The Dedicated Life

Transcript

GRM 1241
05/31/2020
The Dedicated Life
Psalm 40
Gil Rugh

As I mentioned we are going to Psalm 40 in your Bibles, Psalm chapter 40. We’ve been looking at Psalms off and on, we’ve taken a couple of weeks here to look at Psalms. I’m not sure how many of them we’ll be looking at but we’ll take it a week at a time. We love the Psalms, they reveal something of the heart and passion of the writers, David being a key writer, but there are others. You see something of the difficulties, the trials that David and other writers go through, and they’re written for our encouragement, for our edification, to help us learn how to handle the difficulties and trials that we have to face. You’ll note this psalm like some of the others is at the top written ‘for the choir director’ and it’s ‘a psalm of David.’ And that’s a reminder as we noted in the previous psalms and some other psalms while this is an unfolding of a personal experience, in this case of David, it’s written for the benefit of all of us. Just not to let us know what David went through and sort of something of a little bit of a biographical sketch. But it was written to be given to those in charge of leading the music in the worship of Israel as they would come to the tabernacle, then the temple, and offer their sacrifices. So its part of the worship as this becomes the expression of the heart of a believer and how he is conducting himself.

Psalm 40 is a psalm about the dedication of our lives to God. The heart of the psalm is in verses 6 to 8, familiar verses because they’re quoted in the New Testament regarding Christ about a life dedicated to the Lord. And it’s about giving God the glory and praise for His mercy in rescuing us from the trials and troubles that we find ourselves going through and facing. I’ve broken the psalm down into three basic areas, you can see there’s a number of stanzas laid out, but three emphases that stood out to me as I read through this psalm. First, David has given God the glory for delivering him from his past trials. The connection of trials and giving God the glory for His deliverance is a key emphases. So the first five verses talk about David giving God the glory for how He delivered him from the trials in which he found himself and they were a situation where there was a sense of hopelessness because of the seriousness of the situation.

Secondly, David has committed himself to doing God’s will and with that he testifies to the greatness of God and His attributes, hat’s in verses 6 to 10. And then he’s confident in verses 11 to 17 that God will deliver him from future trials, in fact, from the trials that he’s presently experiencing. So it’s not like, well, I want to give God all the praise for rescuing me from those difficulties I had in past days and I want to commit my life to Him and testify to His greatness because now I’m sitting comfortably. This just reminds me, Lord, I need you as I did before and I need your help now! You can’t delay any longer, I’ve come to despair, I can’t go on, I am losing my way, I can’t think straight! That’s how the psalm will end so you see the reality of life but those thoughts all come together as David unfolds his personal experience under the direction of the Holy Spirit.

The first line stands out to me as you begin the psalm, “I waited patiently for the Lord.” That stresses the fact David’s seeking God’s intervention to rescue him but it took patient waiting, which is an evidence of faith. I’m trusting God, He’s going to come through for me. He’s been praying earnestly, intently, but part of true faith is recognizing God’s sovereign, I’m not. I don’t come in prayer to tell Him what to do, I come and ask Him to do what I think my need is but waiting patiently. Remember one of the fruit of the Spirit is patience… love, joy, patience… and I recognize as I submit to God and allow the Spirit to control me I have patience in waiting on the Lord. “And He inclined to me and heard my cry,” so He did respond but that’s after a time of patiently waiting. When will God come? You know sometimes… look, we’re passing the time when it will do any good, but “He inclined to me and heart my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay. And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.” And this picture here pictures how helpless and hopeless David was to do anything to get himself out of his problems. It’s like he was in a deep pit of destruction, it was like he was mired in the clay.

Come over to Jeremiah, most of the commentators remember Jeremiah in this, Jeremiah 38. You’re in Psalms so you go back a little bit through Isaiah, that large prophetic book, and so Jeremiah chapter 38. Because Jeremiah experienced the physical experience of what David is using as a picture or metaphor. Jeremiah was cast into a literal pit in verse 6 of chapter 38. “Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern…” that well, that pit, “which was in the court of the guardhouse; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes.” So this is a deep pit here, it’s not something you’re going to reach up and grab the ledge and pull yourself out of, they had to lower him down with ropes. But when you get to the bottom it’s not filled with water down there but it’s all wet, it’s so wet it’s a muck, a mire. And you know what? Down in the cistern there was no water, only mud, Jeremiah sank down into the mud. So you can see something of the seriousness of the situation, you’re not only in this deep pit that there’s no hopes of you climbing out of, you’re also sunk down into the mire and the mud at the bottom. In fact when they do get Jeremiah out they have to lower down and put rags under… so he can put it under his arms to help. Because, you know, he’s so stuck there, pulling him up you don’t want to damage him physically as you’re trying to help him.

