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The Psalms show the attitude and dedication we need to have so that God can, in His compassion,
forgive us, protect us and hide us under the shadow of His wings!
Fred R. Coulter—January 11, 2020
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Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services!
NEWS: The corner of God's altar—the one that was in Shiloh—takes second place in 2019 top discoveries.
Bulla, altar in Israel top list of Biblical archaeological finds
January 2, 2020 {https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Corner-of-Gods-Altar-in-Shiloh-makes-2nd-place-in-2019-top-discoveries-612740}
A 2,600-year-old bulla (seal) from the Kingdom of Judah bearing the inscription "[belonging] to Nathan-Melech, Servant of the King," unearthed in Jerusalem's City of David earlier this year, has topped the list of top ten discoveries in biblical archaeology in 2019, compiled by the Bible Archaeology Report.
We advertise in the Biblical Archaeology Report. It has been coming out monthly, but it's going to be coming only quarterly, and we are going to see if we can keep an ad in there.
Both the title 'Servant of the King' and the name 'Nathan-Melech' appear in the Hebrew Bible, the latter in II Kings 23:11, where he is described as an official in King Josiah's court.
2-Kings 23:11: "And he took away the horses, which the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the room of Nathan-Melech the officer, which was in the suburbs. And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire." There it is! Very interesting!
The next one is the discovery of a horn, and it shows a picture of it. This is what is called 'a horn on the altar.' So as not to confuse you, this corner of the stone of the altar is different than what we just read in 2-Kings 23.
"The sacred work of the ancient Shiloh team, which is leading to the discovery of important findings, gives us, again and again, a clear proof of the roots of the Jewish people in our promised land," commented Binyamin Council head Israel Gantz, congratulating the team for their achievements.
The Jews claim that they are all 12 tribes and never let go of that. That's what messes everything up with them and the other descendants.
Nine of the ten archaeological entries on the list were uncovered in Israel, the outlier being a stone alter discovered at Ataroth in modern Jordan….
That's across the river and has to do with Rehoboam, Solomon's son.
"Each year, discovery after discovery adds to our knowledge of the biblical world and helps us understand Scripture in greater detail," wrote its head, Bryan Windle. "None of these discoveries prove the Bible is true. They do, however, add to the mounting evidence that demonstrates that the Bible is historically reliable….
Why do the Jews say that? That is an oxymoron! If the little details of those are true, then all of the rest of it has to be true. But you don't dare cross the rabbis! They say that their writings are greater than the Scriptures! And that their writings are so good that even God has to follow what they write!.
So, what do you have? People sitting in the seat of God saying, 'God, You obey us!' They're saying that the are God! That blew me away when I read this:
"None of these discoveries prove the Bible is true...."
AD: CD with They Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version {not in transcription}
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Today we're going to cover a very interesting topic: The Sure Mercies of David!
Isaiah 55:1: "'Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters…" This is for people! Everyone is wondering:
- Why are we here?
- Where are we going?
- What is life all about?
The truth of the matter is, regardless of how successful, how rich or poor that a person may be, they are never able to live their lives in a way that is understandable, and they generally end up in trouble somewhere along the line.
That's just the way it is, because we are made to receive the Spirit of God, and to have the Laws of God and the Word of God to advise and guide us.
"…and he who has no money… [you can't buy what God is giving you] …come, buy and eat…. ['taste and see that the Lord is good'] …Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread? And your labor for what never satisfies?…." (vs 1-2).
Isn't that true? People go through life and nothing satisfies. After a while, people get bored and then they get into things that lead them into trouble.
"…Hearken diligently to Me… [listen or hear to obey] …and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness" (v 2)—the full Word of God!
Verse 3: "Bow down your ear, and come to Me; hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David."
What does it say about the Church of Philadelphia? Christ has 'the key of David and He opens and no one shuts.' He does it! What is that key? The humility and yielding to God that David had! That doesn't mean that he was free from sin.
Verse 4: "Behold, I have given Him for a witness to the people, a Prince and Commander of people." This blends into a type of Christ, as well!
