Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Lord Will Fulfill His Purpose for Me (Psalm 138) | Charles Spurgeon

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The Lord Will Fulfill His Purpose for Me (Psalm 138) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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So I want you to imagine standing in a massive sports
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stadium. Your team is playing an away
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game and you were sitting in a section that is entirely
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surrounded by, I mean let's say 80,000 screaming fans of the
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rival team. Man, that is hostile territory
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right there. Right.
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The atmosphere is hostile. The tension is, you know, it's
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palpable. And then suddenly your team
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scores a winning point. OK.
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So what do you do? Well, human nature tells you to
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just survive the moment. Yeah, keep your head down.
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Yeah, you might politely clap. Try not to draw attention to
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yourself. You basically tone down your joy
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because critics are watching. Which is the smart, self
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preserving thing to do? It is.
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But what if you threw caution to the wind?
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What if you stood up and just cheered at the top of your lungs
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in a room full of furious rivals?
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That would take some serious nerve.
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It would, but that kind of uninhibited celebration, that
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absolute refusal to turn down the volume of your joy, is the
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the precise posture that a 3000 year old manual on prayer
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demands of us today. Welcome to reformed thinking.
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Today our mission is to examine a specific selection of notes
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from Charles Spurgeon's The Treasury of David, and we are
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locking our focus on to Psalm 138.
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We are jumping into a text attributed to David that acts as
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a really striking manual of private prayer and praise.
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It really is. It highlights bold courage,
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intense humility and the believers direct interaction
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with God through His Word. So if you want to gain thorough
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knowledge without drowning and information overload, you were
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in the right place. Let's dive in.
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You know, the contrast at the very beginning of this text is,
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well, it is absolutely brilliant.
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Yeah. Whoever compiled and arranged
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these sacred poems had an incredible eye for the emotional
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whiplash of the believer's life. Emotional whiplash.
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I like that. Because if you look just prior
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to this, in Psalm 137, we find the Israelites in exile.
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Right, the rivers of Babylon. Yes, they are sitting by the
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rivers of Babylon, weeping, hanging their harks on the
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Willow trees. The instruction there is
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essentially silence. There is a time to keep your
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mouth shut before revilers so you do not cast pearls before
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swine. But then and.
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You turn the page. You turn the page to Psalm 138
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and the tone shifts violently. The silence is just broken.
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We see the excellence of a brave confession.
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So there's a time to be quiet, but there's also a time to speak
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up. Precisely.
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There is a time to speak openly, lest we be found guilty of
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cowardly hiding our convictions. This is a distinctly Davidic
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text, full of the fidelity, courage and decision that is
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characteristic of the King of Israel.
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I want to unpack that tone shift right out of the gate with a
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verse, one that says, I will praise thee with my whole heart
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before the gods will I sing praise unto Thee.
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The phrase whole heart jumps out immediately.
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He is so taken up with God that he does not even mention a
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formal title initially. He just says Thee.
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Which implies a lot of familiarity.
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Yeah, think about talking to your absolute closest friend.
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You do not state their full name when you walk into the room.
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Right. You don't say hello, Jonathan
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Edward Smith. No.
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You just start talking because the intimacy is already
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established. And that intimacy drives the
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entire confession. He sees God with his mind's eye,
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addresses him directly, and resolves to do it with the
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complete force of his life. The complete force.
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Yeah. And there's a beautiful
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theological distinction made here in the sources regarding
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the condition of the heart. Break that down for us.
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So to mourn our own sins, we need a broken heart.
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You bring the shattered, contrite pieces of your failures
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to God, right? But to praise God's perfections,
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you need a whole heart. If ever our attention is unified
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and entirely occupied with one single object, it should be when
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praising. So you can't be divided.
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No, you cannot act as someone under restraint, giving 50% of
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your focus to heaven and keeping 50% on earth to see what the
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neighbors think. And that leads right back to our
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stadium analogy. It does.
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Because he says he will do this before the gods.
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He is deliberately taking that wholehearted praise and putting
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it on display in hostile territory.
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Territory. Yeah.
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He refuses to suspend his song just because the opposition is
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staring at him. The phrase before the gods
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carries massive historical weight.
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How so? Well, in the ancient Near East,
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this referred to the false idols of the neighboring nations.
