SPEAKER_00: Well, I trust you've been uh able to feast on these uh Psalms uh as we've been meditating on the Psalms over the summer, and and yet you've found them to to be nourishing to your own soul as they have been to mine.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we are going to continue the series uh once again another psalm this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna look into Psalm 63, and and uh we see these precious words that are given to us to to help us uh come and draw near to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so let us let me read Psalm 63 this morning.
SPEAKER_00: O God, you are my God.
SPEAKER_00: Earnestly I seek you.
SPEAKER_00: My soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
SPEAKER_00: So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
SPEAKER_00: Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
SPEAKER_00: So I will bless you as long as I live.
SPEAKER_00: In your name I will lift up my hands.
SPEAKER_00: My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips.
SPEAKER_00: When I meditate when I remember you upon my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night, for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
SPEAKER_00: My soul clings to you, your right hand upholds me.
SPEAKER_00: But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: They shall be given over to the power of the sword, they shall be a portion for jackals, but the king shall rejoice in God.
SPEAKER_00: All who swear by him shall exalt, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Father, we thank you for the gift of your words to us.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the gift of your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That even now reminds us that these are your words, but Lord, even more so that they are accompanied by your presence.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, may we know these words to be your words to us.
SPEAKER_00: May we be reminded and know and feel that these words are you speaking directly to our souls.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, would we be nourished by them?
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So during the early days of COVID, um, I was uh put onto a TV show uh that some of you may have heard, and uh it was called Alone.
SPEAKER_00: And and the whole idea of the show is to take these these people who have dedicated a lot of their lives and time to developing survival skills and and see who can live off the land the longest uh by themselves, all alone, uh in some of the most remote and harsh places in in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And and and and what was fascinating as I would watch this show was that although the participants uh went to these places relying on their skills, relying on their abilities that they'd spent all this time developing, uh often it was the isolation that was the greatest challenge to their longevity.
SPEAKER_00: Although they hunt, although they fish, uh they make shouters, they light fires, what they find is their deepest challenge and longing is the missed presence or absence of loved ones.
SPEAKER_00: The simplicity of their touch, the ability to be able to talk with them, to hear the reassuring words say, I love you.
SPEAKER_00: And we know the reason for this deep longing is because God has made us in his image, and this is a natural longing that we all share, but the same is true spiritually between every regenerate heart and God.
SPEAKER_00: We have hearts that find their deepest satisfaction in God alone.
SPEAKER_00: And Spurgeon said about the psalm, he said, this psalm especially belongs to any who, by their circumstances or by their state of heart, feel themselves to dwell in a desert land.
SPEAKER_00: John Chrysostom, the great preacher in the early centuries, uh, thought that no day should go by without the public singing of the psalm.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it was a favorite hymn of his.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I'm sure is because it speaks and invites us into deeper fellowship and communion with God.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's obviously a psalm that has spoken to God's people throughout the centuries.
SPEAKER_00: And we're told that this psalm was penned, as it were, while David was in the wilderness of Judah.
SPEAKER_00: And that could mean that he was on the run from Saul, or it could mean that he was on the run from Absalom, his son.
SPEAKER_00: And we know it's not the former because he he says here in verse 11, but the king shall rejoice in God.
SPEAKER_00: So David has spent some time, he's been anointed as king.
SPEAKER_00: And so he is running from his son, Absalom, who has plotted an insurrection and is after his life.
SPEAKER_00: He has had to flee and to vacate Jerusalem, and he's in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: And you can imagine he is filled with perplexities and troubles.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't know what the outcome is going to be from out of all of this.
SPEAKER_00: He's still coming to terms as to why this happened, why God allowed this to happen, and he is seeking to come to terms with this.
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to keep his head above water and and and he is hedged in.
SPEAKER_00: And what we need to understand here is that David's not offering up a wish and a prayer.
SPEAKER_00: He's not like various people who are at their wits' end and they're like, I don't know what else to do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just going to wish or to hope against hope that God might help me.
SPEAKER_00: And David's not like that.
SPEAKER_00: David has been walking with the Lord for many years.
SPEAKER_00: He knows God.
SPEAKER_00: And he has been serving him and his people as king.
