We turn in God's inspired word this evening to Psalm 143. Psalm 143. The Psalm of David. Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications. In thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness, and enter not into judgment with thy servant. For in thy sight shall no man living be justified. For the enemy hath persecuted my soul. He hath smitten my life down to the ground. He hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me. My heart within me is desolate. I remember the days of old. I meditate on all thy works. I muse on the work of thy hands. I stretch forth my hands unto thee. My soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land. Hear me speedily, O Lord. My spirit faileth. Hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit. Cause me to hear thy loving kindness in the morning, for in thee do I trust. Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto thee. Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies. I flee unto thee to hide me. Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God. Thy spirit is good. Lead me into the land of uprightness. Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name's sake. For thy righteousness' sake, bring my soul out of trouble, and of thy mercy, cut off mine enemies and destroy all them that afflict my soul. For I am thy servant. The text to which I call your attention this evening is Psalm 143, verse 8. Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning, for in thee do I trust. Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto thee. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord has mercifully spoken to us in the Psalms. He has spoken to our needs. There is hardly an occasion we face, hardly a trial that we might experience in life, that is not addressed in the inspired songbook of the Bible. There's a reason for that, which reason we often forget, but which really is critical to a proper understanding of the Psalms, and especially the Psalms of David, one of which is Psalm 143. David, who under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote most of the Psalms, not all of them, was a type. of our Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ. There are certain Psalms that express that more clearly than others. We find in Psalm 22, for example, in Psalm 69, Psalms that explicitly reveal David as a type of the Messiah as affirmed in many New Testament references to various verses in those Psalms, with direct applications to the sufferings of Jesus Christ. So it was not only as a consequence of his own sin, which showed David was only a type and not the true king, but because of the Christ whom he represented and who by faith lived in David, that David's life was one of great difficulty and trial. In fact, David seems to have faced all the various human temptations, all forms of persecution, various trials as well as joys being led by the Spirit in order that he might occupy the place that he did in the Old Testament Scriptures as the type of the King of Kings who had yet to come to save us from our sins. It was because Christ lived in David therefore being in all points tempted like as we are, that the Psalms are full of rich instruction for us and in fact serve as a testimony of our own experience as we express ourselves in these inspired songs to our great Redeemer who gave his life for us. And in whom alone we have life. The earthly sojourn of the Christian is not easy. Many are the trials and sorrows that we face. And for some, those trials continue without any sign of letting up. We confess that the way of the Lord is perfect. not because we see it with our earthly eyes but because he has said so and he has proven it in the entire history of the church and as we look back in our own lives. We know too by the knowledge of faith that God himself is working also in the way of our sufferings and trials. He's working to accomplish His work in us, polishing us, preparing us, purifying us, even as gold is purified by fire. In addition, God leads us in a way that stands connected with the lives of many others. When finally all is made perfect, in the heaven that awaits us, and we are able to reflect upon the perfection of God's ways with us, one of the things that will most amaze us is how God did what He did in our lives as intertwined with what He was accomplishing in the lives of those around us. Here, we can scarcely see how much our sufferings have to do with our usefulness to others. And how the trials that we face serve to draw out of others the expressions of Christ's life and love among our brothers and sisters in Christ. but nothing happens to us in isolation from our broader place in the body of Christ. Tonight, however, in the light of this text, we take into account the broader picture of our lives in the midst of this world. We are mindful of the fact that we live and our children are growing up in a world that is rapidly developing in wickedness. Not only has Western civilization as we have known it been in a state of remarkable decline, but the very foundations of Western civilization with the broader past influences of Christianity have been riddled by the attacks of the evil one, who I am convinced has been loosed for that time in which he will deceive the nations ultimately to gather them