Latest / Reformed Thinking / Unite My Heart to Fear Your Name (Psalm 86) | Charles Spurgeon

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Unite My Heart to Fear Your Name (Psalm 86) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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  This is the show where we we dust off the old books, blow
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  away the cobwebs, and see if the theology of the past can still
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  handle the weight of the present.
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  It's. A good way to put it.
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  Yeah, we're trying to step away from all the, you know, the hot
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  takes on social media and just sit down with the classics for a
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  bit. It's good to be back.
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  And you're right about the weight.
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  The books we look at, they aren't light reading, but they
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  are heavy in the well, in the best sense of the word.
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  They anchor you. That's a good word for it.
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  An anchor, yeah. So what are we opening up today?
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  Today we are opening up what many people consider to be the
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  magnum opus of Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
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  It's the Treasury of David. Oh, the Treasury of David.
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  I have a copy of that on my shelf.
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  It is massive, 7 volumes I think it looks like it could hold up a
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  house foundation it. Practically could.
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  Spurgeon spent I think 20 years working on it. 20 years.
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  Yeah, it's a commentary on the Psalms, but it's not just him
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  writing. He went through centuries of
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  church history, you know, Puritans, reformers, even
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  medieval monks, and he pulled out their best thoughts on every
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  single verse. So it's more like a collection.
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  It's a collection of the best thinking on the Psalter that was
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  available up to the 19th century.
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  A real treasure. And today we're zeroing in on
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  just one Psalm. Psalm.
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  Psalm 86. That's the one.
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  OK, so just to set the scene for you listening, this Psalm has a
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  specific title in the Hebrew. It's called a Tefila.
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  Which translates simply to a prayer.
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  That seems a little redundant, doesn't it?
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  I mean, aren't all the Psalms prayers?
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  Or at least, you know, songs that function as prayers.
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  You'd think so. I thought so for years, but
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  Spurgeon points out a detail that I completely missed.
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  Out of all 150 psalms, only 5 actually carried this specific
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  title. A prayer in their inscription.
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  Only 5? Which ones?
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  Psalm 1790102142 and this 186. So this one is special.
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  It really earns that title. It does.
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  While you find praise in it. The dominant DNA of this Psalm
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  is petition. It's all about asking.
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  Cleating Spurgeon calls it a family likeness.
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  A family likeness? What does he mean by that?
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  He says if you look at the face of this song and then you look
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  at the prayers of believers throughout history, I mean,
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  whether it's a 1st century martyr or 21st century mom, they
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  all look like this. They.
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  Share the same features. Exactly.
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  They belong to the same genus, as he puts it.
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  That's a comforting thought. We're not, you know, inventing
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  the wheel. Every time we pray, we're
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  stepping into a stream that's been flowing for thousands of
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  years. We are, and Speaking of that
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  stream and specifically our Reformed heritage.
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  Sporgen opens with a really fascinating observation about
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  the text itself. It has to do with the name of
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  God. Oh I saw this in the notes.
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  The scribes were playing fast and loose with the text.
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  Is that right? In a way, yeah.
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  The name of God, Jehovah or Yahweh.
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  It appears a lot in this Psalm, but the Jewish scribes, when
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  they were copying the manuscripts, they often swapped
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  out the name Jehovah for Adonna. Adonna, which means Lord or
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  master, correct? And that was out of fear, right?
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  Right. A superstition.
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  They were afraid of misusing the sacred name.
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  That's the traditional explanation, A superstitious
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  dread. But Spurgeon points out the
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  irony here, and it's a very sharp critique.
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  He notes that these scribes were so afraid of their God that they
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  dared not write his name. Yet they had so little godly
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  fear that they dared to alter His word.
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  That hits heart. So they were more afraid of a
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  ritual taboo than they were of editing the inspired text.
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  It shows a real misalignment of priorities.
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  They let their superstition overrule the integrity of
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  Scripture. But Spurgeon contrast that with
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  the Christian position. He does, and specifically the
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  Protestant confidence we have. We don't labor under that kind
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  of tormenting dread. We don't have to be afraid to
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  say the name. No, we rejoice in it.
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  We have a Father. We have the spirit of adoption.
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  So when we come to Psalm 86, we don't need to swap out words.
