(The Lord - Merciful and Gracious) 4. the Needy When He Crieth — Roy Hession

Daniel’s Prayer of Repentance in Babylon

I want us to read, as the background to our thought this morning, from the book of Daniel, chapter nine. Earlier on I said there were three great Old Testament prayers of repentance, Ezra nine, Nehemiah nine, and Daniel nine, and in chronological order Daniel prayed his prayer before Ezra and Nehemiah prayed theirs.

So we're going to look and have this as the background of our thoughts this morning. In the first year of Darius, you've got Daniel. I'm sorry we can't give you the page that they do in your church at hand.

Well you're going to have to keep turning. Daniel comes after Ezekiel, Ezekiel comes after Jeremiah, Jeremiah after Isaiah. I don't know, split the Bible in two and then keep turning a bit more over backwards and it comes.

Of course there's an absolute order and a reason for the order of the books of scripture. It's not haphazard. For instance, Psalms comes before Proverbs because the Psalms are written by David and Proverbs by his son Solomon.

And then Job comes before Psalms because Job is the oldest book in the Bible. So it is thought. And so it is with Daniel. We have kings and chronicles, the sad story of God's goodness to Israel but Israel's rebellion against that goodness and the wickedness of their kings and the ultimate judgment falling upon them, the whole nation, taken, deported into captivity.

They had an extraordinary experience with Israel. Was ever there a nation, did ever a God try to take one nation out of another nation as he has in your case? That's how they began. One nation was taken out of another, just as we've been taken out of the world.

And now, has it ever been heard, a whole nation being deported to another nation? And that's what happened to them. But they were deported with a promise. Their prophets told them it wouldn't be very long before they'd be back again.

So get ready to go. Put up a stiff resistance even in Babylon. And Jeremiah had to say nothing of the sort. You're there for longer than you think. It's going to be 70 years at least. So settle down. Submit to the discipline of God.

And seek the peace of the very country in which you are. And so this was the great promise which Israel had when that terrible calamity fell upon her. She went in, if she could believe it, with the promise that in 70 years she would return.

But they could hardly believe they ever would. At one time they could never believe they could be taken captive. All the prophets said, don't take that seriously. But it happened. The thing they believed never could happen.

And when it had happened, they never could believe they could be brought back again. And the prophets, well, had to tell them that promise, Isaiah and so on. Even before the captivity he saw them captive.

And before they were taken captive, he was speaking to them of a release from a captivity they had not yet got into. But they've got into it now. And here's Daniel, one of the captives. The godly were taken captive as well as the ungodly.

There was Daniel in faraway Babylon. In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

I'm not going to go into the whole matter of what he understood by books. He didn't need to go to the books to know it was going to be seventy years. People knew that. But was seventy years only going to be seventy years?

Was there not going to be a greater climax, merely than their initial and impartial return to Jerusalem? And he understood by books that those seventy years pictured another period, seven times seventy weeks, and each week a year.

And it was going to be 490 years before the course of God for Israel. And Jesus came, according to the prophecies that were given to Daniel. Now I'm not interested in that great subject. I think we ought to take Scripture as it is, and if this was part of the special study, I would go into Daniel's seventy weeks as much as you like.

I don't want to be limited only to one part of Scripture. I don't want to be a specialist on prophecy, or anything but Jesus. But as I read the Word, I'm going to go deep into any part in which I'm studying.

At the moment, we're not studying Daniel's seventy weeks. This is the chapter that speaks about it. Young Christians won't know what in the world I'm talking about, Daniel's seventy weeks. But old timers, who've heard much teaching on the second coming and prophecy, they'll know all the varying views, some of them a bit confusing, about Daniel, but it's in the Bible.

And in due course, when you come to it, go into it. But our question, our subject this morning, is Daniel's prayer. It fits in with our subject. And having realised that God had yet got a purpose for Israel, bigger than merely their immediate return, certainly there was the immediate return that was necessary at this particular point.

There'd be no move for any of Israel to go back. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments, we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgements.

Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee.

