In Revelation chapter 21-4, God says to His people, one of the great promises that has brought over the years so much comfort to the people of God, this is what the Lord says. He'll wipe away every tear from their eyes and there will no longer be any death, there will no longer be any more mourning or crying or pain. He said the first things have passed away. That's something every Christian is looking forward to. But it's really, it's hard to imagine a world where there's no more pain and sorrow that exists. But that will be the case in heaven because sin will be gone. Sin will not be there. But until then, reality is there's going to be lots of tears, lots of pain, Death. And the reason for this is not simply because we live in a fallen world and therefore we experience the effects of the fall that's common to all people, like disease and death. I mean, that's part of it. But in addition to all the hurts and pains common to all humans, those who believe in Jesus Christ, those who are Christians, we do experience the pain of persecution, in whatever form it takes. And that persecution will often cause tears, and mourning, and in many cases, death. Jesus warned us that persecution would be the experience of all of his followers. He said in Matthew chapter 10, starting in verse 16, Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. And beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues. and you'll even be brought before governors and kings for my sake as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles." And then again in John 15 verse 20, at the end of our Lord's ministry, he said, remember the word that I said to you, a slave is not greater than his master. If they persecute me, they will also persecute you. It was the Apostle Paul who told Timothy, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. And to some new converts, Paul said, through many tribulations, we shall enter the kingdom of God. That is to say, it's not going to be smooth sailing. There'll be hurts and pains and tribulation. And so the Bible is very, very, very clear that we can expect persecution for our faith in Christ. And since persecution is a reality for us, the scriptures also tell us a great deal about how to respond to persecution, how to handle persecution, how to react to it. However, there is no place in the Bible that we see as much written about how to handle persecution as we do in Psalm 119. So let's turn there. It might surprise you about this, because it's all over the Bible, especially the New Testament about handling persecution. But in Psalm 119, it's almost in every verse. And the reason for this is because most of the 176 verses of this psalm are devoted to telling us how the psalmist was persecuted and how he managed to deal with that. Now for those of you who were here when we began studying this psalm back in April of this year, you might recall that I told you at that time that my original plan was to do just a brief survey of Psalm 119, but not the whole psalm. because I thought it's so long and I was afraid that it might just become a wearisome and tedious study. But the reason I initially felt that way was because I assumed from my very limited understanding of Psalm 119 that this psalm was simply about the Word of God in sort of a generic factual sense. I thought it was similar to a course that one has to take at Bible College Seminary known as Bibliology, the study of the Bible in which you learn about the various features of the Bible. Like what does it mean that it is revelation? What does it mean inspiration? What does it mean that it is inerrance? Things like that. And so I felt that if I took up all 176 verses and spoke on just the facts and the features of Scripture, that by repetition alone you would just get bored and tired of it. But then, through my studying of this psalm, I discovered that Psalm 119 is not about the mere facts of scripture, the features of it, nor is it simply a bunch of repetitive statements about general truths concerning the Bible. Psalm 119 is about this man. He's unnamed, we don't know who he is, but the author of this psalm who is struggling in life. He's going through a lot of pain. And the way he deals with his struggles is by the Word of God. That's the background of this psalm. So what we have here in Psalm 119 is really a very dynamic psalm with lots of drama concerning how the Word of God impacts this man in his struggles. It's just loaded with practical information, relevant lessons for those of us who are Christians and will be going through, at least in principle, similar things. You see, the struggles he's going through, they're not the common problems that assault and assail all human beings, but rather his problems stem from being persecuted by those who have some type of authority over him, probably Gentile chieftains in Babylon who ruled over the Jewish people during the time of Israel's captivity. And this man's persecutions came in the form of being lied about, slandered, mocked, ridiculed, taunted for his faith, and even having his life threatened with murder and what we've been able to see in the many months that we've been studying Psalm 119 is the godly way this man responds to his persecution and it always comes down to his relationship with the Word of God so that scripture being the voice of God to him It becomes his comfort, his encouragement, his source of strength, his refuge, his delight, and everything else that he needs. Now this morning as we continue our study of this incredible Psalm, giant though it may be, it is incredible. We find ourselves in one of the most interesting of all the stanzas of Psalm 119. Because although we've arrived, as I told you last week, we've arrived at the