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You know, the surviving Canaanite deities like Bell or
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Dagon. Giant statues.
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Giant statues, often elevated on high places or massive
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pedestals. And some commentators also
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extend this phrase to mean great earthly magistrates, kings, or
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even angels. OK, but the core action remains
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the same, right? Yeah, the core action is
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identical. David is looking at these
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towering false images or these imposing earthly rulers, and he
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is expressing absolute contempt for them.
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Contempt. Yes, contempt.
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He refuses to pay dead idols the respect of silencing his own
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song. He will not lower his voice just
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because a piece of carved wood happens to be perched aloft.
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You know, if you are listening to this right now, maybe on your
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morning commute or walking through a city, you're probably
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probably not dodging carved statues of Canaanite deities.
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Probably not. But the principle applies
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seamlessly. We are constantly surrounded by
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the invisible idols of our culture.
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Right. Oh, absolutely.
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Ideologies, status, wealth, social approval, these things
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are set up in the cultural town square and they demand our
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reverence. They demand we bow down.
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In modern times, new belief systems are daily excogitated.
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Excogitated. That's a great word.
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It means thought up, invented people sit around, invent new
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philosophies, and demand everyone bow down.
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And when that happens, the natural reaction is bitter
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controversy, we want to argue. We want to fight them on their
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terms. Right, but the text provides a
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far superior strategy. Bitterness is forbidden.
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Arguing often just acts as free advertising for the heresy you
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were trying to. Defeat.
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That is so true. The absolute best defense is
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unvarying zeal. Unvarying zeal.
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Do they deny the truth? Adore the truth more fervently?
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The commentary brings up the concept of the Hallelujah
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Legion. Oh the Hallelujah Legion.
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I love that phrasing. Isn't it great praising and
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singing act as actual armor against the idol poetries of our
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day? It frames joy as a weapon.
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Faith, when displayed with cheerful courage, has a sacred
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contagion to it. A contagion?
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Yes. People learn to believe in the
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Most High when they see someone remaining calm, confident, and
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joyful amidst the bewildering noise of the world.
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It stands out. It brings to mind the quote from
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John Livingstone in the 1600s, where he was lamenting the
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barrenness in praises among believers.
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I remember that. He argued that a single line of
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praise is worth a leaf of prayer, and an hour of praise is
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worth a day of fasting. Wow.
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We are so quick to ask for things to bring our grocery list
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of needs to God, but we are terribly hesitant to just bring
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a whole heart of joyful zeal. But that joyful zeal cannot be.
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It can't be a shotgun blast of emotion.
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What do you mean? It requires specific direction.
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You cannot aimlessly praise. True worship has a strict focal
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point, and this brings the text to verse 2.
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I will worship toward thy holy temple and braise thy name for
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thy loving kindness and for that truth.
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Let's look at that focal point toward thy holy temple.
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There is a slight chronological hiccup here, isn't there?
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There is, because when David wrote this, the Grand Material
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Temple of Solomon did not exist. There was no massive stone
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building in Jerusalem yet. So what is he pointing his
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attention toward? He is looking toward the place
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of God's dwelling, specifically where the Ark of the Covenant
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rested in the Tabernacle. OK, the Tabernacle.
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He wanted to worship God in God's own prescribed way.
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The Lord had ordained a center of unity, a specific place of
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sacrifice, and David submitted to that revealed method.
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But there is a much larger theological reality operating
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here, which is the material temple is a type A shadow
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pointing directly to Jesus Christ, just as the prophet
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Daniel famously opened his windows toward the physical
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temple in Jerusalem to pray. Even when it was illegal.
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Right. And just as Jonah, sinking in
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the belly of the fish, said he would look again toward the holy
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temple, believers look to Christ.
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He is the living temple of the Godhead.
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Acceptable spiritual sacrifices can only be offered through Him.
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You know, I think this is where modern sensibilities clash hard
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with the text. Well, human nature loves to
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invent its own methods of connecting with the divine.
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We want to customize our spiritual.
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Oh, cafeteria spiritual. Yeah, we want to take a little
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mindfulness from column A, some selective scripture from column
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B, mix it with a walk in the woods and call it our personal
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altar, right? So why is looking toward this
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specific prescribed living temple the only way?