Verse 5: "Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know; a nation that did not know you shall run to you because of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for He has glorified you." This is a type of the fulfillment of the resurrection!
Verse 6: "Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near…. [here's how you do it] …Let the wicked forsake his way…" (vs 6-7). You come to understand what is right and what is wrong, the commandments of God and so forth!
"…and the unrighteous man his thoughts…" (v 7). That's the whole purpose of conversion and the whole reasons of the sure mercies of David, that our minds are converted through the power of the Holy Spirit.
How does that work? Lots of times it works this way: there's a lot of stuff buried in your mind that that needs to come out of there. The Holy Spirit will draw that to your attention so that you can get rid of it and overcome it.
How much do you have in there? I don't know! But I'll just tell you what happened to me. I was watching television and here is this ad for Volvo; they appeal to 'greenie weenies.' This car is driving down the highway and there's these big windmills. It has the music and the windmill is turning, and the father is driving the car. He's so concerned for his little daughter that she understand about windmills that he rolls back the full top of the car so she can look at it. Here's this music. I spent all day trying to get it out of my mind!
How much is there in our mind that we have in there that we never intended to be in there. My poor remote control does not have a mute button that works. So, I have an older remote control and that mute button, I discovered the other day, works. When those ads come on I like to mute them.
What does this tell you? It tells you how susceptible our mind is to picking up things that we never even really think about!
Verse 7: "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon."
You can see in the Bible the grievous sins that God forgave Manasseh, that God forgave David, that God forgave Ahab, etc.
Here's the reason, and what is the key to understanding the Bible? Keeping the Sabbath! That's the very key! It seems so simple, but that is it.
Verse 8: 'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways My ways,' says the LORD." In order to be converted and through the sure mercies of David we've got to come to God so that He can forgive us!
Verse 9: "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."
The whole plan of God is to have us born into the Kingdom of God to be like Him! Think about how much God knows. It's absolutely beyond our comprehension!
I would like to get a tremendous montage of many different scenes of the universe; kind of like the hymn that we have: The Almighty God! To have some fantastic music as a background to use that as a vehicle to help us get our minds on God and what He has done.
Wouldn't that be good? If you get down in the dumps—and everybody gets down in the dumps—then you can look at the greatness of God and this is what He's promised us! Amazing!
Acts 13—Paul is speaking in a synagogue in one of the Gentile areas. Paul always went to the synagogue first, because it had to go to the Jew first, then to the Gentiles, who were also in the synagogue. There were many proselytes in the synagogue. They had a place for the men, a place for the women and a place for the proselytes.
Acts 13:31: "And He… [Christ after His resurrection] …appeared for many days to those who had come up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people. And we are announcing the Gospel to you—the promise made to the fathers—that God has fulfilled this to us, their children, having raised up Jesus; as it is also written in the second Psalm, 'You are My Son; today have I begotten You.;: (vs 31-33). That carries all through His life!
Verse 34: "And to confirm that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He spoke in this manner: 'I will give You the faithful mercies of David.'"
Acts 15:15—let's see what James (v 13) said about this: "And with this the words of the prophets agree, as it is written, 'after these things, I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David, which has fallen…'" (vs 15-16).
That begins with the Church, and then at the resurrection the whole fullness of it to the world. Quite an amazing thing!
"…and its ruins I will build again, and will set it up" (v 16).
Let's look at something very interesting: how great God is and how merciful He is!
After Solomon had sinned, what was it that God did? He split the kingdom and He gave the Levites and part of Benjamin and all the Jews to Rehoboam! The God came to Jeroboam and said, 'IF you will obey Me and keep My commandments, I will give you a dynasty like I did for David.'
You would think that anyone who wanted power—and Jeroboam was a servant of s! What happened. Jeroboam got together with all of the corrupt counselors and they decided to make two calves: one in Dan in the north, and one in Bethel in the south.
1-Kings 14:5: "And the LORD said to Ahijah, 'Behold, the wife of Jeroboam…'" She was coming to find out why her son was sick! God eventually struck him dead!
