Psalm

[0:00] I would bring before you this morning a portion of the Word of God that is found in the 35th Psalm.

[0:15] Psalm 35 and the 10th verse. All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him?

[0:43] Yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him. 35th Psalm, the 10th verse.

[0:55] What our friend Dan has said just now expressed certain things that were in perfect harmony with my own mind because he did not know what was on my mind or what my subject would be this morning.

[1:27] But it's one of those instances in the lives of the children of God where they see very clearly that there is a greater mind that knoweth all things and one who can participate and direct and influence men though they may not know anything about others' circumstances in such a very wonderful and striking way.

[2:17] We are indeed most thankful to the Lord for the ways in which that family has been blessed in these last 12 months and how they have been retained to us in our little community and we hope that it may be for many a long time and many blessings may result from their association with us here.

[2:52] Now, Dan mentioned the mountain because he was thinking, no doubt, of our friend's text last Tuesday when he was here about Jacob, the worm, thrashing the mountains, beating them small.

[3:16] And Jacob's mountain is not our mountain. Indeed, every child of God has a mountain of their own. Chief of which is the plague of their own sin and unbelief.

[3:34] That's the greatest mountain that ever we can have to deal with and indeed we cannot deal with it. God alone can deal with that mountain.

[3:49] Sin is too great for us, too powerful, too mighty. The mighty hand of our mighty God must alone deal with our sins.

[4:04] Now, we read in this part of the word of God of a dear man of God whose name was David.

[4:16] He had a mountain and that mountain was persecution from those who, some of them were pretending to be his friends.

[4:30] others were avowed enemies. But one and another created a situation in David's life that was like a mighty mountain of trouble, anguish, difficulty, opposition, and weakness of every kind.

[5:02] And I want, as we think upon this subject, and I want us to see how David, what results David had whilst passing through this tremendous tremendous experience of trial and adversity.

[5:27] It looked as if for a little while at least that every hand that could be raised was raised against David's heart and life and safety and prosperity.

[5:44] prosperity. They laid nets for him secretly for him to fall into. They rejoiced at his calamities.

[5:55] If they could see any calamity taking place in the life of David, they rejoiced. It caused them the greatest pleasure.

[6:10] And nothing can be more bitter than when we see enemies rejoicing at our downfall or our discomfort of any kind.

[6:23] This was David's portion and experience at this particular time of his life. We're not sure when this psalm was written or what the cause of the writing of the psalm was.

[6:43] But we may well believe as the 34th psalm was undoubtedly written at the time of Saul's persecution of David, so David wrote the 35th psalm under the same stress time of time of painful circumstance and mountainous trial and trouble.

[7:19] Now I'm not going to delve or deal exclusively with the trouble. I want us to see how David fared in that trouble.

[7:32] I want us to see how God intervened and I want us to see how David was benefited and indeed blessed in spite of his trouble.

[7:51] That's the great wonder of God's sanctifying mercy. His people may have trouble and will have trouble, there's no question about that.

[8:07] The child of God, the people of God are more subject to trouble than the people of the world. They are the targets of attacks whereas the worldling escapes scot-free we might say.

[8:27] No one would take the trouble of aiming arrows at a worldly person, but at the child of God, the one that seeks to walk in the way of life and truth, the one that wants to uphold purity and righteousness, the one that wants to show forth their love for the Lord and for his worth.

[8:53] these are souls who are the objects and the targets of the attacks of men and devils.

[9:03] others. Now we look at this 35th psalm and do you know what it seemed to suggest to my mind when I read it?

[9:17] It suggested a desert. I do not suppose many of us have travelled across a desert, but sometimes we may find or hear or read that even in a desert there are places called oases where water can be found and perhaps a few trees where shade can be obtained.

[9:51] They may be very far remote and few in number but they are most important places for the traveller in the desert.

[10:09] And just to digress for a moment, you know it's a wonderful thing to my mind. I believe it is true that there were no deserts before the flood and yet God made the camel the only vehicle really that is suitable to travel across a desert.

[10:32] You take a vehicle across a desert, you are asking for trouble as sure as anything, sand and bearings do not go together. But a camel can traverse a desert because a camel is the only creature that carries the vital necessity of water with it.

[10:58] And you know, before ever a desert came on the face of the earth, God made a camel. That shows how wonderful our God is as a creator.

[11:10] He makes things that will eventually be used but not necessarily be used at the time when they were made.

[11:21] You'll find that to be true in regard to your own life. Sometimes God brings about something that you can't understand why it's come and what it is for.