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Because customized spirituality is, at its core, just self
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worship. Ouch.
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It is. The commentary draws a sharp
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contrast between true appointed worship and two very common
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human errors. What are they?
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Will worship and wild. Worship will worship and wild
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worship. Will worship is the error of
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superstition. This is when humans invent
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elaborate religious rights, rigid checklists, or
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superstitious practices, assuming their creativity will
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impress God. Like trying to earn it through
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man made traditions. Yes, wild worship does the
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opposite extreme. It is the chaos of skepticism
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and unbounded mysticism where anything goes, no rules apply,
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and nothing is rooted in divine revelation.
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So making it up as you go along. Precisely.
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David averts his glance. From all of that he looks
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earnestly to the spot chosen by the Lord Himself.
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We are not just commanded to adore the true God, we must do
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so in His appointed way. We have to play by the creator's
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rules. We do.
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And in this verse, he praises the name of God specifically for
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two things, loving kindness and truth.
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The commentary breaks down this idea of loving kindness into two
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beautiful components, tender thoughtfulness and energetic
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action. The pairing of those two
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concepts is vital. Condescension in thought and
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tenderness in action. Explain the condescension in
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thought part. God has the infinite, meticulous
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mind to number the very hairs on a human head.
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He watches over a helpless baby rocking in a cradle.
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The small things. Exactly the small things he
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takes an intense, active interest in matters that we, in
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our own arrogance, might think are beneath the notice of the
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Ruler of the universe. But that tender thoughtfulness
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is useless without massive energetic action to back it up,
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right? Yes, the illustration given in
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the sources is of a great machine.
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Imagine a machine that possesses the sheer strength to crush
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thick iron bars, yet it maintains the micro precision to
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touch an egg shell so gently that it does not crack.
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He is the God of the delicate dewdrops, and he is the God of
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the violent Thunder showers. I love that if he were only
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massive and energetic, his sheer force would crush us because we
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are fragile. We are dust.
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But if he were only tender, like a kindly grandfather with no
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actual might, he could not defend US against the very real
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enemies surrounding us. We desperately need both the
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dewdrop and the Thunder shower, and while we can see those
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qualities out in nature, the text immediately point to an
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even greater revelation. This brings us to the
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second-half of verse 2. And this contains a statement so
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massive it almost feels. Scandalous.
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Yeah, it says, For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy
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name. Magnified thy word above all thy
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name. Let's break that down.
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The name of God encompasses all His attributes, right?
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His justice, majesty, holiness, omnipotence, everything we can
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observe in creation and Providence, Yet He takes His
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promises, His written word, and elevates it above all of that.
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God lays all the rest of His name under tribute to His Word.
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His wisdom, His strength, His love, they all combine to
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execute and protect His Word. So the word is the priority.
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The commentary points out that he would rather let the heavens
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and the earth pass away, completely dissolving the
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physical universe, then let one single jot or title of his truth
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fall to the ground. That is intense.
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When he makes a promise, the matter of that promise is mercy,
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but the performance of it is fidelity.
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He sets his truth above all that is famed or spoken of him.
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Let's put this in everyday terms, OK?
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Think about an incredibly powerful, wealthy person with an
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impeccable public reputation. That reputation is their name.
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Now suppose this person makes a specific verbal guarantee to
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you. They give you their word on a
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contract, and they are so fiercely reliable that they
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would willingly forfeit all their wealth, burn down their
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reputation, and lose their own life rather than break that
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single promise to you. Their commitment to the words
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they spoke to you is greater than their attachment to their
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own status. That is the sheer magnitude of
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what God does with His Word. That is a spot on analogy, and
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it highlights a critical limitation of science when it
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comes to the human soul. What do you mean by limitation?
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Well, you can study the wonders of creation forever.
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The heavens declare the glory of God, but nature cannot disclose
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how a soul is saved. True nature cannot tell you how
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sin is pardoned. Telescopes, microscopes and
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blowpipes offer absolutely no consolation for a lost guilty
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conscience. You can look through the Hubble
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telescope and see the staggering vastness of a Galaxy that shows
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you raw strength. Yes, you can look through an
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electron microscope and see the impossible mechanics of a single
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cell. That shows you staggering
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wisdom. Unbelievable.
