I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me (Quality: Very Good)

[0:00] trusting the Lord might help us let us turn again to Psalm 40 Psalm 40 and verse 17 but I am poor and needy yet the Lord thinketh upon me thou art my help my deliverer make no tarrying O my God and it is the first part of the verse but I am poor and needy yet the Lord thinketh upon me this afternoon we looked at the first part but I am poor and needy and we noticed that there were appointed times in all the Lord's purposes and we noted particularly a time to get and a time to lose a getting of knowledge and the getting of the knowledge not in the head but by the Holy Spirit's teaching and power in the inward parts of God himself a holy God a righteous God and a knowledge of the law for by the law is the knowledge of sin and that not in the casual acknowledgement of it but as being brought under conviction and convincing of sin and we found that this knowledge brings a man sincerely into that state of poverty and of need and a beholding of the only remedy in Christ Jesus the Lord so that there is a losing of our own self-righteousness and of fleshly holiness and a coming unto him to find refuge in him and this evening

[2:41] I want to try and speak a little concerning the latter part before they are joined together but I am poor and needy yet the Lord thinketh upon me so we have as a matter of consideration the thoughts of the Lord and he declares the manner of his thoughts unto his people I know the thoughts that I think towards you thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end now if you think of that word that precious truth and promise it can't be contained in time and in time circumstances this is that which is from before the foundation of the world and through an everlasting eternity and I mentioned this afternoon that the dealings of the Lord with his people he himself has told us that they are in samples unto us upon whom the end of the world is come so this evening

[4:44] I want to take an example from God's word and pray that the spirit might seal it upon our hearts and consciences in our inward parts and in that psalm that we read together psalm 105 we have from verse to verse a declaration of the Lord's care for his people his loving kindness to them his gentleness to them his mercies to them his provision for them and surely in the experience of these as well as in looking back Israel ought to say yet the Lord thinketh upon me and I want out of that psalm to take one verse and use the content of that verse to try and show forth the Lord's thoughts unto spiritual

[6:19] Israel unto his living family and in verse 39 we read concerning Israel he spread a cloud for a covering and a fire to give light in the night in the scripture the Lord uses the clouds in many respects when you think of Noah coming forth from the ark and the Lord communes with him and makes a covenant with him and the faithfulness of almighty got to that covenant we see day by day season by season year by year for the

[7:39] Lord made a covenant that he would no more drown the earth with water and that summer and winter cold and heat springtime and harvest day and night should not fail as long as the earth remain and it is a precious meditation that the Lord said unto Noah when I cause a cloud the bow shall be seen in the cloud the token and the brightness of that covenant undertaking was to be seen in the cloud a cloud which the Lord would bring across the sky for the

[8:41] Lord did not require Noah to remember the covenant to bring it to his mind the Lord said I will remember and I believe that's a comfort to many a tried soul who has to come and plead for help for mercy for grace for pardon before the Lord and we read also in the scriptures that his way is in the storm and the tempest but the clouds are the dust of his feet now if we can see the dust of someone's feet they're close to us and the

[9:42] Lord says that there will be those tokens and evidences in his dealings with his people of his sovereign power and wondrous will but also his nearness unto his children and then in this 105th psalm we read the Lord spreading a cloud for a covering over Israel and we know that when Pharaoh pursued after Israel seeking to ambush them before the Red Sea the Lord put that cloud for a covering between his people and their enemies and it was a discomfort an impediment a hindrance unto their enemies while they were shielded and kept and preserved by the cloud so in that respect the cloud was a shield and a defender and the

[11:08] Lord spread that cloud for his people's defence and safety and then when they went forth into the wilderness we read that when the cloud moved Israel moved when the cloud stayed Israel stayed so it was first of all a leader a commander to the people they were obedient unto its movements but let us notice this as well that if Israel moved when the cloud moved and stayed when the cloud stayed that pillar of cloud was an arranger and I don't mean it in the temporal sense but in the sense that there is a set time to every purpose under heaven you see the times of their striving were ordered as well as the times of their resting were ordered and that by the cloud that

[12:46] God had spread for a covering that cloud as it were managed all their affairs it was a shield unto them in the heat of the day and if we know anything of those very hot places of the earth how welcome is shade in the midst of the day not only a blessing but a necessity and that cloud was to them a shield a shield in that sense to sustain them to comfort them to afford them relief and we know that that cloud the Lord took not from them all the forty years that they were in the wilderness it was not on a temporary basis it was a continual and a continuing shield director director comforter provider unto his people all the days of their journeyings now