midway point of the psalm what this man reveals to us in this stanza tells us that this is the lowest point in his life it's midway through the psalm it's the lowest point in his life and we know that it's the lowest point because we've not seen the psalmist express anywhere else such anguish of soul like he does here see it's here in these verses verses verse 81 through verse 88 that he tells us that he felt as if God had forgotten and abandoned him. And I read it to you before. I read it last week. I'm not going to take the time to read it now. We'll go through it this morning. But as I told you last Sunday, what we learn from these words in this stanza is that this man has grown weary he's tired from waiting on God to deliver him from his his enemies he tells us that in verse 81 his soul languishes for God's salvation which means that he's he's just exhausted he's drained from waiting so long for God to to finally fulfill his word to him by rescuing him he says his eyes fail because they become strained. He keeps looking and looking and looking for just some, some glimmer of hope that God has arisen and is about to intervene and rescue him in fulfillment of his word. But he sees nothing at all, no evidence that God is doing anything to set him free from his persecutors. That's why he tells us in verse 83 that he has become like a wineskin in the smoke, which we went over last week. Meaning that he feels like he's just a forgotten wineskin bottle. He's been just left to dry on the rafters, neglected, overlooked, forgotten, ignored. See, what this man is telling us is that he's feeling something. And it's what every believer goes through at times. He's feeling as if God has forgotten him. As if God doesn't care about him. As if God has just left him in this horrific, situation without any indication that he's ever going to intervene and deliver him. That's how he feels, but he knows better than that. He feels a certain way, but he knows better than that. He knows that God will never forsake him, and he knows this because he knows the word of God. Notice in verse 81, he says, I wait for your word. Verse 82, my eyes fail in longing for your word. So based on his knowledge of the word of God, he's hanging on to some promise. Some promise from God's word that the Lord is going to come to his rescue. And as I told you last Sunday, he doesn't reveal what promise it is. He doesn't tell us what specific promise he has in mind. But listen, the Old Testament is filled with similar promises that God comes to the aid of his children. And the Psalms contain so many of these promises. For example, and maybe this man is thinking of this, we don't know, but there's the famous Psalm 23 where David says in verse 1 and then verse 4, he says, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He doesn't want anything because God has provided everything for him. And then these very comforting words, of verse four, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for you are with me. Then there in those wonderful words of Psalm 46, one, verse one, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. In verse 11, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold, Selah. Think on this. Now, it's promises like these that told this man that regardless of how bad he felt, of how bad his situation was, regardless of how hopeless things looked, regardless of how low he felt, he had hope. And he had hope because the Word of God gave him this hope, and he believed God's Word. And it is this belief in the Word of God, this unshakable confidence that he has, that God actually keeps His Word, that becomes the primary lesson of these verses. As he tells us what he did in relation to Scripture that kept him going even when he felt so down, so low, so down in the dumps. And that's why this stanza, folks, it's so important to us. It's so relevant for us because we can certainly relate to how this man was feeling. We can identify with him. Most of us have found ourselves in circumstances that, from a human standpoint, they look absolutely hopeless. We know what it's like to be in so much pain, whether physical or emotional, that it just feels as if God's not there, as if he doesn't care about us. It feels as if he's just forgotten us and he's left us to drown in our misery. But it's times like that, like those times, when you just have to disregard your feelings of hopelessness and despair, and what do you do? You do what this man did. By faith, you cling to the Word of God. That's what this man does, as he tells us from his own experience, the various courses of action that he took in relation to Scripture when he felt abandoned by the Lord. There are actually four courses of action he tells us about. Last week we looked at two of them, so let me quickly review and then we'll move on to the third and fourth. First, he tells us that he fixed his hope on God's word. Verses 81 and 82. My soul languishes for your salvation. I wait for your word. My eyes fail with longing for your word, while I say, when will you comfort me? As you can see from these two verses, he's been waiting, as we said, he's been looking, he's been longing, For God to rescue him and to bring him some comfort, but to no avail. He sees nothing on the horizon coming. No evidence of God intervening and bringing him out of this mess. But in spite of the lack of evidence, he sees nothing. The one thing he continues to do, as he tells us, he fixes his hope on God's Word being true. And he doesn't move from that hope no matter what he feels or how bad it gets. Although he can't see anything happening, he doesn't move from his faith in God's word. And the reason for this is because he knows that God's word is absolutely true. In fact, though