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But neither of those instruments will ever tell you that God is
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merciful. You cannot find forgiveness in a
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Petri dish. You cannot spot grace in a star
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cluster. You cannot.
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That specific vital information comes exclusively from
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revelation, from the magnified word, and this introduces a
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highly significant point of epistemology from Thomas
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Chalmers. OK, let's hear it.
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He detailed the difference between truth that is merely
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excagitated, meaning thought up or conceived in the mind, and
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truth that is expressed or spoken out.
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Thought up versus spoken out. Yes, Chalmers argued that an
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inspired thought inside the mind of an apostle does a it's
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absolutely no good unless it flows out accurately in words.
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Right. If it stays in their head, we
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don't know it. He called this the doctrine in
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afflux, meaning the doctrine flowing out into human language.
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The pure influx of the spirit into the writer's mind must be
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matched by a pure afflux into the written text.
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To bring Chalmers into the 21st century, think about computer
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code. Oh I like this.
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A software developer can have a brilliant, flawless idea for a
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revolutionary application in their head.
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That is the influx, yes, but the idea in their head cannot run on
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your laptop for you to interact with it.
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That idea must be translated into explicit, precise lines of
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code. That is the afflux.
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That is a great way to picture it.
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If the syntax of the code is garbled, the program crashes.
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No matter how good the original idea was, the pure idea must
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become pure written syntax. That firm standard, the
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expressed Word, is what God has settled fast.
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Yes. The doctrine in Afflecks is what
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provides the rock solid ground for the believer, but
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understanding the supremacy of the word logically leads to a
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highly practical test. Right.
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Having a grand majestic promise written down in a book is
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wonderful in theory, but how does that translate into
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immediate help during a Tuesday morning crisis?
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The real world application. When the bank account is empty
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or the medical test comes back with terrifying results, does
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this magnified word actually do anything?
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Verse 3 answers this In the day when I cry, thou answerst me and
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strengthen it's me with strength in my soul.
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Notice the speed of the response there.
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In the day. In the day, there is utter
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immediacy. There is no convincing proof of
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God's character quite like personal experience.
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Yeah, the distinguishing mark of the living God is that he hears
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actual pleadings and answers them in real time.
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The text suggests there was some special day when David cried
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more vehemently than usual. He was desperate.
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He was weak, wounded, worried. He cried out like a child in
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pain and eager, bitter wail. And the answer arrived before
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the sun went down. Wow.
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So speedily does prayer rise to heaven, and so quickly does
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mercy return to earth. But hold on, let's look closely
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at the nature of that answer. Thou answered it's me and
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strengthened it's me with strength in my soul.
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If I'm crying out because I have a literal physical crisis like a
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foreclosure notice on my house and God strengthens my soul, but
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the bank still takes the house, Yeah, from a human perspective,
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that feels hollow. It feels like a psychological
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coping mechanism. You strengthen my soul.
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Just a polite way of saying nothing physically changed, but
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I feel a little braver about being homeless.
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That is the natural human reaction to continuing hardship.
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It really is. So how do we reconcile that?
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Well, consider the logic of the master.
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Giving strength to bear a burden is an equally effective method
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of help as removing the burden entirely.
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Explain that. A prudent Heavenly Father uses
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adversity to teach patience and forge character.
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Think of a master who assigns heavy labor to his servants.
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Right? A normal master drops the work
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order on the desk and walks away.
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But our Master in heaven does not just give the work, He fits
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the worker for the task. He provides the ability.
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With his command, he supplies the capacity to execute it.
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He infuses fortitude and heroism directly into the believer's
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soul. The trial remains, but the
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person carrying it has been fundamentally upgraded.
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Upgraded so the answer is intensely spiritual, but it is
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real, measurable capacity. Exactly, and the commentary
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provides a striking image for this It talks about the camp of
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Christ. The camp of Christ, yes.
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Among the suffering Saints there is cordial wine tapped
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specifically for a groaning hour.
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The illustration describes a master who is so attentive to
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his servant that he brings him his breakfast directly into the
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fields where the labor is hardest.
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Both the tide of sorrow and the tide of consolation rise
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simultaneously. When you face a spring tide of
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affliction, you receive a spring tide of joy.
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The burden is not proof that you are forgotten.
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The burden is the exact location where the meal is served.
