- 00:15
- Your eyes, your Holy Spirit would speak to each of us, help us to learn more about who you are, what you've done for us, that you love us, care for us, watch over us, and I thank you for your
- 00:37
- Son, the Lord Jesus, in His name I pray. A few verses, okay?
- 00:54
- In you, O Lord, be to me a rock of refuge, to which
- 01:12
- I may continually come. You have given the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
- 01:22
- Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.
- 01:30
- For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust. O Lord, from my youth upon you
- 01:37
- I have leaned from before my birth. You are He who took me from my mother's womb.
- 01:44
- My praise is continually of you. I have been as a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge.
- 02:02
- My mouth is filled with your praise and with your glory all the day. Do not cast me off in the time of old age.
- 02:10
- Forsake me not when my strength is spent. This psalm has meant more to me as the years have gone by.
- 02:26
- Of old age, forsake me not when my strength is spent.
- 02:32
- It seems like my strength has been spent. And more and more
- 02:41
- I'm having to learn to walk in His strength.
- 02:48
- I'd like to look at this psalm a little differently tonight from a perspective, okay?
- 02:57
- I'd like to go through seven questions, okay? Question number one, who is addressed in this psalm, okay?
- 03:06
- Who is addressed? And I will, I'll go through the first question, show you how it works.
- 03:21
- One, who is addressed, okay?
- 03:36
- Now in verse one it says, in you, O Lord, do I take refuge. So the
- 03:42
- Lord is addressed. And if you'll notice, it's all caps. This is God's name,
- 03:48
- I am, or Yahweh, Y -H -W -H, okay?
- 03:55
- And if you will notice, in verse five, for you, O Lord, are my hope.
- 04:02
- In this case, it's Lord, like this, which means master.
- 04:11
- And then in verse 12,
- 04:17
- O God, be not far from me. It is God who is addressed. And down a little further, close to the end, in verse 22,
- 04:38
- I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my
- 04:43
- God. I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O holy one of Israel.
- 04:49
- And I suspect, O holy one of Israel, in your text is probably all caps, right?
- 04:55
- Because that has become a name or a title of God. Holy one of Israel, that's who is addressed.
- 05:16
- At least that's who I found in the text, okay? This is the one who is addressed.
- 05:27
- Second question, who is speaking? And if you go through the whole text, you'll discover it is
- 05:46
- I and me. Now it gets a little more interesting, okay?
- 06:00
- Question number three, and this
- 06:06
- I want you to help me out with. How is God described, okay?
- 06:23
- I'll give you one clue, okay? What? He's our deliverer.
- 06:33
- My deliverer? My deliverer. What verse is that, by the way?
- 06:42
- My deliverer, okay? How is he described?
- 06:52
- You are my rock, my fortress, my hope, yes, okay, okay.
- 07:18
- My strong habitation, okay? Sometimes the translation that you have may be just a little different.
- 07:25
- My strong habitation, okay? My refuge, my confidence.
- 08:21
- You are easy to me, Adam. Okay, let's save that one, all right?
- 08:30
- I've got another question. How is God described?
- 08:44
- Strong refuge, okay. What was it?
- 08:51
- Incomparable. Okay. Who is like you. Yes, okay. Who is like you?
- 08:56
- Incomparable, okay. Righteous, yes.
- 09:10
- Faithful. What?
- 09:21
- My teacher. My teacher. Okay, I'm going to go to the next question, all right?
- 09:30
- Number four. Number four. What does the psalmist ask?
- 10:07
- In verse one, it says, let me never be put to shame. Verse two says, in your righteousness, deliver me and rescue me, incline your ear to me and save me, be to me a rock of refuge to which
- 10:31
- I may continually come. Verse four, what does he ask in verse four?
- 10:46
- Deliver me, rescue me. Verse nine, do not cast me off in the time of old age, forsake me not when my strength is spent.
- 11:10
- What was it? Do not forsake me, be not far from me.
- 11:23
- Are these things you would ask of God? And would they be biblical?
- 12:05
- What was it? He has to be revived. Revived? Yes. Yes. Revive me.
- 12:12
- Yes. Comfort me. Yes.
- 12:21
- Let my mouth be filled with your praise. Yes. He asks the Lord, let my mouth be filled with your praise.
- 12:32
- What was it? Let me not be ashamed. Yes. Okay, I'm going to go to question five, all right?
- 12:44
- What, hey, does the psalmist do?
- 13:09
- What does he do? He what?
- 13:16
- Cries out. He cries out. I will hope continually and I will praise you more and more.