"'…comes to ask a thing of you for her son, for he is sick. Thus and such you shall say to her, for when she comes in, she shall act as a stranger.'…. [but God undid the plan] …Now, it came to pass when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came in at the door, he said, 'Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you acting as a stranger? For I am sent to you with bad news. Go tell Jeroboam, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel, 'I lifted you up from among the people, and made you ruler over My people Israel, and tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you. And you have not been as My servant David who kept My commandments, and who followed Me with all his heart…'"'" (vs 5-8).
That's why there were the mercies to David! It's not how many sins he committed or didn't commit, it was his dedication to God to follow Him with all his heart!
"…to do only what was right in My eyes. But you have done evil above all who were before you, for you have gone and made yourself other gods and molded images to provoke Me to anger, and have cast Me behind your back; therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam everyone who pisses against the wall, bond and free in Israel, and will sweep away the rest of the house of Jeroboam as a man sweeps away the dung until it is all gone" (vs 8-10).
That's something! Look at how God is: How much time did He give Jeroboam? A lot of time! Because of what he did, there was not recorded one righteous king over the ten tribes of Israel! So, you don't go against God.
Let's look at the thing things that we need to follow to have the kind of mind, heart and attitude of David, to serve God the way that we should.
Psalm 84:1: "How lovely are Your tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!"
That's another way of explaining how great that the plan of God is. What's the ultimate tabernacle? New Jerusalem!
Verse 2: "My soul longs, yea, even faints for the courts of the LORD…" That's how much David wanted it! He was looking forward to that.
So, whenever you get down and there are difficulties, look up, go to God, and claim the promises and move forward. Put all of that behind you, regardless of what it is!
"…my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God" (v 2). I don't think that any of us have arrived at the point, yet! But that's one of the goals that we need to look to. This way then we don't get bogged down.
Another way to describe Laodiceans is that they are lukewarm, because God says that they are; neither hot nor cold. What's another way of explaining it? Halfhearted! God says that He wants you hot or cold. So, David kept the temperature up!
Verse 4: "Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; they will still be praising You. Selah"—stop and think and meditate on this! That's exactly what David was doing when he was writing this.
I don't know whether David understood how long it would be until the Kingdom of God would come, but I think he's going to be astonished that God kept all these words for us, even in this day. It's quite a thing!
Verse 5: "Blessed is the man whose strength is in You; Your ways are in their hearts"—that's how you're wholehearted!
Verse 7[transcriber's correction]: "They go from strength to strength, every one of them appearing in Zion before God."
How do you appear before God? Everyday when you pray! That's the important thing. Don't let days go by where you don't pray.
There was one man who said that he didn't pray on his knees for over two years. That resulted in a disaster for the Church.
Verse 8: "O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah"—think on that!
If you have a little spell where your belief is not quite what it should be, then you pray like that: "O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer…" and God will help you!
Verse 9: "Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face of Your anointed."
You have been anointed with the Holy Spirit. The Apostle John write that 'you have had an anointing from God,' which is the Holy Spirit.
Verse 10: "For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness"—because they're all coming to nothing!
I mean, we have right before us today with this silliness of the impeachment, the manufacturing and promulgation of lies by the Democrats and the media. Where is it getting them? Let's see! How many are there who are willing to even flatter God?
God says in Psa. 78 that when Israel flatters Him and come back to Him halfhearted. He'll even ease up on the punishment that He was going to give. But look at the whole history of America.
I just got a book Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America by David Horowitz—what the plan for the elite was for America. That's been disrupted tremendously by what Donald Trump is doing. So, don't take this as an endorsement and run out and take ten votes for Trump at the election. But God is interested in nations and there's a reason why He is there, and there's a reason why He's doing what He's doing.
What do you suppose that reason is? The only place where the Gospel is being preached is in America! If the liberals continue in the way that they were doing, and shutting down everything concerning Christ and the things even Protestantism and Catholicism, they want to bring in an atheist society that Horowitz brings out clearly, but the ultimate goal is to openly worship Satan.
So, the things in the world are at a point that there still needs to be a witness of the Gospel and for God calling other people, and that's the only reason why these things are taking place. Whenever God does something good, many, many other people benefit and they don't realize that they're being benefited because they don't understand God.