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  We can read it exactly as God gave it, with the confidence of
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  children rather than the terror of slaves.
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  OK, so let's get into the text itself.
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  Then section one, that's verses one and two.
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  It starts with a very a very physical request.
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  Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me.
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  Bow down. Just, you know, pause on that
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  image. It implies a height difference
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  a. Massive 1 You have the infinite
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  Jehovah, the one who spans the heavens, and David is asking him
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  to bend low, to lean in. Spurgeon talks about God's
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  condescension here. He does.
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  He says God bows to listen to prayers that are, to use
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  Spurgeon's own phrase, without wing.
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  Without wing. That's a great phrase.
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  I assume he means prayers that can't even get off the ground.
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  That's exactly it. Sometimes we're so crushed by
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  despondency or so aware of our own smallness, that our prayers
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  feel like they just fall out of our mouths and hit the dirt.
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  They have no lift. No lift at all.
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  They can't fly up to the throne of God on their own.
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  So if the prayer can't go up to God.
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  God must come down to the prayer.
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  He bows his ear. It's an active accommodation to
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  our weakness. It's beautiful.
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  But why should he? David gives a reason.
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  In the very next breath, he says, For I am poor and needy.
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  And this is what Spurgeon calls the master argument.
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  The master argument. And if you think about it, it is
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  the complete opposite of how the world operates.
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  Completely. I mean if I go to a bank for a
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  loan I don't walk in and say give me $1,000,000 because I
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  have absolutely no money and no way to pay you back.
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  He'd be left out of the building.
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  In the world, you list your assets, you prove your merit,
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  you show your potential. Right here's My Portfolio.
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  Here's my credit score. But in the Kingdom of God, the
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  logic is inverted. Misery, Spurgeon says, is the
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  master argument with mercy. So the admission of emptiness is
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  the very thing that fills the hand.
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  It's the only thing that fills the hand.
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  This isn't a plea of merit. It is a plea of total
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  dependence. A proud man would never, ever
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  use this argument. No, Spurgeon notes that the
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  great ones of the earth would mock this.
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  They would find it humiliating to admit they are poor and
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  needy. It brings to mind the Pharisee
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  and the tax collector in the temple.
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  The Pharisee stood there just, you know, reading his resume to
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  God. I fast twice a week.
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  I give tithes. And he went home empty.
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  He had no room for Grace because he was so full of himself.
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  But Spurgeon adds a warning here that I think we really need to
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  hear. The worst kind of Sinner.
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  Yeah, he says the worst type of Sinner is the one who uses the
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  language of spiritual poverty. You know, maybe reciting a
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  confession in church, but secretly in his heart he thinks
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  he's rich and increased in goods.
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  That's the danger of liturgy, isn't it?
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  We can say the words I am a miserable offender with our
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  lips. Well thinking, but honestly, I'm
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  doing better than the guy in the next Pew.
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  That is the trap. The confession has to be
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  genuine. We really are poor.
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  We really are needy. But then right after this
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  confession of of total bankruptcy, David throws us a
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  curveball in verse 2. He does, he says, preserve my
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  soul, for I am holy. Whoa.
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  Wait a minute, we just established we're poor and
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  needy, we're reformed Christians, We believe in the
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  total depravity of man. How can David, a man who
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  definitely had some major moral failures, look God in the eye
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  and say I am holy is his arrogance?
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  It certainly sounds like it on the surface.
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  It can be a real stumbling block, but we have to dig into
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  the word that David uses here. The Hebrew is Hasid.
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  Hasid. And it doesn't mean sinless
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  perfection. That's not the idea at all.
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  So he isn't claiming he never makes mistakes.
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  Not for a second. The word implies being set
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  apart. OK, set apart.
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  Think of the vessels in the temple, the bulls and the
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  lampstands. They were called holy not
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  because they had moral virtue, but because they were dedicated
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  exclusively to God's use. Right.
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  You couldn't take a temple bowl and use it to serve beer at a
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  party. It would be sacrilege.
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  Exactly. So when David says I am holy, he
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  is essentially saying, Lord, I am your property.
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  I have been set apart for you. Do not let your enemies defile
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  what belongs to you. Oh, so it's actually an argument
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  based on God's ownership, not David's performance.