I mean, getting him out there was no way so that’s a physical reality that you can understand. When you come back to Psalms that’s what David said his spiritual condition was like. The physical condition that he was going through it wasn’t in necessarily a physical pit, but that’s the way I could describe the hopelessness of my situation. “Your arrows have sunk deep into me and your hand has pressed down on me,” in Psalm 38 we looked at. In Psalm 39 he talked about his sorrow and his suffering. Psalm 38 then to Psalm 39, we did that last time, his suffering. Now you come to Psalm 40, I’m in the miry clay. How many times is this repeated in the Psalms? Troubles and trials are part of this life; remember Jesus told His disciples in the world you have tribulations, be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. That’s what David is learning, experiencing, and growing and that’s why this psalm is written so we understand. So you can be in the most hopeless situation, but when God intervenes… He lifted me out, put my feet on solid ground, on a rock, I wasn’t sinking any more, I was firm, now I can act, I can move, I’m back in a position to deal with life.

And verse 3 becomes key because notice what is emphasized. We get into trouble brought on by others, brought on by our own failures and sin. We go to the Lord and cry out to Him and we’re persistent, and we wait trusting He will come in His time to rescue me. When He does what do we do? That’s key here. True faith and recognizing what God has done in rescuing him results what? ‘He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.” The respondent of God’s deliverance was giving God praise, honor, telling others of what He has done. You note, this just isn’t a matter of private thanks, thank you, Lord, for rescuing me. No. “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord.” You see what is to happen here, part of the purpose in David’s experience is so he could testify to God as the God of deliverance so it would impress upon others what God does, and it would cause them to turn to God and trust Him, “many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord.” It is important to see, if you will, that cycle. David was one who did trust in the Lord and Verse 1, he patiently waited for the Lord, He cried to the Lord, the Lord delivered him. He publicly gave testimony to how God has worked in his life, what God has done for him, and that will be used of God to draw others to see and fear the Lord and trust in Him. And what would the cycle be when they go through a trial? They’ll call on the Lord and that’s how… what often the Lord uses.

You know, one of the great things we have is to share with others what the Lord has done for us. Now I may be talking to a person and I say let me tell you what the Lord did for me. We sing about it because our hearts are to be joining together with our expression. These aren’t just words, these are to be expressing in a public way what God has done for us. So now this is joined to be part of the worship of Israel. It would be part of what the music directors… Jeduthun as we saw in the previous psalm when we studied it. One of the three music directors would teach the musicians at the tabernacle so when the people came with their offerings and joined in worship these truths would be impressed on their heart. And here we are studying it today and the testimony of David continues to resound. And what do we think? God rescued David, He’s a God who rescues His people, He’ll rescue me, and that’s to encourage others, and unbelievers see what God has done in a life and they may be drawn as well. So it’s important we pray, we ask God to intervene, and He does and we just go on as though it was nothing.

For David this is great, this is awesome, what a God He is, He’s to be praised. I want to praise Him, I want others to know so they might praise Him, so he says in verses 4 and 5, a reminder, our trust is to be in the Lord not in man. That doesn’t mean you never go to a doctor, we do. I have a doctor’s appointment this week, I’m glad for the wisdom God gives to medical doctors, I see him regularly, I’m glad for his wisdom. We’re not saying you never go for any… but in the trials and difficulties of life where we go first is to the Lord. If I’m going to go see a doctor the first thing I do, I want to do, is talk to the Lord about it, my situation, why am I going, pray about that. Pray for the doctor, whether he knows the Lord or not, I know the Lord. I want Him to be working in the life of that doctor on my behalf. So there’s things to pray about. So we’re not saying you don’t ever turn to man, but “how blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust.” Ultimately my trust is in the Lord. We use the medical situations since that’s something we all have to deal with at one point in our life and some have more often than others but my basic trust is in the Lord, His will will be done.