Isn't Pres. Trump one of the few Presidents in a long time to mention God? Yes! And even having that faith group that comes in a prays with him all the time. Granted, there are Protestants, but that's dealing with a nation, not dealing for conversion! There's a difference. The Church is called for conversion! The nation—
- IF they can bring down the abortions to a lower number
- IF they can bring down the drug addiction to a lower number
- IF they can help the poor and things like that as a nation
God will give certain blessings to the whole nation and subsequently that will make it possible for the Church to preach the Gospel and give the warning to the world! That involves all the Churches of God! My prayer for all the Churches of God is: get off your high-horse of your stupid false doctrines and return to God and preach the Gospel!
If you have 50 organizations preaching the true Gospel, it can't be shut down over night. If it's only one, you can get it! That's why that's coming on.
Regarding the book Dark Agenda, how do we understand people and whom they serve? By their fruits! Look at the atheists, all of the antagonists, all the Democrats that are so liberal, guess who they're serving? Satan! So, this is a classic fight between God and Satan over what's going to happen to this nation, which, if you remember back in the 1520s when they first landed in Virginia. They got off their ship and planted a cross—this is not endorsing a cross—they all got on their knees and prayed to God and thanked Him that they were in what is America now! They prayed for this new continent to be a place of preaching the Gospel to the world. That's something!
Let's see the tremendous attitude that David had. Psalm 42:1: "As the hart pants after the water brooks, so my soul pants after You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God…" (vs 1-2).
What does it say for those who thirst for righteousness? They shall be filled. If you're halfhearted, are you going to be filled? No!
"…when shall I come and appear before God?" (v 2)
Verse 11: "Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why do you moan within me? Hope in God…"
When you get down, don't get discourage and run around oh woe is me! Go to God!
"…for I shall yet praise Him, the salvation of my countenance, and my God" (v 11).
You would have to say that David was a really emotional all or nothing man. So, if you keep it all going for God, that's the way it's going to be.
Psalm 92:1: "It is good to give thanks to the LORD and to sing praises unto Your name, O Most High." Stop and think about:
- Who has drawn us? The Father!
- Who has brought us to the Father? Jesus Christ!
None can come to the Father… He may draw, but if you don't respond then Jesus won't bring you to the Father!
Verse 2: "To show forth Your loving kindness in the morning and Your faithfulness every night."
How faithful is God? One simple thing, and it still amazes me, gravity on the earth! We don't even think about it. But God keeps it constant, holds everything on the earth, helps you. You have running water. You can have accidents, but God keeps the gravity moving all the time. What if there were days that God just turned off the gravity? God's faithfulness!
Verse 3: "Upon the instrument of ten strings… [a lyre] …and upon the harp, with melody of music upon the lyre; for You, LORD, have made me glad with Your work; I will exult… [rejoice] …in the works of Your hands" (vs 3-4).
Everything we have has come from God one way or the other. It may have passed through many hands of people making and manufacturing, but everything we have has come from what God has made.
Jonathan brought over some barbecue to us last night—a lamb chop, a chicken thigh and a steak—and it was really good, seasoned perfectly. I first ate the lamb chop, because that was the best. Then I ate the chicken thigh, and I was full so I'm going to have the steak tonight. I thought, everything of that has come from the ground. Every bit of it, and God is faithful to do it for all people. I hope we can enjoy it more because we understand God!
Verse 5: "O LORD, how great are Your works; Your thoughts are very deep." I think about that every time I see one of these airplane shots flying over these rugged mountains that are thrust up! You look at the top and it looks like it's sharp as a razor. Of course, it isn't, but it's really sharp.
I think, 'O God, You thrust that up from the depths of the ocean to ever high those mountains are. He made the mountains so that we would be inspired to turn to God because of all of His great power in making it. That's a fantastic thing!
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One of the things that's important, notice David's attitude; notice his approach to God. I don't find any Psalm where David fell asleep while praying.
Psalm 62:1: "Only for God does my soul wait in silence; from Him comes my salvation. He only is my Rock and my salvation; He is my fortress; I shall not be greatly moved" (vs 1-2).
