Sermon
Past Triumphs & Present Troubles
June 8, 2003
Pastor Donald Sheley

I'm going to ask you to take your Bibles, if you'd like. Psalm 40, and David says: I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined His ear to me, And heard my cry. He also brought me out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth-- Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the LORD. Blessed is that man who makes the LORD his trust, And does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. Many, O LORD my God, are Your wonderful works Which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us Cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered.

Sacrifice and offerings You did not desire; My ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. Then I said, "Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart." I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness In the great assembly; Indeed, I do not restrain my lips, O LORD, You Yourself know. I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth From the great assembly.

Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O LORD; Let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have surrounded me; My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up; They are more than the hairs of my head; Therefore my heart fails me. Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; O LORD, make haste to help me! Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion Who seek to destroy my life; Let them be driven backward and brought to dishonor Who wish me evil. Let them be confounded because of their shame, Who say to me, "Aha, aha!" Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; Let such as love Your salvation say continually, "The LORD be magnified!" But I am poor and needy; Yet the LORD thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer; Do not delay, O my God.

To our notes. I suggest that David, in this Psalm, tells us of times in his life where he was stuck in the slimy pit, bogged down in mud and mire, and then was rescued by God, who set his feet on a rock and gave him a firm place to stand. Now the man who writes this is the David, the blessed, beloved king of Israel who reigned powerfully and well for forty years. He was installed, and he was blessed, and he was approved by God, who called him "a man after His own heart." So there is one great lesson that we learn right off from this Psalm, and that is, even the greatest saints have times when it seems that life's journey has taken them into slimy pits, and mud and mire, experiences that break the heart and blind the eyes with tears.

Now the Psalm we are studying today has been considered by many scholars to be what is known as a Messianic Psalm, that is, it's a psalm prophetic of Jesus Christ. Great men like Augustine, Spurgeon, Pettingill and Ironside were convinced that this Psalm was a messianic Psalm in that in the book of Hebrews there is a quote from this Psalm and it's reference to the Christ. Many other great scholars do not agree with that particular position. It really is not important to discuss. I think more interesting is the question that concerns the relationship of this Psalm 70, which is almost a repetitive of verses 13 through 17, of the Psalm we have before us.

Psalm 70 reads: "Hasten, O God, to save me; O Lord, come quickly to help me. May those who seek my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. May those who say to me. Aha! Aha! turn back because of their shame. But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say, "Let God be exalted!" Yet I am poor and needy; come quickly to me, O God."

Now you can immediately see the great similarities between the two. A number of Bible scholars think that Psalm 40, which we are studying this morning, was originally two psalms, verses 1 through 12 being the first and verses 13 through 17 being the second. They believe that they were put together somewhat awkwardly by an unknown editor. And they think this to be awkward because the first part speaks of deliverance from the pit as well as the second.

Now it's equally possible, I believe, this is actually the case that Psalm 70 was detached from the longer psalm in order to salvage it for general use in a later period. Remember as the study the psalms they are the songs of the ancient people. So it would be quite natural to find a particular psalm where they used it in the earlier portions of their worship to take a section out and put it in the later portion, and maybe that's the reason why we have the two almost identical set of verses in Psalm 40 as well as 70.

Psalm 40 has three very clear sections: the opening, which is a joyful testimony of God's past deliverance; and then we have the present reflection on God's goodness; and then the prayer for God's deliverance in the future. Now the very first verse tells us a great deal about the subject of prayer. David said, "I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and He heard my cry." The expression, "I waited patiently", might suggest that in the original we translate it "waiting, I waited", or what David was really saying,"I waited and I waited and I waited and I waited, and He heard me".

He also writes, "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. And He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patently for Him; fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evildoers shall be cut off; but those that wait, and wait, and wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth".

"Yes Lord", writes Isaiah, "walking in the way of Your law, we wait for You; Your name and renown are the desire of our hearts." And again, "O Lord, be gracious to us; we long for You, Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress".

And so one of the great secrets of understanding prayer is patience in waiting for God's time and God's way. And that's one of the very difficult things that all of us deal with, I think, in prayer. We're children of time. We are hemmed in with schedules and we've got pressures, and we've got things that have got to happen in a time frame that's very important to us. So we bring our prayer request to God and we say, God, I've got to have an answer. It's got to be by tomorrow morning. But God is an eternal God and His schedule is often different than ours. David said, I waited, and I waited.

As I was writing these, I thought of a prayer that I've been praying for 44 years. As you know it's my joy to come here early in the morning at 5 o'clock in the morning, and I have all these years, most of the time -- I miss a few. It's always been my prayer, God, I ask You in some glorious way to bring about a great spiritual awakening in this, our community. You can go back and study the history of San Francisco and this area, and I don't think you'll find a record of a great spiritual move in 150 years. So it's my prayer; God, I want to see that day arrive when Your spirit moves so mightily upon his area that thousands will come marching into Your kingdom. That's my prayer dear God. And now as I get closer to the end of my journey and my hair is turning gray and my steps more feeble that they were 30 years ago, I find myself praying; dear God, may it be before You call me home I get to see that glorious move of Your holy Spirit. That's my prayer, and I've waited, and I've waited, and I've waited. But it's going to happen.

