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An Urgent Cry · Stornoway Free Church of Scotland - Sermons

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Verse 6, Psalm 69, at the beginning of the psalm, the psalm of David, where he cries,
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Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.
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I sink in deep mire where there is no foothold.
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I have come into deep waters and the flood sweeps over me.
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So we're going to look at the first six verses of this psalm together this evening.
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And God willing, over a period of time we'll go through the whole of the psalm, probably in four different sections.
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Do you ever feel a little perplexed in life?
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Do you ever feel like you're a poor witness for the Lord?
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Maybe your behaviour among others leaves you feeling that you've let the Lord down.
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Do you ever feel guilty about how you've prayed to God?
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Maybe you've prayed abruptly or in haste, maybe thinking you've used the wrong words.
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I'm sure these kinds of situations are situations where we've all found ourselves.
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But perhaps we feel at the time like the only one who has ever done it.
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We feel like we are the only ones to suffer this kind of guilt.
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We are the only ones to feel a failure in that way.
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And it's in that situation so often that the devil comes in and has a field day with us to make us feel even more of a failure.
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Convincing us that we are a failure.
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That we're not right with God.
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Maybe turning to Psalm 69 doesn't seem like the answer to that situation.
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A Psalm that as you read through it, as we've read the first 15 verses, you can get a sense of where David is at.
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And you almost maybe think to yourself, what help is there in this for me?
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David is in a grim situation.
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There are enemies all around him.
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They're hounding him.
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They're slandering him.
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They're mocking him.
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He himself feels overwhelmed by it all.
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Like he says in the opening verses,
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As the waters have come up to my neck, I sink in deep mire where there is no foothold.
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It seems like everything is overwhelming him.
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And in the midst of this, he's feeling a sense of guilt in his witness before others.
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David feels like he's dishonoring God.
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How does he respond in this situation?
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How should we respond in this situation ourselves?
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Well, there's many lessons for us as we come to look at this Psalm together.
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Psalm 69.
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Because the Psalm reminds us of the reality of living in a world that's full of sin.
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Where we see the sins of others so much, we see and realize our own sin.
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But also as we see in this Psalm, we see the greatness of God and the hope that that gives.
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Psalm 69 is one of the most quoted Psalms in the New Testament.
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Second only to Psalm 22.
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Psalm 22.
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We heard it preached on at our recent communion by the Reverend Ewan Dodds.
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And perhaps you've heard it mentioned in the way it's quoted in the New Testament so often as we think of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And hearing Psalm 69 as the second most quoted Psalm might be a...
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You wonder, well, how come we don't hear much about it?
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Or how realize that so much of it is in the New Testament and so much of it is pointing us to the life of Christ and the suffering of Christ.
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If Psalm 22 speaks about the death of Christ, here in Psalm 69 we see so much of the life of Christ leading up to that point.
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It reminds us of the suffering of Christ.
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You know, how low do you meet the angels who have hated me with Jesus Christ.
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What you see in Psalm 76, he has hated me with me with me with me with me with me with you with you?
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He's in Christ wanting me with me with you with me with me with me with you with me with me with you.
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V.J.
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He's now with me with me with me with you.
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And the Lord i még i mehr is here with you in the あり..!
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So, his Imocelyn am I in place of Christ!
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I really dont know, if you have sin we won't hear in Your moves!
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But the Lord has regrets, this而ic jer
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lalbert of Christ, there will be me with you with me with you with a cause."
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And that's the very situation that David is in here.
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He feels the world has hated him.
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And yet it's pointing us towards Jesus.
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Jesus who was without sin, yet hated by the world.
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And we too, as we put our trust in the Lord, so often we'll find ourselves in that situation.
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Where the world will hate us.
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And what does David do in that situation?
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What are we to do in that situation?
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We are to cry to God in our need.
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When you read a book, when you start reading a book, the temptation is so often just to flick to the end and see what the ending is.
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Perhaps you're reading through a book and again and again you're tempted to flick to the end and just see what happens at the end of the story.
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But you try and just read through the story until you get to the end.
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But I think it's worth us just reaching the end of this psalm before we go into it.
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Because the beginning of the psalm, it seems the situation is hopeless.
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But if we always take the end of the psalm with us as we go through each section of this psalm,
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it helps us to realise that there is hope in the midst of despair.
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So let's read the end of the psalm, verse 33.