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  That's it. He's pleading for property
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  protection. I am yours, so take care of me.
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  That makes so much more sense, but you said there are other
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  nuances too. There are, Spurgeon notes.
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  It can also mean innocent regarding a specific charge.
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  How so? Well, if someone accuses me of
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  theft and I didn't do it, I can plead my innocence in that
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  specific case without claiming to be a perfect human being in
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  general. Got it, and what was the other
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  one? Spurgeon also mentioned it can
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  translate to merciful or tender heart.
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  Yes, it can be a plea that God should deal mercifully with Him,
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  just as He has tried to be a man of mercy toward others.
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  But the main point, the thing to really hold onto, is that this
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  isn't self righteousness, right? Spurgeon says.
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  The Saint knows where he is clear, and he knows where he
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  must cry. Pickavi, which is Latin for I
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  have sinned. He knows the difference between
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  his integrity in one area and his depravity over all.
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  And look at the safety net he puts in the second-half of the
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  verse. This is so important.
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  He doesn't just stop at I am holy.
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  He immediately pivots to save thy servant that trusteth in
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  thee. That's the anchor.
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  That's the real foundation of the plea.
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  It is. The holiness isn't the ground of
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  salvation, the trust is. Spurgeon uses a very vivid,
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  almost brutal analogy here to contrast God with human masters.
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  Oh yeah, he brings up the Amalekitesh master from First
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  Samuel. That's the one.
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  The story where David finds the Egyptian servant half dead in a
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  field. Exactly.
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  The master had a servant who got sick, and because the servant
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  was sick and couldn't work, what did the master do?
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  He just left him in the field to die.
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  He was disposable. Completely, Spurgeon says.
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  The world is an Amalekite master.
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  It uses you until you're broken, and then it tosses you aside.
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  But God is not like that, no. He preserves his soul.
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  He saves the servant who trusts in him, even when that servant
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  is poor, needy or sick. That leads us right into Section
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  2 verses 3 through 5. The the intensity seems to ramp
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  up here. David says I cry into the daily.
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  This introduces the concept of importunity.
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  Importunity. Now that is a word we don't hear
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  very often outside of theological circles.
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  It just means persistence. Annoying persistence, almost.
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  It's a refusal to stop asking. Like the widow and the unjust
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  judge. Precisely the question is, can
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  we use our persistence as a logical argument with God?
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  Can we say God? Answer me because I keep asking.
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  And Spurgeon's answer is yes. He argues yes, and his logic is
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  very comforting. He says if we have looked to the
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  Lord alone in all former times, if we have been crying out
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  consistently day after day, we can be sure He won't desert us
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  now. It proves the relationship is
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  real. It does.
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  We aren't just treating God like a, you know, a vending machine
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  we kick when we're hungry. We're in a daily conversation.
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  It legitimizes the request. Spurgeon traces A progression
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  here. He does.
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  Look at the steps David has taken so far.
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  First, I am poor and needy. Second, I am set apart.
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  I am yours. Third, I trust. 4th, I cry
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  daily. He's building a case brick by
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  brick. And then in verse four he uses
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  this beautiful image. Rejoice the soul of thy servant,
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  for unto thee do I lift up my soul.
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  Lift up my soul. Spurgeon gets very practical
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  here about what he calls the mechanics of faith, if we can
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  put it that way. He admits that this is hard
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  work. It is really difficult to lift a
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  soul out of the miry clay of despondency.
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  Oh absolutely. When you're depressed or
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  anxious, gravity just feels heavier.
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  Lifting your heart to God feels like trying to lift a car.
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  It does, and Spurgeon uses 2 analogies here that I think are
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  just lovely. The 1st is the heliotrope.
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  The heliotrope, That's a flower, right?
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  Yes, the name literally means Sun Turner.
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  It's a plant that naturally pivots its face toward the sun
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  throughout the day. It follows the light.
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  Right, Spurgeon says, as the heliotrope looks to the sun.
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  So turn I my heart to thee. It implies a natural instinct of
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  the new nature. Even when we're heavy with rain,
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  we still turn toward the light. And what was the second analogy?
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  The brazen serpent from the wilderness.
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  The Israelites. They didn't have to climb a
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  mountain or fight a battle to be healed of the snake bites.