[11:32] But later on, perhaps years later, you'll find now looking back, this is why God did that. This is why he sent this. This is why he made me go through that trial and difficulty.

[11:47] that I couldn't understand the time when I went into it. But now I see it is all working out for my good.

[11:58] And you say, what a wonderful God it is. Now, David had a great experience. He was in this great trial but he had a greater experience than the trial was great indeed to him.

[12:19] And the words of our text express the greatness of his experience. He says, all my bones shall say, Lord who is like unto thee.

[12:34] Now, it's an expression of great significance. Our bones usually are not vocal, are they? But there is such an experience at times when it seems almost if the whole of our being, the whole of the body and the soul and the spirit, comes to a point when they feel very, verily, God is God.

[13:04] God has intervened. And God is one that is unique. There's none like him.

[13:18] And you see, God then stands out in the esteem of his people. And they say in the expression of the language of our text, wanting, not commanding any better language, all my bones shall say, Lord who is like unto thee.

[13:46] Now, there are three things in our text. This is the first, the great experience of David under the great trial of his life.

[14:02] Great experience and a great trial. Secondly, the wonderful discovery he makes in this trial of God, reality of God.

[14:18] It was no more nominal now, it was a real God that he worshipped and believed in and could see clearly his hand, his mighty hand, controlling his enemies, keeping them back, not permitting them to do what they intend to do to his life and to his heart and to his way.

[14:42] He can see now that these enemies are poor creatures indeed. They are totally without power. They can't move a single step without the permissive will of God.

[14:58] And God has them completely in his control. And therefore, David need not fear all my bones, he says.

[15:10] Oh, my friends, what an experience when God comes and is to us what he was to David. And it may be that you're mountain, and no doubt you have a mountain, is there in your very path for this very reason, to bring you to realize and to recognize that you have a God, that there's none like him, supreme above all things, all persons, all powers.

[15:48] Wherever those powers may be, he is the supreme almighty God. Now, the third thing that we have here, David also recognizes and discovers, because he comes into this very condition himself.

[16:08] He discovers who the people are, what kind of people they are, that God so wonderfully blesses, that they are the poor and needy, not the great, not the wealthy, not the rich, not the noble, and those that are recognized and honored by men, no, the very opposite, the dregs of society, so to speak, the poor and the needy, those three great things.

[16:38] now, these are the three oases in David's desert, but there was one more, and I want you to notice this, in the third verse, he comes to this point, he evidently is in a desperate state, and depressed and tried to an extremity, and he comes to this point, in the third verse, he says, say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.

[17:20] Now, that's a negative cry from David. When I say negative, it's a prayer that he felt deeply to need to pray.

[17:34] He wanted reassurance, he wanted confirmation, he wanted in the face of these great enemies for God to come and show him that he was with him, he was his friend, he was his guide and guardian, and above all, he wanted God to reveal to him that these troubles were not simply sent haphazardly and without any purpose, but that in them he might see and know that God was his God, that he had a God, and that God was the means and cause and the giver of his salvation.

[18:30] Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. Now I want you to notice with me, I talked about the desert and the oasis. Now here are these wonderful little points in David's life that were like an oasis in the desert.

[18:49] And you get the first one of these in the ninth verse. now notice this, I said it was a negative cry really, say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.

[19:01] But in the ninth verse, he says, my soul shall be joyful in the Lord. It shall rejoice in thy salvation.

[19:14] There was something different. You see, it had come out of that cry. cry. It was the result of that cry to God. Have you ever cried to the Lord similarly to the cry of David, say unto my soul, I am thy salvation?

[19:37] If you have, I believe eventually, it may be a little length of time, but I believe eventually you'll be able to say this, my soul shall rejoice, be joyful in the Lord, and shall rejoice in his salvation.

[20:02] My soul shall. What a difference. Then the third, he comes to our text, he goes even further than that, and he says this, all my bones shall say unto the Lord, God.

[20:17] Everything within me now is rising up to acknowledge God, recognize God, believe in God, and with the whole of my being.

[20:32] You see, the very idea of these words eliminate all the possibility of nominal belief, which is the belief of so many today, always has been, in which God is just sort of acknowledged and recognized, but never really believed, and never honored, never obeyed.

[21:01] Now he says all my bones, the whole being, the whole of my being, rises up to declare what I believe now, and what I have a real reason to believe, that God, there's no God like my God.

[21:20] He's the God of my salvation. He's the God that can control all mine enemies. He can do what he will and what he likes, when he likes, with all the difficulties and troubles of my path and my life, all my bones, shall say.