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For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.
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Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them.
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For God will save Zion and build up the cities of Judah.
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And people shall dwell there and possess it.
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The offspring of his servants shall inherit it.
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And those who love his name shall dwell in it.
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The end of the psalm shows us the end for David.
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The end for the Lord's people is that security, that assurance that there is in Christ.
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Those who love his name shall dwell in it.
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The city that the Lord prepares.
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So I think it's good for us to know the end of the psalm as we go into the beginning and work our way through it.
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And the first three things I want us to take from this psalm is first to see the situation that David is in.
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Secondly, to see how he pours himself out to the Lord.
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And then thirdly, just to see the kind of prayer that he has in this psalm.
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Now what we see first of all in the situation in the psalm is that David doesn't immediately tell us what the difficulty is.
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He doesn't tell us what the situation is immediately.
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He doesn't get into that straight away.
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We're first of all introduced into how David himself is feeling.
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And he's feeling overwhelmed.
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And as you read these opening verses, things seem chaotic, things seem disorganized.
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What he's saying is not the way you would want to approach God.
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And yet this is how David is approaching him.
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And this is what helps us.
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When we are feeling perplexed and overwhelmed and we feel we're a failure for the Lord,
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it helps us to come to the psalm or to the psalms.
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As Gordon prayed before, he mentioned in the psalms we so often see everything, warts and all.
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We see the reality of life.
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We see the difficulties of life.
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We see how we're not always perfectly coming before God in beautifully formed prayers that seem to just flow eloquently.
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How often have you prayed and you just say, that seemed all over the place.
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I just didn't have any structure there as I was praying.
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I just, my mind was going from one thing to another.
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I just felt overwhelmed by it all.
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Well, here's a reminder to us that even David himself had situations, many situations as you read through the psalms,
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where you find that his prayer wasn't polished and perfect.
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And yet he's bringing everything to God.
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David here is saying exactly how he feels.
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He doesn't gloss over things.
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And the language is so strong.
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It's so powerful.
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He's baffled by what's going on.
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He's baffled by what he's going through.
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And yet still he brings it all to God in prayer.
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And it's good for us to do likewise.
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It's great when we're able to still ourselves before God, to prepare ourselves quietly to come to him in prayer and spend that close time with God in prayer.
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But just because we don't feel prepared, just because we're feeling harassed in life, just because our mind is so cluttered with anxieties and fears, isn't a reason not to come to prayer.
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Imagine if David had said that.
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We wouldn't have this psalm.
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We wouldn't have so many of the other psalms where we see the reality of his prayers and the reality of life.
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So it's great for us that that is what we see.
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Because in verse 1 to 3 here we see the situation is just overwhelming him.
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Save me, O God, is his cry.
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For the waters have come up to my neck.
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I sink in deep mire.
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It's similar to Psalm 65, verse 3.
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In the book of Psalms it says, I'm not sure it's a sing psalm of the Scottish soul, but it says,
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When we were overwhelmed by sin.
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When we were overwhelmed by sin.
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It's the same kind of idea that we have here in Psalm 69.
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Because overwhelmed by sin there, it's when equities prevail against me, it says in the ESV here.
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The idea there is of a flood coming over the person.
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A flood of sin just carrying that person away.
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We're seeing and we've heard in prayer as well the power of the storms that come our way.
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We've heard the rain tonight.
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And we know that in other parts of the country we're getting it worse and there'll be flooding in different parts.
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They'll be overwhelmed by the floods that pour down.
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And the damage, the destruction it causes.
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Well, this is a situation of sin as well.
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It brings nothing but devastation and destruction.
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And here David is knowing it in a personal way.
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The waters have come up to my neck.
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I sink in deep mire where there is no foothold.
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I have come into deep waters.
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The situation is overwhelming.
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And again, we so often find ourselves in that.
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In that situation, he says in verse 3,
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I am weary with my crying out.
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My throat is parched.
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My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.
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It's almost like he's pouring himself out in an abrupt manner before God.
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It's not the way we would want to come to God.
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But it's the way we often do.
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And we can come to God in this way.
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Because God knows our every need.
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So we're not introduced to the difficulty of the situation.
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Immediately, it's more his feeling in it and how he's feeling overwhelmed.
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But in verse 4, then he shows us what the situation is.
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More in number than the hairs on my head are those who hate me without cause.