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  All they had to do was look. He was the gaze that saved them.
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  It was, Spurgeon says. We lift our souls eye to God to
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  live. And here's the comfort for
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  anyone listening who feels weak today.
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  God accepts the will for the deed.
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  What does that mean exactly? The will for the deed.
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  It means that while we are straining, laboring to lift our
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  heavy souls up to him, he sees the effort, he sees the desire,
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  and he draws the servant near. While the servant is struggling
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  to draw near, he meets us in the lifting.
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  Wow, that takes so much pressure off.
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  We don't have to have the strength to reach heaven, we
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  just have to have the desire to look there.
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  And the reason we can look with confidence is found in verse 5.
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  For thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive.
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  Ready to forgive? That is a striking phrase.
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  It's the theological bedrock of this whole section.
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  Spurgeon contrasts God with men. Men, you know.
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  We might forgive eventually, but we are rarely ready to do it.
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  No, Usually we need a cooling off period.
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  We need an apology. We might even need to see the
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  other person squirm a little bit first.
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  We need to be persuaded. But Spurgeon uses a legal
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  analogy here. He says God has the pardon
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  ready. Drawn.
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  Ready. Drawn.
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  Yeah, imagine a lawyer's desk. The pardon is already typed up,
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  the terms are settled, the seal is affixed.
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  It's just sitting there waiting for the name and the date.
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  God doesn't need to be pressured into mercy.
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  His heart is already there. He also uses the image of the
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  cornucopia. He does plenteous in mercy.
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  God doesn't dispense grace from a slender store.
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  He isn't rationing it out like water in a drought.
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  It's a horn of plenty. It pours.
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  Spurgeon connects this right back to Exodus 34, where God
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  reveals his name to Moses in the cleft of the rock.
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  David is standing on that same theological ground, claiming
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  that the Lord is abundant in goodness and truth.
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  So we've established the plea in the character of God.
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  Now in Section 3, verses 6 through 10, David shivs gears.
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  He moves into what I call the the logic of prayer and true
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  religion. Right.
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  Verse 6 says Attend to the voice of my supplications.
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  Spurgeon makes a very interesting distinction here
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  between noise and voice. OK, what's the difference?
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  Noise can be just panic. It can be babbling confusion.
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  But a voice implies meaning. It implies A distinct living
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  sense. It has a message.
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  It has a message, Spurgeon says, that even when our prayers are
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  confused, when they're mixed with all the static of our
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  anxiety, God sits through that noise to hear the voice, the
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  kernel of intent at the center. He decodes the signal he.
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  Does and because he he hears prayer is practical.
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  Verse 7. In the day of my trouble, I will
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  call for thou wilt answer me. This is what Spurgeon calls the
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  pragmatic argument for faith. Which is pretty simple.
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  We pray because it works. That's it.
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  Spurgeon is arguing against deism here.
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  The idea that God, you know, created the world and then just
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  walked away, he says. Who would make a conscience of
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  pleading with the winds? Right.
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  No one talks to a brick wall for long.
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  Exactly. If God didn't answer.
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  If prayer had no effect, human beings would have stopped doing
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  it thousands of years ago. We continue to pray because we
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  have data. We have a history of answers.
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  And this leads David to declare the uniqueness of God.
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  Verse eight. Among the gods there is none
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  like unto thee. In David's context, this was a
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  bold political statement. The world was full of gods.
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  You had idols, statues. You had kings who claimed to be
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  divine. A crowded marketplace of
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  deities. A very crowded market.
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  Spurgeon just dismisses them all.
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  He says gods of delegated office, like magistrates or
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  kings, they are nothing before Jehovah, and the gods of
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  superstition are vanity itself. It really comes down to the
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  works, doesn't it? What they can do?
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  It does? Spurgeon asks the rhetorical
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  question. One of any of these false gods
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  ever divided a sea when if they fed a multitude from the skies,
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  the works of Jehovah set him apart?
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  He's the only one who actually does anything.
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  Now verse 9 takes this uniqueness and expands it into a
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  global vision. All nations whom thou hast made
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  shall come and worship. It sounds prophetic.