You've done right. We can't complain. But unto us, confusion of faces, as it is this day, to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel that are near and that are far off, through all the countries, whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.

O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, and to our kings, and to our princes and our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. But, hallelujah, to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness.

He's looking back to Exodus 34, where the Lord gave that expression of his own character, merciful, gracious, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. And here he is, one of the poor and needy, if ever there was one, the nation reduced to that state.

But here is the poor and needy, their representative, making their cry known to God. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him, neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walk in his laws, which is set before us by his servants the prophets.

Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice. Therefore, therefore, the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.

The curses, Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28, the most ghastly reading in the Old Testament. On the one hand, great blessings were promised them if they obeyed. Caution, most beautiful poetic language, but then it goes on, but if ye disobey, if you turn away from the Lord and seek after other gods, then are listed the curses.

And it's real difficult to finish the chapter. It's absolutely ghastly. So much so, under one reign, under one king, when they discovered the forgotten law of God in the temple, which had been so largely neglected, and they read those things, conviction came and the people wept.

And mighty reforms took place when they read of the curses that were prophesied to a people if they should turn away. And of course, they did turn away, and every one of the curses came to pass. In the fall of Jerusalem, it's sacking, and the taking captive of the people.

And because they transgressed, Daniel says, therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, because we have sinned against him, and he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judge us, by bringing upon us a great evil, for unto the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.

Probably no sacking ever so terrible as that which Jerusalem endured, as it is written in the law of Moses. All this evil has come upon us, yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth.

Therefore hath the Lord watched—here's the poor and needy praying—therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works. We can't quarrel with it.

It's what he said was going to happen, and we obeyed not his voice, and now, O Lord our God, that has brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and has gotten thee renown as it is this day.

We have sinned, we have done wickedly. O Lord, according to thy righteousness I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain, because for our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people have become a reproach to all that are about us.

Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, any supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, and do it for the Lord's sake. O my God, incline thine ear and hear, open thine eyes and behold our desolations and the city which is called by thy name, for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses.

We haven't got any, but what's the motivation of this great prayer of penitence? For thy great mercies. This was the knowledge that was given to Israel in the time of their distress. It's to that revelation of himself that they make their appeal.

O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, hearken and do, defer not, for thine own sake, O my God, for thy city and thy people are called by thy name. Now we're going to put that passage for a moment aside for later consideration, but I want to open up by telling you what our theme is this morning.

The Needy Who Cry to the Merciful God

The first morning it was the Lord, merciful and gracious. The second, ourselves, man, poor and needy. The third, we saw the Lord, the merciful and gracious, on the side of the poor and needy. And some of us began to rejoice again, I hope.

You saw hope. And now this morning, I want us to consider the subject of the cry of the needy, or rather, the needy when he cries. And I'm looking for that back to a passage we looked at yesterday, that famous messianic psalm, Psalm 72, verse 12, Psalm 72, verse 12,.

For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth. And that's our subject for this morning, listen, the needy when he crieth. I, this morning, went back to that story we thought about, about the young Spurgeon, but a youth, but under his ministry, London was shaken in a way it had not been shaken since the days of George Whitefield.

And his wife tells the story how they had to, he had to go to the bigger public hall while his own church was being remodeled, and how the crowd thronged and was filled and people on the sidewalks unable to get admission, while this young man preached grace for sinners to the people.

And she tells the stories I told you yesterday of how he took this psalm especially. I must read perhaps more than just that verse, let's read verse 12,. For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth, the poor also, and him that hath no helper, he shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy.

He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence, and precious shall their blood be in his sight. And verse 17, his name shall endure forever. And the young Spurgeon took this as text, his name shall endure forever.

It was a mighty utterance. He poured out his soul, and he ended up repeating his name shall endure forever. He virtually lost his voice, but he kept on uttering it, not Spurgeon or anybody else's name, his name, and he sank back exhausted.

Why should his name endure forever? This verse tells us,. For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth, the poor also, and him that hath no helper. That's why his name shall endure forever, for he's the one who delivers the needy when he crieth, the poor also.