[21:40] Then go to the 18th. I will give thee thanks in the great congregation. Now look, just notice this. He's not now a personal, private Christian or believer, let us say.

[21:57] He's not now just giving vent personally and privately to his belief in God. He's coming now to the whole of the congregation.

[22:09] That is the church. I will give thee thanks in the great congregation. In other words, he's saying this, I'm not going to be ashamed anymore of confession of my Lord.

[22:23] I'm going to tell his people whenever I have opportunity to do it. I'm going to tell them they're a great congregation and I'm going to tell them my belief in the Lord.

[22:35] I will give him thanks thanks. There and then among his own people. The right place to give thanks is among the people of God. And look at this too.

[22:48] I will praise thee among much people. Now the Hebrew word there is really this, among the mighty people. Mighty people. That's the real, in this word, much.

[23:01] translation from the Hebrew is this, I will give thee praise among mighty people. And God's people are mighty.

[23:13] Mighty because of their love for the Lord and mighty because of his grace. Mighty because of what God has done for them. He's brought them a great people out of the world, out of great sin and desolation.

[23:30] he's delivered them mightily by his mercy and his love and therefore they are a mighty people. God's people are mighty. They may be despised by the world and they are.

[23:44] They're counted as the offscouring. Scarcely are they observed. Whenever, as the poet says, whenever they meet the public eye, they meet the public scorn.

[23:57] But they're mighty, mighty by God's grace. And David now says this, I will give thee thanks and praise thee among God's mighty people.

[24:13] They are my people. The right place to praise God is among his people. Let us join together. Zion, let us sing, O Zion.

[24:25] Exalt the Lord, O Zion. It's a great thing to be joined to the people of God. Then finally, in the last verse, he goes even further than this.

[24:40] He says, and my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long. I shall go on now, says David.

[24:53] I've had such an experience of my God and his wonderful mercy and goodness to me and my trouble.

[25:03] I've seen how my enemies have been frustrated. He had Saul right in his very hand. He could have just put forth one stroke and he could have dispatched Saul into oblivion forever.

[25:24] But he did not take it. Why did he not take that step? It looked as if God had put his enemy right at his feet. There he was.

[25:36] Now David, here's your great enemy. Here's the great mountain. now you can dispatch it in a moment.

[25:48] Just one simple, clear stroke and Saul would have gone but not David. David, and this is the greatness of David's faith and grace.

[26:05] He could see, as he says here, all my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee. It is not for me to take vengeance on mine enemies.

[26:18] That vengeance I must leave in the hands of my God, who is far, far greater than all mine enemies. Oh, what a wonderful spirit that is.

[26:29] And how it exemplified in David's life and way the grace of God in its true manifestation.

[26:43] Now, all my bones, note this, David doesn't say throughout any part of this psalm that he is going to deal with his enemies.

[26:55] He doesn't say, now I'll shut them up if I can. I'll put traps in their pathway for them to fall in. He doesn't say that.

[27:07] But you know how human nature does say it. You know how when you're really confronted with a terrible situation, you feel, oh, I'll do something just to match what they're doing to me.

[27:31] I'll do something just as equally painful and difficult for them. He says, they lay a net in my feet, for my feet to fall into.

[27:42] I'll go and lay a net for their feet. No, David doesn't say anything like that. And why? Because he can say this, all my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee.

[28:01] He recognized and realized that the Lord, his God, had everything under his control. So he leaves it then in the hands of God.

[28:16] But I do like this expression, my friends, all my bones. He puts, you see, he makes his very bones, his very frame, he makes them, he vocalizes them.

[28:30] Or you say, you may say, well, whatever does the man mean? Is it language that is worthy of a place in the scriptures? Yes, indeed it is. There are times, and will be times, with you believing people of God, when you will feel that even if those things around you that have no voice and no power to speak, you feel as if you could call forth utterances from them to praise that blessed God who has helped you and saved you and delivered you.

[29:05] All my bones, do you not sometimes feel as if the whole of you belongs to the Lord? And all of you, if you could, should speak forth his glorious praise and honour and to magnify his great and holy name.

[29:25] All my bones, shall say, who, Lord, who is like unto thee? Well then, I must come to the second point and that is this, he discovers the wonderful character of God.

[29:45] Now whenever God reveals himself to his people in their times of trouble, there's one thing that is almost certain to be the result and that is this, they learn more of the character of their God.

[30:04] First of all, David recognised that there was none like his God. He was incomparable. He was above all men, devils, and sin.

[30:17] He was supreme in heaven and in earth. There was none like him. of course David did not know the Lord Jesus, but he had a true faith in him.

