Psalm 141 - 2010.04.24

"LORD, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee. Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.”— Psalm 141:1-3

Prayer is a perplexing subject. Of late I have had several inquiries about it, and it is not easy to answer such earnest inquiries with precision. Some prayer promises in the bible appear to be unconditional, but the underlying condition of all prayer must, of necessity, be the over-arching will of God. Certainly believing prayer is never in vain. Only we must understand that the Christian prays to “our Father which [is] in heaven,” and as a wise father He will weigh our requests with a wisdom that is higher than ours. Sometimes His answer to a specific request is “yes;” sometimes it is “no;” and sometimes it is “wait—not just now.” All is based upon His wisdom and infinite love for us.

David prays here in an obvious state of agitation: “Lord, I cry unto Thee.” Once again he is afflicted in some way by “men that work iniquity” (v.4) and he is driven to take his case to the throne of grace, there to make his requests “known unto God.” If the trials of life send us to the throne of God, they serve a good purpose. And if we would translate our trials into prayer, as David did, we would spend much more time in prayer. The prayer closet is the best place to store your troubles.

We must wonder if this was not the first time he had brought the matter before the Lord. His impassioned “give ear unto my voice,” seems to suggest a bit of frustration. And his plea “hurry!” reveals his anxiety. But God is never in a hurry. It was Henry Ward Beecher, if memory serves me correctly, whose wife found him one day pacing his study in obvious agitation. “What ever is the matter?” she asked. “Oh, it is nothing,” the preacher replied; “It is just that I am in a hurry and God is not!” It is not wrong to ask Him to hurry, but we must ever remember that He has His own timetable, and “As for God, His way is perfect.”

Notwithstanding his intensity, David does not lose his decorum. He recognizes prayer as much more than a shopping list or a 911 call. He remembers its importance as worship. “Let my prayer be set forth before Thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” We are, indeed, invited to come before Him “boldly” (i.e., with confidence), but we must not approach Him brazenly. Both as our Father and as our God, He merits our respect. No matter what issue drives us to Him, we must rest our case on His mercy and seek to be “well pleasing in His sight.” Would to God that our every approach to His throne should leave a sweet fragrance before Him when we depart.

There follows a specific request. “Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.” Most commen- ators divide this psalm at v.2 and connect v.3 with what follows. I am inclined to include it here, and to understand it in one of two directions. It may be in spirit an echo of his prayer in Psalm 19. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, of Lord, my strength and my redeemer,” and have reference to how he addresses God. In such case it is a prayer that the heat of his passion should not tempt him to speak inappropriately before God; a wise request.

On the other hand, it may be a request for self control in his public reaction to the oppression he was enduring; for the guarding of his testimony before “the watching world;” an equally wise request. We do well, when men have aroused our emotions by their hostility or indiscretion, to remember again the word through the apostle James, “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain [Jas. 1:26],” and “the tongue can no man tame [Jas. 3:8].” And the Savior Himself would teach us, “…out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh [and] by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned [Matt. 12:34, 37].”

A prayer for a divinely guarded tongue is a prayer for a divinely governed heart. That is a legitimate request!

Troubled? “Take it to the Lord in prayer.” But remember; the “throne of grace” is the throne of GOD. It behooves us to approach in reverence and make our requests subject to His wisdom and suited for His glory.

For His glory and our good,

"Pastor" Frasier

Psalm 140 - 2010.04.17

“I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and the right of the poor. Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name: the upright shall dwell in thy presence..” —Psalm 140:12-13

Trouble can be a great blessing if it drives us closer to God. That is what it so often did for David, and we are the beneficiaries of his experience which so often gave rise to these marvelous Psalms. Here is another born out of his conflict with unrighteous men: violent men (v.1); mischievous men (v.2); evil speaking men (v.3); in sum, wicked men (v. 4) who “purposed to overthrow” him.