I realize what man can do is limited. What God can do is unlimited, so however it turns out and whatever situation, my trust is in the Lord. “How blessed,” that’s the happiness, the true joy and peace that can come to the man that has his trust in the Lord, “has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse in falsehood. Too often, our first thought is to go to someone else. First, you know, I want to come to the Lord, work through it with Him, bring my situation to Him, you know, talk about it with Him. It doesn’t mean you’ll never go to the doctor or another person but my confidence is in the Lord, my trust is in Him, and I want to realize how limited man is, a man who thinks he has the answers.

We see what’s going on in our world, how quickly the answers of man begin to collapse upon themselves. And when the Lord withdraws more and more of His common grace that enables life to go on with some normality what will happen? The world will drift into total chaos and disorder so that Jesus said that if He didn’t intervene no one would be left alive on the face of the earth. So we want to be careful about the confidence we have in man, and that would be true in thinking the solution is get the right people voted in. I think we vote our conscience, that’s part of our political system and our right. I realize it’s in the hands of God. Oh, what is going to happen to our country if we don’t do this, if that doesn’t happen, if… well, wait a minute, my trust is in the Lord, it’s not out of His control. He uses the sinful rebellion of man to accomplish His purposes. If I’m not careful l’m telling God I don’t want Your purposes in this situation. And that could be in my personal life. Lord, this is the outcome I must have if I’m going to trust You. When I get to that, I’m no longer trusting in the Lord. Lord, I couldn’t handle it if this happens. Well, wait a minute, Lord, if You don’t do what I think ought to be done I can’t trust You. That’s why some of these trials have to come into my life, they teach me something.

David had to be in such trials, it was like being at the bottom of a deep pit sinking in deep mud. There’s
nothing I can do, Lord, if you don’t deliver me I’ll perish, and He does and I testify He can. That doesn’t mean He always will, David was delivered again and again, praise the Lord! He died at seventy -- I’ve outlived David. What does that mean? God’s plan for David was seventy, plan for me was longer. Paul, he escaped trial after trial, trouble after trouble, but he would ultimately be beheaded. There came a time when God wasn’t going to intervene to deliver him physically as He had, but Paul said I accept that. I’m ready. So the Lord’s will in this, so you don’t turn to man, your trust is not in man, he doesn’t have the answers. Verse 5, “Many, O Lord my GOD, are the wonders which You have done.” See that? David, he’s such a man of God, a man after God’s own heart, used to write much of our scripture and his life is recorded for us because there is the blend of that, he’s not a perfect man.

He’s going to talk about his continual sins have brought a lot of his problems upon himself as we get toward the end of this psalm. He’s not saying it’s always somebody else doing it to me. He’ll get down to say my own sins have brought this situation on me, but it’s the reality but he’s taken up with the greatness of his God. “Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders which you have done, and Your thoughts toward us; there is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of them, they would be too numerous to count.” Now keep in mind David writes this, but by the time we get to the end of this psalm we’re going to find out he’s in a situation of complete despair, his physical situation is dire if God doesn’t intervene. But here he is in this context talking about what God has done for him, how great and awesome God is. There’s no one to be compared to You Lord, I couldn’t begin to list all the wonders You have done.

You know, sometimes you listen to Christians and you think they’re really disappointed in God, all they can talk about is how difficult their life is and all the problems and I don’t know why God doesn’t do something. Wait a minute, before we go any further maybe we ought to just stop and try to think about all the wonderful things God has done. Now I performed a marriage yesterday and one of the things I tell them is, you know, sort of like you’re thinking now. Now you’re not thinking about either of your faults, you’re not frustrated with anything this one’s done that you don’t like. All you can think about is oh wow, I’m getting married to this wonderful person! Now some of the people that really know both of them are thinking, boy, uh huh, they’ve got some rough road ahead, she doesn’t know what she’s getting into, he doesn’t really know what she’s like. All that, but you know what? They love each other and they overlook everything else and, you know, when you love God and trust Him you’re taken up with what you love.

