Psalm 27 - Prayer Meeting Address (Quality: Average)

[0:01] The reading this evening is Psalm 27, Psalm 27. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?

[0:18] The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.

[0:35] Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.

[0:45] One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.

[1:05] For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me up upon a rock.

[1:20] And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me. Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy.

[1:32] I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice.

[1:44] Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When thou saidst, Seek ye my face. My heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.

[2:00] Hide not thy face far from me. Put not thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help. Leave me not.

[2:11] Neither forsake me. O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.

[2:25] Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies. Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies.

[2:38] For false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

[2:55] Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage. And he shall, I say, on the Lord. The verse that is especially on my mind to speak from for just a little time this evening is verse 4.

[3:16] And I have to make another confession. On Sunday morning, I told you that I had preached from my text then at Matfield on the Sunday before.

[3:28] And my text in the afternoon in that same place was this verse. I had not thought to bring it to you when I began to think on Sunday evening as to what might be the subject for tonight.

[3:46] But then, as we came to the end of the day, everyone and I read the portion of the Word of God which is on the calendar for the day.

[3:59] And the verse on the calendar was this one. And as I began to read it, it spoke to me again. I know that it does in one sense follow on a little from the subject of Sunday morning.

[4:16] But in a sense it is in its own right as well. And I will try to set it forth as such. another thing about it is it is set in a psalm.

[4:30] And I have told you, I will tell you again, that I love the psalms. They are experimental insofar that they were experienced as well as inspired.

[4:42] And that is such a blessing, isn't it? And it made me think of something that the psalmist encouraged himself in the Lord before he actually expressed himself in prayer.

[4:58] You see, we got all the way down through this encouragement and then this acknowledgement of a desire and then he said, hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice.

[5:11] It was a time of encouragement. And as I looked into the hymn which our brother George has chosen for the second hymn, I thought, how often as we come to the throne of grace we do the same thing.

[5:26] We encourage ourselves. We thought, we think of the one that stands between. We think of that wonderful verse, how many times we've heard it repeated, especially in prayer, and since our Saviour stands between in garments dyed in blood, it is he, instead of us, to see, when we approach to God.

[5:48] And as we begin to think about it, so we find we are encouraged at the throne of grace. We know that we are not there alone.

[6:01] We know that it has pleased God to give to us that which will strengthen us in him even before him when we need to come with confession perhaps, with supplication, and of course with thanksgiving and praise.

[6:19] But we know that we cannot enter into any of these expressions before God except that we have one to intercede, as it were, to show that which his precious blood has done for his people.

[6:37] And so effectually we come in that same way as the psalmist did, first to encourage ourselves and the Lord our God. And then we have another thought that comes.

[6:50] The psalmist's prayer was inspired. His psalm was inspired. God gave to him this gift of expression and God gave to him not only the ability to write so beautifully, that is to say that we have words that have been unsurpassed in their beauty of expression down through the ages of time since they were written, but they were written by inspiration and by experience.

[7:26] experience and in a little sense we are able to come there. One has said, I cannot quote its source, but I believe it to be true, that all true prayer the spirit indicts.

[7:42] And when we feel our hearts are moved and we are able in the expression of prayer, although perhaps we hate the psalmist skill, and one has said, and it gives us encouragement at times, though thought be broken, language lame, yet we are able by the grace of God to draw near with a certain assurance, with a certain realization of the grace given, of the opportunity afforded, and yes, even although feeling so unworthy, we know that we are drawn, drawn by the spirit of God, drawn by the invitations which are in the word of God, and drawn by the needs which are in our own hearts, all of them the gifts of God, all of them supplied, as the spirit was supplied to

[8:43] David to write this psalm, the spirit was supplied to David to have the feelings that inspired the psalm in in the sense of his mind, and although the spirit was in his soul, yet he had to have the experiences that he had on earth, that he might have the gift of coming to God in heaven, and this assurance in spirit, oh how often we have to go, now I must come quickly to my verse, but to the ninth verse, when we have to say, thou hast been my help, leave me not, neither forsake me, oh God of my salvation, oh how often we lay hold upon the words of David, but now let us look particularly, what do we have in this fourth verse, we have such a wonderful thing, first,

[9:46] David had, how can I put it, a focus in his heart, on that which was the most important thing for him, and it made me think of something the Lord said in the prayer, in his sermon on the mount, when he said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you, and he said, one thing have I desired of the Lord, yet, we can go through David's psalms, and we can find many things that he desired of the Lord, and yet we do find them so wonderfully included in this particular verse, and that one thing that came into my heart as I was trying to think about this, the sure provisions of my God attend me all my days, oh, may thy house be my abode, and all my work be praise, there would