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I love that picture. Christ walking out into the
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muddy, difficult field of your life to hand you breakfast.
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It's beautiful. It is an intensely private,
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hidden interaction. But right after describing this
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quiet infusion of soul strength, the text dramatically shifts its
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scope. We go from the private suffering
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of a single person to the highest public offices on earth.
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The horizon expands massively in verses 4:00 and 5:00.
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What do they say? All the kings of the earth shall
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praise thee, O Lord, when they hear the words of thy mouth.
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Yeah, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord, for great is
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the glory of the Lord. This is a staggering leap from
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one person crying out in trouble to a choir made-up of all the
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kings of the earth. Huge shift.
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These verses point toward the future conquests of the Messiah,
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envisioning a time when the most exalted rulers receive His Word.
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Historically, kings have very little desire to hear the Word
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of the Lord. They don't.
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They are insulated by their own glory, surrounded by yes men.
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A little piety goes a very long way in Royal Courts.
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The assembly described here is stunning.
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All the kings of the earth gathered for one purpose, to
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hear the words of Jehovah's mouth.
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Earthly kings are like God's below, holding life and death in
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their hands. But they only govern well when
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they submit to the God above. And the fundamental mechanism
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for this massive shift in global authority is identical to the
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mechanism for the humblest peasant.
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The way of conversion for a monarch is no different than for
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anyone else. Faith comes by hearing, and
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hearing by the Word of God The glory of Jehovah will eventually
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over shadow all the pomp of earthly Thrones, compelling them
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to obey. And there is a specific double
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wonder here that we cannot gloss over.
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What's the double wonder? It is a wonder that earthly
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kings are walking in God's ways at all, given how little
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attraction those ways hold for someone possessing ultimate
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carnal authority. But the second, far greater
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wonder is that they're singing there.
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Yes. They are not just begrudgingly
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complying with a higher authority out of fear of being
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crushed. They're finding abundant,
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overflowing reason for song. The text likens walking with God
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to walking among beds of spices that send forth a fragrant
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perfume. That fragrance, the unexpected
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pleasantness of the Ways of Wisdom, is what produces the
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song in a King's mouth, and the application here levels the
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playing field for everyone. Whether you are a monarch
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sitting in a palace or a private citizen working a graveyard
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shift, the entrance into this joy is identical.
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The same door. The grandest ruler and the
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quietest worker both have to walk through the exact same
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door, hearing the magnified word of God.
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But there is a deep paradox here.
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Earthly kings bowing down, laying their gold crowns in the
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dust. This introduces the texts grand
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theme of divine inversion regarding status.
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The inversion of high and low. Yes.
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How does God view the high and the low?
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Verse 6 lays it out plainly. Verse 6 states, Though the Lord
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be high, yet have he respect unto the lowly, but the proud he
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knoweth afar off. The commentary spends
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considerable time analyzing the infinite distance between God
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and mortals. His nature is so high above the
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comprehension of His creatures that it defies language.
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It's unsearchable. His glory exceeds the loftiest
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soarings of human imagination. He is so transcendent that he
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must humble himself even to look at the majestic things in
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heaven, let alone the tiny affairs on earth.
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Yet Despite that incomprehensible height, the
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text says He has respect unto the lowly.
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He views them with pleasure, listens to their prayers and
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guards them. Which is the opposite of how we
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operate. Totally.
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Human logic dictates the opposite.
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If someone is highly elevated in society, they naturally
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associate with other elites. A billionaire CEO does not
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usually spend their weekends hanging out with the janitorial
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staff. No, they don't.
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So why does a transcendent God associate with the lowly?
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Because the lowly disposition best suits His grand design of
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glorifying His free sovereign grace.
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OK, unpack that. The humble soul receives the
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revelation of grace because they submit to it.
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They are low in their own esteem, so God makes them high
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in his esteem. It is not the legalist or the
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proud Pharisee listing off their accomplishments who receives
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this grace. It is the broken publican
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beating his chest, asking for mercy.
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The lowly soul reflects the image of Christ, who, though he
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was the brightness of His Father's glory, willingly took
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on the form of a servant. To make this concrete, the
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commentary contrast to different vessels.
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Oh, the vessels, yes. On one side you have the homely
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vessel of humility. It is plain, it is unvarnished.