[30:34] And you and I who do know the Lord, we have his glorious works revealed to us in the word of God.

[30:46] What a wonderful moment that is when a poor sinner realises that there is no one to be compared with Jesus, compared with Christ, in all beside.

[30:57] No comeliness I see. The one thing needful dearest Lord is to be one with thee. When a poor sinner comes to recognise that blessed truth, they come to some very sacred ground.

[31:13] When there's none but Jesus, no one to be compared with him and no one like him. He's the one that must occupy the best place in my heart and my life and he's worthy of no other place but the best.

[31:29] And therefore let us give to him what he deserves, the very highest honour and the best place. He has done so much for us.

[31:42] All my bones shall say, who is like unto thee? And David discovers this wonderful character about his God that he is one that shall, as he puts it here, deliver the poor in, from him that is too strong for him.

[32:10] The poor from him that is too strong for him. He doesn't say who this might be, who is too strong, but we can well fill that in.

[32:22] Why sin, Satan, and the world are too strong for the poor and needy? The things of this world, they're too strong.

[32:34] The enemies that have no restraint laid upon who are attacking David here unwarrantably and unworthily.

[32:46] They seem to be free agents. They're too strong for David, but David has one who is stronger than all of them put together.

[32:59] But he is able, and this is the glorious character that David discovers of God. He is too strong for those who are in opposition to him.

[33:17] And it's a wonderful thing when we come to realize this in our own personal experience, the wonderful character of God. Yes, my dear friends, your very trouble and trial and adversity which you question, the wisdom perhaps, ascending into your life.

[33:44] You wonder why it has been done. Well, if it comes, if the result of it is this, that you discover more the glorious character of God, how real that is and true that is, that he is a deliverer and a provider, that will be a wonderful issue from your trial, whatever it may be, however fierce and however difficult.

[34:17] And thirdly, he discovers the kind of people whom God is prepared and not only prepared but determined to save and bless.

[34:35] They are, as he says here, the poor and the needy. And he's going to save these poor and needy from those who spoil them.

[34:46] and oh how many things there are that would spoil the children of God. We're always contending against things that would spoil us, spoil our hope, our confidence, our comfort.

[35:08] The world comes in and what is the effect of that? It spoils the real believer from that sweet intimacy with Christ.

[35:19] It robs the believer of the enjoyment that he once had of Christ's presence. Now David discovers this secret very wonderfully and forcefully that his God, the one that he is asked to be, to say unto his soul, I am thy salvation, he says it in a very positive and a very blessed way.

[35:44] And he brings with it, the conviction that God is one that delivers the poor and the needy. Well, you do not perhaps adopt these terms to yourself or perhaps you do.

[36:03] Perhaps you tell the Lord you are a poor person indeed, poor in spirit. The Lord Jesus, one of the first things that he said when he was here on earth, in his earthly minutes, blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

[36:23] Blessed are the poor. poor. We always like to feel we've got a little. If it's not very much, we like to think we've got something in store, in reserve, some credit.

[36:40] You know, it needs a deal of grace to bring a person to recognize and to fall into the position of one that is really poor.

[36:50] and also if you're there, you'll be needy. Two terms go together, hand in hand, and these are the characters that the Lord comes to bless and to deliver.

[37:07] He turns away from those people that have got so much. The Pharisee in the temple, he had too much. That was his trouble. He had far too much.

[37:19] He said, Lord, I thank thee that I am not as other men are. I'm far richer than they are. I'm not poor like this wretched publican, for instance, who's creeping in here next to me in the temple.

[37:35] I'm far, far better and above all those sort of people. I am rich. Look at Laodicea. I am rich and have need of nothing.

[37:46] And thou knowest not, says the Lord Jesus, that thou art poor. Oh, it's an awful thing to be poor and not to know it. To go out thinking that you've got the Bank of England behind you and you haven't got anything, not a penny, not a shred.

[38:08] And a great many people are in that very position today. They think that they're going to heaven as sure as anything. they're on the way there. They've got the right to get entrance there and they haven't got a vestige of hope of ever entering to that glorious abode.

[38:28] Now God delivers the poor and the needy. And David finds this out. He discovers this. You say, well do we have to go through a great lot of trouble to discover this?

[38:43] we do my friends, we do. And this is how God blesses those that are in trouble.

[38:54] And that is why he sends the trouble, that they might know indeed that they are poor and needy, the very people that the Lord is determined to bless.

[39:11] May God bless us by this word. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[40:17] Amen. Amen.

[41:17] Amen. Amen.

[41:48] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[42:47] Amen.