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  It's a missional vision and this is where we see Spurgeon's deep
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  seated optimism. You know, there's there's a
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  common view. It was common in his day, and
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  it's certainly common now that the world is just going to get
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  worse and worse. The whole handbasket to hell
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  theory. That's the one, the idea that
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  everything will end in total darkness and failure before the
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  end comes. Spurgeon really critiques that
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  notion. He says it damps missionary
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  zeal. If you believe the ship is
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  guaranteed to sink, you don't work very hard to scrub the
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  decks. That's a good point, but
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  Spurgeon believed the nations would come.
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  He did. He believed the text.
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  David says all nations shall come, not might come, not could
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  come shall come. Spurgeon says the truth will one
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  day be carried unanimously. He expected the dwellers in all
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  lands to learn righteousness. That is a refreshing
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  perspective. It frames our mission work not
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  as a desperate holding action, but is participating in an
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  inevitable victory. Precisely.
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  And this leads directly to verse 10.
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  Thou art great. Thou art God alone.
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  This brings us to the Reformed stance on exclusivity.
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  God alone? That doesn't leave much room for
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  a committee of deities, no. Spurgeon says true religion
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  makes no compromises. It does not admit bail or dagon
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  into the tent, right. Today we live in a culture that
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  values what it calls philosophic breath, the idea that, you know,
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  all roads lead to the top of the same mountain.
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  Pluralism, right? Spurgeon says that when you
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  build a pantheon which is a temple for all gods, it
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  eventually becomes a pandemonium.
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  Ammonium Chaos. Exactly.
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  He uses a phrase here I really like.
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  He calls it benevolent intolerance.
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  That sounds like a contradiction.
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  How can you be benevolent and intolerant?
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  It sounds like it, but think about it.
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  Benevolent means we love people. We want their good.
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  Intolerance means we refuse to validate lies that will hurt
• 17:54
  them. So it's like a doctor being
• 17:56
  intolerant of cancer. Perfect analogy.
• 17:58
  We undeceive mankind regarding the value of their compromises.
• 18:02
  We tell them the truth because we love them.
• 18:04
  And the reason we can be exclusive and the reason it's
• 18:06
  safe is because God blends greatness and goodness.
• 18:11
  That is the philosophical key. Greatness without goodness leads
• 18:15
  to tyranny. Think of a powerful dictator who
• 18:18
  is evil. That is terrifying.
• 18:20
  And goodness without greatness. That leads to weakness.
• 18:23
  A kind of person who has no power to help you is well, is
• 18:26
  useless in a crisis. But God blends both perfectly.
• 18:29
  He is infinite in power and infinite in goodness.
• 18:32
  He is the only safe place to put your trust.
• 18:35
  Which brings us to Section 4. If God is this unique, this
• 18:38
  great and this good, how should we respond?
• 18:41
  Verse 11 gives us the request. Teach me the Thy way.
• 18:44
  Unite my heart to fear Thy name. Teach me.
• 18:46
  Just notice the posture. The world, Spurgeon says, is
• 18:49
  ignorant of its ignorance. People think they know
• 18:52
  everything. So true.
• 18:53
  But the believer wants to live in God's school.
• 18:56
  He knows he's a student. And the method of learning is
• 18:58
  walking. I will walk in thy truth.
• 19:00
  Right. Truth isn't just a sentiment you
• 19:02
  feel while listening to a deep dive like this.
• 19:04
  It's a matter of daily life. It's practical.
• 19:07
  Spurgeon uses a great analogy about a Carpenter here.
• 19:10
  He does? He asks what is the use of a
• 19:12
  carpenter's rule if he just sticks it behind his back and
• 19:15
  never actually uses it to measure anything.
• 19:17
  It's just an accessory, a prop. Exactly.
• 19:21
  The Bible is a rule, a ruler. It's meant to be used to measure
• 19:25
  and square our lives. If we just carry it around but
• 19:28
  don't walk by it, it's useless. But doing that, actually walking
• 19:31
  in the truth, requires focus. And that brings us to what I
• 19:35
  think is the core concept of this entire Psalm.
• 19:38
  Unite my heart. This is the prayer we all need.
• 19:41
  The problem David faces and the problem we face is what the
• 19:44
  Bible calls the heart and a heart double mindedness.
• 19:47
  Being split right down the middle.