The previous verse has the same message, yea, it says all kings shall fall down before him in his millennial reign, all nations shall serve him, for, for, for, the reason. He shall deliver the needy when he crieth.

This is that which makes our God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, great beyond comparison. Not because by Jesus the world was brought to the being, but by him hope was brought to the poor and needy.

His name shall endure forever, for he shall deliver the needy when he crieth. But listen, friend, the needy have got to cry. The needy when he crieth, not the needy when they have self-pity, not the needy when they feel sorry for themselves, not the needy when they're thinking up some way out of their problem, or just showing a stiff upper lip.

I don't know if there's any great merit in the stiff upper lip, it's supposed to be the feature of the British people, I don't know whether it is or not. God isn't very much impressed with a stiff upper lip, but what he wants is the needy when he, and so it's true.

He delivers the needy when he crieth, but the needy have got to cry. You get the same sweet thought in Exodus chapter 22, verse 26. Exodus 22, 26. And this is the time when God was giving his laws from Mount Sinai, when the Ten Commandments were given, and all sorts of statutes that were to regulate the corporate life of Israel.

And in verse 26, you have this, If thou at all take thy neighbour's raiment to pledge, and shall deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down, for that is his covering only. It is his raiment for his skin.

Wherein shall he sleep? And it shall come to pass when he crieth unto me that I will hear, for I am gracious. Here's the great God giving them the great moral standards, yes, but going down to details.

And here's a man who's in need of a loan, perhaps to buy some cattle for his farm, and there's not much of a cash flow, and he seeks a loan, it's all right. But he must give a pledge. And this man, the only pledge he's got is his raiment.

I'll give that as a payment, a pledge, that I'll repay. And amongst the poor that could well have happened. Men had to give some pledge, and in some cases it would be their raiment. But the great God, who's ordering all things, says, but you watch that each night you return that raiment.

Wherein shall he sleep? It's all he's got. He can't go to sleep naked. And it shall come to pass when he crieth unto me, I shall hear. He's one of the poor and needy. I shall cry. I wouldn't like to be at the other end of that prayer.

The one guilty of heartlessness and callousness. I wouldn't like to feel that there's another crying to God because of my treatment of him. I won't have to deal with him, I'll have to deal with that God.

But isn't that lovely? And it shall come to pass that when he crieth unto me, I, I will hear. For I'm always on the side of the poor and needy, for I am gracious. But listen, that poor man who's so deprived, and the object of the other man's indifference and callousness, he's got to cry.

And it come to pass when he crieth. And so it is we may see ourselves poor and needy in a very real situation. But man, you've got to cry. And our subject is the needy when he crieth. Just as a sort of diversion about this God who's merciful and gracious and seemed to be such in the very nature of his commandments.

The Law Reveals God’s Mercy and Grace

Do you know the Sermon of the Mount in the Old Testament? Well, it's Leviticus 19. Jesus made reference to it, I'm sure. It's Leviticus 19 that has the word, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. And though commands that are enjoined in Leviticus 19 all have added to them, for I am the Lord, because that very commandment is a revelation of my character.

And so we read in Leviticus 19 so many things. Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but thou shalt fear thy God, I am the Lord. You mustn't curse the deaf because they can't hear what you're saying.

You're taking advantage of their weakness, and you shall not do it! Because I'm like that. I'm merciful and gracious, and you are acting in a way the very opposite. And you shall not cast a stumbling block before the blind, they can't see what you put in their way.

What sort of a God can he be? Who utters such commands? And I'm only taking a few at random. Now this explains something that I found rather difficult. I'm in the psalms lately again, and I'm in the greatest psalm of the lot, psalm 119, the longest psalm in the Psalter.

And it's all about the word, and the Lord, and the commandments. And David says, Oh, how I love thy law! It shall be my meditation all the day. Why did he love the law so much? I mean to say, if the law is just the severe, inexorable Ten Commandments, can you say, I love the Ten Commandments?