[14:40] I believe that the living children of God the Lord has spread for them a cloud for a covering and there are three aspects of that covering but before we come to the consideration of them let us notice and be assured of the ground upon which the Lord's tender care for his people rests the Lord says this my mercy will I keep for him for ever more and my covenant shall stand fast with him my covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips and in that

[15:57] Psalm 105 that we read together there is a confirming there of this same ground he hath remembered his covenant forever the word which he commanded to a thousand generations and again in the 42nd verse for he remembered his holy promise and Abraham his servant so this promise this tender loving care that the lord has for his people stands upon his covenant and upon his covenant undertakings and the first aspect to that cloud for a covering i want to see in the covenant because the covenant of god's grace keeps his children from all harm and from all danger forever and therefore it is to them all their lives through every circumstance a covering a covering which the lord has spread a covering whereby he makes his people know the lord thinketh upon me we came this afternoon to the conclusion that when a man or a woman stands convicted and convinced of his sin before a holy god feeling his need of a refuge and of his poverty in himself he can only look unto the almighty and he is pleased to show unto him his glory in the face of

[18:47] Jesus Christ dear friend if you and I look unto Jesus God and I must repeat these words they are so important though I said them this afternoon this solemn question concerns every one of us whether we are young or old because we have sinned how can I come to thee oh God who holy art and if we are taught of the spirit of God then with the psalmist we must say

[19:49] I am poor and needy but by the cloud that the Lord has spread for a covering he declares unto the poor and to the needy now will I arise their sighing their oppression is known and I have eternally provided for their security for their safety for their eternal well-being and to this end the covenant was made it is a wonderful thing if we're brought to that knowledge of Christ in the covenant dear friend it's all that we need for the salvation of our souls

[20:58] Christ in the covenant and the covenant in Christ will satisfy every question every demand every requirement of holiness of righteousness of justice and of truth and will afford pardon and peace unto those that are his things and so to contemplate and meditate upon the precious truths of the covenant that was entered into before the world was will delight the soul the poor and needy soul for the Lord teaches that this covenant was made before ought was created it was the consequence of

[22:15] God's love his foreknowledge his will and his sovereign purposes in grace now consider that if it was before all creature no temporal circumstance has any part in it it springs out of God is from God alone and he alone directs orders and perfects it and equally if the almighty God with whom is all power and wisdom has so ordered and made a covenant which is as a cloud to cover his people to keep them from harm and from danger if those things that he created subsequently the earth the sun the moon the stars the heavens and all that in them is if any of those things that were created subsequently could affect those things that he had determined beforehand then the things that are created are greater than God himself how foolish then are our fears how great the wiles and the temptations of Satan when we consider what God has told us clearly in his word he spread a cloud for a covering one of the hymn writers evidently sweetly enjoyed the view of the perturbability of God's purposes for he says in union with the lamb from condemnation free the saints from everlasting were and shall forever be all the covering of the covenant of all the covenant purposes of all his will and of all his love and he tells us and unfolds the detail of it from page to page in the scripture he speaks of that predestinated end which shall be theirs he speaks of the means whereby they shall come and he speaks unto them of the power that shall bring them for a poor and needy man is brought to know he has no power nor will in himself but he knows by the lord's drawings that the lord thinks upon him he thinks upon his poverty upon his need and provides all that he lacks in that covenant of grace for the father the son and the holy spirit three persons yet one god are equally engaged in the salvation of the poor sinner they are as one in the matter the father hath willed determined and purposed the son hath come forth and procured and the spirit takes and seals the precious truths of god's purposes upon the soul is not left to the creature all thy children shall be taught of the lord that was the undertaking that which that is which god even now fulfills in his children i read that psalm 138 with comfort from time to time for there the psalmist expresses i believe what many trembling souls feel when they feel their poverty and their need the lord will perfect that which concerneth me oh what a mercy it is to perceive the covering that he has spread in the covenant for his people but i must pass on i believe another aspect of the covering that he has spread for his people is in the crucifixion when we read how that christ came forth everything that is spoken concerning him in the law in the types in the shadow in the prophets in the psalms all has set him forth as a savior he shall save his people from their sins sins now there is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood there is no deliverance from the demands of justice only by the death of the transgressor and in the crucifixion in the sufferings and the death of our lord jesus christ there is a covering spread to save us from hell and from wrath for the mercy of almighty god he spread a cloud for a covering and it was his own dear son who humbled himself even unto the death of the cross and all the glory and the wondrousness of that covering for he bore in his own body our sins upon the tree and the word tells us it pleased the father to lay upon him the iniquity of us all what a harmony what a oneness what a willingness what a tremendous weight of love and of grace is manifested in those things he spread a cloud for a covering there's one thing certain if that covering is not over you and me death and hell will be our portion through light of old had sinned and transgressed against the law of his