He’s a great God who takes care of me, so I need just sometimes to stop and to backup and say I just want to think about how wonderful God is, think about my life, all that God has done for me. How would you make such a list? David says I couldn’t count it, I couldn’t begin to tell you everything God’s done. How awesome He is. He’s an incomparable God and you know what that does, that begins to put my present situation… squeeze it back into what it is. What I’m going to ask Him to do for me now is really nothing. It’s great for me, it’s important for me, but for my God… He’s the incomparable God. He’s already done more things than I can even possibly tell you about and then a reminder in verses 6 to 8 which I said is the heart of this psalm. And it is a life that’s going to be truly honoring to God, has to have a heart that is controlled. My life is committed to God, I am dedicated to serving Him.

That supersedes everything else. So these well-familiar verses, “Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; my ears you have opened; burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, ‘Behold I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God; your Law is within my heart.’ ” And let me draw out what one commentator noted that helps you see the emphases in verses 6 to 8 because you have a statement then you have a support. You see that like in parentheses. In my Bible I’ve underlined the key statements, “sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired,” next, “burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.’ Basically, the sacrificial system is unfolded in the first seven chapters of Leviticus in some detail, the key part of the physical worship of Israel, but that’s not primarily what God is interested in. Not the sacrifices and the meal offering, not the burnt offering and the sin offerings, the different offerings, which we don’t have time to go back and look at. Go back and read them, they each have a particular place.

The next statement, then I said, “Behold, I come,” I’ll explain that, and then finally, “I delight to do Your will, O my God.” Those are the main statements, they’re supported by verse 6, “my ears You have opened,” verse 7, “in the scroll of the book it’s written of me,” verse 8, “Your Law is within my heart.” Those three things support those basic statements, it’s not about the external things. The offerings had a place in Israel but if they were not coming out of a heart that was dedicated and committed to obeying and honoring God they were nothing. That’s the point, the offerings, the physical things, were just to be an expression of a heart that wanted to obey and honor God but when it didn’t come with the heart the worship was nothing.

We have to look at a few verses, 1 Samuel chapter 15, which probably begins our thinking on this and you’ve probably thought of this. It’s when Saul is being confronted by Samuel and Saul has not obeyed the Lord and he’s going to be rejected by the Lord. But Saul’s concerned about making the right offering and Samuel has to tell him you know it’s not the offering, it’s your heart. So verse 22, Saul’s reason for disobeying God is well, the people wanted to keep the best of things to sacrifice for God, as though God would be more pleased with the sacrifices we offer than with our obedience to Him. God said he‘d just destroy everyone and everything, all the animals. And you remember that statement when Saul told Samuel, oh, I did what the Lord told me to do, we’ve defeated the Amalekites. And then Samuel says what’s that rings in your ears? Now what is the bleating of the sheep and the mooing of the cows and all, why do I hear all of these animals? I thought you said you did what the Lord told you, there shouldn’t be any animals making any noise. Well, we kept the best to honor the Lord.

Well, doesn’t that sound spiritual, and that’s when Samuel has to say to him, verse 22, “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” Now when you don’t obey you know what it’s like, verse 23, it’s rebellion, “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you from being king.” See, we don’t cover up our disobedience by doing something spiritual. You know, people can do that, they come to church, you know, these are people they tell you what church they went to, what religious system they belonged to, but they have no heart for obeying God, they have no desire to honor Him by their obedience to Him.

We paper it over, well, isn’t it good to worship God, isn’t it good to go through these religious activities, isn’t it good to come to a Bible-believing church? Well, you know going to a Bible-believing church does nothing for a person except expose them to truth, but if their heart is not submissive to that truth with a desire to obey that truth what is it? Sad, but we’ve baptized people here, that doesn’t mean they were saved. They just went up and got wet, it wasn’t come out of a heart that truly trusted God and was expressing that heart of submissiveness and obedience to Him, it was nothing. Now you need to be careful because subtly the transition gets made and generations gets raised in the environment. Like happened in Israel when they thought, well, we’re going through the same motions that our parents did and our grandparents did, therefore, we must be good, too. but if a heart hadn’t been changed… so to obey is better than sacrifice.