Even the Sermon on the Mount, which has a higher standard than the Ten Commandments. I don't know why. I love the Sermon on the Mount. Well, I for one feel condemned by it, for I don't match up. But here is David, and he hasn't got as much as we have, and yet says, Oh, oh, oh, how I love thy law!

Do you know why? Why? Because he saw the law having these sorts of injunctions. And those injunctions showed him the character of the one who gave them. The one who cares for the man who hasn't got a raiment to put on.

He's had to leave it as a pledge. The man who cares, lest those with disabilities, should have those disabilities taken advantage of. And put it there. What a God! Even the law had a wonderful revelation of grace.

And there are many ways, we can't go into the details now, where David anticipates the new covenant. He who lived under the old anticipates the new. Take for instance, Psalm 119, all about the commandments, and the necessity of keeping them.

But you know, he all the time is praying for the work to be done in him first. Otherwise he won't be able to do anything about those commandments. David, did someone tell you about the new covenant that was coming?

A day when the law is not going to be on tables of stone, maybe? Is it going to be written on men's hearts? No, he hadn't heard it, but he'd anticipated it. And he knew, quicken thou me according to thy word.

Teach me thy word. I can't keep it unless you teach me and quicken me and do something in me. And here he is saying, oh, how I love thy law. Because in his sight, the character of the lawgiver, he saw that one to be merciful and gracious, inexorable in some ways in his demands on holiness, and yet, make of it what you will, merciful and gracious, concerned for the weak and the poor.

And David said, I love thy law because I love the law now, in whom I see it, and who gave it. And here we have then, and when a poor and needy crieth, I will hear. Now, we've been seeing ourselves as poor and needy.

Daniel’s Confession and the Witness Box of Repentance

We've been seeing that Jehovah, the merciful and gracious, is on the side of the poor and needy. On the side of the needy when he crieth, he's got to cry. He's got to cry. And you've got to learn how, as a poor and needy one, he delivers the needy when he cries.

And we read this morning that terrific prayer of repentance. Wasn't it terrific? Isn't it tremendous? I tell you, did ever man go into the witness box against himself like Daniel? And he wasn't even guilty of doing those things.

When Israel started on their road of apostasy, he was but a child, I imagine. In any way, part of the godly seed in any case. But he identified himself without reservation with the people. He said, we have sinned, and we have done wickedness.

Please turn the cassette over now. Do not fast-wind it in either direction. But he identified himself without reservation with the people. He said, we have sinned, and we have done wickedness. Here is the needy when he cries.

Not when he feels sad, not when he has self-pity, not when he's struggling, but when he cries. And the manner of his crying is to be of the order of Daniel's prayer. Now this is especially relevant when a man feels himself in some degree to being chastened by the Lord.

When God's hand is heavy upon him, his affairs, his home, his circumstances, his health, when God's hand is heavy upon his spiritual life, when heaven seems to be shut up, that there isn't any rain, and if he's poor and needy, it is sometimes due to what he's done, what he is.

It's not always so. I think this whole question of chastening is a very important one. It's got to be balanced. Chastening, the chastening of the Lord is always restorative and not punitive. So what have I done to deserve it?

I'm not doing this because you deserve it, but because you need it. There are areas in which I need to restore you. And sometimes it's true of the most godly and devoted. None of us can estimate the extent of the fall of man and the extent of the recovery that is needed in each one of us.

God began his recovery operation in you on the day you were born again, but it was only the beginning. It's not the work of a day. Right to the end of your days he's going to be recovering. That territory that self has taken, areas where self may still reign, and even in the most godly there are times when God wants to take them deeper and further.

Sometimes there are specific things which he needs to provoke them to repentance. Always understand that. It's never a punishment for the simple reason that they're not big enough to be regarded as an adequate punishment for sin.

The only adequate punishment for sin was what Jesus bore in his body on the tree. There's the punishment that sin deserves. But he's paid the price. It's done. He's finished it. But what isn't finished is the work of holiness in your life.