we are jumping ahead of ourselves, I want to show you something. Notice what the psalmist says at the beginning of the next stanza, verses 89 and 90. Forever, O Lord, your word is settled. in heaven. Your faithfulness continues throughout all generations. You establish the earth and it stands." Now, next week we're going to look in more detail at these verses, but for right now we need to see what the psalmist believed concerning the Word of God. He's telling us he knows it'll never change. It is permanent, it's settled, and that God being faithful is committed to keeping all of his promises to His people in every generation. Thy word, O Lord, is settled in heaven." It's permanent. So here was a man who believed the Bible, because he believed that God spoke, and what he spoke is truth. And he refused to stop believing, even though he was hurting, and so down, and all of his emotions cried out, that he felt abandoned, and forgotten, and forsaken by God. In spite of that, he fixed his hope. on Scripture, by faith, because he knew that God was faithful to keep His promises. Listen, there are times when the integrity of God is all you can cling to. When everything seems to be falling apart, you cling to the Word of God and the integrity of God that He keeps His Word. And that's all you need to cling to. That's all we have, that's all we need to cling to, because God is faithful and He will do exactly what he promised to do. That's why Jesus said, I am the truth. And the Lord said, Father, thy word is truth. He cannot, and he will not, lie to you. But in addition to fixing his hope on God's word, the second course of action that the psalmist tells us he took in relation to scripture is that he refused to forget God's word. Notice he says in verse 83, though I have become like a wineskin in the smoke, I don't forget your statutes." So in spite of feeling like an unused and neglected wine bottle, wineskin, who's just been left out to dry, just hanging in a room, and then taking in smoke from the fireplace of that room, being completely forgotten and overlooked and ignored, he says, I will not forget your word. What he's doing is making a contrast between how he feels, ignored, overlooked, forgotten by God, and what he does? He refuses to ignore, overlook, or forget the Word of God. That is to say, he's telling the Lord, even though it appears, Lord, as if you've forgotten me, I will never forget your Word. I'll keep believing it. I'll keep trusting it. I'll keep looking to your promises, and I will keep obeying what you say. Now, as we observed last week, no true hurry for God to come to his aid. Why there's such a sense of urgency in looking and waiting and praying for God to come? It's because he's afraid that these men might kill him any day. And we know this is what's on his mind, and it's the reason he asked the Lord, how many are the days of your servant? Because he tells us in the very next verse of his precarious predicament, Notice in verse 85, he says, the arrogant have dug pits for me, men who are not in accord with your law. He says that arrogant men, and who are those? These are his persecutors. They've dug pits for him. What does he mean, dug a pit? He means like hunters who catch wild animals by digging pits for them to fall into. So these men have dug a pit, a hole in the earth, to trap and then kill him. They're hunting him. And then he adds that these men are not in accord with your law. Well, of course they aren't. Because if they were, they would never do this to one of God's servants. But these are evil men. These are terrible men. As I've contended throughout the Psalms, these men appear to be Babylonian pagans, some type of princes, he tells us earlier, some type of government chieftains, who continuously have persecuted this righteous Jewish man. In previous verses, as you'll recall, he's described his persecutors and the terrible way they have treated him. He's told us that they hate him. And in verse 22, the reason he says they hate him is because He observes the word of God. It's not his personality, it's not personal. They hate him because of his faith in God, the scriptures. These are pagan men who hate this Jewish man because he loves the Lord and he loves his word. He's told us also that they sit around and they talk against him. And the things that they say are lies and they're slanders. They're hurtful things. He tells us that in verse 23 and verse 69. He's also told us that these men mock Him, and they taunt Him for His faith. He's told us that in verses 42 and 51. And on top of all of this, I mean, if that's not enough, He's told us, and He continues to tell us, that they're threatening to end His life, and it could happen any moment. We first learned of this in verse 17, and now here in verse 87, He says, They almost destroyed Me on the earth. So no wonder this man, is so eager for God to come to his aid and execute justice on these men by ending this persecution. It has been so difficult for him. And as he's told us in other verses, it left him emotionally crushed to the point where it brought him to tears. This is a man going through a horrific situation. So, this is true persecution. this is not they just didn't like him this is persecution from unbelievers and what I want us to do for a few minutes is to consider two issues related to persecution issue number one is this why are believers actually persecuted by unbelievers why does it even exist this persecution of Christians and number two do those who persecute us actually have the power to take our lives this man's life was in danger So let's consider the first issue. Why are believers persecuted by unbelievers? Another way to put this, and I say this to provoke your thinking, is this, if