• 19:49
  Yes, Spurgeon uses a hydraulic analogy here.
• 19:53
  Imagine a stream. If that stream trickles out into
• 19:55
  100 little runnels and pools, it loses all its force.
• 19:58
  It just creates a marsh it. Just becomes stagnant.
• 20:01
  Right. But if you channel all that
• 20:03
  water into one deep bed, it drives forward.
• 20:06
  It has force. It has power.
• 20:08
  It can turn a wheel. It can generate electricity.
• 20:10
  Precisely, Spurgeon says. The man of divided heart is
• 20:14
  weak. He wastes his force on a dozen
• 20:16
  different trivialities, but the man of one object is powerful.
• 20:21
  So the prayer Unite My Heart is a prayer for integration, for
• 20:26
  wholeness. It's a prayer for focus.
• 20:29
  God, gather the scattered strings of my nature and tie
• 20:32
  them into one knot. And notice it is God who has to
• 20:35
  do it. We can't unite our own hearts.
• 20:37
  Spurgeon contrast this with hypocrisy, doesn't he?
• 20:40
  He does. The hypocrite has one soul for
• 20:42
  God, usually on Sunday morning for an hour, and another soul
• 20:45
  for the world during the week. That is a divided existence.
• 20:48
  Sincerity, on the other hand, drives 1 design its whole.
• 20:52
  There's a quite saying Spurgeon quotes here from a poet named
• 20:54
  Francis Quarles. Yes, I love that part.
• 20:57
  The line is I have did not when I did I.
• 20:59
  Have did not when I did die. Quarles is speaking in the voice
• 21:03
  of Christ and he's saying I didn't give you half a life or
• 21:06
  half a death on the cross. I gave everything, so why do you
• 21:09
  give me half a heart? That is a piercing question.
• 21:11
  God wants the whole heart or none.
• 21:13
  It is the ultimatum of grace, and when the heart is united, we
• 21:16
  see the result in Section 5, verse 12.
• 21:19
  I will praise thee with all my heart.
• 21:23
  So the United heart leads directly to wholehearted praise.
• 21:28
  You cannot praise with a divided heart.
• 21:30
  It's impossible. When the heart is 1, the praise
• 21:32
  is whole. Spurgeon calls.
• 21:33
  Praise the quit rent we pay to God.
• 21:37
  Quit rent. That's an old feudal term, isn't
• 21:39
  it? It is a tenant would pay a quit
• 21:41
  rent to the Lord of the Manor to be free or quit of other
• 21:44
  services. OK Spurgeon says that as God
• 21:47
  renews the lease of mercy for us every single morning, we owe Him
• 21:50
  the rent of praise. It's our constant
• 21:52
  acknowledgement that we live on His land by his grace.
• 21:55
  And the depth of that praise comes from the depth of the
• 21:58
  rescue. Verse 13 delivered my soul from
• 22:01
  the lowest hell the. Lowest hell.
• 22:03
  Now, David is likely using a metaphor here.
• 22:05
  Right, he's probably not talking about the eternal destination
• 22:08
  literally in this context. Probably not.
• 22:10
  He means extreme danger, misery, the deep dishonor he felt from
• 22:15
  his enemies. He felt like he was in the pit.
• 22:18
  But there is a theological meaning there too.
• 22:20
  There is. This touches on prevenient
• 22:23
  grace. The grace that goes before and
• 22:26
  spurging gets very personal here.
• 22:28
  What does he say? He confesses that without God's
• 22:31
  grace, his own natural vehemence, his fiery
• 22:34
  personality, would have driven him into the lowest abyss of
• 22:38
  sin. He knew his own capability for
• 22:40
  darkness. He did, and he quotes Augustine,
• 22:43
  who had a brilliant insight on this very thing, Augustine said.
• 22:46
  The debtor whose debt is paid is delivered from torture, even if
• 22:49
  he wasn't yet tortured. Say that again.
• 22:51
  That's a deep thought. The debtor whose debt is paid is
• 22:54
  delivered from the torture he would have faced even if he
• 22:56
  never actually set foot in the torture chamber.
• 22:59
  So we are saved not just from the sins we committed, but from
• 23:01
  the sins we would have committed if God hadn't stopped.
