to God's praise. This time Psalm 130. Psalm 130.
[11:17] Lord from the depths to thee I cried. My voice Lord do thou hear. And to my supplications voice. Give an attentive ear.
[11:29] Lord who shall stand. If thou will Lord. Choose marked iniquity. But yet with thee forgiveness is. That feared thou mayest be. I wait for God.
[11:41] My soul doth wait. My hope is in his word. More than they that for morning watch. My soul waits for the Lord. I say more than they that do watch.
[11:52] The morning light to see. That Israel hope in the Lord. For with him mercies be. And plenteous redemption is ever found with him.
[12:03] And from all his iniquities. He Israel shall redeem. We can sing this Psalm. Amen. Amen. Lord from the depths to thee I cry.
[12:23] My voice Lord do thou hear. Lord from the depths to thee I cry. My voice Lord do thou stand.
[12:55] If the Lord should smile in equity, I'll get with thee forgivenesses, not fear the latest peace.
[13:26] I wait for all my soul and wait, my hope is in His Word.
[13:45] For them may have a morning watch, my soul is for the Lord.
[14:05] I say, for them may lie to watch, the morning night to see.
[14:24] Great is Israel, hope in the Lord, all within mercy's feet.
[14:43] On plenty of creation, His heaven falls within.
[15:01] And from all His ceremonies, He is treasured redeem.
[15:31] We can turn to the Book of Psalms and we can read Psalm 40. To the chief musician, a Psalm of David.
[16:01] I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings.
[16:20] And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
[16:43] Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works, which thou hast done, and thy thoughts, which are to usward, they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee.
[16:54] If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire.
[17:05] Mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then I said, or then said I, Lo, I come, and the volume of the book it is written of me.
[17:21] I delight to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation.
[17:32] Lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation.
[17:46] I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation. Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord.
[17:58] Let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have compassed me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up.
[18:15] They are more than the hairs of mine head. Therefore my heart faileth me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me.
[18:29] Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.
[18:40] Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha. Let those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee.
[18:53] Let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified. But I am poor and needy. Yet the Lord thinketh upon me.
[19:06] Thou art my help and my deliverer. Make no tarry, O my God. And may God bless that reading to us.
[19:19] We can sing again, this time, Psalm 142. I, with my voice, cried to the Lord, with it made my request.
[19:32] Poured out to him my plaint, to him my trouble I expressed. When in me was or well my spirit, then well thou knewest my way. Where I did walk, a snare for me they privily did lay.
[19:47] I looked on my right hand and viewed, but none to know me were. All refuge failed me, no man did, for my soul take care.
[19:58] I cried to thee, and I said, Thou art my refuge, Lord, alone. And in the land of those that live, Thou art my portion. Because I am brought very low and tend unto my cry.
[20:13] Me for my persecutor save who stronger are than I. From prison bring my soul that I thy name may glorify. The just shall compass me when thou with me dealst bounteously.
[20:28] We can sing the psalm. I with my voice guide to the Lord, with him I be friends, for I will hear my faith I cling to him I drop the light as best When in me walks or well my spirit Then well I use my way where I can walk and share for me
[21:37] It will be day I put on my right hand and you when To Mao say I hold at verse H in mother Street much for my soul take water To thee I set the war, my refuge for God own.
[22:38] Out in the land of those that live, thou art my portion.
[22:53] Because I am prophetic, O art and unto my kind.
[23:13] Need of my mercy, your mercy, your strong heart and I.
[23:31] From this land bring my soul that I, thy name may glorify.
[23:48] The just shall compass me when I with me till the just be.
[24:06] Amen. We can turn back to Psalm 40 there in the book of Psalms.
[24:19] And I'd like us to read again the first three verses of the Psalm. I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me and heard my cry.
[24:34] He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God.
[24:51] Many shall see it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. As I'm sure we know, Psalm 40 is a very interesting psalm.
[25:19] Of course, all the psalms are interesting. But they're not all interesting for the same reasons. But this particular psalm, well, one contribution to what makes it interesting is that verses 6 and 8 are quoted in Hebrews chapter 10.