people don't believe in Christianity, if they don't believe in the Bible, if they don't believe in Jesus, if they think that there's nothing to our faith, then why would they concern themselves about our faith? Why would they be so angry, so hostile towards someone who does believe in Christ? I mean, if you thought that there was nothing to the Bible, to Christ, to the message of salvation, then why would you exert so much energy and be so adamant in opposing it? I mean, why don't you just say, forget it. It's nothing anyway. So why do I really care? But people do care. So let's think about this. To understand the persecution of Christians, it's important, first of all, to realize that everyone is born being hostile towards God. Everybody. Therefore, they are hostile against everything and everyone that reflects God and His standards. Now, I know we hear sometimes from people, I've always loved God. That's not true. People may have loved the God they created in their minds, but not the God of the Bible. Scripture says we're born into this world hating God. Even if we don't even acknowledge that God exists, we hate Him. Romans 8, 7 says, because the mind set on the flesh, talking about unbelievers now, is hostile towards God. For it does not subject itself to the law of God. It's not even able to do so. It's opposed to God, doesn't submit to Him, doesn't even have the capacity to submit to Him. Paul expands on this hostility towards God in Ephesians 2 verses 1 through 3. This is what we all were before conversion. in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, that's Satan, of the spirit that's now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." Paul says we were dead towards God. And we all lived in rebellion towards Him. We expressed that rebellion by living in what Paul calls the lust, the desires of the flesh and the mind. We did whatever we wanted to do, whatever we felt would give us pleasure and fulfillment and satisfaction. This is the attitude of every single unsaved person, without exception. And the only way this attitude of defiance and rebellion towards God ever changes is when the Lord regenerates us. That's what it means to be born again. Regeneration is simply the fact that God sovereignly plants His life, spiritual life, eternal life within us as He brings us to faith in Christ. so that we now begin to be transformed from those who once opposed God to those who now love Him. Paul goes on in Ephesians 2 verses 4 and 5 to speak of this. He has just told us that we were dead in our trespasses and sins, rebellious, defiant. Now he says, but God, but God, meaning but God intervened, but God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions. Even when we were dead, He made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. It is the sovereign act of God that brings about new life and regeneration. We were dead. We had nothing to do with this. But the vast majority of the population have never been regenerated. Every believer has been regenerated, but the vast majority of people on this planet have never been regenerated, and so they continue to hate God, and this hatred is often expressed by hating and persecuting believers in Jesus Christ. They can't go after Him anymore, so they come after us. Jesus spoke of this. I want to read to you John 15 again, verses 18 through 20. This is the Lord, some of the Lord's last teaching to his disciples, the apostles, getting them ready to face a very hostile world. If the world hates you, you know it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they'll persecute you also. If they kept my word, they'll keep yours also. It is a fact, Jesus said, that the world, and the thought is, if the world hates you, it's really since the world hates you, not if, like it might be, but since, because it's a fact. It is a fact that the world, meaning the world of unbelievers, society, unsafe society, they hate Jesus. They hate Jesus Christ. therefore they hate those who follow him. And the reason they hate him and us is because what we believe, listen closely, what we believe and how we conduct ourselves is a rebuke to them. Notice once again verse 19, I think this is one of the most helpful verses to understand why people who reject Christianity still are so hostile to those who accept it and accept Christ. If you were of the world the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you." Now let me explain. Our Lord tells us that he has chosen us out of the world to be his followers. This is God's sovereign choice. He's chosen us to be his followers. But he said, if we were still of the world, meaning if we were still lost, if we were still unsaved, and if we still lived and thought like the unsaved of the world still thinks and lives, he said, if you still were in the world and you were like the world, the world would love you. The world would embrace you. And the reason they would love us is because by the way we live, the way we think, we would be reinforcing and reaffirming how they live and think. We would all be in agreement. We'd be of one mind. But Jesus said, you're not like that anymore. I chose you out of the world. You're different. I've transformed you so that we don't think and behave like the world anymore. We think differently. We behave, our conduct is different than we used to behave and think and conduct ourselves. Now, we have different standards. We have different desires than the unsaved. We have different ambitions. We have different affections. The things that we love, it's not what the world loves. We have different morals, certainly. We have a different world view. Everything about us is different and distinct. And because we are so different from the world, they hate us