That's how firm he was in believing God. Then the rest of the Psalm is about how worthless politicians are.
Psa. 63 is quite something because David had a little tent/tabernacle in his house. When they brought the Ark of the Covenant back from Kirjath-jearim, they brought it to David's house because there was no temple. He didn't take it to the tabernacle up in Gibeon, but put it in his house. Then he had some of the Levites and priests who would tend to it. When he would come to pray, many times he would come right before this little tent. We will see that he was able to see a figure of God in there from time to time. I'm sure that inspired him an awful lot.
Psalm 63:1: "O God, You are my God, earnestly I will seek You!…. [the same as wholeheartedly] …My soul thirsts for You. My flesh longs for You, as in a dry and thirsty land where no water is, to see Your power and Your glory as I have seen You in the sanctuary" (vs 1-2).
I wonder if it was much like when Christ gave the vision to Peter, James and John on the Mt. of Transfiguration, if it was something like that?
Verse 3: "Because Your loving kindness is better than life… [wholly committed his whole life to God] …my lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips" (vs 3-5). Marrow and fatness means good health, because the marrow produces the blood in the body.
Verse 6: "When I remember You upon my bed and meditate on You in the night watches." Many times you can't sleep and you'll think about God and different things, and you'll be actually praying to Him while you're lying there in bed.
Verse 7: "Because You have been my help, therefore, in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice"—God's protection!
You can't see a shadow when you look at a shadow being cast to the ground. In this room with the lights on we can see a shadow on the floor, but you can't see the shadow itself. Isn't that amazing? Sometimes you can see it if the sun is really bright, but this means that it is invisible protection for you. How does that come about? With angels, and comes from God directly!
Verse 8: "My soul follows hard after You…" Talk about single-minded, single-purposed, undeterred except for Bathsheba!
"…Your right hand upholds me. But those who seek my life to destroy it shall go into the depths of the earth…. [a prophecy of Christ] …They shall fall by the sword; they shall be a serving for jackals…. [destruction of Jerusalem] …But the king shall rejoice in God; everyone who swears by Him shall glory, but the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped" (vs 8-11).
This is why the Psalms are so good for us. Not every Psalm is going to help you out of the difficulties that you're in, but many of them will.
Psalm 103:1: "Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His Holy name." Think about Matt. 6:9[transcriber's correction]! What's the first thing we say in prayer? We honor God's Holy name!
Verse 2: "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits." When you're in the midst of a trail it's easy to forget His benefits!
You don't look upon a trial as a benefit until after you've gone through it and you have hindsight and you understand why you have gone through it.
Verse 3: "Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases." The ultimate healing is eternal life, the resurrection!
Verse 4: "Who redeems your life from destruction…" How many times has God saved you? Have you had close calls in your life? Yes, indeed!
I remember when Delores was driving a car and she put the breaks on and it was upside down. It was on a freeway in L.A. All the traffic was stopped and she didn't see it until the last minute. The car was upside down, but God must have been with her. She had her seatbelt on and was just fine.
It could have been totally different. She wasn't thrown out of the car. You talk about a car going upside down. Think of all the different things that could happen. There were probably some angels there bringing it back down.
I remember one time I fell and all of a sudden while I was falling, I felt my body and the only thing I could conclude was there must have been an angel who helped me get to the ground without breaking a rib or something. God is there!
"…Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your desires with good things; your youth is renewed like the eagle's…. [even David didn't get through that] …The LORD executes righteousness and judgment for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel" (vs 4-7). What do we have?
- we've got all the Law that Moses wrote
- all the things that the Prophets have written
- everything in the New Testament
Think about what God has given us today that we need to really draw close to God and be thankful for!
Verse 8: "The LORD is merciful and gracious… [the sure mercies of David] …slow to anger, and abundant in mercy. He will not always chasten, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities" (vs 8-10). That's quite a thing, because 'the wages of sin is death'!
Verse 11: "For as the heavens are high above the earth, so is His mercy toward those who fear Him."
We need to love God, but we also need to fear God! Think of all the awesome things that God has created that really are fearful things, indeed! Just think about what it is for volcano blowing off with all the lava coming. You'd better fear God! That's quite a thing!