SPEAKER_00: And the one thing that tells us is that no matter how long we have been walking with God, no matter how long we have been walking with him as God's children, we can all experience difficulties and troubles and perplexities in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Our health is taken, uh, people reject us.
SPEAKER_00: Employment is terminated, wealth dries up.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian life, we're reminded, is not a triumphalistic march of unbroken joy.
SPEAKER_00: And so whether it's our circumstances or the state of our heart, we may feel ourselves at times dwelling in a desert land.
SPEAKER_00: There are times when in the Christian experience we feel like Job and who said toward God, Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat.
SPEAKER_00: Or like David, according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.
SPEAKER_00: Hide not your face from your servant, for I'm in distress.
SPEAKER_00: Make haste to answer me.
SPEAKER_00: We don't always experience God to be so close as to speak to him in a whisper.
SPEAKER_00: We don't always enjoy a clear view of his face.
SPEAKER_00: There are seasons when our souls feel dry and distant from God.
SPEAKER_00: And there are times when a particular situation can cause us a lot of distress, and we long for his felt presence and the assurance of his love.
SPEAKER_00: And what is a true test of every regenerate heart is that in their troubles they draw near to God, not away from God.
SPEAKER_00: So although we might find ourselves in a far-off country because of our sin, although we may lose sight of our first love, what is true of every Christian is that they come to their senses and they return to God.
SPEAKER_00: And so here we're given in the Psalm words that invite us to both thirsting and feasting.
SPEAKER_00: Thirsting is what we seek when we feel distant from God.
SPEAKER_00: Feasting is what we enjoy when God's presence is felt.
SPEAKER_00: And what's important for us to linger over this morning are the simple yet precious words, oh God, my God.
SPEAKER_00: Because no matter how long we've been walking with God, we still need to believe and to appropriate it to our own souls every day, every day, that you are my God.
SPEAKER_00: To remind ourselves of who He is, not in some detached or abstract way, but specifically as our Father, as Jesus taught us to pray.
SPEAKER_00: To know him as my God and to expect him to relate to us as such.
SPEAKER_00: That's foundational to everything else.
SPEAKER_00: So we need to believe that and to take that in and to appropriate that to our own souls.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what the psalmist does here.
SPEAKER_00: But then there are three observations that we see here this morning helping us to find satisfaction in God even when we face difficulties and troubles and perplexities.
SPEAKER_00: And so we see that he is honest, or that we to be honest regarding our thirst for God.
SPEAKER_00: We are to feast on God's character and we are to give thanks for the assurance of God.
SPEAKER_00: First, we are to be honest regarding our thirst for God.
SPEAKER_00: Notice how brutally honest David is toward God.
SPEAKER_00: He says, earnestly I seek you.
SPEAKER_00: My soul thirsts for you.
SPEAKER_00: My flesh feints for you.
SPEAKER_00: There is this longing he has for God.
SPEAKER_00: And so he compares the state of his soul to the desert which surrounds him.
SPEAKER_00: His soul longs for God like the physical thirst and hunger and weakness he has often experienced.
SPEAKER_00: And you see, oftentimes when we we fall into one or of two pitfalls when it comes to our emotions and desires, uh, we either tend to uh stuff our emotions or we can tend to dump our emotions.
SPEAKER_00: We can either steamroll over them, ignoring them, bottling them up until they tend to calm down, or we dump them in order to get them off our chest and allow them to go unaddressed.
SPEAKER_00: But but notice that David doesn't stuff his emotions or dump his emotions.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he he prays his emotions.
SPEAKER_00: He's honest with regard to his desires, and they go in three directions.
SPEAKER_00: How he feels toward God, how he fears toward himself, and how he feels toward others.
SPEAKER_00: He feels distant from God.
SPEAKER_00: He feels a weariness and dissatisfaction with his in his own soul, and he feels a frustration with his adversaries who have the upper hand.
SPEAKER_00: But you see here, he's all about coming to God with these things.
SPEAKER_00: He's honest in coming to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're given words to express these emotions and longings, even in the Psalm itself.
SPEAKER_00: Too often we get emotionally locked up and we we quench the thirst that we feel, the things that God would have us to bring to him and to give over to him.
SPEAKER_00: And we're reminded of the hymn of the song that says, if you tarry till you're better, you'll never come at all.