Come over to Isaiah chapter 1, Isaiah, not too far past the Psalms here, Isaiah and the first chapter, that splendid prophecy, some of you were studying it in one of our Bible classes. Isaiah chapter 1 verse 10, “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give ear to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah.” Sodom and Gomorrah, they had been destroyed centuries earlier, they didn’t exist. He is identifying Israel, the Jews, in God’s sight you’re just like Sodom and Gomorrah. “What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?” So you see these are Jews bringing their sacrifices, as God looks at them, I don’t see you any different than Sodom and Gomorrah. Remember to obey is better than sacrifice. Rebellion that’s just like idolatry, witchcraft. “ ‘What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?’ says the Lord. I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle; and I take no please in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. When you come to appear before Me, who requires of you this trampling of My courts?’ ” It’s a sacrilege, and we’ve talked about this, you want to be careful, we think well, at least you’re religious, that’s good. We want to be careful. “Bring your worthless offerings no longer,” I mean this all becomes an abomination.

Verse 14 “I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts…, when you spread out your hands in prayer I will hide my eyes from you,” I won’t listen. I have to start out you have to be cleansed, “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean.” “Come now,” verse 18, “let us reason together,” says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool. If you consent and obey…” Oh, weren’t they obeying by offering the sacrifices? No, the obedience starts with the obedience of a heart that submits to God, trust Him. He’s at a point that some of the offerings, the dedication of the life, as Paul put it, you’re no longer your own, you’ve been bought with a price. Now you glorify God in your body. If it doesn’t come out of that new heart, that faith in God, religious activity becomes repulsive to God. Now you come to God and say I’m coming my way, I’m not bowing before You, I don’t come with my heart submissive to You. But that’s the picture.

Come to Jeremiah 7, there are others but we’ll take these from the Old Testament, Jeremiah 7 verse 21. “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat flesh. For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ Yet they did not obey or incline their ear,” we have the ear mentioned in our passage in Psalms. It had come to express a life that is devoted to faithfulness to the Lord. I hear God, I respond with all my being, flowing out of my heart of submissiveness to Him. They didn’t obey, their stubborn evil hearts, they went backwards not forward. Come to the New Testament, Jesus is the prime example, we’ll go straight to Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 10. The writer of Hebrews uses Christ as the example and he quotes Psalm 40. Remember Jesus said during His earthly ministry in John chapter 8 verse 29, “I always do the things that are pleasing to My Father.” That’s a life that comes from a heart, the center of our being is submitted to the living God, it permeates everything. It comes out of my desire, consuming passion, so many ways we try to express it, to obey God and honor Him with my serving Him. Jesus said, “I always do what is pleasing to My Father,” not sometimes. We struggle with it, none of us have arrived at that yet, but that’s the desire. That’s what Christ did perfectly as the God-Man.

In Hebrews chapter 10, verse 4 tells us “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins,” those external things can never take away sin. Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says,” now we’re going to quote from Psalm 40, those verses that we were looking at, “ ‘Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for Me.’ ” And that “a body you have prepared for Me,” the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, translates it. The writer of Hebrews uses the Greek translation so sometimes some of the words are different because they use the Greek translation. They use “a body” instead of “an ear” because what was symbolized, we’ll see it when we go back to Psalm 40, with the ear being opened was that readiness to hear and do with my body what is pleasing to God, so “a body you have prepared for Me. In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (In the scroll of the book it is written of Me) to do Your will, O God.’ ” So you see there, there was a place for the sacrifices and offering but until the issue of a heart that is totally committed to God, a heart that is trusting Him, and all that I do in my religious activity like as a Jew under the Old Testament Law… Lord, I come desiring to please You, honor You. So the sacrifice, if it wasn’t coming from a heart that was already submissive to God, dedicated to obeying God with all of life, the sacrifice becomes an act of rebellion because it comes from the heart that’s rebellious. So Christ being perfect Man as well as perfect God is the perfect example of a life that what? Always did what was pleasing to God.

Come back to Psalm 40. So what is said here permeates the scripture and sees its ultimate example in Christ as the One who lived His life totally committed to pleasing God in everything and for all of us that’s where we start. Note what he says verse 6 of Psalm 40, “Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired” and he goes through the different kinds of offerings here which we don’t have time to distinguish. “My ears You have opened,” or ‘dug,’ they’re now made to hear with clarity. The Septuagint, the Greek translated ‘a body you prepared for Me’ because when the ears are open now all that I do with my body is done to be pleasing to Him. Remember we studied Romans chapter 6 and when God makes you new within what do you do? Now all of your body and all of its parts is presented as a sacrifice to Him.