together for that last battle. The rapid apostasy in the church world, the advance of Islam in much of Europe, The attacks upon Christianity, both subtle and brazen, all call to remembrance the perilous times in which we live. We have seen in our own country, and in our own state, and certainly where I'm from in the state of Colorado, we have seen frightening developments politically, economically, culturally, We have reason to wonder what our own children and grandchildren, if not we ourselves, will have to face in the near future. And as we look back and contemplate the relationship of all these various events to the future, God graciously brings us to his word to comfort us and to strengthen us so that we cry out as did David the psalmist unto the Lord our God, cause me to know thy loving kindness in the morning, for in thee do I trust. Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto thee. Psalm 143 verse 8 conveys our longing to hear Jehovah's loving kindness. So that's the theme for the text this evening, longing to hear Jehovah's loving kindness. And as we consider this text, let us notice, first of all, Jehovah's loving kindness. Secondly, why we desire to hear that loving-kindness. And finally, the parallel and consequent confession to that longing. Jehovah's loving-kindness is on the foreground of David's mind as he makes his plea in the words of this text. But that desire for the loving kindness of his Heavenly Father arises with urgency because of the circumstances of his present earthly existence. It's evident from what David writes here that this is a time of great distress. Psalm 143 is noted a psalm of lamentation. a psalm of great sorrow and distress. The occasion for the writing of this psalm is not known. It could have been written during one of many occasions in David's life. Some place it during one of his flights from Saul, who was seeking to kill him. Many find that this psalm reflects the distress incurred during the attempt of David's own son, Absalom, to seize the kingdom from him. And certainly there are many expressions in the psalm that would reflect the intensity of David's distress during that difficult time. Notice the psalm doesn't even speak so much of the physical trial of David's life on the run, David attempting to flee the danger of his life, but rather David speaks of the spiritual distress that troubles him. Verse 3, for the enemy hath persecuted my soul. Verse four, therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me. My heart within me is desolate. His remembrance of the days of old, his meditation on the works that he had seen of Jehovah's hands in contrast to his present experience caused David to cry out fervently, hear me speedily oh Lord. my spirit faileth he sensed God being far from him and the very thought tormented him hide not thy face from me lest I be like them that go down into the pit do you see here how David pens this psalm giving expression to the voice of Christ if we are going to understand the Psalms we have to see Jesus speaking and giving expression to the suffering that he would bear because he would bear that suffering in our place and on our behalf also in David's place and on David's behalf Isaiah would later write of that coming Messiah, he is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we did esteem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted in the garden of Gethsemane as Jesus pleaded if it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou will He was really voicing the same thing that David expresses here in Psalm 143 in verse 7 when he says, hide not thy face from me. You and I have not experienced the persecution that David experienced. And we will never experience the measure of suffering that Jesus endured in our place at the hands of his enemies because he bore, especially in the cross, the wrath of God that we could never bear. But we do experience in various measures the trials of life that cause us at times to cry out in distress My spirit is overwhelmed within me. My heart within me is desolate. We can experience that oppression of spirit in many different ways. That cry can be pressed out of us as a result of the oppressive consciousness of the sinfulness of our own sin. And that's what lay at the heart of David's plea in verse 2. But there are also various trials that can become so difficult, so oppressive, that our spirits are overwhelmed. We feel like our very life is in a vice. being slowly tightened, squeezing our life from us. Perhaps you live with chronic pain that saps your strength or affliction that drains your energy so that you can hardly go on. Some live with the burden of broken relationships, broken family, David did with Absalom. Some face difficulties in the workplace with unbelieving and antagonistic co-workers who will not cease even take delight at rubbing your faces in their ungodly worldview. Children can face mockery of other children. Though may that not be true in our Christian school setting, as fellow Christians. And then think of the saints in Myanmar, parts of India, who live under the very real threat of persecution. Some of them having to look over their shoulders for those who would threaten their lives. And that's just to mention some with whom we have contact. And then there are