SPEAKER_00: We quench uh the things that lie within us, and and and so we don't come to him in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We we just try to take it on ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And we find ourselves becoming dry and thirsty.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what it's like to thirst in this way?
SPEAKER_00: Have you desired to feel and experience God's presence more acutely?
SPEAKER_00: You may know your theology, you you may know certain concepts, but do you desire to speak to God and know Him more closely like you would a beloved friend or a spouse or a parent?
SPEAKER_00: The Welsh preacher, Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Lloyd Jones, gives a good analogy of this in regard to our relationships.
SPEAKER_00: He says, if you know anything of what it means to be in love, you know that you desire to be in the presence of the object of your love more than the whole world.
SPEAKER_00: Love sick people are unhappy because they're separated from the one that they love.
SPEAKER_00: They have their money still, their books, their house, and their friends, but they are love sick and unhappy because their loved one is not there.
SPEAKER_00: You can offer them the whole world, but it is useless.
SPEAKER_00: For they only want their loved one.
SPEAKER_00: That person is of more value to them than the whole of life.
SPEAKER_00: Multiply that by infinity.
SPEAKER_00: This man has been in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so, however distant we feel him to be, however thirsty we may be, however parched and dry our souls, whatever things cause us perplexity, we can return to God as his children, knowing him to be my God, your God.
SPEAKER_00: He is more willing to receive us than we are to come.
SPEAKER_00: But you see, if you pay attention to this psalm, you'll notice that David doesn't try to change the way that he feels.
SPEAKER_00: That always feels coercive.
SPEAKER_00: What he does is he applies himself to recollecting his experiences in the past, the days when he would look upon God in the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: Now, obviously he's in the wilderness, but he looks back at the days in which he was in Jerusalem in the sanctuary, beholding God's power and his glory.
SPEAKER_00: And and um, you may have you found yourself doing that at times with a loved one.
SPEAKER_00: Things may be difficult in your relationship, things may be challenging, you're in search of hope.
SPEAKER_00: You feel yourself at a distance, and you've pulled out the photo album or the picture is stored away underneath the bed or now on your phone, and you've begun to look back over them, recollecting the memories that you've shared together, and the joy and the love that was captured in them.
SPEAKER_00: And you know that's what faith does.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds itself of all that it believes and knows about God and and it relies upon his character.
SPEAKER_00: It gathers up and focuses its attention on God's attributes and his character and and it and it and it and it and it flicks through the memories of God's goodness toward us.
SPEAKER_00: So as I was thinking about this in my preparation this week, I was led to fortify my own trust, recalling to mind God's power and glory in my own life.
SPEAKER_00: And what came to mind was his power in sparing my life from danger, granting people in positions of power against all odds to give me favor, granting courage in the face of violence, receiving a check in the mail with an empty bank account and rent due the next morning.
SPEAKER_00: My conscience being cleansed from guilt.
SPEAKER_00: God has provided for me in ways I could never have imagined.
SPEAKER_00: And these only skim the surface, but this act of recollection fortified my trust that God is indeed powerful and working his glorious purposes out.
SPEAKER_00: I could go on and speak that as a church I can testify to the fact that it's owing to God's power and glory that in this place he has brought eternal salvation to souls.
SPEAKER_00: We've witnessed reconciliation between people at odds with one another.
SPEAKER_00: We have witnessed people give up their homes and their lives to serve him in distant lands, people who have done nothing for them.
SPEAKER_00: Because they love God and the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And he has flattened all the obstacles that stood in the way.
SPEAKER_00: He has given faith to loosen the grip of worldly possessions and brought even greater joy.
SPEAKER_00: He has inflamed love towards one another.
SPEAKER_00: He has healed and restored bodies from sickness and injury.
SPEAKER_00: God has provided for the needy and for orphans and used us in that.
SPEAKER_00: And I would ask the same of you.
SPEAKER_00: Where can you look back and say, God, you have been my help to fortify your own trust and confidence in him and his power and glory.
SPEAKER_00: Where can you testify to his power and glory in your own life?
SPEAKER_00: Those at the prayer meeting yesterday heard many examples just in this past month of how God has been displaying his power and his glory.
SPEAKER_00: And it was a joyful time to be in the presence of God and one another.