Verse 12: "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."
- How do we stand before God if we are continuous every day in prayer, study and yielding to God? There it is right there!
- What will He do? He will lead us, give us understanding and all of those things will come!
For those who are halfhearted instead of wholehearted it's not going to come that way. It will come a little differently and there will be a lot of correction that will come (Rev. 3).
Verse 13: "As a father has compassion upon his children, so the LORD has compassion upon those who fear Him."
We are called the children of God! Think about that! The most important thing that God is doing on the earth right now is with all of those who have His Spirit. That's more important than
- all the politics
- all the wars
- all the wealth
because He's developing the spiritual character in us! Those are the ones He's dealing with directly for eternal life.
Those who are in society, those who are 'half Christians,' they're going to be surprised when they're raised in the second resurrection. He deals with them, because it says that even if someone gives a drink of cold water to someone in the name of a Prophet, he will receive a Prophet's reward. So, God even deals with those people though they're not called to salvation.
Verse 14: "For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust." Dust you are and from dust you shall return!
Verse 15: "As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes, for the wind passes over it, and it is gone; and its place shall know it no more" (vs 15-16).
Think about that every time you go by a graveyard. You see all of those stones out there, or all the Vet cemeteries that they have with all the crosses and stars and everything and ask yourself, 'Do I even know any of them?' That's quite a thing! Yet, God has their spirit stored somewhere for the resurrection! Three areas:
- eternal life
- second resurrection to physical life
- second resurrection to the Lake of Fire
God keeps track of it all! He doesn't lose one! That's an amazing thing!
Verse 17: "But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting…"
- His love
- His grace
- His mercy
- His Truth
"…upon those who fear Him, and His righteousness is unto children's children" (v 17).
In other words, even children benefit from the blessings of God, but unfortunately too many of them don't even realize it.
Verse 18: "To those who keep His covenant, and to those who remember His precepts to do them. The LORD has established His throne in the heavens…" (vs 18-19). Remember that when we pray that's where our prayers go!
"…and His kingdom rules over all…. [every single thing that there is because He made it] …Bless the LORD, O you His angels, mighty in strength, who do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His Word. Bless the LORD, all you His hosts, ministers of His who do His pleasure. Bless the LORD, all His works in all places of His dominion. Bless the LORD, O my soul!" (vs 19-22).
There you have the tremendous attitude exemplified by David. All of this tells us that when you get down, get discouraged or you have a problem or trial that you're looking at and you need to overcome it, God will be there to help you! God will be there to answer your prayers and give you a way out or lift it from you!
Psalm 143:1: "Hear my prayer O LORD; give ear unto my supplications; in Your faithfulness and in Your righteousness answer me. And do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight no one living is righteous" (vs 1-2). All the righteousness that we have comes from Christ!
Verse 6: "I stretch forth my hands unto You; my soul thirsts after You like a parched land. Selah. Answer me quickly, O LORD; my spirit fails; do not hide Your face from me, lest I be like those who go down into the pit" (vs 6-7). That's the grave! So, David must have been sick at this point.
Verse 8: "Cause me to hear Your loving kindness in the morning, for I do trust in You; cause me to know the way in which I should walk… [he found himself not walking in the way that he should] …for I lift up my soul unto You. Deliver me, O LORD, from my enemies; I flee to You to hide me" (vs 8-9). That's quite an attitude!
How many more people would be able to come to God in greater faith with this kind of thing: the sure mercies of David!
Verse 10: "Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; may Your good Spirit lead me on level ground of uprightness."
Psa. 119 is one of the most tremendous Psalms in the Bible. If anyone really studies this and thinks about it, there's no way that you'll ever believe that the Law has been done away. Jesus made it clear that it will never be done away; 'heaven and earth is a verification of it.
This is the only Psalm, or the only part of the Bible, where the word I is not in vain, not self-centered. One hundred and thirty-five times I, but what is it doing? Coming to God!
Psalm 119:1: "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the Law of the LORD."