[25:47] And they're quoted in Hebrews chapter 10 as applying to Jesus. Which, of course, does anything else in the psalm apply to Jesus?
[26:06] I mean, there are some psalms, the entirety of which apply to Christ. Like psalms 22 or Psalm 110.
[26:20] There are other psalms that are quoted in the New Testament, such as Psalm 45, which may or may not entirely apply to Christ.
[26:35] And Psalm 40 finds itself in a similar category to Psalm 45. How much of it applies to Jesus?
[26:50] Well, I suppose verse 12 of Psalm 40 would indicate that the psalm in its entirety cannot apply to Christ.
[27:01] Because there in verse 12, David, the author, complains about his innumerable evils have compassed me about.
[27:15] Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of mine head. Therefore, my heart faileth me.
[27:31] Some people, when they look at that, well, they regard the verse because they think the entire psalm applies to Jesus.
[27:43] So they suggest with regard to verse 12 that he's talking there about sins that were imputed to him. And, of course, they may be right.
[27:56] But it kind of looks to me that the verses following the section that is quoted in Hebrews 10, these verses from Psalm 40, they don't really picture Christ.
[28:17] But having said that, what about the verses that occur before verse 6?
[28:28] Where there's a picture of his, David's deliverance out of some mighty clay that he found himself in, and so on.
[28:45] And do they apply to Christ? And, of course, some people have looked at that and they, not surprisingly, think that there could be a picture here of the pit that Jesus found himself in on the cross.
[29:07] And that from that pit he was raised and his feet were set upon a rock and his goings were established.
[29:19] And following on from that he's got a new song to sing which, of course, fits in with pictures of him in the book of Revelation.
[29:30] So, some people think that there we have a very graphic picture of Jesus. And of course, they may be right.
[29:46] Because, as Spurgeon said, even as there's a road from every village that leads to London, so there is a road from every verse that leads to Jesus.
[30:04] So, no doubt, some people regard these verses as illustrating Jesus. And, of course, if you do, I'm not trying to stop it.
[30:17] But it looks to me as if what's happening here in these first five verses is applying to David himself. his own experience.
[30:31] Maybe both are there. As I say, we all have to make up our own minds on that one. But one thing that did strike me about the psalm and its structure is that Jesus should be central.
[30:49] Because verses six and seven and eight are there in the middle of the psalm. and there is something intriguing about the structure because there's a man who's been given a great deliverance and that's wonderful.
[31:09] But it's not so wonderful as Jesus. so after his deliverance he is led by the spirit to describe Christ and subsequently he finds himself in a state where his sins bother him.
[31:35] And it's always good, isn't it, to know Jesus before our sins really bother us.
[31:49] So as psalmist here God has given us I think a kind of lesson that when we get deliverances think of Christ but also think about him because you never know when you're going to be burdened about your sins.
[32:14] And the best preparation for that is thoughts of Christ. Not that they ever lead us into sin but they are good preparations for when the spirit convicts us of our sins.
[32:35] Because something that may not particularly bother us today might bother us tomorrow or the day after.
[32:48] And the way to prepare for that is to think about Christ and his perfection because as we can see from verses 6 and 7 and 8 Jesus is referring to his own perfection and therefore it's good for us to think about that.
[33:14] Now David here is obviously writing a psalm psalm. He's conscious that that's one of his roles.
[33:28] He was aware of that. And many of the psalms that he composed refer to his own spiritual experiences and we sang two of them earlier on.
[33:41] We're not told to compose Psalm 130 but the other two that we sang were written by David. And as far as his he's not writing a diary extract that nobody else will ever see but he's used his own experience to compose this song that others will sing.
[34:16] And we have to ask ourselves what's his point? What's the point of Psalm 14?
[34:31] And I suppose the answer is that eventually God answers prayer. I think that's certainly the point of the first verse anyway.
[34:42] but I think we can see that throughout the psalm that eventually God answers prayer. And it may be that the petitions that he mentions at the end of the psalm and he mentions several are all connected to the fact that in verse one he was aware that eventually God answered his prayer.