After going through all that He does in unfolding God’s work of salvation in a life in the book of Romans, we’ll get to chapter 12 verse 1, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice.” It’s no longer mine it’s His, and I’ve been made new within, and out of that new heart I am committed to be a life that’s dedicated to Him, it’s His. So in everything we do my first thought, will this honor God, is this pleasing to Him? So that’s my ears You’ve opened to hear the Word. It’s not burnt offerings and sin offerings You’ve required, He did require them but they weren’t the basic requirement. Before that when He delivered them out of Egypt He required of them their commitment of a life dedicated to Him. “Then I said, ‘Behold I come,’ ” and He’s expressing that I come to do Your will. “In the scroll of the book it is written of me” and all of it anticipated Christ but here as the Psalmist writes, verse 8, “I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart” that’s what he is saying, I come, I come to You, You are the God that I want to please. “In the scroll of the book it is written of me,” what God says this is what is to be true of me. I come to Your word and say I am to be one who has his life devoted to You, to serving You, to honoring You, my life is a praise to You. There was the praise offering but if it didn’t come from a heart committed to praising God what good was the praise offering, what was it to God? “Your Law is within my heart,” I delight to do Your will, you see these go together, I want to honor the Lord with obedience to the Word. This is where it becomes a personal thing so I examine my heart. You know the danger what he talked about in verse 4, you have your trust in the Lord, you don’t turn to the world. People get unsettled, they’re restless, believers (using the word broadly, the Lord knows the heart) here, ask us, I want something new. You know what happened? God gave the Law to Moses around 1500 years before Christ, nothing new, the same old sacrifices, same old priest system, same old activity.

You know, when it became that to Israel and God said I’ve become wearisome to you, its tiresome. When it doesn’t come from a heart devoted to the Lord, you know, we can get pretty tired of the Lord even as believers. You know, the bad thing for me when I think I’m just not that interested in it any more. As I read all, you know like I say, Lord, you know my heart, I’m dry as sand right now and it’s my problem, I need to get right. We try to go around and look what the world… oh yeah, and the worlds got all these ideas for the church to make your church more interesting, more exciting, we’ve got to keep up with the times. But we’re stuck with the ancient ways, it’s the same book, it’s the same truth, if we’re going to come to God it must be this truth that has so gripped our hearts that our passion is to have it control everything we do. “Your Law is within my heart,” this scroll is the word of God when he says in verse 7 “in the scroll of the book,” that’s a reference to the scriptures. “It is written of me, I delight to do,” and that’s applied to Christ because, of course, this is what God requires of man and now the perfect Man has come who always does the will of the Father, of course, these verses are true and exemplified of Him and in Him. But that’s our goal, our desire.

Note what he says in verses 9 and 10, “I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation.” See where we go, it’s not only private. People like to say, well, your religion is private. Well, there’s a certain aspect of it it’s personal, but not private. David doesn’t want to keep it to himself, “I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the congregation.” You note how many times he talks about God’s character or attributes here. Righteousness, I proclaim it in the great congregation, everybody needs to know. “Behold, I will not restrain my lips,” (we’ll mention that word again in a moment) “O Lord, You know.” That’s when we need to remind ourselves I fool other people I don’t fool the Lord, I may give the appearance of being this very spiritual person but He knows me as I am. “I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart.” You know, he mentions the word ‘righteousness’ twice here, verse 9 the “glad tidings of righteousness,” “I’ve not hidden Your righteousness within my heart.” Why? I’m telling it to people, it’s not private, it’s personal but it’s not private. “I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation.”