Under such circumstances there are at least three possible avenues of response. Fear, which sends a man into hiding; anger, which sends a man to war against his adversaries; or faith, which drives a man to prayer and trust in God. The first will derail his ministry; the second will distract him from his purpose; the third will develop his spiritual maturity. David chose the latter. Spurgeon observes "David when most wounded by undeserved persecution and wicked falsehood was glad to leave his matters at the foot of the throne, where they would be safe with the King of kings."

The prayer is imprecatory, and that is because ultimately all enemies of the child of God are enemies of God Himself. But, under grace as opposed to law, we are instructed, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect [5:43-48].”

The natural reaction to that is, “That could get you killed!” And indeed, it could, and has in more than one instance in church history. But, it is the King’s order. Temporal survival is not the issue. Eternity is all that really matters.

As David brings the issue before the Lord, he comes away with assurance and was no doubt enabled to go on his way rejoicing.

“I know…” He knows that his cause is safe in the hands of God, because his heart is right with God, and God is righteous. How did he know? By faith. He could anticipate the words of the living Word, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” That is the kind of poverty that obtains assurance from the heart of God and enables one to say,”I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”

The result of that assurance is thanksgiving. “Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto Thy name.” As New Testament saints we have this assurance confirmed and sealed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. “By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name [Heb. 13:15].” Gratitude is the proper response to grace.

Then his confidence rises even higher, revealing a resurrection faith. “The upright shall dwell in Thy presence.” How rich is this thread in the word of God. Enoch resisted the tide of evil before the flood and “walked with God,” and went without dying. because “the Lord took him.” Job, afflicted by circumstances and maligned by his “friends,” could say, “I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me [Job 19:25-27].”

The Savior pledged, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” And the beloved apostle confirms this truth with these words, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is [I John 3:2].” Whatever life in this world may bring us, this is the “blessed hope” of those who have purified their souls by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, “And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” I trust you are one of them!

“And I shall see Him face to face, And tell the story, saved by grace.”

For His glory and our good,

"Pastor" Frasier

Psalm 139 - 2010.04.10

“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” —Psalm 139:23-24

Among the attributes of God few are more daunting to the mind of man than omniscience; God knows everything: universally, instantaneously and everlastingly. Not only are all our actions (v.2) and all our words (v.3) known to God, but all our thoughts are known to Him as well. He not only knows what we are, but He knows what we would be if we were not afraid of the consequences.

Many years ago, when nuclear weaponry was in its early development, a short film was produced entitled “No Place to Hide,” “An amazing film about growing up in the shadow of the (atomic) bomb,” according to one review. That title might be most appropriately applied to this awesome doctrine, with Christ as the only exception, and the implications even more devastating than the atomic threat. And, in fact, it is this very quality in God’s nature that arouses so much hatred of God in fallen mankind. By nature we are averse to the idea of accountability to God, especially a God who knows all about us from the inside out.

The psalmist was keenly aware of this divine quality, as the opening verses of this psalm indicate, but rather than being angry at the Lord, he solicits in our text God’s research of his heart and mind, not because he deems himself perfect, but because he knows that he is not.

In Psalm 19 he had expostulated, “Who can understand his errors? cleanse Thou me from secret faults.” He knew the subtlety of sin and its pervasive quality and, as here, longed for the divine searchlight to bring to light the sins that were invisible to his own conscience. The same spirit motivates his cry here, “And see if there be any wicked way in me.” It is not that he thinks there may be none, but that he fears there may be lurking in the darkened recesses of his own soul sins yet undiscovered, unconfessed and unconquered from which he longs to be free.

Every Spirit quickened man or woman is aware that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,” and less than transparent to our sin dimmed vision. With David in that 19th psalm we cry, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.” (See Ps. 19:12-14) So here the man of God invites the inevitable: “see if there be any wicked way in me.” It is the passion of the truly godly person to be rid of sin. He is not inviting God to discover what He already knows, but to discover it to himself that he may be aware of it and flee from it.

Yet the discerning believer knows this also, that even when our sins are revealed to us, we are powerless in and of ourselves to abandon them. Sin clings to us like the raw flesh of the leper. The apostle Paul in a lengthy passage that deserves long and thoughtful meditation (Rom. 7), said, “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" [Rom. 7:21-24].

The heart of every sincere Christian can identify with Paul’s struggle and with David’s plea, “Lead me in the way everlasting.” In every one of us there are two natures seeking the ascendancy. “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary, the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would [Gal. 5:17].” If you have never experienced this struggle, you may want to ask whether, in fact, you are truly born again.

Thankfully, there is deliverance from this dilemma. There is, first of all and fundamentally, deliverance from the penalty of sin through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.” He is our hiding place. Secondly, there is hope of deliverance from the residual power of sin in our lives. That deliverance is not by our good intentions, nor by our best efforts; it is by the power of God. Paul said, “I thank my God, through our Lord Jesus Christ” As Ian Thomas said, “It takes God to be godly!” Christian victory (a lost concept in much of today’s “Christianity”) is a supernatural thing. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy [Prov. 28:13].” That was David’s aspiration. May the Spirit of God make it ours!

Oh Lord, led me in the way everlasting!

For His glory and our good,

"Pastor" Frasier

Psalm 138 - 2010.04.03

“The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.” —Psalm 138:8

Spurgeon somewhere said something to the effect that he was glad David had so many difficulties because had he not, we would not have had the many helpful insights given us in the Psalms! Well here David is “in the midst of trouble” again (v.7a), and we benefit by his meditation on the occasion.

“Faith,” the New Testament records, “is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen [Heb. 11:1].” That is David’s position here, as he expresses his confidence in a truth more fully developed in the New Testament. “The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.” Or, as another translation helpfully renders it, “The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me.” (NIV) To the Philippian believers Paul wrote, that he was “confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ [Phil. 1:6].” The apostle Peter wrote that believers are “Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time [I Pet. 1:5].” And the apostle John adds, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is [I John 3:2].”

All of these wrote in confirmation of David’s assurance that what God starts He will finish, what He promises, He will fulfill. Not only our security is involved in this perspective, but our ultimate outcome. The Savior, in fact, declared there is a day coming when, whatever their circumstances here and now, “the righteous [shall] shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” (See Matt. 13:41-43)

The ground of this confidence is the divine constant, or attribute, we reflected upon two weeks ago in our consideration of Psalm 136:23; namely, His mercy. Here we have an echo of that remarkable Psalm: “Thy mercy, O Lord endureth forever.” This, too, is foundational to New Testament truth. In fact, the gospel rests upon it. Mary, moved to reflect upon the promise that she should be the mother of the Son of God, included in her ecstatic prayer, “He that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is His name. And His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation [Luke 1:49-50].” She mentions His mercy again in v. 54, from the Jewish perspective, and it is referred to in various ways in vss. 58, 72 and, most relevant to our case, in the prayer of Zacharias at the birth of John the Baptist when he said of him, “Thou…shalt be called the prophet of the highest…to give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the Dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace [Mt. 1:76-79].”

Paul included in the divine purpose for his ministry, “That the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy [Rom. 15:9a],” and in writing to the Ephesians he anchors our hope of salvation to “God, Who is rich in mercy… [Eph. 2:4].” Again, we are instructed that is “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us…which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.” (See Titus 3:3-7) These are but a few of the references to God’s everlasting mercy that appear in the New Testament and provide us with eternal hope, and “blessed assurance.”

The third clause in our nugget, however, is most instructive. The psalmist, for all his assurance does not take it for granted. In fact, upon its ground he is concerned to pray for God’s fulfillment of what He is confident He will do. He does not find in his security an occasion to grow careless in his walk, but draws near. Spurgen said,”Our confidence does not give us cause to live without prayer, but encourages us to pray all the more.” The apostle James said, “Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.”

We are the works of His hands in Christ, and it behooves us to dwell in His presence to be fashioned according to His will and for His glory. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them [Eph. 2:10].” If we do not want Him to forsake us, let us be diligent that we do not forsake Him!

For His glory and our good,

"Pastor" Frasier