[35:09] And that surely interests all of us doesn't it? Because no doubt all of us have personal concerns and we say to ourselves when is God going to do something about it?
[35:33] We're aware of his many promises but sometimes they seem a million miles away and we are puzzled perhaps even distressed.
[35:52] And I think the point that David is writing because he always writes sympathetically and the point that he is stressing here for others is to say well I can tell you that eventually God answers prayer.
[36:15] As I was thinking about these verses one man referred to a statement that Augustine the church father said which I thought was quite encouraging and this is what Augustine himself said the Lord although he puts off the fulfillment of his promises yet never recalls them.
[36:45] And I think that's encouraging. Our wise heavenly father puts off for a while the fulfillment of his promises yet he never recalls them in the sense of taking them from us.
[37:07] He's just waiting. So in Psalm verse one it's not just the psalmist who's waiting.
[37:24] The psalmist describes himself I waited patiently for the Lord. But at the same time the Lord is waiting. And no doubt they're waiting for different reasons.
[37:38] But that's the way it is. Anyway I wanted us to think about these three verses that I've just read and four points basically.
[37:53] There's the realization that the psalmist had. That as he was waiting for God to do something he realized something.
[38:07] And then there's the response of God himself. As this as David is going through this process of waiting what is God doing?
[38:23] And we're told what he is doing. in the second half of verse one. He's listening. And then thirdly I want us to think about the rescue that came the psalmist's way as he came out of this cistern that he describes in verse two.
[38:49] And then there's the rejoicing. the new song that's put in his mouth that others see. The others didn't see him waiting because how could they?
[39:08] But they did see him rejoicing. And there's an obvious lesson for us there. so this realization that the psalmist had.
[39:22] I waited patiently for the Lord. No doubt we've heard that literally it's I waited with waiting.
[39:37] And that's just a Hebrew way of speaking. It doesn't make sense really in English. So we have to translate the second waiting with another word.
[39:53] And our translators as we can see have gone for the word patiently. And obviously that's one legitimate way of looking at it because if you're waiting and waiting with waiting there must be a certain element of patience in that.
[40:18] And the word patience could just point to submission. A recognition that God is sovereign and we just have to wait patiently for him to do something.
[40:37] and maybe that is what Sam is distressing but it is also possible that instead of patiently it could mean expectantly because why keep on waiting?
[41:00] I mean if a person doesn't have any anticipation that God is going to answer is he going to continue waiting?
[41:13] So I would suggest that in addition to the man's patience because certainly patience is there but there are different kinds of patience aren't there?
[41:30] And it looks that he's waiting for the Lord. So that points to expectation. He knows that at some stage God is going to answer him.
[41:47] But why is he going to answer him? How does this man know that God is going to answer him? And I think the answer to that question is found in the name he uses of God.
[42:03] As we know the word Lord, L-O-R-D, when it appears in capitals, it highlights him as Jehovah or Yahweh, the God who doesn't change, the I am, the I am, the God that revealed himself by that name to Moses there just before the exodus.
[42:34] And God says to Moses in that location, I have heard the groanings of my people in Egypt and I am about to deliver them.
[42:46] And looking at that particular initial unfolding of the meaning of God's name, well, the people were, I suppose, struggling very badly with their circumstances because they knew all about the promises that have been made to Abraham, but over four centuries have passed and where's God?
[43:14] What's he doing? Well, he tells Moses what he's been doing. He's been listening. I have heard the cries of my people.
[43:26] people. They were doing it for a long time, obviously far longer than an individual can do in their lifetime, but it's still the same idea, isn't it? Here's a great eternal God, the I am that I am.
[43:44] But he's there, unchanging. And what he did, way back at the beginning of Israel's history, as far as his people are concerned, David says, what he did for the mass, he does for me as an individual.
[44:05] And although I'm in this mess, it's not as bad as my forefathers were when they were in the problem of Egypt, but the God I worshiped took them out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and he's more than able to bring me out of this pit that I'm in, whatever the pit was, and deliver me spectacularly, and in a way that's going to cause people to celebrate.