That’s why we come together, we come to God’s word, we come to find out about Him because that’s what my life is about. If I’m bored with the word of God I’m bored with God. When Israel no longer wanted to hear what the prophets had to say, that said something about the heart of Israel as the prophet had to testify what God told him about Israel. You know, close to their lips far from their heart, they talk a good line their hearts not there. What’s David want to talk about? Let’s talk about God’s righteousness, His faithfulness, His salvation, His lovingkindness, His truth. I hope that people that aren’t interested in the Word will find Indian Hills the ultimate bore. Why would I go there? I don’t want to hear about God. Oh, I want to be religious… Well it’s a test on our heart, because we all have that tendency to drift, that’s why we come to the word of God. Like why did God preserve Psalm 40? Because I go through what David did and when the trials come the danger comes that I may begin to drift because my trials begin to absorb me, I forget about God. David didn’t avoid the trials. David didn’t live a sinful life but what he did… he kept getting on track back to where he belonged, we’ll see that in a moment. This emphasis on the character and righteousness of God, it fills his mind, all these qualities… righteousness, faithfulness, salvation, lovingkindness, truth, this is what our God’s like, it’s revealed in His word, “Your Law is within my heart.” The scroll of the book, the scriptures, they’re written for me, that’s what that statement the scroll of the book is written for me and were prescribed for me. Christ perfectly carried it out, I want to perfectly carry it out but I haven’t yet.

Verse 11, “You, O Lord will not withhold Your compassion from me; Your lovingkindness and truth will continually preserve me.” You know, that word ‘withhold,’ that’s the same word that was translated ‘restrain’ up in verse 9, “behold, I will not restrain my lips.” They translate it withhold… O Lord, You will not restrain Your compassion… I won’t restrain praising You… You won’t restrain Your lovingkindness… and, you see these things become interwoven. Is it any wonder David was a man after God’s own heart? Did he limit himself in being consumed with a desire to please God, to have His word filled? We read Psalm 119, it’s all about the word of God, it’s more precious than gold, I esteem it more important than my food, it’s… How many of us think that?

Well, yes, studied the Word. Well, got a busy week, got other things on my mind… But this permeates me, this determines my Monday, my Tuesday, my Wednesday… not that I don’t have to go to work, I’ve got to go to all the other things, but everything I’m doing is shaped by this. You won’t restrain, you won’t hold it back… I’m not holding back my praise, Lord, you know it, it comes from my heart. And “Your lovingkindness and Your truth will continually preserve me. For evils beyond number have surrounded me.” You know, we just get a little glimpse of David’s life but it was a life of trial. I begin to look and see, you know, so many of the people that God used in special ways had difficult lives. I tell the Lord I want a life like they had without the problems they have Lord. That’s the perfect combination but it’s not a biblical combination. “Evils beyond number have surrounded me.”

I thought we had all that taken care of in the first part of this chapter. “My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I’m not able to see.” You know, David didn’t live a perfect life. I don’t know… when Paul said he was the greatest of sinners, the chief of sinners… there is something about godliness that reminds you how great God’s grace is! What would you be, what did Paul say? By the grace of God I am what I am, what else could I credit it to? And sometimes we get false spirituality, oh, I’m so unworthy, how could I serve the Lord; you know, that’s not godliness. You know what David’s recognition of his unworthiness, of his true sinful character did? It motivated him to want to serve the Lord more. “My iniquities have overtaken me,” a lot of the troubles I have are of my own doing. You know, often we say that, but that didn’t stop him from coming to the Lord. “They are more numerous than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed me.” What he is saying is my own sins have caused my problems, and you know I’m just overwhelmed with it all, and when he says my heart has failed, I’m out of gas, I just can’t keep myself going anymore. Well, in one sense it’s overwhelming but where does he go? He’s going to sit in the puddle and bemoan his poor life, bemoan what’s happened to me, what I’ve done, and if I hadn’t done it. Where’s the Lord say that, go sit in a puddle and do nothing? Go be so spiritual that you just can’t get over your unspiritualness? Paul said, I’m the chief of sinners and I’m a testimony God’s grace can rescue anyone. What’s David saying? My iniquities. He’s not writing, well, I’ve got trouble and they’re all caused by what somebody else does to me. I’m aware my iniquities are a part of this whole mix I’m in but I can’t go on Lord. He doesn’t go to the world, he doesn’t go to the proud. Here I am Lord, You know me as I am, I’m surrounded by people who want to destroy me, my own sins have all piled up and I’m just… the life’s being squeezed out of me, I can’t go on Lord. “Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. Make hast, O Lord, to help me.” David is in dire straits, if You don’t intervene, Lord… “Let those be ashamed and humiliated together who seek my life to destroy it, let those be turned back and dishonored who delight in my hurt. Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, ‘Aha, aha!’ ” Lord, you know… but I just collapse and it’s over, the unbelievers are just going to use that as a to mock. See what happened to him? He’s that guy that was afraid that God couldn’t help him out of that, yah, he deserved what he got. David’s not looking to get what he deserves, he’s looking for God’s mercy, His lovingkindness, His compassion, His truth, to do what He promises. What did God keep saying to Israel? Repent, come back to Me, I’d love to forgive you. That’s the picture David has, he’s not making excuses. Lord I’ve got all these people now who would like to see me go under, who would delight in seeing me go down, and I’ve contributed to it with my own iniquities. But Lord, I’m confident, verse 11, You won’t restrain, You won’t hold back Your compassion, lovingkindness, truth. You won’t give them the occasion to glory because it would be an expression against You. Look what he says in verse 16, “Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; let those who love Your salvation say continually, ‘The Lord be magnified!’ ” David can’t let go of the Lord.

