Waiting on God in Prison — E.A. Johnston

The Sermon's Prison Setting and Message of Hope

I want us to look at 10 aspects from Psalm 40 today, friends. You can turn in your Bibles there now. My very first public sermon was preached in a prison, and my text was Psalm 40. I preached on the bottleneck prison to a room full of inmates in a federal penitentiary.

I was as scared as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. The prison guard led me and another man through several security gates, and then into a room full of wooden chairs. Then a door opened and in walked the convicts as they took their seats as I stood at the front of the room with my Bible and a nervous smile on my face.

Then the guard left and shut the door behind him, and it was just me and my evangelist friend facing a room full of murderers and rapists and hoarded criminals. I opened my Bible to Psalm 40 and preached to them a message of hope from God's Word, and when I finished, they leaped up to their feet and rushed me.

I thought that was the end. I stood there frozen waiting to die, but one by one, they only wanted to hug me and thank me for coming to see them and giving them a word of encouragement. And I want to give you, friends, a word of encouragement today.

The Bottleneck Prison as a Picture of Human Distress

I want to preach to you out of Psalm 40, and there's ten aspects I'd like to draw out of this passage to us today. The title of my message is Waiting on God in Prison, and in our passage today, we see David in distress and in dire circumstances as he describes his dilemma as a prison which he cannot extricate himself out of.

David had gotten himself into some jams he couldn't get out of on his own, and all he could do was to look up to the one he knew could save and deliver him. The prison in our text is a bottleneck prison.

This was an ancient form of a prison, dug out and shaped like a Coke bottle in the ground, the bottoms wide and the sides of the pit leaned towards each other, with a tiny opening at the top. It's impossible to climb out of a bottleneck prison, and I believe this was the very kind of pit that Joseph was thrown into by his jealous brothers.

And David here compares his trial to a bottleneck prison, a pit he cannot climb out of, try as he may. He's helpless in his dire circumstances, look hopeless, and all he has is his hope in God as his deliverer.

So David speaks of his condition in terms of a prison. Perhaps you, friend, are in a dire trial from which you cannot get out of yourself, and you feel hopeless and helpless. You may be in a prison of financial trouble, bills are piling up, and you feel like a great avalanche has fallen on you, and you don't know where the relief will come from.

Perhaps you are in a dark pit of depression from which you can't find escape, and hope looks like a hole in the wall. Perhaps you are in a pit of illness that has set you aside for a season, and you just received some bad news from your doctor, and you don't know what you're going to do.

Perhaps a loved one just died, and grief is eating you away, and your tears are your only companion. Whatever your trial and affliction is, friend, there is one who can hear you and help you, and now we will turn to the Word of God and see what it has to say, and how to deal with a hard and trying time in our life.

Psalm 40's Fourfold Summary of Deliverance

The title of my message today, again, is Waiting on God in Prison, and there are ten aspects I want to draw out from our passage today, friends, from Psalm 40. I want to read us the first four verses, because verses one through four sum up this psalm in a nutshell, and then we will study the rest of the psalm as we proceed.

Here now is the Word of God, and it is my prayer that God's Spirit will be pleased to attend the reading of His Holy Word. I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.

Waiting Patiently for God's Deliverance

Well, I want to mention ten aspects from this psalm, which I hope will help us today, friends, in our faith life and walk with God. And number one, I want us to see the waiting aspect. David says, I waited patiently for the Lord.

You can look throughout the scriptures, friends, and find this aspect of waiting on God. There are two sides to this waiting. We see David waiting upon his God to deliver him, and God waits as well. For in Isaiah 30 .18 it reads,.

And therefore will the Lord wait that He may be gracious unto you. This brings to mind my Lord Jesus sitting on the Mount of Olives, watching His storm-tossed disciples out on the sea. Jesus took His time to go out to them, so He could demonstrate His power of walking on the waves and calming the storm.