- 13:36
- That's what he does. Okay, I will do that.
- 13:46
- I will what? Also praise you. Okay, I will go in the strength of the
- 13:54
- Lord. I'm pointing it back to, he's saying do this for your glory.
- 14:15
- He's going to play God a song. Yes. In my
- 14:36
- Bible, verse 23 says, my lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to you. Maybe he is.
- 14:58
- Hang, keep your finger there. Verse six, I mean question six, okay?
- 15:05
- Question six, what does
- 15:14
- God do? Okay, now what did you say
- 15:20
- Paula? That put him through. Now what verse was it?
- 15:38
- Shall quicken me again and shall bring me up again from the depths of the earth. Wow.
- 15:43
- So he has been tested and tried. Yes. This translation reads, you have made me see many troubles and calamities.
- 15:56
- You will revive me again. From the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.
- 16:04
- Now that's what God will do, right? Yeah. Now that's interesting. You have caused me to see or made me see many troubles and calamities.
- 16:23
- Yes, yes. Are troubles and calamities good? Should we count it all joy, brethren and sistren?
- 16:40
- Count it all joy, brothers. All things work together for good.
- 16:51
- These momentary light afflictions are preparing for us an eternal weight of glory.
- 17:01
- 2 Corinthians, I think that's chapter four, verse 16.
- 17:17
- You have taught me. You have taught me, okay? You have taught me.
- 17:25
- Is that what
- 17:33
- God does? Okay, that's what he does, right?
- 17:40
- Yeah. That would be what does the psalmist do?
- 17:46
- What does God do? Okay.
- 18:03
- That's something God does, right? Yeah. Yes. Okay. You are he who took me from my mother's womb.
- 18:26
- He took me from my mother's womb. That's something that he did. Chosen.
- 18:44
- Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him.
- 19:02
- Now, that's question number seven, okay? Question number seven.
- 19:08
- What are these things? Find New Testament references.
- 19:29
- Find New Testament references. That's really not a question.
- 19:40
- Okay. And he said
- 19:53
- I longed to draw a pen with the chicks.
- 19:58
- Yes. Yes. What was that, verse three? Be to me a rock of refuge to which
- 20:06
- I may continually come. Okay.
- 20:45
- I want to read in Hebrews chapter four. Okay. Is there one to whom we can continually come?
- 21:00
- Hebrews chapter four, verse 14. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,
- 21:07
- 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, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin.
- 21:24
- Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
- 21:37
- And then in chapter seven, verse 24. But he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.
- 21:48
- Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them.
- 22:04
- He always lives to make intercession for them.
- 22:11
- He's always there interceding for us. We can come anytime, anyplace, continually.
- 22:22
- He's always there. John, the apostle
- 22:30
- John in 1 John, I think it's the beginning of chapter two. He says, little children do not sin.
- 22:38
- No, little children, I'm writing these things to you that you sin not. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the
- 22:49
- Father. Yes, he's there. It's the very one that Job was desirous of.
- 23:03
- In chapter nine, I think it's verse 23. He said, oh, if there was only one who could come and lay his hand on us both.
- 23:14
- Looking for someone that would speak for him. He was afraid to speak to God because God was too big.
- 23:23
- God was too powerful. God was too smart. No matter how he was going to approach God, it just wasn't going to work.
- 23:29
- He wanted someone that could lay his hand on both of us.
- 23:35
- An intercessor, an advocate, and we have one.
- 23:40
- And he's there ever living to make intercession for us day by day, moment by moment.
- 23:58
- Yes, yes, yes. I would encourage you, this is your homework assignment, and I'm not going to check up on you.
- 24:07
- But if you do follow through, I wish you would just come to me and say I did that. Pick out a psalm and ask yourself these seven questions.
- 24:18
- It's a very good exercise just to go through and find out who is this fellow talking to?
- 24:26
- How is he described? And what does he want? And what does the one that he addresses, what does he do?
- 24:37
- And then go to the New Testament and look at how all of it is fulfilled in Christ.
- 24:46
- It's an excellent exercise. I encourage you to do it. We are going to follow through on this and go to the intercessor tonight, right now.
- 25:03
- And speak to him. And he will speak to the Father on our behalf.
- 25:21
- And I'm convinced that he will be delighted to do so.
- 25:28
- I'm convinced he will be delighted to hear from us. And I'm convinced that the
- 25:35
- Father will be delighted to follow through the son's request.
- 25:43
- And I'm convinced that the Holy Spirit will carry our prayers, our words, and our groanings to the throne of grace.