[31:37] God the Lord had made a way whereby he should be restored unto the worshipping people of God for by his sin he was cut off and the Lord gave commandment that he should come with his offering and he should bring it unto the priest and that by the sacrifice of the offering the Lord declared unto the sinner it shall be accepted for you so that when the Israelite came and brought his offering to the priest he trusted that by the shedding of that offering's blood he would be restored unto the worshipping people of

[32:37] God and so when he brought it he identified himself with it because he believed that the Lord looked upon the offering and not upon him and accepted him through the offering and so he laid his hand upon the head of the offering and I believe there are many of the Lord's people who have come to that hymn that we sing from time to time and their hearts have been full and brimming over but the view of that which Christ has done and he is unto them and they say my faith would lay her hand on that dear head of thine while like a penitent

[33:43] I stand and there confess my sin now there is a further aspect of this covering time is very short and the third aspect of this covering is in his high priesthood the apostle says we have such an high priest who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners made higher than the heavens and also we believe by God's word that he is our advocate with the father now dear friend you and

[34:53] I have been occupied in many things this day whether we have in the physical sense or not is not materially important our minds have been at work at least even if we have not moved or done and gone into this or that matter and if you consider carefully can you say that you have no foolish thought for even the thought of foolishness is sin and therefore each of us stands in need of an advocate one who shall make intercession for us and dear friend if there were no advocate no intercessor where should we be for if any man sin we have an advocate an intercessor before the father's face and

[36:16] I want very briefly to look at the glories and the excellences of him who by his high priesthood covers his people as a cloud is spread for a covering so he maintains them keeps them shields them from temptation from Satan's wile from doubts and fears from all the exigencies of the wilderness journey and if you read in the 28th chapter of Exodus the Lord's requirements for the high priest for Aaron and they're very specific they're very pointed very clear and the Lord commanded Moses that he should make holy garments for Aaron his brother and these holy garments were necessary that he might minister unto

[37:33] God in the priest's office and they were for glory and for beauty without those symbolic glories and beauties he could not appear and minister and serve in the priest's office therefore the Lord moved by moved men by his spirit so to make those things suitable unto almighty God that Aaron might appear and the details of those garments we well know and we know that there was a breast plate in which were said jewels in which the names of the tribes of Israel were engraved and that when the priest went in before the Lord he went in bearing the names of all the children of Israel upon his breast and upon his shoulders also and that he wore a mitre an affrontlet upon the mitre which had declared holiness unto the

[38:51] Lord engraved in gold and the various articles of those clothes the white the blue the embroidered work the girdle all of them the significant glories of almighty God and then we read that he was to be anointed with oil and with blood when all these things were done then he should enter in but not without blood it now I want to notice just this and then I must leave it if you read that chapter and take careful note of everything that the

[39:53] Lord required that is that Aaron might minister in the priest's office before him everything had to be put upon Aaron's flesh the clothes were put upon him the oil was put upon him the blood was put upon him those things which those garments denoted were outward put upon him but when the apostle Paul considers the cloud that is spread for a covering by our high priest he looks and perceives that the glory the beauty the intrinsic puriness purity the holiness the fullness of the spirit and his own heart's blood for all these things were

[41:08] Christ in his person not put upon him upon his flesh but were the intrinsic beauties and glories of his person whereby he takes and enters in on our behalf ever living to make intercession for us and therefore able to save unto the uttermost you know only eternal wisdom could devise such a wondrous perfect full free and sovereign salvation and therefore when the Lord brings us to meditate upon these things though by the knowledge that he has given unto us we are brought to nothing in ourselves

[42:20] I believe that rejoicing in that truth yet the Lord thinketh upon me like the apostle says I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me may the Lord have his blessing after the benediction we will sing the doctor of a dread but let us now sing hymn 924 924 to the tune Rockingham 398 Great rock for weary sinners made when storms of sin distress the soul here let me rest my weary head when lightning blaze and thunders roll oh sacred covet from the beams that on the weary traveller but beat how welcome are thy shade and streams how blessed how sacred and 924 all home will give

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[47:45] The End The End The End The End