• 23:03
  US, we are saved from our potential futures and that is a
• 23:07
  reason for massive, massive gratitude.
• 23:10
  It really changes how you look at your own life history.
• 23:13
  You start to realize how many bullets you dodge without even
• 23:16
  seeing the gun. For sure.
• 23:18
  Now in section 6, the scene shifts again.
• 23:22
  The Enemy's return Verse 14. The proud are risen against me.
• 23:27
  It's inevitable. If you are holy, if you are set
• 23:29
  apart for God, the proud will rise against you, Spurgeon says.
• 23:33
  The believers walk with God is like smoke to their eyes.
• 23:36
  It just irritates them. And he has a very interesting,
• 23:39
  very pointed definition of an atheist here.
• 23:41
  He does. He defines the ungodly as those
• 23:44
  who have not set thee before them, and he makes the point
• 23:47
  that irreligion is akin to inhumanity.
• 23:49
  He says, and this is a strong statement.
• 23:52
  An atheist is a misanthrope. A hater of mankind.
• 23:55
  That is a strong charge. His logic is that the fatherhood
• 23:58
  of God is the only real basis for the brotherhood of man.
• 24:01
  If you remove the Creator, you eventually remove the inherent
• 24:04
  dignity of the creature. If you don't respect God,
• 24:07
  eventually you will lose respect for people.
• 24:10
  But David turns away from these proud men.
• 24:13
  Verse 15 starts with that great turn, but thou, O Lord.
• 24:17
  The contrast? It's everything.
• 24:19
  We turn from the blusterings of proud men to what Spurgeon calls
• 24:23
  the sea of glass, of God's nature, and he breaks down this
• 24:27
  nature into what he calls a chromatic scale of love.
• 24:30
  A chromatic scale, like a musical scale or light.
• 24:33
  Like light, he says. Love is the white light, but it
• 24:36
  refracts into different colors depending on our specific need.
• 24:38
  OK, break that down. If we are sorrowful, love
• 24:41
  becomes compassion. If we are tempted, love becomes
• 24:44
  grace, right? If we are airing, love becomes
• 24:47
  patience or long-suffering. If we are sinning, it becomes
• 24:51
  mercy. And if we are resting on a
• 24:53
  promise, love becomes truth. That is magnificent.
• 24:57
  So God's love is in static. It adapts its you to match our
• 25:00
  specific condition. It meets us exactly where we are
• 25:03
  and responding to that love. David claims his identity in
• 25:06
  verse 16. Save the son of thine handmaid
• 25:09
  and. This is a very specific cultural
• 25:11
  reference. Son of thine Handmaid.
• 25:13
  It sounds a little strange to our ears.
• 25:15
  It does. It refers to a homeborn servant.
• 25:18
  In that culture, you could go out and buy a slave at the
• 25:21
  market, but a servant born in your house to a mother who was
• 25:25
  already your servant had a different status.
• 25:28
  They were part of the family structure in a way.
• 25:30
  They were. They weren't a recent purchase.
• 25:32
  They had grown up in the household.
• 25:34
  They belong to the Master by birthright.
• 25:36
  So David is saying, Lord, I'm not a stranger, I was born in
• 25:39
  your house. I am your property entirely.
• 25:41
  Exactly, and Spurgeon notes that some might find that a degrading
• 25:45
  illustration calling yourself a slave who was born of a slave.
• 25:49
  But David doesn't see it that way.
• 25:50
  He. Uses it with delight.
• 25:52
  To be God's property is the highest honor.
• 25:54
  He is claiming a family right to protection.
• 25:56
  You take care of your own Lord, and I am your own Which?
• 26:00
  Brings us to the final section, Section 7 and the final request
• 26:03
  in verse 17. Show me a token for good.
• 26:06
  A token, a sign, a proof? Is David asking for a miracle
• 26:10
  here? You know, a lightning bolt?
• 26:13
  A wet fleece on dry ground? Not necessarily.
• 26:16
  Spurgeon interprets this to mean that the deliverance itself is
• 26:19
  the token. But he also cites Bellermine, a
• 26:22
  Counter Reformation theologian, which just shows Spurgeon's
• 26:25
  willingness to find truth anywhere, who has a great
• 26:28
  insight here. And what does Bill or mine say?