saints in China. Several years ago, In Loveland we would get reports from month to month of those tuning in on sermon audio. And by far the largest number, well over a hundred a week, were people in China listening to our sermons. Now there are none. None. shut off from us by their government. Some probably in prison. Some perhaps dead. And you can't even fail to take into account the increasing hatred toward Christianity in our own country. even among the leadership in our country, where court cases have been repeatedly brought against Christian businessmen and women merely because of their stand as Christians against an increasingly anti-Christian and ungodly culture. We find laws being passed that would restrict us in what we preach and what we can say. Already been passed in Canada where a minister lives under the threat of prison even for preaching God's Word against such a sin as homosexuality. And we live under such threat even when we attempt to convey our Christian conviction as Paul instructed Titus, in a way that is gentle, showing meekness unto all men, with sound speech that cannot be condemned. More and more in our own country, and we face several cases in the state of Colorado, Christians finding themselves hauled into court by the state's attorney general, being prosecuted as enemies of mankind for refusing not only to approve, but to promote lifestyles at enmity with the divinely ordained laws of nature, the very creation ordinances of God. David therefore gives expression to that which also must be our own prayer. Because of all the trials in which he finds himself, David longs to hear Jehovah's lovingkindness. Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness. Isn't it interesting, beloved, that God uses the trials of our lives, our earthly sojourn, to increase our longing to hear his lovingkindness? How pitifully weak we show ourselves when that loving kindness, which we sing from Psalm 63, is more than life to me, so quickly departs from our thoughts. What a blessing that God knows that we are flesh, and leads us, His children, in His love, even using the trials of our lives to draw us to a greater understanding of the precious gift of his loving-kindness towards us, how we need Jehovah's loving-kindness. Obviously, David views the loving-kindness of God not as an abstract attribute, but as an attitude that affects David personally. That term loving kindness is a beautiful term used repeatedly in the Old Testament, but very often it's translated mercy. And yet there's another term for mercy, and this term is more comprehensive. Loving kindness is probably as accurate a translation as we could find. It includes God's mercy, but it also emphasizes His love and His keeping of His covenant. If I might put it most simply, I would say God's loving kindness is His eternal intention to bless the objects of His love to care for his friends and servants. And that means that in his loving kindness God always blesses his people. There is never a moment when the blessing of the Lord does not rest upon his people, his love, his desire to deliver them. And although David apparently sat out in the wilderness of Judah, far from his throne in Jerusalem, and far from the temple, the tabernacle. He knew the indispensable importance of the loving-kindness of Jehovah. But he needed to hear the concrete assurances of Jehovah's loving-kindness. and especially is that need great in times of distress and difficulties? The weakness of our humanness is such that we are easily consumed by our trials. We lose sight of the bigger picture and of the sovereign and wise government of God over all our circumstances. And sometimes we act as if we even have reason to be unthankful. Sometimes it looks to us like God hurts His people unnecessarily and without love for them. And we might even complain. and say, has God forgotten to be kind? The Psalms acknowledge that weakness too, don't they? Psalm 77. We need to join the Psalmist in the confession, in the petition Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning After all the lovingkindness of jehovah is from everlasting to everlasting To those who fear him psalm 103 verse 17 That lovingkindness is life to us When we hear jehovah's lovingkindness Then we know that all health and sickness, riches and poverty, all the various trials of life come not by chance, but by His fatherly hand and for our sake. Why? Because we are in Christ Jesus who is the personal manifestation of Jehovah's loving kindness to us. The loving kindness of Jehovah is all in Christ. The sovereign almighty God beholds from heaven those whom he has chosen as his in Christ from before the foundation of the world He beholds us now in our misery and shame and sends his own son through his spirit to shed his love abroad in our hearts. He gives us the word of the gospel. in the faithful preaching of His Word. And this speaks then to the importance of preaching for us too, and the necessity, if we are truly to pray this prayer, that we make faithful use of the means of grace and hear the Word that Christ Himself speaks to us in the preaching of the Gospel. In Him we know the lovingkindness of our God without fail. When we hear the lovingkindness of our God, there's no question about it. because we receive all the blessings of