And he's not punishing you. That was anticipated and finished at the cross. You needn't be groveling and raking up your sins and think this is the reason. They're not raked up. But he wants to see the image of his son in us.

And there are things we're perhaps not seeing as sin. When I was in hospital after the accident about which you know something perhaps, the Lord said this is a chastening. And I didn't like to have to admit it was because it meant there were things, matters in which I needed to be restored.

I was poor and needy. But in that state there were things I needed to acknowledge. I'd been going easy on sin. My repentance had been superficial. And therefore the needy when he cried, surely he had to make some reference to that.

And the needy in Israel, in faraway Babylon, they didn't say oh Lord we're so unhappy here. No, no. In their representative they prayed in a deeper way than that. And we just read the needy when he cried in Daniel 9.

First of all there's the confession of sin. Absolutely unequivocable. Daniel 9 verse 5, we have sinned and we have committed iniquity. And have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts. Kings, princes, the lot.

He identifies himself. And I can see that if you are concerned that your church should be revived, if you feel the glory has departed, there ought to be a godly in that church who will pray and they won't say the others in the church have done wickedly.

We have. We identify ourselves and consider ourselves as guilty of wrong as they have. Daniel hadn't actually done it but he said we. And if it's a corporate matter, we don't only pray for them but us.

The needy when he cried. He's in a situation, in a corporate situation. We, we, we have done wickedly. We are not going to pick out which one's more than another. We have. More than that they then confess not only they've done wickedly but when God sent them prophets, rising up early and sending them as the quaint expression is, and hearkened.

And when judgment did fall upon them, it wasn't because they'd sinned but because having sinned, they wouldn't hearken to the prophets that called them to repent. And understand that. That's God's issue with you.

Not your sins so much as the fact that when conviction has come, when the prophetic word has come to your heart, you haven't heeded it. And for that reason, Israel were cast out of their land. And Daniel opens it up, tracks the whole thing up.

Oh, it's a lovely prayer. The needy when he cries. And then thirdly, he justifies God in all that's happened. Oh Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion effaces. Lord, you are right in what you've done.

In verse 14, you've got it. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us. Listen. For the Lord our God is righteous in all his work which he doeth. And if we've suffered the biggest catastrophe in history to date, you've done right.

You've done right. And if you're in the midst of a mess and a calamity, or certain circumstances, you do well to be ready to justify God in all that he's brought upon you. This is beautifully put, even clearer, in Nehemiah's prayer, or the prayer of the Levites in Nehemiah.

He's way back. He comes after the historical portions, chronicles, Nehemiah. Ezra and Nehemiah. And chapter 9, verse 33. He's praying in much the same way as Daniel did. It's the Levites praying. And in verse 32,.

Now therefore our God, the great, the mighty, the terrible God, who keepeth covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria, unto this day, how be it, listen to this, how be it, thou art just in all that is brought upon us, for thou hast done right, but we've done wickedly.

What a great word. The thing concerned may not be a tremendously important thing. It may be that you've lost out, and now you haven't got anything for other people, and yet you're supposed to be in the Lord's service.

I'm in a bad state, Lord. You've allowed the heavens to be shut, but thou hast done right in all that you've brought upon us, for thou hast done right, and I, I have done wickedly. That's always an important element in confession.

One, the sin. Two, more importantly, the fact you've neglected the word that called you to repent, and you haven't. And then also, you justify God. Thou hast done right. We have done wickedly. Did ever man go more wholeheartedly into the witness box against himself and against his people?

Do you know the path to that witness box ought to be well trodden? You really have got to take, that's the confession, that's the needy when he cries, they go into the witness box against themselves. Of course, not always is the situation of the poor and needy of this order, but in measure, in some measure it sometimes is, perhaps more often than we realise.

Mercy Rather Than Self-Justifying Justice

Listen, the witness box is open to you. Walk right in. Take God's side against yourself, and justify him. I've known people justify God in taking a beloved one, for if that loved one hadn't been taken, I never would have found the Lord.

Oh Lord, you've done right. I've done wickedly, but you've been merciful and gracious to me. You've brought wonderful good out of what was such a tragedy. He hears, he delivers the needy when he cries.