What Scripture can you think of in Hebrews that adds to this? Heb. 10:16; write God's laws and commandments in our heart and mind! A blessing!
Verse 2: "Blessed are they who keep His testimonies and who seek Him with the whole heart." So, you are spiritually involved with your prayer and study every day with God!
Verse 3: "They also do no iniquity; they walk in His ways. You have commanded us to keep Your precepts diligently" (vs 3-4).
Remember how Deut. 28 starts out; everyone wants the blessings! If you will diligently keep these commandments then you will be:
- blessed in your cities
- blessed in your country
- blessed in your store
- blessed in what you're doing
and your enemies will not come against you! Maybe that tells you how sinful we are today. Notice that David saw a weakness, the drag of human nature:
Verse 5: "O that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes! Then I shall not be ashamed when I have respect unto all Your commandments" (vs 5-6).
Look at how much we've covered in just six verses; that's an amazing thing, indeed!
Verse 7: "I will praise You with uprightness of heart when I have learned Your righteous judgments." That's why we study the statutes, the judgments, the ordinances, and all the things of God!
Verse 8: "I will keep Your statutes; O forsake me not utterly."
- How do you get out of the doldrums?
- What do you do when you have sinned? You stop sinning and repent!
- How do you overcome the negativity of the sin?
Verse 9: "With what shall a young man… [can be an old man as well] …cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your Word."
Not wondering why you did it. You did it because you still have the law of sin and death!
- Are you perfect? No!
- Are you spiritual? No!
- What are we striving for? For a right relationship with God!
We just read how He will forgive all of our sins, iniquities and transgressions! When He does that:
Verse 10: "With all my heart I have sought You; O let me not wander from Your commandments. Your Word I have laid up in my heart, so that I might not sin against You" (vs 10-11).
That tells us a whole lot! All of these things are great instructions for us, and all reflect on the sure mercies, or the faithful mercies of God toward David! This is what He promised us. That's what Paul told them in the synagogue. Then he went on to say that through Christ and His death and resurrection, you're justified from the things that the Law of Moses could not justify! That made them mad. How are you justified? By the blood of Christ!
Sidebar: Someone wrote me having a little difficulty with understanding the resurrections. She brought up the just and the unjust.
Who are the just? Those who are in right standing with God! Those who have been justified through the sacrifice of Christ, they are the just!
Who are the unjust? All the rest of the people in the world that are just living normally in the world! They're not justified to Christ. There are varying degrees of good and bad, and varying degrees of sin.
What about the incorrigible wicked? So, the unjust are not the incorrigible wicked! The incorrigible wicked are worse than the unjust.
In the prison of Pelican Bay are some of the most hardened criminals in the world. They even run gangs from that highly secured prison. They sneak drugs in there, though everything is inspected. They finally figured out how they were doing it. They would buy two identical postcards and they would strip off the front because that would be generally a plastic overlay on cardboard. Then they would iron on heroin to the cardboard and seal up the card.
It's so thin that unless you really looked at it, you would never know that that card coming in had heroin in it. Talk about people who are just dedicated to evil! Some of the worst killers that are there. One killer said that 'if you let me out I'll do it again.'
What's going to happen when they're resurrected? Don't know! That's why all that judgment has to rest with God, because He alone knows the mind!
Psalm 119:14: "I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies as much as in all riches."
Think about that the next time you watch that ad that you're going to be given $5,000 a week for life and you choose someone else to be given $5,000 a week for life. Which would you rather have? The riches of God? By all means!
Verse 15: "I will meditate upon Your precepts and have respect to Your ways." When you do that, you're thinking about how good God's way is! It's fantastic; can't be any better, because it's from God!
Verse 16: I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your Word."
Notice how it's constantly going toward God in everything!
Verse 17: "Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your Word." The very reason we have life is so that we can:
- keep the Word of God
- learn the Word of God
- be converted
- be changed
Then David says, this is a wonderful verse: 18: "Open my eyes so that I may behold wondrous things out of Your Law."
Apply that to the whole Bible! Look at all the things that God has given and has revealed! It's amazing! Absolutely amazing! So, what does all of this do?
- this gives us a direction!