for it. Because our new way of thinking and living It serves as a reprimand to them, as a rebuke for the way they think and live. We have rejected that. We've said, I used to be there, but no, not anymore. And they hate us for it. This becomes even clearer by what Jesus said in John chapter 3. In John 3, 19 and 20, he said, this is the judgment that the light, he is the light, has come into the world and men loved the darkness rather than the light. For their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. Jesus tells us that people love their sin. They don't want the light exposed on their sin. They want to continue in their sin. They don't want to repent. They don't want to change. They don't want to turn. And when they hear us telling them about Christ and repentance, which means forsake your sin and the gospel, and that God commands them to repent and turn to Him. And then they not only hear us telling them that, but they observe that we live out the truths of Christ and the gospel. They're just going to lash out in hatred and anger at us because they are infuriated by anyone who threatens their lifestyle of disobedience to God. That is the issue. They take it personally. And when you add Satan, the devil to the mix, he who is God's archenemy and the epitome of evil, he often incites unbelievers who already hate Christ and his followers, he incites them often to persecute them by actually killing them, murdering them. This is where it comes from. Jesus said in John 8 that Satan is the father of unbelievers and he said he was a murderer from the beginning. What does he mean by that, from the beginning? Well, it appears to be a reference to the murder of Abel by his brother Cain at the very beginning of human history. First John 3 writes about this, tells us about this in verses 10 through 13. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain. So the Apostle John reaches all the way back to the early chapters of Genesis and he says, not as Cain, who was of the evil one. That is, he was of the devil. And he slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? What reason did he kill Abel? Because his, meaning Cain's, deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous. Then John adds, don't be surprised brethren if the world hates you. So Cain murdered Abel out of jealousy because his deeds were evil and his brother's deeds were righteous. In other words, Abel's life was a rebuke to Cain. So Cain killed him for it. But Satan was behind it all. He was the instigator of this. Cain didn't come up with this on his own. And just as Satan put into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray Christ, and just as he put into the heart of the Jewish and then Roman leaders to kill Christ, he is behind all of that. And this is why the world persecutes believers, and this is why the writer of Psalm 119 experienced such hostility against himself and his faith in the God of Israel and the God of the Scriptures, even to the point where his persecutors wanted to kill him. It brings us then to a second question. Do those who persecute us actually have the power to take our lives? And the answer is that they can and they sometimes do kill believers, but only if God in His sovereign plan and will permits them to do this. See, the Bible makes it very clear that no one is going to die a moment before God has ordained for them to die. God has ordained the moment you're born. He has ordained the moment you die. It's a good thing we don't know when that is. Matthew 6, 27 says this, Jesus said, and who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? What a profound statement. Of course you can't add a single hour to your life? Job 14.5, I love this, since his days are determined, meaning a man's days are determined, the number of his months is with you, meaning you God, and his limits you've set so that he cannot pass it. No one's going to live a moment longer than God has sovereignly planned for them to live. And then this marvelous statement in Psalm 31 verse 15, David writes this surrounded by his enemies who want to kill him. He says, my times are in your hands. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me. David recognized that his time, meaning his time on earth, his lifespan, it was in God's hands, because although he was surrounded, as I said, by people who wanted him dead, God alone was the one who determined when David would die. His death was in God's hands. And there, you know what, there are times when God does let his people die at the hands of unbelievers. There are times. In fact, many times. Jesus spoke of this in Matthew 10. Let me go back to this and add to what our Lord said. Not that I will add, I'm just going to tell you what he said in another verse. But in Matthew 10, starting in verse 16, Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. So he was sending them on a mission. This was a mission to proclaim the truth about him. So he said, be as shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. This is really the first missions trip, a short term missions trip. But he said, beware of men, for they'll hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you'll even be brought before governors and kings for my sake as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. I read that earlier, but what I didn't read is verse 21. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death." Now, this statement, in its context, has to go beyond the present short-term missions trip that Jesus was giving his apostles. And I say that because at that time they did not experience any persecution like this. In fact, they all came back and told him the wonderful things that God had done. They certainly did not experience death. All the apostles came back alive. So, this seems to be then a projected reference to what will take place during what we call the coming seven-year tribulation period just before Jesus returns. What I want you to see is that in this statement by our Lord, He says that believers will die at the hands of their persecutors. and God will let it happen. They will die. Some. And that's why Jesus went on to speak of God's sovereignty in letting his people die. And this is the encouragement, the comfort that we have. Notice verses 28 through 31, just a few verses after, it's the same message he's giving them. He said, do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul, but fear him. who's able to destroy both soul and body in hell, are not two sparrows sold for a cent, and yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear. You're more valuable than many sparrows. What our Lord is saying here is, don't fear those who persecute you, because all they can do is kill your body. They can't touch your soul. But fear God. because the Lord is the only one who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. If you're going to fear someone, fear God. Don't be afraid of your persecutors. All they can do is take your life. That's it. They can't affect your eternal destiny. But Jesus said no one can kill your body without God sovereignly controlling all the circumstances and the timing involved in this. And then Jesus gave this illustration. He spoke of Not even an insignificant sparrow falling to the ground and dying apart from God being in control of this. Now listen, Jesus didn't mean that God just knows that it happens. That's not his point at all. That wouldn't bring much comfort. God knows that I'm dying. No, the comfort is that even a sparrow sold for a cent When that sparrow falls to the ground and dies, it is dying in the sovereign plan of God. That not even an insignificant sparrow can die apart from God being in control of every aspect of that sparrow's death. In fact, he tells us that God is so sovereign over every single event in life, even the most mundane details, that He controls even how many hairs you have on your head. I know there are jokes involved in this, but I'm not going to give one. The point that the Lord said, I mean, there's nothing more mundane than how many hairs you have. And Jesus is saying that God controls even the very number that you have. So when the Bible speaks of God delivering his people, it doesn't always mean that he'll take them out physically, remove them from a dangerous, life-threatening situation. Sometimes, His deliverance is that he lets a believer be killed, and he takes that believer home to heaven. But going back to Psalm 119, in the case of the psalmist, his desire, and we certainly could understand this, is that God would physically rescue him from his enemies. And although God has not yet delivered him, and this man tells us he's weary from waiting, He's still going to trust the word of God for deliverance because he knows that God's word is true. He affirms the truthfulness, the reliability of scripture in the very next verse, verse 86. All your commandments are faithful. They have persecuted me with a lie. Help me. He declares that God is true to his word. He's faithful. He keeps his promises. He's loyal to do what he says he'll do in contrast to these men who are persecuting him by telling, they're telling lies about him. So he simply prays, help me. He's asking God to finally break through and help him by physically rescuing him. I don't know if you've thought about this. It's easy to read this and then just move on, but this is a great prayer. Help me. This is profound. Too often, I think as believers, we feel inadequate in praying. We feel very self-conscious in our praying, especially if we're praying with other people. We don't know what to say to the Lord. We're not sure what to even speak to Him about. Sometimes, when we're praying with others, it's our pride. We think we have to sound impressive, eloquent, spiritual. But that's not the case. This man simply prayed, help me. There's nothing more fitting and spiritual than these two words, help me. One Bible teacher explained the glory and the effectiveness of this man's prayer. He said when a person is desperate, he does not make a speech, he simply calls out help. If a man who can't swim falls into a river and sees a man on the bank, the drowning man, has no use of flowery language, he doesn't say, I say there, my friend, I wonder if I could persuade you to divest yourself of your garments and plunge into the swiftly flowing river and save me from a watery grave. I shall be forever obliged to you for your kindness and consideration. I'm about to be inundated by these waters. Please come to my aid. No! The man simply shouts, help! That's it. That's what the psalmist did. And listen, if you're desperate enough, that's what you'll do. And not care about flowery language and eloquence, you'll be as simple and as to the point in your prayers as this man was. And you know what? This man really was desperate. He tells us just how desperate he was in the next verse. Verse 87, they almost destroyed me on the earth, but as for me, I did not forsake your precepts. Wow! Apparently, at some point in the past, these men actually tried murdering him, but for some reason, they stopped short of it. It failed. We don't know why. He said, they almost destroyed me. However, he's still very much in danger, because as he said in verse 85, they've dug pits for me. In other words, they had already dug his grave. They failed once in trying to kill him. but they're ready to do it any moment his life is still being threatened for right now he has survived their threat of death