• 26:30
  He says the token is spiritual joy and tranquility in the face
• 26:34
  of trouble. So the miracle isn't that the
• 26:36
  trouble stops, but that you are calm in the middle of it.
• 26:39
  Precisely. That is the sign that confuses
• 26:42
  the enemy. When the proud men are
• 26:44
  blustering and attacking and the son of the Handmaid is sitting
• 26:47
  there with a united heart full of peace, that is the token.
• 26:51
  The tech says the enemies see it and are ashamed.
• 26:54
  They're disappointed because their attacks didn't destroy
• 26:56
  your peace. It brings God double honor.
• 26:58
  He helps us, that makes us safe and He comforts us, that makes
• 27:02
  us joyful, Spudgeon says. God does nothing by halves.
• 27:05
  He doesn't just rescue the body and leave the soul trembling, He
• 27:08
  hopens and comforts. Hopen, there's a great word we
• 27:12
  need to bring back into circulation.
• 27:13
  Indeed, it implies A robust sustaining help.
• 27:17
  It's more than just a little assistance.
• 27:19
  So we have walked the full path of this Psalm, from the plea of
• 27:23
  poverty in verse one, to the logic of importunity, the
• 27:26
  absolute need for a united heart, all the way to this token
• 27:30
  of peace. It's a complete map of the soul
• 27:32
  in prayer. Every stage is there.
• 27:35
  As we wrap up this deep dive into Psalm 86 and Spurgeon's
• 27:38
  Treasury of David, what's the big take away for you?
• 27:41
  How does this connect to our Reformed thinking?
• 27:44
  I think it illustrates the perfect balance of human
• 27:47
  dependence and divine sovereignty.
• 27:50
  You see, David is active. He's crying, he's lifting his
• 27:52
  soul, he's walking. In truth, he's not passive.
• 27:55
  Right, he's totally engaged. But the motive power, the ground
• 27:58
  of his hope, is entirely God. God is the one who bows down.
• 28:02
  God is the one who is ready to forgive.
• 28:04
  God is the one who must unite the heart.
• 28:06
  So it's not let go and let God, but it's also not pull yourself
• 28:10
  up by your bootstraps. No, it's not it's the act of
• 28:12
  dependence of a child on a good father and I think that prayer
• 28:15
  in verse 11, unite my Heart is the essential prayer for the
• 28:18
  sanctified life the. Essential.
• 28:20
  Prayer. I really believe that if we get
• 28:22
  that right, if we can get our hearts focused on one object,
• 28:24
  which is the fear of His name, then everything else starts to
• 28:28
  fall into place. The praise becomes whole.
• 28:31
  The trust becomes deep. The peace becomes visible.
• 28:35
  It really challenges us to look at our own fragmented lives.
• 28:38
  We are so distracted by a million things, notifications,
• 28:42
  worries, ambitions. And here's this ancient prayer.
• 28:46
  Pull me together, Lord, make me one.
• 28:48
  And fear thy name. That's the binding agent.
• 28:50
  That's what pulls it all together.
• 28:52
  I want to leave our listeners with a final thought, to chew on
• 28:54
  something that comes out of that final section on the token for
• 28:57
  good. We often look for God to show up
• 29:00
  in spectacular, you know, cinematic ways.
• 29:03
  We want the seat apart. We want the check to magically
• 29:05
  arrive in the mail. And God can do those things, of
• 29:07
  course. But Spurgeon and David seem to
• 29:09
  be saying that the greatest token of God's presence might
• 29:12
  simply be your own composure. Yes, your peace.
• 29:16
  So I'd ask you to think about this.
• 29:18
  Is your current reaction to your own difficulties A token that
• 29:22
  confuses your enemies? Does your peace prove your God
• 29:25
  is real? Or are you looking for lightning
• 29:28
  while you're missing the miracle of peace right there inside?
• 29:31
  You that is a searching question.
• 29:33
  If we have the United Heart, we will have the token.
• 29:36
  Thank you for joining us for this deep dive into reformed
• 29:38
  thinking. We hope this exploration of
• 29:40
  Psalm 86 has sharpened your mind and warmed your heart.
• 29:43
  Until next time, keep reading and keep thinking.