[44:39] great. And that's all revealed in this name. Whenever we see the name Lord in capitals, we can almost write beside it, the God who yet will act, the God who will yet do something, something in line with his power and wisdom and knowledge.
[45:01] God. And that was true of David, and it's also true of us. He's the covenant God, the one who can be relied upon, dependent upon.
[45:17] And David, you know, he's persisting to pray. He waited patiently, or he waited expectantly for the Lord.
[45:29] Lord, as we know, there's two kinds of prayers, isn't there? There's prayers we may offer a couple of times, and then they're gone.
[45:50] And the fact that they're gone doesn't mean that they were not real, but they're we can put it this way, there was no burden attached to them.
[46:04] No personal pressure on us to keep praying. And I'm sure that's maybe happened this past week.
[46:17] And we might have prayed earnestly for something a week ago, and today if somebody said to us, well, what did you pray about? It would be a struggle to remember.
[46:28] But there are other partitions that we can't let go. And they just are there.
[46:43] And that's the kind of prayer that David has here. He can't let it go. He doesn't, as it were, sit back and fold his arms and say, well, obviously this is divine providence for me, and therefore I shouldn't pray to get out of it.
[47:02] Something is making him persist in his prayers. And of course, that's a sign that the prayer came from God, isn't it? That this burden is just there and it won't go.
[47:21] But the burden is expectant. that somehow God is going to get the person out of the dilemma that he or she is in.
[47:33] And David therefore prayed to the Lord in that way. And I suppose we sing these verses and we sing them often. And I suppose there's the possibility that we just sing them because we know them.
[47:51] but how do we react to God in all the dilemmas of life? Is our faith expectant?
[48:08] That we anticipate him doing something that seems very unlikely from every other angle.
[48:22] But that only the Lord can solve this burden, whatever it is. And it's not escapism to depend on God.
[48:40] It's faith. It's expectancy. It's honoring to him. to keep on believing that this situation is an occasion or something that by answering it, he reveals that he's the unchanging God.
[49:13] It's great encouragement, isn't it? It's burdens about ourselves, and we've all got burdens in that way, or burdens about others, the living God, the God who can put us into a situation of no escape, and show that there is a way of escape.
[49:44] And David discovered that. And it's good to wait upon the Lord just to go into his presence and express our trust to him, to say to him that we are dependent on him, and we expect him, not because we deserve it, but because of who he is, the unchanging God.
[50:24] So David realized that. I don't know how old he was when he wrote Psalm 40. certainly seems to be an adult as he does it.
[50:39] And we also know that David was a believer from his very young years, and maybe he had to learn this lesson repeatedly, to wait patiently for the Lord.
[50:59] But he did. And eventually God heard. And that's good to know. As I said, what was God doing through all this long days and nights?
[51:21] Well, as David says, he was listening. He inclined unto me and heard my cry. now, David was careful about his words.
[51:41] And he didn't have to say that God inclined to him, did he? If he had missed out, inclined unto me and just said he heard my cry, it would be an accurate description of what had taken place.
[52:00] But it wouldn't have told us how God heard. It's good to know about the fact that he heard.
[52:12] heard. But it's also helpful to know how he listened. And I don't know what ideas come into your mind when you read he inclined unto me.
[52:32] But it's a word picture. maybe we can think of a person who's so weak that all they can do is whisper.
[52:50] And somebody has to bow their head down to listen. They have to incline their ears, as it were, to hear what that person has to say.
[53:04] And in spiritual life, the strongest of us can find ourselves weak. And in our weakness, all there may be is a groan.
[53:24] And, as I mentioned earlier, with the children of Israel, they were groaning in Egypt. But the Lord heard their cry.
[53:37] And he hears ours too, doesn't he? We're all aware of Paul. And when he was given his elevated experience up to the third heaven, Paul, he was still a sinner.
[54:02] And I suppose there was the potential that he might start, as it were, mentioning this experience in order to put others in their place.