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It does not draw the eye, but God takes that plain vessel,
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preserves it, and fills it to the brim with the wine of His
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grace. Beautiful.
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On the other side you have the varnished cup of pride.
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It is shiny, It looks expensive, It demands attention from
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everyone in the room. But God takes that varnished cup
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and dashes it to pieces like a Potter's vessel.
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That vivid contrast perfectly explains the second-half of the
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verse. But the proud he knoweth afar
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off. Afar off.
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The commentators point out a terrifying truth about God's
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interaction with pride. God does not need to come near
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to a proud person to discover their emptiness.
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He doesn't need to investigate. No, he does not need to inspect
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them closely. A single glance from a vast
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distance reveals their utter vanity and offensiveness.
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He has absolutely no fellowship with them.
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He views them from afar. It is exactly how we treat
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something physically repulsive. Oh yeah.
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If you see something disgusting on the sidewalk ahead of you,
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you do not walk up to it to examine it.
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You cross the street. You cross the street while you
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are still far away. You keep your distance.
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The commentary notes that God will scarce touch a proud man
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with a pair of tongs. That is quite the image.
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He is never deceived by their blustering.
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The texts list several historical examples.
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Raku to a Cain's selfish sacrifice, A Pharaoh's false
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promise, a Rabchak's threat or a Pharisee's arrogant prayer.
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The Lord has absolutely no respect.
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Let's actually pause on Rabchak A, because that is a perfect
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example of what it means to be known afar off.
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It really is. Rab Shaka was an envoy for the
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king of Assyria who had laid siege to Jerusalem.
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He stood outside the city walls and instead of speaking in the
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diplomatic language of Aramaic, he intentionally shouted his
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threats in Hebrew so that all the starving, terrified common
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people on the wall could understand him.
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Pure psychological warfare. Exactly.
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He mocked their king, he mocked their military, and he directly
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mocked their trust in God, loudly boasting that no God
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could stop the Assyrian army. He was the ultimate varnish cup
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of pride, blustering and demanding surrender.
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And God knew him afar off. God did not even dignify Rab
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Shaka with a battlefield fight, He just sent a rumor that caused
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the Assyrians to pack up and leave, and Rab Shaka was
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assassinated by his own sons later.
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Wow. Proud men might boast loudly of
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their status, their culture, or their freedom of thought, even
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daring to criticize their Maker, but he keeps them entirely at
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arm's length. And this naturally leads into
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the next reality being that homely vessel.
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Being lowly often means you are exposed.
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Yeah, you do not have the shiny varnish or the blustering armor
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of pride to protect you from the Rab shackets of the world.
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That vulnerability requires the assurance found in verse 7.
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Verse 7 declares, Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou
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wilt revive me. Thou shalt stretch forth thine
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hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand
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shall save me. The specific phrasing here is
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highly instructive. The believer is not pictured as
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a spectator watching trouble happen to someone else from a
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safe balcony. No, we are in it.
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They are penetrating the very center of a dark continent of
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trouble they are in the thick of.
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It in the midst of trouble, the danger is on all sides.
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But look at the physical posture described.
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The believer makes progress. They keep a quiet pace.
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They are not sprinting in a blind panic.
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They're not paralyzed in terror. They're just walking.
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And they can walk because God is near to pour fresh life into
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them. That quiet pace is the direct
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result of the promise. Thou wilt revive me.
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God is permanently pledged to be with His people in trying hours.
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Even when it doesn't feel like it.
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Right. Even if God seems hidden during
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times of prosperity, He is unmistakably present in the
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fire. The text draws on the story of
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the three Hebrew youths thrown into the Babylonian furnace.
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Shadrach, Meshach and the Bednego.
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Yes, the furious persecutor looked into the flames and saw
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four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, completely
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unhurt. Walking in the fire.
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Walking The darkest, most dangerous providences are
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precisely the places where the morning star of deliverance
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shines brightest. But I have to ask the hard
26:55
question regarding this tactic. Go for it.
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Why does God let the enemies get so uncomfortably close?
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If he's going to save the believer anyway, why let the
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believer walk in the midst of the trouble?