[10:54] I find a settled rest, while others go and come, no more a stranger or a guest, but like a child at home. David had this feeling, now, we might think that perhaps there's something of an exhortation here, I'm thankful that with our little congregation, that we have to say that it isn't something that needs to be emphasized from the desk or the pulpit, it says in the word of God, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is, and we might say there's an implication here, isn't there, David, in his heart, perhaps exalting his heart, but nonetheless in the conscious realization of the need of his heart, and I have a hope that for each one of us, it is that need in our hearts that bring us again and again to the place of worship, yes, to come freely, and to come willingly, and to come needingly, hungry and thirsty, after the food and the water of life, yet, there needs to be this spirit of seeking, that will

[12:19] I seek after, yes, oh, do we consciously think of it, do we find, I have to think of it, looking into my own heart, as I come, nowadays, I can't say, as I walk, I can remember going back into my earlier life, and I used to leave my home in Maple Cottage, in Beatherston, and walk in the dark along the main road, and up Forge Hill, sometimes I didn't even notice the place, there was a looking forward, there was a prayer for uplifting, and there was an anticipation, a desire, a hunger, a need, and this was more evident to me than the walk, the walk just happened, but the exercise of soul, I humbly hope, was given of God, mind you, the strength to walk was given of God too, the temporal thing, but the thing that mattered most was the exercise of soul, and oh my friends, what it is that we seek after when we come to the throne, when we come to the house of God,

[13:33] God, and yet I may dwell in the house of the Lord, in a practical sense, for David and for us, this is impossible, yet we can look and perhaps we can see an equivalent to it shown in Bible language, I think we find it in the beginning of Luke, right at the beginning of the gospel, and we read of one, an old lady, and it says to us that she departed not from, let me find it so I can read it, there was one Anna, a prophetess, a daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher, and she was of a great age, she was a widow, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day, and then almost a contradiction if we didn't understand the implication, coming in at that instant, obviously she had at times to go to her home, but the place of worship was where her soul desired to be, where her thoughts were, where her hopes were, and where in the particular case, her expectations were, because it says of her, that she looked, she spoke to those who, obviously with herself, looked for redemption in Jerusalem, they were looking for a fulfillment of a promise, and therefore they came to the house of God.

[15:27] My friends, is this the way that we attend the courts of the Lord, looking for the fulfillment of the promise, so we come to the house of God, and whether we come to the house of God in spirit, in the word, at the throne of grace, or in the appointed means of grace, when we do assemble together, in such a time as this, yes, it is in that spirit that matters.

[15:56] Oh yes, the physical fact is good, it is good to meet with the Lord's people, but when we can come, we can have in our hearts that assurance, and surely, and truly, I think it was John, yes John, in one of his epistles, and truly, our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

[16:21] Oh, can we come into this verse? And then, lastly, and briefly, one thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

[16:35] Just turn back to Selma 2, and we find David with a very similar thought, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

[16:49] Looking beyond, the temple, looking into heaven. And then, the purpose, I love this purpose, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.

[17:09] I had to think about it, to come to behold the beauty of the Lord. glory, if your Bible has a margin reading, it will probably put an alternative, or delight, to behold the delight of the Lord.

[17:27] And, I had to think about it, for, if we think, that we're going to look upon the glory of the Lord, the beauty of his glory, we know that we shall see the glory of his grace, but we shall not, while we're still, in this tabernacle of clay, see the beauty, the wonder of his eternal glory, but, we shall see the glory of his grace, and we shall find it, know it, but, we have to think of it like this, to behold that which delights the Lord, he delighteth in mercy, yes, he delights in guiding his people, David said, teach me thy way, O Lord, and leave me in a plain path, because of mine enemies, yes, but we find David in another place, with some assurance in his heart, yes, we find that he was able to say, he delighteth in his way, the steps of a good man are ordered by the

[18:35] Lord, and he delighteth in his way, what a blessing this is, to think that the Lord delights in the things that he is able to do for his people, we know that he can do everything, but we know that he has this purpose in every life, and this purpose that needs, yes, it needs the mind of God on it, and he delights to do it, and then as we were thinking about this on Sunday evening, another thought came into our hearts, we think of the Lord Jesus, he delighted to do the will of God, and what was that will of God, and what did he bring to his heart, he thought of the joy, or the delight that was set before him, the delight of bringing his people unto his father, sanctified, justified, cleansed, purified, made fit, reconciled to God, that was the delight of his heart,

[19:46] I told you before that when the translation of our Bible on Isaiah 53, he shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied, if we could put it in the spirit in which it was translated, we should have to say, and would be delighted, he shall see, there's joy in heaven, over a sinner that repents, and no sinner repents, except for the blood of Christ, for every grace and every favor comes to us through Jesus' blood, and so, we're able to think upon those things that God delights in, and even if we start, and just stop, on that thought, he delighteth in mercy, it is the note that to finish our worship this evening, not only this address, but in our last hymn, we shall find the Lord delighteth in mercy, and oh my friends, what a hope it gives to us, the beauty of the

[20:51] Lord, and then of course to inquire, to seek, to search, and to hope, oh I find this to be, so encouraging us, so, and so encouraging us, a verse, and sometimes I find that when I come into David's writings, like David, I can encourage myself, in the Lord my God, Amen.