Praying in Confidence That God Hears

And King David waits here for God to arrive and calm the storm in his life at this hour. So we see this element of waiting upon God. Number two, there is the praying aspect. The waiting is attended with prayer.

And there's two sides to this praying aspect as well, friends, the human and the divine. David prays to his God, and the Almighty responds. David says, He inclined unto me and heard my cry. That means that God in heaven leans over His throne and cups His hand to His ear to hear the cry of His saints.

That's the picture given here, friends. If you feel that at times heaven is His brass and God has deaf ears, well, don't believe it. Don't believe it for one skinny minute. God hears our prayers, especially our heartfelt cries of anguish and prayer.

Trusting God Through Troubled Circumstances

Listen to me, friend. Desperate prayer will always reach the throne of God. The third aspect I want us to see is the trusting aspect. David's faith is exercised by his troubled circumstance. There's a trusting in God exercised here, the faith factor, so to speak.

I believe much of the reason why we don't see our prayers answered is because we lack the attending faith that moves the Almighty to action. We see David's confidence in God displayed from verse 4. Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust.

The fourth aspect from Psalm 40 is found in verse 6. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire, mine ears hast thou opened. Here is the revelation aspect. David sees that it's better to obey than sacrifice.

His ears have been opened to be in tune with God's will and his daily ethics with God. And this is a wonderful segue into our next aspect, which is the concentration aspect of this psalm. Look at verse 7.

Consecration and a Life of Holiness

Then said I, lo, I come. Here David exercises consecration to God and a life of holiness unto him. In essence, he says, Lord, you can have all of me and all I have. Look, Lord, here I come to bow at the holy throne.

Delightful Obedience to God's Will

My life is a drink offering poured out unto thee, lo, I come. Now I want us to look at the sixth aspect, friends, which is the obedience aspect as seen in verse 8. David declares, I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart.

So there is a response from David from his deliverance to live his life in obedience to his God, in thanksgiving and service to him. David knows that obedience is required of him to walk with God. For in Amos it declares, can two walk together except they be agreed?

Witnessing and Proclaiming Righteousness

Now notice, friends, the seventh aspect, and that's the witnessing aspect as seen in verse 9. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation, lo, I have not refrained my lips. Listen to me, friends.

When a believer gets right with his God through a personal revival, then that person will be a soul winner for sure. When I study every great revival in history, I see that when the people of God get right with God, then they get on fire with God as soul winners for him.

Charles Fanny used to say that he doubted your faith in Christ, and if you were really a Christian, if you weren't a soul winner, so was C. David Zeal in witnessing for God. Like the Apostle Paul said, woe is me if I preach not the gospel.

Sanctification Through God's Mercy and Truth

Let's proceed further at number 8, the sanctifying aspect. Look at verse 11, withhold not thy tender mercies from me, O Lord, let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. David knew his spiritual bankruptcy, apart from God's word and God's spirit.

Rejoicing in God's Salvation and Deliverance

Let's press on, friends, to the ninth aspect of this psalm, and that is the rejoicing aspect. Look at verse 16. Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee. Let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified.

Resting in God's Care and Promises

Here David is seeing glorifying God, not only for his salvation, but also his deliverance and answer to his desperate prayers. Thanksgiving overflows from his heart to his God. And I want to end this message, friends, with the tenth aspect of Psalm 40, and that is the resting aspect.

Look at the final verse of this psalm, in verse 17. But I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and my deliverer. Make no tarrent, O my God. Here David sums up this psalm with complete confidence in his God.

David knows from experience about the divine delays, about the divine care, and he knows about his divine helper. He can now rest in the promises of God, and know he will see the goodness of God in the land of the living.

He knows experientially that God's word is true, and God is true to his word. So David, through penning this psalm, lets everyone know in future generations to come that there is a benefit from one's confidence in God, both in this life and the life to come.

I hope this has helped some of us as we trust our God to be who he declares himself to be. Let us pray.