[54:20] to he hadn't mentioned it for 14 years, but he only mentioned it because there were others claiming to have their own experiences.
[54:36] people are not but he's exalted to this elevated place. And God gave him a thorn in the flesh to keep him humble.
[54:52] he doesn't tell us what the thorn in the flesh was, so it's a waste of time trying to identify. But anyway, it tells us what the effect was.
[55:12] Initially, it made him pray, pray earnestly, but God said no. it's staying there.
[55:24] And the effect of it staying there was it made him weak. And we know when Paul wrote that in 2 Corinthians, because it's one of the few books in the Bible which the year can be really identified.
[55:48] because he mentioned somebody that was in charge in the Roman authorities. And that individual was only in charge in the year 55.
[56:01] So therefore, we know when Paul wrote it. And he says it happened 14 years before that. And we can work back, and it's when Paul had to flee from Judea back to Cilicia, when he was unknown.
[56:26] So for all of his, virtually all of his Christian life, the man that we might think was very strong, was actually very weak, because he had this thorn in the flesh, whatever it was.
[56:47] But he says about it, that because it made him depend on God, that it was good for him to be weak.
[56:59] He even rejoiced in his weakness, that, because when I am weak, then I am strong.
[57:11] God listens to the weak. He inclines his ear and is interested in what they've got to say.
[57:31] A weak person goes to the doctor. They listen to the doctor, because the doctor can say something about what they're going through.
[57:46] And we, as Christians, as we're waiting for the heavenly surgeon to do something, and always senses our spiritual weakness, that the physician is listening carefully.
[58:08] And he takes note of our desires. He's interested in us. It's a reminder, isn't it?
[58:24] It's impossible for someone to incline their ear and not to be close to the person. Isn't it?
[58:36] It's impossible. You can't incline your ear at a distance. And here's David, and he's waiting, waiting for, at the same time he's aware God is listening.
[58:59] And he's not listening casually, saying that with reverence, but he's not listening well as if he's saying to himself, there's 20 million prayers coming out each minute.
[59:16] I'm only going to listen to a few of them carefully. But he's there listening. And as we know with somebody who is inclining their ear, they have to give their full attention.
[59:37] And the Holy Spirit guides David here to use the word incline. And therefore we have to take the word and apply it to ourselves when we pray, even if the heavens seem as brass.
[59:57] God's word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. And when the heavens seem shut to all other senses, faith sees it differently.
[60:17] And it recognizes that God is inclining, listening carefully to all our thoughts.
[60:30] And that's a wonderful thing to think about. God the incliner. But anyway, David eventually was rescued from this horrible pit.
[60:54] And the word that's translated horrible, well, it's a graphic word, but it's an attempt to convey something that's basically very loud, noisy.
[61:18] and the suggestion is made that what's making it mighty? Well, what makes the mud mighty is the presence of water.
[61:33] And the indication is that this pit that he is picturing that there's torrents of water coming in.
[61:49] There's not just a trickle, but there's this constant roar as he's in this pit.
[62:01] And we can imagine this, it's a picture obviously, but we can imagine that the mud is just getting worse and worse and there doesn't seem to be any way out of this horrible pit.
[62:21] I suppose somebody could be in this kind of cistern for various reasons. It could be in it by accident.
[62:33] Somebody walking along just falls into it. or you could be in it as a form of imprisonment because that was a place to put prisoners to make it as uncomfortable for them.
[62:54] Or it could be a trap set for an animal or something like that. That's how people could fall into these kind of pits. And I suspect these things have their equivalence in the spiritual life.
[63:13] Sometimes we're just going along and we're not conscious of really anything unusual happenings and just suddenly we find ourselves somewhere where there doesn't seem to be any way out.
[63:28] as long as we've fallen by accident into it. Or we might be there because we've sinned and God is teaching us something.
[63:44] or we could be there because the devil has trapped us. As Peter discovered, didn't he?
[63:57] I mean, that was a horrible pit that Peter found himself in after he denied the Savior. But these experiences, are real, aren't they?