Can you imagine him not? Can you imagine a man praying like this, not reaching God's heart? Someone misunderstood that saying of mine. It wasn't mine, I quoted it from someone else. Mercy is God's weak point.

Now when I first read that, I found no problem in it. I don't know why you do. It's a manner of speech. It really brought it home to me. If I appeal to God's power, or his righteousness, I may not get much of a response, but if I appeal to his mercy, ah, that's another thing.

He can't resist me. Mercy, Lord. You know the old story much told by preachers? The man who went to have his photo taken, brushed his hair, straightened his tie, and said to the photographer, I hope you'll do me justice.

And the photographer said, Sir, excuse me saying so, but what you need is not justice, but mercy. Ah, when you don't ask for justice. Lord, look how they're wronging me. I want justice. Lord, my attitudes have all been wrong.

What I need is mercy. He can't resist you. Because it says, he delighteth in mercy. He rubs his hands with joy to find a new opportunity to say mercy. And the poor and needy, when they cry, that's what they're after.

But they go right down to the bottom of things. Thou hast done right, and we have done wickedly. And he goes tremendous lengths, he said, under the whole heaven, hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.

Thou hast done right. He was in fulfillment of the word. We've done wickedly. You say, confessions like this are pretty morbid, aren't they? No. Not if you're making such a confession to the one you now see in a way you never did before, to be merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin.

It was only because Daniel knew that Israel's God, Jehovah, was such a God that he could afford to put the worst complexion possible on Israel's sin. Most of us want to put the best complexion. Daniel, the poor and needy, they don't do that.

The needy, when he cries, if he's wrong, he's very ready to tell God so. Because the one he's telling is the comforting God, the God of sinners, the God that's gracious. And so he cries, Incline thine ear, open thine eyes, behold thy desolations, and do it for thy righteousness' sake, for thy great mercies.

Defer not for thine own sake, for thy city and the people that are called by thy name. And two years after, I worked it out. In my Bible, it's got the dates, Usher's dates. Some scholars think, well, you can't trust Usher.

Well, he's good enough for me. I don't know about the others, but those are the rough dates. And Daniel prayed this prayer in B .C. 538. And two years later, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus, king of Persia, to make an edict that the people of Israel were to go back and rebuild that temple in Jerusalem and pray for the king's life.

And the whole process of recovery was set in motion. And it began with this man, Daniel. The needy, when he crieth. It sounds pretty terrific, the prayer like this, but don't make too much of it. Don't make heavy weather of it.

Really, you ought to have got into the habit, more frequently, of going into that witness box against yourself. Just slip in. Say, yes, Lord. You're right. I'm wrong. Indeed, I can't say enough of how little is necessary on our part to receive so much from God.

It's out of all proportion. God's answer to the mustard seed of faith and the mustard seed of repentance is out of all importance to that pathetic, low prayer. And I sometimes felt as if the Lord says to me, I've come, Roy, in answer to your prayer.

But, Lord, I haven't prayed. I felt too weak to pray. I felt too dry to pray. I've come in answer to your prayer, but I haven't prayed, not really. And the Lord says, tell me, did you sigh? Oh, yes, Lord, I did sigh over my condition.

And was it just a little bit of a glance I put in your sight? Well, not much more than a glance. I was so low. That's all right. That was your prayer. That's the needy when he cries. He saw me plunged in deep distress, says the hymn.

He flew to my relief. Oh, the needy when he cries. And that's what he's got to hear. It may be a little more than a cry, a very poor bit of repentance, but just the fact you're in a jam, things are down, things have gone wrong and you're suffering.

And where there's been lack in you, well, I suppose there's probably been lack in the way you've taken your suffering. Hasn't been the sweetest way, has it? Worry and so on. All right. They did all come out.

And he delivers the needy when he cries. And do you know, a sigh is sometimes enough, and he flies to your relief. And so it is, the poor and the needy are the recipients of the attentions and the ministries of the merciful and gracious.