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This is now coming into the situation of what's going on around him.
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But David is saying, don't be afraid to bring your troubles before God, whatever they are.
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And that's the assurance for us to take everything to God in prayer,
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no matter what situation we're in.
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Because that's the second thing we see here is his outpouring.
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In a situation that he finds himself in, we see his outpouring.
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And in verse 7, which we'll come to again on another occasion, but see what it says there.
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For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face.
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What is the reason that he has been hated?
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It is for your sake, he says.
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It is for God's sake.
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They hate him because of his identification with God.
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That he is one who loves God.
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That he is one who worships God.
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Who lives for God.
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They mock him.
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They slander him.
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They hate him for this.
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Verse 4.
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Those who hate me without cause.
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And as Jesus himself said, they will hate you because they have hated me before.
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The world hates the Christian.
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The world hates God.
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And that's the situation that David is in here.
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And that's the situation that he's pouring himself out in.
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He loves the Lord.
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But this is the situation that he's in.
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He's surrounded by trouble.
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He's surrounded by enemies.
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But David doesn't cry out first of all, Lord, look how evil these people are.
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He doesn't cry out immediately, deal with them.
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Instead, he says of himself.
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As you see in verse 5.
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He looks in his own heart.
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Oh God, you know my folly.
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The wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.
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In this situation, it's easy for David to blame others and to look to others and say, God, deal with them.
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And it's easy for ourselves to do that as well.
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To look on those who hate God and to say, Lord, deal with them.
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Have justice on them.
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But David starts here looking to himself.
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And there's a great reminder to us here for ourselves too.
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We look first to ourselves.
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Because remember what this psalm is ultimately looking to is the suffering and the hatred that Jesus knew.
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And that's so often what keeps us right.
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And what David is almost praying here is, Lord, don't let me fail you in the midst of everything that's going on.
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David confesses his own wrongs.
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How thoughtless he is in his life and the way he sins.
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How deliberate he is in his sins.
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You know my folly.
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The wrongs I have done, they are not hidden from you.
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He may be being falsely accused of many things.
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But he knows that they could come and accuse him of something that he has done wrong.
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And don't we all know that?
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We may be falsely accused ourselves in different ways.
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But when we look at our hearts, we know too that there are things that people could say about us.
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And we've got no defense.
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Because we are all sinners.
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We all sin in different ways.
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So we too are the same.
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We can pour out our hearts to God in this way.
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To God you know my folly.
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You know the wrongs I have done.
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Because they are not hidden from you.
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But that is what brings us close to God.
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Because we recognize that when we come to God, he is the one who is able to forgive us our sins.
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Again, you look back in Psalm 65 verse 3.
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When the sins that overwhelmed me, it speaks to you atone for our transgressions.
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You forgive our sins.
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When we were overwhelmed by sins, you forgave us.
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And that's the focus of David here.
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He's pouring out his heart to God and saying,
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Don't let me fail you in the midst of everything that's going on here.
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And as you think of this Psalm applying it to Jesus,
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He didn't have to confess sin.
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Because he never sinned.
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He was without sin.
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We are not.
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But what he did was bear our sins.
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And that's where we start.
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Not looking at others.
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But first of all, looking at ourselves.
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The folly of our hearts.
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The wrongs we have done.
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They're not hidden from you.
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But we bring them to God knowing that he is able to forgive.
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John in 1 John chapter 1 verse 9 says,
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If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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So David is starting there, confessing his sin.
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And knowing that he is able to forgive our sin.
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And so there is what we are to do as well.
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To pour out our heart to God.
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To look at ourselves and know the sin in our heart.
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But know where we go with it.
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To the one who was hated first.
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They hated the Lord.
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They despised him.
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They rejected him.
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But he bore our sin on the cross.
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He was sinless.
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But he came to bear our sin.
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And we thank God for that.
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And then you see, just thirdly and finally, the prayer that he is offering.
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The way he pours himself out to God.
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But then we just look, just for a moment, at the prayer that he is offering.
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He doesn't play down how deeply discouraged he is.
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How baffled he is by everything that's going on.
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But as we said, what he does is, he brings it to God.
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He is waiting on the Lord.
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Maybe impatiently, as we'll see as we go through the psalm.
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But in verse 3, he says,
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My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.
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He's crying out.
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He's waiting for an answer.
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But he's praying.
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And just look at how he prays.