- this gives us a conviction
- this gives us faith
- this gives us confidence
- this gives us humility
Humility is not something that you can just put on and say, 'Okay, today I'm going to be humble.' Humility comes because you understand the greatness of God!
Psalm 108:1 "O God, my heart is fixed… [it is set, not movable, and God will add more, give more] …I will sing and I will give praise, even with my glory."
In Psa. 57 we see the same thing, and there are other Psalms that say, 'My heart is established,' fixed! That's quite a thing! Notice how we come to God, and look to God for everything. We don't come to God like the Pharisee in Luke 18. You understand about the Pharisees this way: They were an exclusive group. You couldn't be a Pharisee unless you took a long course to become one. You would be given a Pharisaical master and you had to obey him. All of the things that they had with not keeping company with Gentiles and all of this sort of thing, you had to obey all of those laws of the Pharisees.
The Pharisee would come to God and pray to himself. He wasn't praying to God, he was praying to himself and saying,
God, I thank You that I'm not like other men. I'm not an adulterer, I don't extort and I give tithes of everything that I have. I'm not like this tax collector down here. They hated tax collectors, hate everybody that's not a Pharisee.
So, there's this poor tax collector down there and he starts out his prayer: O God, be merciful to me a sinner! What did Jesus say? I tell you that he went down to his house justified, rather than the Pharisee, because the Pharisee was looking down on other people and exalting himself through his own religion rather than looking to God. That's why he prayed to himself.
Psalm 57:1: "Be gracious unto me, O God, be gracious unto me; for my soul trusts in You; yea, in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge until these great troubles pass by. I will cry to God Most High, to God who fulfills His purpose for me" (vs 1-2)—apply that to yourself!
God has a purpose for everyone that He has called. It's going to be so great that everybody is going to be equally happy with what they get.
Verse 3: "He shall send from heaven and save me; He rebukes him who would swallow me up…."
Delores and I could tell you about things that we went through in the ministry where they were wanting to swallow us up! It was terrible! We went out to dinner with one of the 'mafia' ones that was there to enforce. He told us, 'I want to tell you one thing, Fred, I'm going to tell you what Dr. Zimmerman told me one time. I may be wrong what I'm telling you, but you're not to open your mouth, you got that?'
I didn't open my mouth. That was on a Wednesday, and guess what? Friday he left the Church! His boss was fired! That's delivering us from those who are 'greater' than us. Swallow us up!
"…Selah. God shall send forth His mercy and His Truth" (v 3). You can't have mercy without Truth, because the Truth shows you why you need the mercy!
Verse 5: Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let Your glory be above all the earth…. [one day we're going to see that] …They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down; they have dug a pit before me; into the midst of it they have fallen themselves. Selah" (vs 5-6).
Because of all of that we experience and go through, v 7: "My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed…"
- that's what all of this is about
- this is why we have the Psalms
- this is why every part of the Bible is necessary for us
- for spiritual growth
- understanding
- developing
All of it together! It's the Word of God that's so fantastic and wonderful, and with His Spirit makes it come alive for us!
These are the faithful mercies of David that God has given to us!
Scriptural References:
- 2 Kings 23:11
- Isaiah 55:1-9
- Acts 13:31-34
- Acts 15:15-16
- 1 Kings 14:5-10
- Psalm 84:1-5, 7-10
- Psalm 42:1-2, 11
- Psalm 92:1-5
- Psalm 62:1-2
- Psalm 63:1-11
- Psalm 103:1-22
- Psalm 143:1-2, 6-10
- Psalm 119:1-11, 14-17
- Psalm 108:1
- Psalm 57:1-3, 5-7
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
- Acts 15:13
- Psalm 78
- Matthew 6:9
- Revelation 3
- Hebrews 10:16
- Deuteronomy 28
- Luke 18
Also referenced:
Article: Bulla, altar in Israel top list of Biblical archaeological finds January 2, 2020 {https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Corner-of-Gods-Altar-in-Shiloh-makes-2nd-place-in-2019-top-discoveries-612740}
Book: Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America by David Horowitz
FRC:bo
Transcribed: 1/14/19
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