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It's a fair question. Why let the enemies completely
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surround the camp before acting? Why not strike the enemies when
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they are still 10 miles away? It is a question of displaying
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divine glory. God loves to show His skill in
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desperate cases. His skill.
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Yes, when human help and human wisdom completely fail, divine
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wisdom shines in its absolute brightest form.
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Think of an exquisite lawyer who loves to take on the most
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difficult, convoluted cases to demonstrate their mastery of the
27:36
law. Oh.
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That makes sense. In a similar way, God's wisdom
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is never at a loss, and He deliberately chooses the moment
27:43
of maximum extremity to act. The commentators note that when
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the church seems to be bound upon the altar with the knife
27:49
raised ready to strike, that is the exact millisecond the Angel
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of rescue arrives. And the imagery of how God
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fights this close quarters battle is incredibly specific.
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Thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine
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enemies, and that right hand shall save me.
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Yes, the hands of God. The commentary references
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Tremelius, a 16th century scholar who noted that God acts
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like a perfectly coordinated, ambidextrous warrior.
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Ambidextrous. He strikes the enemies with his
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left hand, crushing their wrath, and simultaneously he scoops up
28:18
the believer harmlessly with his right hand, saving dexterously,
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decidedly, divinely. When God stretches out his arm,
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armies vanish. It is a flawless, complete
28:28
defense, but surviving a single battle or walking safely through
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one specific dark continent of trouble inevitably raises a much
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deeper long term anxiety. Exactly, if I am a lowly vessel
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and my enemies are numerous, what guarantees that I will not
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eventually crack under the pressure?
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Right. Will I hold out?
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Will God protect me today only to abandon me next year when he
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gets tired of my failures? If God's protection is just
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circumstantial, the anxiety never really leaves.
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It lingers. This deeply human dread drives
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the Psalm directly into its final verse, providing the
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ultimate resolution. Verse 8 provides the anchor for
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the entire text. The Lord will perfect that which
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concerneth me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endures
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forever. Forsake not the works of thine
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own hands. The deep dive concludes with
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absolute ironclad certainty. Absolute certainty.
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The commentary unpacks this by drawing a sharp contrast between
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the work of God and the work of man.
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Human work is inherently clumsy, flawed and incomplete.
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It is when God rests. It is because He looks upon his
29:29
work and declares that it is all very good.
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His Sabbath is the rest of an achieved, completed purpose.
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But human projects are vastly different.
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Vastly, the palaces that human beings build are forever, like
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the one in the old fable, where one window remains dark and
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without jewels while the rest blaze in beauty because the
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builder simply ran out of resources or lost interest.
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Men start diets they do not finish the only of that one.
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They write first chapters of novels they never complete, but
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when God builds, no one in the universe can mock him and say he
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began to build but was not able to finish.
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The certainty here rests on a massive theological foundation.
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Let's hear it. The final perseverance of the
30:10
believer does not rely on the believer's own capacity to keep
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white knuckling their faith. Thank goodness for.
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That because if it relied on us, we would all fall away by
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Tuesday afternoon. The final perseverance of the
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believer relies entirely on the final perseverance of the
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believer's God. It relies on God's stubborn
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refusal to let go. He will not throw away a vessel
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upon which he has expended so much blood, labor and skill.
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To illustrate the mechanics of this, the commentary shares a
30:38
fascinating concept regarding medieval alchemists.
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Alchemists, yes. Alchemists spent their lives
30:43
trying to turn base metals like lead into gold.
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The point made in the text is logical.
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If an alchemist could actually succeed in turning one single
30:53
grain of lead into pure gold, he could eventually turn all the
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lead in the world into gold, provided he had enough time and
30:59
enough furnaces. Right, because the process
31:01
works. The very first step, breaking
31:03
the chemical barrier, is the greatest difficulty.
31:06
Once that barrier is broken, the rest is just a matter of time.
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The spiritual application of that is staggering.
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It really is. If God has already taken an
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active enemy and changed them into an adopted child, if he has
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already kindled one tiny, genuine spark of love in a heart
31:22
that was previously stone cold, that is a mightier, more
31:26
difficult change than anything that remains to be done to make
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that person perfect in heaven. The first grain of lead has
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already been changed. Yes, the whole Mass will
31:35
absolutely be perfected in due time.