[64:15] And I suspect all of us have had them to some degree. That we have just found ourselves there by accident. Or maybe we're conscious that we've done something against God.
[64:30] And he's dealing with us. He's withdrawn his presence. Or maybe we're being trapped by temptation and the schemer, his plan seems to be working.
[64:51] But whether we're in the pit because of these options, there's only one way out for all of them. It doesn't actually matter if we've fallen in by accident, or if we're there because the Lord is justizing us, us, or if we're there because the devil has cornered us.
[65:18] There's only one way out. And that's to ask God to get us out. And whatever reason it was that David was in this mess, the Lord took him out.
[65:35] And of course, that's the amazing thing about God. God, he never deals with us the way our sins deserve. And even his chastising, well, some people think David was just picturing his years when he was on the run from Saul, many, many years in which he was the anointed king but living in a cave.
[66:13] Divine delays can be a real pit, from our point of view, I mean. others think he was referring to the time of Absalom when his son rebelled against him, when disappointments can be a real place, can't they?
[66:39] But wherever they were, David found himself taken out. And he wasn't just, I mean, he wasn't just taken to the top of the pit and, as it were, placed there and being told, now get on with it.
[67:04] But instead of being, his feet were set upon a rock. And David doesn't mean a slab of rock on the ground.
[67:17] rock. He means these high rocks. So he was taken from the depths to the heights. Elevated.
[67:31] And how long did it take God to pull him up there? And his moment of deliverance came, just up he went. And found himself high above it all.
[67:47] And that's our God. And he has lots of occasions for doing these kind of things. And one of them, often, is the Lord's Supper.
[68:02] The Lord's Table. That we may go to it, we'll stop in a minute, that we may go to it with fear, trembling, and maybe previous times we were disappointed.
[68:21] And we're wondering, when is God going to help me in my need? And it may be that on this occasion he's going to use it to take us from however low we are, to elevate us up to spiritual heights.
[68:49] Who knows? But anyway, David, he was taken from very low to very high.
[69:03] With the outcome, he celebrated in such a way, maybe the new song he refers to in verse 3 of Psalm 14.
[69:16] Or maybe it was another one he sang with a new meaning, who can say? But such was the transformation that those who looked at him realized that his spiritual enjoyment was of such a nature that they only could conclude that this deliverance was supernatural.
[69:54] And they ought to be feared. What kind of God is this that could give such deliverances to his people that turns them into people who are full of joy.
[70:18] And the outcome is they trusted in the Lord. Anyway, going back to what Augustine said at the start, as we mentioned at the start, the Lord, although he puts off the fulfillment of his promises, yet never recalls them.
[70:45] And it may be that on this occasion the Lord's Supper, if we are in this situation where it seems that the Lord has put off the fulfillment of his promises, that maybe this is the occasion when he will show to us that he has never recalled.
[71:10] Shall we pray? Lord, we give you thanks that you are the unchanging God.
[71:25] that David experienced personally what his nation had known historically, that you who are the God of the past could be the God of the present and the God of the future.
[71:46] And that, no doubt, is true for ourselves. And when we compare ourselves with David, we know so much more about you because we live on this side of the cross and we understand much more about the content of your salvation.
[72:08] that we pray, Lord, that you would disappoint our fears and that you come to deal with us if we find ourselves in some kind of spiritual dilemma and that you would reveal yourself as the God of mercy, the God of salvation.
[72:35] Do that, Lord, this weekend we pray for your own name to say. Amen. We'll sing from Psalm 40.
[72:52] We'll sing verses 1 to 3. 1 I waited for the Lord my God and patiently did bear. At length to me he did incline my voice and cried to hear.
[73:05] He took me from a fearful pit and from the mighty clay and on a rock he set my feet establishing my way. He put a new song in my mouth our God to magnify.
[73:18] Many shall see it and shall fear and on the Lord relax. I waited for the Lord my God and patiently did and then to me he did incline my voice and cry to hear.
[73:58] He took me from a fearful faith and from the mighty plain and on the布 out 亝 去 v海 ee Matt by 方 le r meant which May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen.