[0:00] And we come to one of those this morning in Psalm 40, where he sees the results of his waiting. God has answered.
[0:11] So we want to read the text, and then we'll ask the Lord to speak to us through his spirit, and then we'll dig in. So if you're able, please stand as I read Psalm 40.
[0:30] Psalm 40 reads to the choir master, the Psalm of David. I waited patiently for the Lord.
[0:43] He inclined to me, and he heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog.
[0:53] He set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.
[1:06] Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie.
[1:21] You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us. None can compare with you.
[1:34] I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear.
[1:50] Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, behold, I have come. In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
[2:04] I delight to do your will, O my God. Your law is within my heart. I have told of the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation.
[2:19] Behold, I have not restrained my lips as you know, O Lord. I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation.
[2:30] I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me.
[2:45] Your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me. For evils have encompassed me beyond number.
[2:58] My iniquities have overtaken me. I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart fails me.
[3:12] Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life.
[3:28] Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt. Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, Aha! Aha!
[3:44] But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who love your salvation say continually, Great is the Lord!
[3:56] Lord, as for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me.
[4:07] You are my help and my deliverer. Do not delay, O my God. So read his word. Let us pray.
[4:18] Father, grant us to see into David's heart. Grant us to see into your heart. Give us eyes to see. We, Father, who can relate to David, who have been rescued from a miry bog, and yet have then later found ourself in another miry bog.
[4:46] We can thank you for our past deliverance, and at the same time, we can pray for present deliverance.
[4:59] You are a faithful God. You are a great Lord. Teach us today. Encourage us today. Lift us up today.
[5:10] Let us who love your salvation continually say, Great is the Lord. This we pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[5:25] Amen. Amen. Brought one of my favorite books.
[5:39] The Dangerous Journey. The Story of Pilgrim's Progress, written, not the full story of Pilgrim's Progress, but written, edited for children.
[5:56] So these are well-worn pages. We have been through this many times. Not recently, but back when they could sit on the lap, you know. So Pilgrim's Progress is about a man who hears about the wrath to come.
[6:15] He reads in the book, the book, to flee from the wrath to come. He hears about his city that will be destroyed. He lives in the city of destruction.
[6:26] And he is now motivated to move toward the city, the celestial city, where God has favor on his people.
[6:38] And so he goes on a journey. In the beginning of his journey, he meets Evangelist, who tells him the way to go. He tells him to go toward the wicked gate, toward the narrow gate.
[6:50] You enter by the narrow gate, see yonder wicked gate. And he says, no, I don't see the gate. Do you see the shining light? Okay, I think I can see the shining light.
[7:01] Go that way. Journey toward the wicked gate. So on his way, he meets some folks who are not real helpful. He goes with Mr. Pliable on his journey.
[7:19] And so let me pick it up from there. He's carrying now a burden all the way. His burden is his sin, his guilt, his shame. He's carrying it, and he's going to carry it the whole journey until he gets to the cross, where he can finally lay it down and be free.
[7:36] But he's on his journey toward that. So here toward the beginning of the story, he says, now I saw in my dream that as they were hurrying along and talking, they had drawn near to a quagmire in the middle of the plain, which was called the Slough of Despond.
[7:58] And before they knew what was happening, they had both fallen into the bog. It was a bog where many travelers before them had been drowned. Here, therefore, therefore, they wallowed, being grievously debobbed.
[8:14] You like that word? Debobed with the dirt. I'm not sure what that means. I was tempted to look it up so I could look impressive and explain it to you, but I didn't. And Christian, because of the burden on his back, began to sink, first knee-deep, then waist-deep into the loathsome scum.
[8:44] Neighbor Christian, where are you now? asked Pliable. Truly, I do not know, Christian replied. So Pliable began to be offended and angrily said to his fellow, is this the happiness you promised me?
[8:58] If we have such ill speed at our first setting out, what may we expect between this and our journey's end? With that, having no burden to contend with, Pliable scrambled out on the side of the slough which was nearest to his house, and so he ran off home for a hot bath, leaving Christian to his fate.
[9:22] For his part, Christian was struggling to reach the side of the slough nearest to the wicked gate, which he eventually did, but couldn't clamor out by reason of the burden on his back.
[9:39] Then I beheld in my dream that a man came to him whose name was Help, and asked him what he was doing there. Christian answered, Sir, I was bidden to go this way by a man called Evangelist, but did you not look for the stepping stones?
[9:59] Fear followed me so hard that I fell in, replied Christian. That is the snare and hazard of this place, said Help. It so spews out its filth that as the changes of the weather, these steps are hardly seen.
[10:16] Here, give me your hand. So he gave him his hand and drew him out and set him on firm ground again, and Christian continued on his way toward the wicked gate.
[10:29] That's Bunyan's picture of the pit, the miry bog. Do you remember your first joy of God's deliverance?
[10:45] Do you remember? Or any past deliverance of God where he had heard your cry, he drew you out of your pit, whatever that was.
[10:58] He drew you out of the pit of despair, the pit of ruin, the pit of destruction, the pit of guilt, whatever your pit was. Maybe it was a mixture of all of those kind of things.
[11:12] And you were delivered. You couldn't get out on your own because you too had some burden on your back. And he pulled you out, he rescued you, he delivered you, and you were not just out of the bog, kind of breathing on the ground, but you were set on firm ground.
[11:31] It was a true transformation. And then you wanted to sing. You wanted to praise him. He put a song in your heart.
[11:48] What is this pit, this miry bog David speaks of? Scripture uses this picture a number of times to speak of a place that has no foothold.
[12:00] A place where you are, it's a, it's a sloshy, muddy place that has no foothold.
[12:11] You can't, you can't, you step down and you sink. So you're stuck. It's a picture of being overwhelmed, being helpless and despairing where you, you know, you, I remember as a kid seeing, what is it, western shows that had a quicksand scene in it.
[12:34] I remember that terrified me more than anything else. Quicksand. I remember thinking, where do you go? You just sink and you, you can't get out.
[12:46] How, you know, my imagination ran with that. And that's kind of what this reminded me of that, that I can't get out and my every effort makes me sink deeper.
[13:00] And it's a picture of our own helplessness, maybe our depression, maybe our, our guilt and shame, maybe our, our ruin, whatever we have done that has brought us to this place.
[13:17] We're drowning. And so, we finally cry out. We come to the end of ourselves and know we can't fix it ourselves so we cry out to God.
[13:30] And he hears us. David sings of a time that God had rescued him from a pit, from this miry bog, he says, this wet, spongy, muddy, slushy place.
[13:48] And so, he recalls that time to help him in this present need. Psalm 40 is a beautiful picture of God's deliverance, that picture of a pit and coming out and being stood on firm ground and having a song in our hearts and praising God.
[14:09] But it's also a confident prayer prayer. Because it's not all, he's out of the bog and he's singing praises, but that's not the end of the journey because the journey goes on and there's another bog.
[14:27] There's another pit. I thought God fixed me. And so, one of the most frustrating things as a Christian is God rescues me, God sets me on firm ground and gives me a song and I go along for a while and I praise him and then what happens?
[14:51] How did I get back in a pit? It happens. It's part of the journey. One of the things Delinda recognized as we're kind of going through these psalms is she's been reading Psalm 23 and 24 and 25 and then this, she said Psalm 23 is kind of the paradigm, kind of the picture for the life of a Christian, the life of a believer.
[15:18] Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, right? He makes me lie down in green pastures, he brings me to still waters and he leads me and guides me. So the first part of Psalm 23 is this, this beautiful picture of following my shepherd and I have no wants because he provides for me.
[15:35] Then you come to the second part of Psalm 23, it's a short psalm, where one of the places he leads me is the valley of the shadow of darkness and there's enemies there.
[15:49] I need comfort from his staff and his rod. So some of these psalms remind us of the first part of Psalm 23 and some of these psalms remind us of the rest of the journey, the dark valleys.
[16:07] And so here we have in Psalm 40 a shepherd leading the lamb to water and refreshment and then here comes another valley.
[16:18] It's part of the journey. It was part of Jesus' journey. He had valleys. He had darkness. And he gives us a model for how to go through that.
[16:31] And I think David here gives us a model for confident prayer. We've been looking, I said, at Psalms of Lament. We looked at four of them.
[16:42] Psalm 13, how long, O Lord, will you forget me? Psalm 10, where is God when the wicked are prospering? Psalm 42 and 43, why, O my soul, are you in despair?
[16:56] Wait for God. And last week we looked at Psalm 25 which focused on the fear of shame. On the outside it was the fear of shame and remember then the heart of the psalm was forgive me, forgive my iniquity.
[17:10] And so shame, the frame of that psalm was my fear of shame because of my sin. Because deep down it's really my sin that God must cleanse and forgive to release me from shame and guilt.
[17:29] So there, those first four psalms we see the crying out to God and the waiting for God. And now, here in Psalm 40 we have a prayer of hope. where he has experienced God's answers and those answers then that experience now guides him for his present crisis.
[17:51] So we have two halves of this psalm. First the praising of God for past deliverance and then from 11 on now the present crisis where I cry out to God but my faith is confident because he has answered before.
[18:06] So, Psalm 40 is not only a prayer of hope it's a prayer of faith confident prayer. And so what I'd like to do as I was trying to put this together how does it come together I call it a confident prayer and I think there's elements that we see in David's prayer throughout that are components of confident prayer.
[18:37] So, as I said it breaks into two verses 1 through 10 are the he is praising God for past deliverance and then in the second part 11 to 17 he is confessing and praying and trusting for present deliverance.
[18:58] deliverance. So, his past informs his present. So, the first set of components in the first half of the psalm confident prayer includes specific praises and open proclamation for God's past deliverance.
[19:20] So, specific praises he gets very specific in the first three verses and then he turns to proclamation he wants to tell others how great his God is.
[19:32] He wants to testify and let others know so that they will be influenced by his testimony of God's faithfulness. So, as I see these are elements of confident prayer.
[19:47] Praise and proclamation. Praise and testament whatever you want to call it. So, he begins with praise in verses 1 through 3. He says I waited patiently for the Lord Now, in the Hebrew it's actually to wait I have waited is what he literally our translators put I waited patiently because they didn't want to put I waited to wait but actually what David wrote was to wait I have waited waited have you ever waited to wait like in a waiting room wait for the doctor waiting to wait I'm not just waiting I'm waiting to wait yeah fun so so so David describes this I have waited to wait or as he put it to wait I waited so in other words there was a delay before God answered lest we read into this oh look he waited and the
[20:52] Lord answered right away no no no no to wait I waited for the Lord and then he answered he answered when it pleased him he often tests my faith that way and boy did he answer five acts he doesn't just say God answered he doesn't jump to he pulled me out of the pit he starts with first he inclined he inclined to me he he he he inclined to me he and then he heard and he heard he heard my prayer and he's savoring each part of this response of God and having heard my prayer then he he drew me up from the pit of destruction out of the miry clay and he wasn't done he didn't just drag me out he drew me up and then he set me on solid ground in fact on a rock now I have that word circled in orange in my bible because I think he's talking about the rock of Christ or the words of
[22:11] Christ remember Jesus said he who hears these words of mine and acts upon them builds his house upon the rock yeah my my words are the rocks I kind of look forward with that making my steps secure so he's not just pulled me out of my trouble but now he's given me a new start now he's given me a solid place to stand and my steps are secure what a contrast to the slippery miry slushy situation that I got in he's now given me a place where no I'm not slipping now I'm making progress I can have security and not only that but now fifthly he puts a song in my heart he puts a song in my mouth a song of praise to our God he did all that we focus on the picture of the pit the miry bog it's very personal here a mire in Psalm 69 we see this picture again where the psalmist says
[23:28] I sink in deep mire I sink where there is no foothold I've come into deep waters and the flood sweeps over so here it's more than just being stuck and my head's still above water now in Psalm 69 it's deep water and the flood's over me I'm drowning picture being overwhelmed and helpless so we have pictures of Jonah in that situation we have pictures of Jeremiah in a pit that he can't get out of we have pictures way back to Joseph who was thrown in a pit as well you know there's pits in scripture what's your pit or pits I have several I've just one it was just one never mind so he praises and then interesting in verse six now it begins to turn he says in sacrifice and offering you've not delighted but you've given me an open ear literally you've excavated my ear you've dug out my ear so that
[24:47] I can hear for offering a sacrifice you've not required David is speaking a prophecy here because he goes on to say verse seven behold I've come in the scroll of the book it is written of me scroll of the book it's written of me so he's talking about prophecy but it's not just back prophecy but it's also going to be forward prophecy but let me comment on verse six he says you've not delighted in sacrifice and offering you've not required offering and sin offering as I read Exodus and Leviticus it sounds like he requires those things you shall do this you know every Passover you shall do this it's a requirement under the law so what does he mean you've not delighted you've not required these things what is he talking about I think with what he says next in verses seven and eight is he's making a contrast between sacrifices that are rituals and heart obedience
[25:55] I think that's what he's saying you've not required just giving of sacrifices that's that's not what you delight in you don't delight in us coming we read the prophets especially Malachi who talks about I hate your sacrifices you bring me the worst of the lot you think I like that you think I don't care so I think he's talking about sacrifice sacrifices and offerings without heart are meaningless they're hollow they're mere ritual God doesn't want that he doesn't require that he doesn't delight in it but the contrast here David says I get you don't want ritual you want me you want me so verse seven then I said behold I have come in the scroll of the book it is written of me I delight to do your will
[26:56] I delight to do your will oh my God your law is within my heart because you've excavated my ears now the word has come heart it's not external it's internal see he gets it David gets it now what's this in the book it's written of me in the scroll of the book it's written of me what where's he referring to what is that and as I will show in a moment this text is quoted in the book of Hebrews as a fulfillment of Christ that Christ said these things David as the ancestor of Christ is speaking it in his own life but it will be actually fulfilled by his offspring by his descendant his physical seed Jesus Christ who will truly fulfill and delight to do God's will with an offering a true offering one
[28:01] God truly delights in and does require excuse me but here so if this is referring to Christ ultimately then I said I've come to delight to do your will in the scroll of the book it's written to me so this is not writing of David it's writing of the Christ so we go back to Genesis we've been discovering this on Thursday nights little plug Thursday nights we're seeing how we find Christ in the Old Testament remember in the upper room he said I'm all there how'd you miss it so we're going back and looking and right from Genesis get go he's the image of God that Adam and Eve were made in the image of God and they they continued to God because when we see him we see the father right and then amidst!
[28:59] the curse in Genesis 3 15 where God is speaking to the serpent who had deceived Eve he says to the serpent not only on the belly you'll grow now you lose your legs you become just a mere snake but also there will be enmity between you the serpent and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring and her offspring will crush you on the head your offspring serpent will bruise him on the heel so the serpent will trip up the offspring of Eve but the offspring of Eve will crush the serpent so in other words in the scroll of the book it's written to me yeah even all the way back in Genesis 3 it already proclaims there's a promise of one coming there's an offspring of
[30:02] Eve there's an offspring that's coming there's a seed that's coming singular seed not all the seeds just one particular seed will come and fulfill! over the door post so that when the angel of death comes he will pass over that household who has trusted in God and then they will be free to it's that blood that sets them free to leave captivity but there's another Passover lamb that came in the New Testament and his name is Jesus he's the lamb of God as John the Baptist said takes away the sins so the scroll of the book has spoken of Jesus many times not by name but by picture and by pattern by type so then the proclamation so what do you do with this verses 9 and 10 now
[31:08] David says man I want to proclaim I want to tell I'm not going to hold back I'm going to tell of the good news I would tell the good news of deliverance in the great congregation I'm not going to restrain my lips Lord I'm going to say it I'm not going to hide this verse 10 in my heart as if it's me and God and it's just me and God and I don't need to tell anybody else it's a private faith no no I got to tell others about this great is my God who has delivered me I want you to your salvation I'm not going to conceal your love and your faithfulness look at all these descriptions he has of God deliverance salvation faithfulness love none of that will I hide from the congregation I'm going to proclaim it I'm going to let it be known what's interesting is this very word verse nine
[32:13] I will bring the glad news I will tell the glad news I will preach the gospel literally is the same word in Isaiah 61 that Jesus quotes when he comes to his hometown in Nazareth remember he comes to Nazareth his hometown he takes out the scroll of Isaiah he stands up to read and he reads from Isaiah 61 and the words of Isaiah 61 are the spirit of the Lord is upon me I bring the glad tidings I bring the good news I bring the gospel to the poor to set captives free to give recovery of sight to the blind to give liberty to the oppressed!
[33:04] And then Jesus rolls up the scroll and says today this has been fulfilled in your midst and they're ready to kill him how dare you how dare you you see Jesus preached the good news this is he comes as the offering he comes in delight to do God's will he proclaims the good news of deliverance and salvation I see Christ all over here in Isaiah 40 excuse me Psalm 40 so we see it's summarized that way in verse 10 it's his deliverance it's his faithfulness and salvation it's his steadfast love that God has revealed and preaches of so as I said these verses in verses 6 through 8 are quoted by the book of
[34:08] Hebrews in the New Testament Jesus Christ fulfills this saying of David he offers himself he doesn't give sacrifices and give offerings to God he becomes the offering to God and so here's what Hebrews 10 says about this consequently when Christ came into the world he said and now he's quoting sacrifices and offerings you have not desired but a body you have prepared for me in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure then I said behold I have come to do your will oh God as it is written of me in this book scroll of the book so he quotes these verses and then the writer of Hebrews says when he said above you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and burnt offerings and sin offerings these are offered according to the law then he added behold
[35:12] I have come to do your will he does away with the first in order to establish the second the first what the first covenant the covenant of law Jesus does away with the first the requirements of offerings and sacrifices he does away with the one and establishes a second as he did in the upper room and said this is the new covenant in my blood and by that will his his please to do God's will by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly repeatedly repeatedly the same sacrifices the same sacrifices which the Hebrew writer says can never take away sins they're just a picture they're not effective they never take away the sin but when
[36:21] Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins not repeatedly once for all when he had done that what did he do he did what no other priest had ever done he sat down he went into the holy of holies he offered his self and he sat down on top of the mercy seat where no priest would sit because he was done every other priest they got to tie a rope to and pull him out right scary place to be in the presence of God Jesus walks in gives his life sits down now he's on his throne he's done once for all so here we have a contrast of old and new the old covenant had many sacrifices that never removed sin they just reminded us that we're sinners they're reminding us of our constant need of something bigger and better for God to truly forgive because God desired to forgive us but we keep sinning something must pay for that and then it shows us the new the one offering of the
[37:48] Christ body the perfect sacrifice that does cleanse us and does remove sin once for all so here we see first of all components of confident prayer that involves praise and proclamation David is confident now verse 11 to 17 it takes a turn because it's it's all good here we're hearing good news we're hearing praise of God and then in verse 11 it it turns to the present he's in trouble again so we see a second set of components that confident prayer also includes a convinced faith and an honest confession that's confident prayer confident has a faith that's convinced of who God is still in need but I'm convinced of who God is as well as honest confession yeah
[38:48] I'm before God I need to be open here I need to be open and boy is David open so here God's faithfulness in the past guides our faith in the present see he has praised God before and now he can have confidence going into this next need for deliverance notice assurance in verse 11 how he starts this prayer in the Psalms of lament we saw lots of prayers lots of pleadings lots of anxiety and desperation and sometimes we feel that way here there's more confidence there's not as much in fact it starts in verse 11 as for you oh lord it's not a prayer it's a statement you will not restrain your mercy from me I know this because you've done it before you will not restrain your mercy why mercy because we're going to find out in a moment he actually he doesn't just need grace and help he needs mercy you will not restrain your mercy from me your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me so he's sure he's confident see you won't restrain it you'll pour it out
[40:10] I know you so his past experience informs his present crisis then comes the confession verse 12 why do I know that why do I know God won't restrain his mercy because evils have encompassed me beyond number my iniquities my iniquities have overtaken me and I can't see my iniquities have blinded me he goes on my iniquities by the way they're more than the hairs of my head so we're thinking of David here we're thinking okay I know this Bathsheba thing right okay I can number now he's saying his iniquities not just that one okay yeah there was adultery that was also murder and there was also lying okay okay that was piled up right but he says they're beyond number they're they're more than the hairs in my head
[41:13] I assume he wasn't bald okay he's saying he had hair and how many hair he's saying that's how many iniquities David a man after God's own heart a godly man with tremendous faith at times confesses my iniquities I'm before God I gotta be honest here my iniquities have overtaken me they blinded me they're more than the hairs of my head and my heart has failed my heart has left me my iniquities are so much that they have killed me my heart's gone here's a man with a heart after God now his heart is
[42:18] God how does that happen he has experienced God's relief before how dare he fall in another pit right moralists would jump all over this how dare David he knew better oh I'll bet he beat himself up over no one better yeah I'm sure he did I'm sure he did and now he's coming to the only place that can give him healing full disclosure Lord you know you know I can't hide anything from you so that leads him then verse 13 to a simple plea and look at how this is even there's some urgency in it but but he starts verse 13 with be pleased to deliver me it's not a demand it's oh may it please you to deliver me may it give you pleasure because
[43:27] I know that kind of thing pleases you to deliver be pleased to deliver me and then he adds the urgency oh make haste hurry to help hurry to help need it now but but there's confidence see I see confidence in these appeals and then verses 14 and 15 I'm not sure as Christians we would pray these parts of the prayer because we're to bless those who right who curse us but David being under the law says let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life the enemy let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt shame them Lord verse 15 let those be appalled of their shame who say to me ha ha ha ha what he's really doing I think in essence is he's leaving to the Lord to deal with his enemies his oppressors and his mockers he's not going to take vengeance on them
[44:28] Lord you do it but do it good ha ha now for me I translate when I see enemy in the psalm I'm translating that into the New Testament I have one enemy the enemy the enemy of my soul the one who seeks to devour now I'll pray that for that person that enemy so that's how I train when I see enemy to me I don't have a lot of physical enemies at least that I know of I'm not being attacked anyway but I do have an enemy who attacks me I have an enemy that's trying to deceive me who's mocking me who's saying aha you fell again see you're not faithful you shouldn't be a pastor then he ends with hope verse 16 and 17 affirmation positives he slides in the present crisis but all through there's confidence there's faith there's urgency but not desperation he's in a different place here in psalm 40 than he was in psalm 25 so it's a different prayer so he says in verse 16 may all who seek you you know here's the bad guys let them feel their shame but for the good guys who are the good guys well those are the ones who seek
[46:11] God they're not the ones who are doing all the right things he they're the ones who love God's salvation they've been saved too they've been rescued out of a pit too they're not good doers they're good seekers they're seeking God and they're praising God those are the good guys okay because God has been good to them let them rejoice and be glad may those who love your salvation love your salvation say continually great is the Lord let us always remember has been great to us and has rescued us and has drawn us out of the pit let's never forget the pit that he's taken us out of because remembering that strengthens my faith for the next pit that I'm gonna fall in okay I'm Peter too and Jesus is praying for me that my faith will not fail when
[47:15] I fall into that pit it's like you prayed for Peter may your faith not fail because you're gonna fail but not your faith you're gonna climb back out of that pit and then I can make because now I've broken you now you're gonna be more dependent so how so how many pits do I need to fall in well I don't know I pray not many right some of them are so so hard but God God is faithful sometimes there's more waiting than other times isn't there but see that's God's decision I'm on his road so well except when I slip off and fall in that pit over there but he uses those pits for my good because he teaches me wakes me up he shows me my vulnerability breaks my pride whatever he knows what he's doing so
[48:33] I thought you know this kind of confident prayer okay what where in the New Testament does it talk about this kind of confident prayer for a sinner for somebody whose iniquities have you know piled up even if it's not a big pile maybe it's a little pile until you look at it with God's eyes or it's a bigger pile we talked about that this morning you know how come you know the more we walk along the road as a believer the more sensitive!
[49:09] oh it's not just that act it's that intention and it's that thought and all you know it just and I think that's where David you know it's like my iniquities I'm seeing them everywhere now because I want to please God and so I see I fall so far short it's not just the big acts it's the little intentions the neglects and the sins of omission that I see too and I think oh I'm so far from Jesus but it doesn't take very much to get close to Jesus because he doesn't move so what can we do when our sins overwhelm us where can we go go to Jesus go with confidence listen to Hebrews 4 for the word of God is living and active sharper than any two edged sword piercing to the division of soul and spirit of joints and marrow and this thoughts and intentions of our heart there we go pierces my heart divides between my thoughts and intentions of my heart because that's where those are and no creature is hidden from his sight but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account we all know that deep down since then so what do we do when we're exposed what do we do right shown us who we are since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens
[50:48] Jesus the son of God let us hold fast our confession for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses! That's huge right there!
[51:02] In other words we have a high priest! who can sympathize with our weaknesses but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin therefore let us with confidence draw near to the throne of grace it's a throne of grace by the way not a throne of judgment throne of grace draw near to the throne of grace I want to go to that throne why so that we may receive mercy and find grace in the time of need sometimes we need mercy a lot of times we need mercy and a lot of times we need the grace right and so we go to the throne of grace where he just pours it out so we can't hide it from God he already knows his word exposes us but his son gets it his son understands this is where the son distinguishes himself because he took a body because he lived this life he understands something experientially that God had not understood before
[52:29] God knew God understood but experientially God had not been tempted tempted God is not tempted Jesus was because he took on the limitations of flesh he gets it we see it in the garden we see it before that he understands how difficult it is for us to be tempted he understands our weaknesses he had weakness he was able to overcome it because he didn't have the baggage we have so he gets it that's to encourage us to come to him that that's to he get he's going to understand what I'm going to say to him he has felt the distress he's been disturbed in his soul he understands loneliness!
[53:32] He understands betrayal he understands right standing alone and so for this very reason we can go to him we have confidence to go to him to receive mercy in our need and Jesus is generous with his mercy and his grace he wants us to come he wants us to seek him he wants us to trust him so may all those who love God's salvation continually say great is the Lord let's pray father we thank you for your word we thank you for David being vulnerable with us for being honest in a song letting others know that that he had iniquities in himself that were numerous thank you Lord that he would do that so that you get glory thank you that he would do that so that we have somebody we can relate to who feel the same way who get in the same pit we thank you
[54:46] God that you are a God of mercy you are a God of grace you are a God who is a deliverer a personal deliverer deliver us today father we pray in Christ name amen