because he said they almost destroyed me but notice what his response to their almost destroying him is he says but as for me I did not forsake your precepts wow folks think about what this man is saying this is not theory to him this is not doctrine this is his life he's telling us that when he was faced with the possibility of death, a death that would have been because of his faith in God and His Word, he said, even at that point, I did not forsake Your Word. I find this incredibly moving, I find it inspiring, I find it encouraging, because here's a man who was willing to die for his faith rather than forsake it and live. This is like many of the early Christians who died as martyrs. It's like many of the reformers in Europe who were murdered by the Roman Catholic Church, often burned alive. It's like many of our brothers and sisters today around the world who are murdered for Christ because they refuse to renounce their faith in Him. And the reason for such a refusal is that true believers, through thick and thin, will never forsake God's Word, even if it costs them their life. So what about you? Think about this. Are you willing to die for the truth of the gospel? The time may soon come to our country when it will cost your life to be a Christian in America. So make sure that you're serious about your faith in Christ, and God will give you the grace when the time comes. But you have to have that attitude, Lord. By your grace, I will refuse to renounce you. How did the psalmist handle it when he felt abandoned by God? Well, he tells us he fixed his hope on God's Word, he refused to forget God's Word, he did not forsake God's Word. He tells us in the last verse of this stanza, his one final course of action that he took when he felt forsaken by God. He says he simply committed himself to obeying God's Word. Verse 88, he says, Revive me according to your loving kindness, so that I may keep the testimony of your mouth. As he brings this stance of the section to a close, he asks the Lord to revive him. And I take it he means more than just keep me alive. I take it he means give me strength. Give me inner strength. Based on your loving kindness, Lord, enable me so that I can obey your word. What an amazing request. Even though he felt as if God had forgotten him, he is still committed to obeying the word of God. And that's the kind of commitment every believer in Christ has to have. The kind of commitment that if you know Christ, you must have to the Lord to obey his word regardless of your circumstances. It may not be as desperate as this man's circumstances, but the commitment should be the same. See, if you wait to obey the Lord only when things are going well for you, then you really don't have much of a commitment. It's a commitment no matter what the circumstances are. So if you find yourself these days in horrible circumstances and you cannot sense God's presence, you feel as if He's forgotten you, as if He doesn't care about you, then follow the example. Remember the example of the psalmist. Don't listen to your feelings. Your feelings are wrong. He'll never forsake you, never forget you. Listen to the Word of God because that's true. It'll never mislead you and believe it. And if you don't know Jesus Christ, we've been talking about Jesus Christ, where can you find Him? You find Him in the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. Turn to your Bible. Start reading it. Learn how wonderful He is. You know, that's how I came to faith in Christ. I actually started reading the New Testament when I was a freshman in college in order to show my friend who was witnessing to me all the mistakes and errors in the Bible. That was my motivation. But it was through reading the New Testament, I believe I must have started at the beginning, the Gospel of Matthew, that I came to faith in Christ. The Word of God reveals the Son of God. So, read the Bible. If you don't have one, we'll give one to you. Read it, and what you'll read is how wonderful Christ is. Compassionate, loving, kind, thoughtful, gentle. But you'll also read that He died a brutal death on the cross. But that brutal death was also out of His love and compassion because His death was to pay the eternal penalty for the sins of sinners like you. God the Father crushed Him because He was dying in the place of sinners. Having the wrath of the Father being poured out upon Him, being judged for all of eternity for those who would come to faith in Him so that we could be forgiven, we could go to heaven for all of eternity enjoy His fellowship. So read the word about Jesus Christ, believe on Him, trust Him as your Savior and Lord. Let's bow for prayer. Father, we thank you for what this man went through that you have recorded it for us in the word so that we might learn these lessons. Lord, may we be like this man. The day may very well be coming when just standing up for our faith will be considered a hate crime. So I pray that you help each one here who knows you to take heed. to these truths to make sure that there is a commitment to obey you even in the darkest hours of life we thank you that you are true we thank you that you'll never leave us we thank you that you have joined your spirit to us so that you you live within us and we in you so i pray that you help us to take heart to be strengthened, to even when we can't feel your presence, Lord, we can trust your word. And I pray for those who don't know Christ, Lord. I can't convince them. Only you can. And you do that by regenerating them. So we pray for that. We pray that you'll intervene in sometimes very self-complacent lives to show them their sin, their need to come to faith. Show them Christ, Lord. show them Christ. This we pray in Christ's name. Amen.