SPEAKER_00: We should all take time to pull out the photo album of our own lives and remind ourselves of God's activity in them.
SPEAKER_00: Most of you in your various walks of life have had reason to bless the Lord, who again and again has been your helper.
SPEAKER_00: You can say, along with a psalmist, I have looked upon you and your sanctuary, beholding your power and your glory.
SPEAKER_00: And I would challenge you to do it all the more.
SPEAKER_00: Keep it before you and you'll pray differently.
SPEAKER_00: I assure you of that.
SPEAKER_00: And that leads to feasting on God's character.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever experienced uh hunger or been deprived of food for some time, uh you know that your mind just begins to think about food.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it just it's just like you can't get food off your mind.
SPEAKER_00: You're hungry.
SPEAKER_00: You want to satisfy that hunger.
SPEAKER_00: And so you want to satisfy those those hunger pangs uh by preparing a delicious meal.
SPEAKER_00: You uh the fat and the rich food is precious and and satisfies that deep hunger more than gold itself.
SPEAKER_00: And you know that.
SPEAKER_00: And and David is saying, the stomach of my soul is hungry and needs to feed on you, God.
SPEAKER_00: I need your image more deeply imprinted upon my soul.
SPEAKER_00: I need your favor to be spoken over me, your love to be felt more tangibly.
SPEAKER_00: I want to enjoy time with you, to hear and to speak often with you.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it is to feast.
SPEAKER_00: And so you can imagine David in his perplexity.
SPEAKER_00: He is still on duty, taking his stand in the night.
SPEAKER_00: He's on watch.
SPEAKER_00: He's uh he's on watch for what might come.
SPEAKER_00: But but but now he he he he he may have even been trying to wrap his mind around what would happen, but but no doubt he was perplexed by all that was going on.
SPEAKER_00: But now he is he's come, he is, he is, he is sure that he he needs God and to feast on him, and so he spends his time collecting thoughts of who God is and by meditating on his love while on the job and while on his bed in the stillness of the night.
SPEAKER_00: He knows God's presence to be with him, and he thinks of him often.
SPEAKER_00: Tom spoke of this necessity last week, uh not listening to ourselves, but but we often do that far too much, but but preaching the gospel to ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And what is meant by that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's it's filling our hearts with a sense of the love of God in Christ, uh, who we are in Him, His children, His loved ones.
SPEAKER_00: As children, uh as kids, um we had a wood firebox, and uh we didn't have central ear like the houses here often have, and so we would occasionally, and I say occasionally, Because dad would often do it, but occasionally we would go out in the frosty cold of the morning and go out to the woodshed, and we would have to get the axe and cut up these strips of kindling.
SPEAKER_00: And then we'd gather them up, and we would begin to light a fire that would then heat the house.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, our souls need to do that, to gather up kindling.
SPEAKER_00: Thoughts of God each day that remind ourselves of his love.
SPEAKER_00: Not in some detached or theoretical, abstract way, but but as my God.
SPEAKER_00: And I would ask you this morning, as your soul feasted on his love this week.
SPEAKER_00: Have you been gathering up any kindling?
SPEAKER_00: It's true, the Spirit brings the flame, but we must gather the kindling.
SPEAKER_00: And ask him, light it to a flame.
SPEAKER_00: Preach to yourself the true purpose for which he came.
SPEAKER_00: Apply his shed, his shed blood and blood brought promises to your own heart so that even in the darkest of days you can say the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.
SPEAKER_00: And you know his right hand will hold you up.
SPEAKER_00: Scholars here suggest that the hand of God, and especially the right hand, is also understood as a place of salvation, refuge, and protection.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever, David describes it like a chicken with his chicks.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever seen a chicken with his chicks, it will gather them together when trouble comes.
SPEAKER_00: And she will hide them under the protection of her wing.
SPEAKER_00: And she will hide them in such a way that they can no longer be seen by the predator that's coming.
SPEAKER_00: And so they are covered, they are safe, they are hidden.
SPEAKER_00: There is no better place for her chicks to be.
SPEAKER_00: And for that reason, Spurgeon can say, I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the rock of ages.
SPEAKER_00: There's no better place to be.