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You see it more powerfully in verse 6.
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Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, O Lord God of hosts.
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Let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel.
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His prayer is this.
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Lord, you know what I'm going through.
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You know my enemies.
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How they're mocking me.
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How they're accusing me falsely.
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But his prayer is,
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Lord, don't let me dishonor you.
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Don't let me keep anyone from coming to you because of the way I behave.
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And when you look at verse 6, you see that he's asking that this will be the case
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for those who are already hoping in the Lord and those who are seeking the Lord.
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Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me.
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Don't let the way I act.
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Don't let the way I speak.
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Don't let the way I deal with this situation.
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Don't let it put other believers away from you.
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Don't let them lose hope through me and my actions.
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And that is a great prayer for us.
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Lord, don't let whatever I do in my life, whatever I say in my life,
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be any harm to any other Christian brother or sister.
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Guard me and help me to live my way in a way that that will not be.
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But it's also this.
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Let not those who seek you be brought dishonor through me.
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And again, there's the harsh reality for us there when others are living in this town
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and around us and they see us and they think,
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well, if that's a Christian, I want nothing to do with it.
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What a challenge for us there.
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Let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me.
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As witness to those who are seeking the Lord,
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Lord, don't let them turn away because of my actions,
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because of my behavior.
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It's an unselfish prayer.
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It's looking to the concern for the people of God
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and to those who are seeking God
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that they would not be discouraged through him.
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And it's a prayer that we should have every day.
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Every day we wake up
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and before we go out into the world,
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Lord, let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me.
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Let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me.
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Help me that my steps, my words, my actions would bring honor to you,
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would show others the grace of God.
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And when I do fail, may it be that in my failures,
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I remember your mercy
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and continue to pray that people will still see
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their need of Christ through me.
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It's a powerful prayer.
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And what David is showing us here is the importance
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of being near to God day after day,
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knowing the grace of God growing us,
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drawing us closer to himself day by day.
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Even in the difficulties,
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even in our trials,
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even when we're feeling perplexed,
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baffled by what's going on around us or in us,
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that we'll be able to bring it all to God
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and know that he is with us.
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Jim Packer in his book,
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Your Father Loves You,
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he says this,
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this is the ultimate reason from our standpoint
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why God fills our lives with troubles and perplexities
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of one sort or another.
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It is to ensure that we shall learn to hold him fast,
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the reason why the Bible spends so much of its time
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reiterating that God is a strong rock,
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a firm defense and a sure refuge
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and a help for the weak
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is that God spends so much of his time
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showing us that we are weak,
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both mentally and morally
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and dare not trust ourselves
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to find or follow the right road.
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And he goes on to explain it in this way.
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When we walk along a clear road,
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feeling fine,
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and someone takes our arm to help us,
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likely we would impatiently shake him off.
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But when we are caught in rough country in the dark,
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with a storm brewing and our strength spent,
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and someone takes our arm to help us,
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we would thankfully lean on him.
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And God wants us to feel
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that our way through life,
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though rough and perplexing,
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is that we may learn to lean on him thankfully.
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David is asking,
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what is the purpose
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in all of these things that are going on?
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What is the purpose when I feel overwhelmed
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by the waters?
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I feel I'm sinking in the mire.
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What is the purpose in it all?
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that I might be brought closer to you.
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That I may rely on you.
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That I would be able to show
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your honor to others
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in faithfully walking close to you.
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Jesus was hated without cause.
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And yet, as he went to the cross,
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it says at one point,
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he set his face towards Jerusalem.
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He had that focus in what he was doing.
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As he was on the cross,
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he cried,
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Father, forgive them,
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for they know not what they do.
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They hated him without a cause.
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And yet he bore our sins.
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So for us,
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this psalm reminds us of the difficulties,
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the perplexities in life.
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But it assures us of the confidence we have in Christ.
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That he was hated before us.
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That he bore reproach for us.
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And that we can lean and trust on him
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in every situation.
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God willing, we'll see more of this
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as we go through the psalm
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over the coming weeks.
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But we pray that as we go on,
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even for the rest of this week,
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that that would be our prayer.
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Lord, let not those who hope in you
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be put to shame through me.
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Let not those who seek you
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be brought to dishonor through me.
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That we would live close to
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and leaning upon the Lord.
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We'll conclude our time of worship now
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by singing to God's praise and singing.