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The greatest miracle has already occurred in the initial granting
31:40
of grace. The hardest part of the work is
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already in the past. It is.
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And because of that reality, the believer can boldly pray the
31:47
final clause forsake, not the works of thine own hands.
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The commentary encourages you to fortify your own prayers using
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this exact logical argument. How does this sound?
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Well, when you look at your own glaring flaws, your clumsiness,
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your repeated failures, you do not approach God pleading your
32:05
own merit. No, because you don't have any.
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You have no merit to plead. You plead with God exactly as
32:11
the clay pleads to the Potter. You point to yourself and say,
32:14
look at what you started in me. Do not leave your own project
32:18
half finished. It is a prayer of aggressive
32:20
assurance because the verse explicitly states, Thy mercy, O
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Lord, endureth forever. The believer knows that God's
32:28
work in them will abide unto perfection.
32:31
He who has gone to such extreme lengths to redeem us will surely
32:35
persevere with us to the very end.
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If there is anything good, anything holy, anything true in
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us, it is entirely the work of God's own hands.
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Will he walk away from it? No, it would be a sheer waste of
32:47
divine effort, and the God of the universe does not waste his
32:50
effort. Therefore, we can stand up in
32:52
that stadium, surrounded by rivals and praise Him with our
32:56
whole heart. We have covered massive ground
32:58
here today. We really have.
32:59
We examine the sheer courage of wholehearted praise, treating
33:02
joyful song as a weapon against the daily idolatries of our
33:05
culture. The Hallelujah Legion, Yes.
33:08
We saw how true worship demands A focal point, aiming our gaze
33:11
toward Christ the living Temple, while trusting in a God who
33:14
commands both the violent Thunder shower and the delicate
33:17
dewdrop. We looked at the staggering
33:19
reality that God values His promised word above all his
33:23
other magnificent attributes, creating an anchor of truth that
33:27
telescopes cannot spot and microscopes cannot dissect.
33:30
Nature versus revelation. Right, we saw how he answers the
33:33
cries of the afflicted with utter immediacy, not always by
33:36
deleting the physical problem, but by infusing heroic capacity
33:40
directly into the soul, the master bringing breakfast out
33:43
into the fields of hardship. We observed the massive scope of
33:46
the Messiah's coming conquests, where earthly kings will not
33:50
only submit to the ways of the Lord, but will sing there,
33:53
discovering the unexpected fragrance of grace.
33:55
And yet this exalted, transcendent God views the lowly
33:59
with intimate pleasure, preserving the plain vessel of
34:02
humility while shattering the varnish cup of pride from a vast
34:05
distance. Keeping the proud afar off.
34:07
And finally, we saw the absolute unbreakable security of the
34:10
believer, walking straight into the dark continent of Trouble,
34:14
maintaining a quiet pace while God strikes enemies with the
34:16
left hand and saves with the right.
34:18
The ambidextrous warrior. Resting entirely on the
34:21
certainty that the master builders will perfect his work,
34:24
changing the lead into gold, grain by grain until the
34:27
monumental task is complete. It leaves us with a final
34:31
thought to take away something to chew on long after this audio
34:34
ends. What's that?
34:35
And Terry references an insight from Augustine regarding that
34:38
final plea. Forsake not the works of thine
34:41
own hands. Augustine noted a critical
34:44
difference in how God looks at humanity.
34:47
He said when God sees our works, he condemns.
34:50
When he sees his works in us, he crowns.
34:52
Wow. Condemns our works, crowns his
34:55
works in. Us that shifts the entire
34:57
crushing weight of performance off the frail shoulders of the
35:00
individual and places it securely in the omnipotent hands
35:03
of the Creator. Consider this as you go about
35:05
the rest of your day. How much of your daily anxiety,
35:08
the fear of failure, the dread of not measuring up, the
35:11
suffocating worry about the future, how much of that would
35:14
simply vanish if you stopped viewing yourself as an
35:16
independent contractor striving to produce acceptable works for
35:20
God? It changes everything.
35:22
What if instead you viewed yourself as the very work of
35:24
God's own hands, a masterpiece He is actively shaping, fiercely
35:29
protecting and meticulously perfecting.
35:31
At this exact moment, the Master Builder does not leave his
35:34
palace as half finished. He will perfect that which
35:37
concerns you.