David sinned and sometimes they were monstrous. I don’t think his life is just one big sin after another, He lived a normal life of success and failure I’m sure. He keeps getting back to the Lord. What concerns me Lord is I want those who seek You to rejoice, I want to be a testimony of Your grace, I want those who love Your salvation to be encouraged by Your delivering me. Since I am afflicted and needy let the Lord be mindful of me, You are my help, my deliverer, do not delay, O my God. All said and done, I leave it with the Lord, He’s rescued me before, He can do it again, He’s the only One ultimately who can rescue me. At the heart of all this I have a heart and life that is devoted to the Lord. When David falls he gets up and goes again, even when he numbers the people, 70,000 men in Israel die, and David says it’s because I sinned, he takes full responsibility, there were other causes in that but for David… I don’t minimize my sin… what did he do? The Lord will never be able to use me, I’m done what can I do, life is over, and all I can be is a depressed, unhappy person. What do I do between what others have done to me and what I’ve done to myself, what did David do? Lord, forgive me, it’s my sin.

You know we need to keep our focus, this is the life that I have given to the Lord, it’s all I have. When I fail all I can do, I don’t want to make light of my failure, but Lord, you know it. Here, he says, my iniquities, they’re many, they overwhelm me, Lord, here I am. You know, like I’m telling Him, it’s me, it’s me, oh Lord, I’m in need, that’s why I’m here. Don’t give up, all right, so you failed, so you stumbled, that’s serious, get it right with the Lord. Your life is still His if you’re a believer, it’s not yours to take over here and park, it’s not yours to run and hide, it’s not yours, David never lost sight of that. And Lord I want my life to be an impact for You. Well, you ruined it David, you said your iniquities have overtaken you, now you can’t be a cause. Well, he still thinks that when God intervenes God had intervened. It shows what He does with those that belong to Him, so a very encouraging psalm.

A psalm of reminder, don’t go through the motions, let it be genuine. You know, we take our vehicles in for a tune up. I regularly want to be checking myself in the Word, comparing when I feel the dryness. Sometimes the best thing I can do… Lord I’m going to come in, I’m going to read Your word, I’m not reading it for someone else, I’m not preparing it for someone else. I’m going to read it to allow the Spirit to impress it on my heart and I’m just going to stay here. You know, I need my own soul refreshed and you know, it’s amazing what the Lord does. I don’t want to look for other answers, I have to deal within me. The problem is not out there with those attacking me. The problem is not that I’ve failed on other occasions and maybe have failed again. The problem is: now this is the Lord’s life, here’s what You tell me to do. So wherever you are the first thing to do is get right with the Lord, trust Christ as your Savior, then every day… Lord, this is Your life to be lived for You. And when we’re in over our head, Lord, You know I jumped into this pit but I can’t get myself out. But You can and we go on.

Let’s pray. Thank you, Lord, for Your word. You are a God gracious, kind, loving, righteous, a God of truth. You’ve given us Your word, Lord, we are to take it in, it’s to be the food that nourishes us, that strengthens us, that guides us. We have Your Spirit to enable us, to teach us. Lord, we want to be a people whose lives are a testimony for You. Pray for those going through especially difficult trials in these days, trials that may seem overwhelming. Lord. may they as Your children be reminded that You are the God who rescues. Lord, for those who are in confusion because they don’t know You may they be reminded You are a God of salvation, You can rescue them from their lostness and hopelessness and bring them into new life. Bless the day before us, may our lives be a testimony for You, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.
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