SPEAKER_00: And so the gospel tells us that in Jesus Christ we have that kind of protection.
SPEAKER_00: We have that kind of refuge in him, that we have the certainty of God's love and help, even in the midst of circumstances which may tempt us to think otherwise.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus sits at the Father's right hand, we have every reason to believe that all things are working together for good.
SPEAKER_00: Even if our circumstances seem to say otherwise.
SPEAKER_00: His death is the proof and seal of that love.
SPEAKER_00: There is nothing more that God could have done for you than to give his life and to shed blood for you.
SPEAKER_00: And so that is the purpose for which he came: to redeem you and to bring you near to him.
SPEAKER_00: That is his heart toward you.
SPEAKER_00: And so you can trust it, God, because he is characterized by unfailing love toward you.
SPEAKER_00: A love that will not let you go, a love that can only do the very best for you.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing can stop this love that God has for you.
SPEAKER_00: No trouble, no calamity, no hunger, no cold, angels, demons, fears for today, worries about tomorrow, not even death threats or powers of hell can stop this love.
SPEAKER_00: If you're sick, if you're lying flat on your back on the operating table, if you're isolated from people or physically separated, whatever perplexities and difficulties you face, if your prayers are weak, if your devotion is cold, we can be assured of this that he will never leave you or forsake you.
SPEAKER_00: And although the circumstances may not change immediately, we know ourselves to be under his wing, our lives hidden with Christ on high.
SPEAKER_00: And so his love will see us through any and every trouble, even through death itself.
SPEAKER_00: Is there anyone or anything else who brings more joy to you than him?
SPEAKER_00: Is there any greater love that has been shown toward you than his love?
SPEAKER_00: This is true food.
SPEAKER_00: Thirsting leads to feasting.
SPEAKER_00: And feasting brings confidence in the assurance of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so we can give thanks for his assurance toward us.
SPEAKER_00: If you're like me, you might be struck here how David can speak with such confidence, not knowing the future.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, you read these words.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: They shall be given over to the power of the sword.
SPEAKER_00: The mouth of liars will be stopped.
SPEAKER_00: And you read that and it just drips with confidence.
SPEAKER_00: He can't see the future.
SPEAKER_00: And the question is, where do we get such faith?
SPEAKER_00: How is it possible to believe it before you see it?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is you take him at his word, and believing that he will do it, and then with a good will and a high heart, you go about your day expecting him to help you as you have asked.
SPEAKER_00: That's the ruthless trust that God would have from us.
SPEAKER_00: This week in my own life, I've needed to cling to the promise in Isaiah 41, 10, and meditate on that.
SPEAKER_00: Fear not, for I am with you.
SPEAKER_00: Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
SPEAKER_00: I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
SPEAKER_00: And I've sought to meditate on it and to be very ruthless and taking hold of it to speak into my fears, which sometimes tempt me to think otherwise.
SPEAKER_00: And I can testify that God has heard me and helped me.
SPEAKER_00: I can testify that God has brought me comfort, and I can testify that he is pleased to do the same for you.
SPEAKER_00: And here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Because he not only died on the cross to pay for your sin and mine, but he has also been raised from the dead to empower you and I for new life.
SPEAKER_00: Which means it is unfathomable that he will fail to give us everything that we need according to his will.
SPEAKER_00: He will surely do so tomorrow and the next day and the next, even if your journey in life takes you down a dark path.
SPEAKER_00: Come what may, his love is better than life.
SPEAKER_00: We have an eternal future.
SPEAKER_00: A joy in the heavens, a seat at the table, a room in his house.
SPEAKER_00: Our names are known by God, our Father, and His presence will never leave us.
SPEAKER_00: Be honest regarding your thirst.
SPEAKER_00: Trust Him by feasting on His character and thank Him for His assurance.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Gracious Father, we praise you and we thank you for who you are to us.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for the feast that you do indeed prefere for us.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Lord, to feast upon you is to be satisfied in the most deepest ways that we've ever known.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we confess that our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, we pray that you would continue, as you're gracious to do, to trust you, that you would continue to bring us to enjoy this rest.
SPEAKER_00: The peace that you alone can bring us, even in the turbulence of the things that we might face.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Father, we thank you for your presence, your guidance, your mercy.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.