The Scriptures say, "The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride". "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer", writes Paul. And the writer to the Hebrews says, "You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised". James writes, "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."

Now dropped down just a few lines with me -- down about two-thirds. David said, I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and He heard me and He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet on a rock and established my goings. David said, God does answer prayer. And I think if we took time this morning a number of you folks could stand and say, Pastor, I relate to what David is saying because there was a situation in my life and it went on for a long period of time. It seemed like I was stuck in the pit, then God heard me and He delivered me, and God does answer prayer.

One day a great Pastor down in the First Baptist Church in Dallas -- his name was Dr. Truitt, a tremendous preacher -- many of his sermons are still in book form and I have them. He has an auditorium that seats 8000 and it's jammed many times on Sunday. And old Dr. Truitt decided one Sunday he was going to preach on the subject, or on the Scripture verse, from Matthew 18:19; if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. When the great old preacher finished his text he started his sermon with this question: Do you believe it! Now he didn't expect an answer, but he got one, and before he could go on with his sermon a little lady sitting in that vast auditorium, just a very poor little dishwasher, stood and said, Yes! Pastor I believe it! And I'm asking you to claim that promise with me for my unsaved husband. Now that stopped the service. And across the auditorium was an old blacksmith and he jumps up and says, yes Addie, I join with you and I'll agree. And he got up from his place, walked across that vast auditorium, and the two of them got down in the aisle and they raised their hand and said, God, save this man. Now when their prayer meeting was over, the service went on.

Well that man was a captain on a boat that cruised up and down the Rio Grande River, but he is home this weekend. He's sleep off a night of drinking. So Addie goes home. When he awakens he says to his wife, I think I'll go to church tonight. She already knows the answer is on the way, and she hurries off to church and Dr. Truitt preaches and when he finishes, that's the first man who walked forward and gave his life to Jesus Christ. And the records of that church show that man served year after year in faithfulness and in loving service to God. That little lady prayed and prayed, and God answered prayer.

Now you'll never read this in the history books in your classroom -- during the Civil War President Lincoln realized that the battle at Gettysburg was going to be a very decisive battle. President Lincoln went to prayer. He spent all night in prayer. And the next day while he's around the office and his messages are coming to him, those that surrounded him were so impressed with the tremendous calmness that the president had. One of his generals said to him, President, why are you so calm? And his answer was, I spent last night Sir before my God in prayer, and He has given me the assurance that our cause will triumph.

God does answer prayer, and that's what David is telling us. He is saying I prayed, but I realize that God is a sovereign God and He's got a timetable, and He's going to do everything beautiful in His time. And as for us -- to trust in Him. My wife has always had as her very favorite verse, cast all your burden, your cares upon Him. For He careth for you. So David is saying I waited, and I waited, and He heard me. And He delivered me out of a miry pit. Now none of us know what that pit was, but it was some deep experience through which David went. God brought him out of it.

And David said when God brought me out He set my feet steadfastly and now I'm walking again with confidence, and not only with confidence, he says, now I have a great -- I have a song, He put a new song in my heart. You and I know that life's pits can rob us of the song, but when the pit has been conquered and we're on our way marching for Jesus there's a song that returns. And I watch people who walk into this auditorium who've been in the pit of sin for years and God transforms them, and the result is they can join with us and sing, Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the lamb. Redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child forever I am. When He brings us out of the pit He gives us a song.

And lastly, I have to close. David in verse 6 says, sacrifices and burnt offerings You really don't want. Here's what he is saying, he is saying I lived amongst a worship pattern of ritual and offerings and oft times sacrifices, and oft times it's just simply participating in those rituals. But he said now that I've come out of the pit and I realize the glorious faithfulness of God, my experience with God is much deeper. It's now in my heart. And you know ladies and gentlemen, I think every one of us will agree that when life wields us some of those pits of difficulty and distress, tears, we would agree with David that it's in those experiences of life He draws us closer to Him and we know Him better. And I'll tell you folks, I can honestly say that it's been the deep, dark pits through which I've traveled that is what has brought me closer to God. And I thank Him for those pits.

David said, now His law is in my heart and His delight is something that flows from within, not just a religion that I participate on the outside. Some of us have gone through those experiences. Some of us have gone through the loss, but when we can come to the sanctuary and somehow God has carried us through we can sing "It is well, it is well with my soul". The pit taught us to appreciate our God more. Amen? Let's prayer.

Father, thank you for life's experiences that draw us close to You, and for some who today may be experiencing some very difficult experiences in life, hear their prayer, surrounded them with Your peace, and bring them forth with a song. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you all. God bless you.