salvation and know it. We receive forgiveness of sins and know it. We receive faith and know it. That's the way we hear the loving kindness of Jehovah as did David even in the wilderness. We hear it by the word of the gospel to us god himself saying to us yea i have loved thee with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness have i drawn thee jeremiah 31 verse 3 david longs to hear that word of god in the morning at the dawn of each new day that it might carry him through the trials of the day, so important is it that we hear Jehovah's loving kindness. Psalm 143 verse 8 also expresses the reason why we desire to hear that loving kindness. For in thee do I trust. to trust is to rest in Him. Trust speaks of the activity of faith, confiding in or resting upon our faithful Savior, Jehovah, salvation. To trust is to place your confidence in, set your hope upon someone knowing that in him we are safe. You find comfort and security in the object of your trust. Trust is one of the two principal elements of faith, isn't it? That wonderful living tie that unites us to Christ. The act of faith in believing you recall is not only an assured knowledge, but also a hearty confidence. Those two are inseparable. Though they may be distinguished, those two elements are inseparably connected. You do not put your confidence in someone you do not know. And therefore, if you shall put your confidence in one, you must know that one as a worthy object of your trust. David confessed that his trust was in Jehovah, the I am that I am. He is from eternity all that his name implies, the unchangeable one. whose counsel shall stand who accomplishes all his pleasure he accomplishes his purpose which is perfectly wise and good Jehovah alone is the one who is able to supply all our needs according to his riches in glory and that above all that we would ask or think And his name marks himself as one who is always faithful. Faithful he is in regard to himself, faithful in everything he says, what he promises, he most certainly fulfills. His promises are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. He only is trustworthy. After all else passes away, he abides. When all others disappoint, he stands faithful. Though he often chastens those whom he loves, as was the experience also of the psalmist, he does so in his unchangeable love and faithfulness to his word. David trusted in Jehovah his God. That implies a couple things. In the first place, that David trusted in Jehovah implies that David knew him in a living relationship of love. Do you know him? To trust in him, it's necessary that you know him. that you know him like the psalmist knew him. That knowledge is not mere knowledge about him. Oh, the psalmist knew about him. Jehovah right in all his ways, sovereign in all his works, ever merciful and faithful. He forsakes not his saints, the savior of all those who trust in him. David knew those things about him. But David knew Jehovah with the intimate knowledge of love. His was the knowledge that comes from that intimate relationship that God himself had established with David through faith in the promised Messiah. David knew Jehovah as his constant companion. who surrounded him with his love and constant care, who was with him in all his ways. Listen to David's testimony in Psalm 16, verses 7 and 8. I will also bless the Lord who hath given me counsel. My reigns also instruct me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me, because He is at my right hand. I shall not be moved. Or again, Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, lack anything. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. Or again, Psalm 25, verses 14 and 15. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net." And we sing those psalms too, don't we? Do you sing them from the heart? Yes. that Jehovah is the object of our trust implies that we know him personally, intimately, with the knowledge of love. But it also implies that we humble ourselves before him. How often we try to carry our burdens ourselves We have to be warned against our reliance upon our own strength or wisdom or abilities. There's nothing more difficult for us than to roll everything onto Jehovah, to trust in Him. You know why that's so difficult? It's because for us to trust entirely upon the Lord requires the humility of confessing that we are dependent upon Him for everything. That's hard for us because we like to be independent or we like to fool ourselves into thinking that we like to be independent. It requires humble submission, a surrendering of self to the sovereignty of God. So it's really quite a confession that David makes in the text that we consider, he commits all his way, all his troubles, all his trials to the Lord. And he does so longing to hear Jehovah's loving kindness. Expecting it too. Because he had seen Jehovah's faithfulness and he had heard his promises. not without great importance, there's another petition in this text that stands as a parallel and consequent confession to that longing to hear Jehovah's loving kindness. Because the psalmist adds this, cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto thee. That word way is used regularly in the Bible to refer to the pathway of our life, literally a path worn bare by constant walking. Before my rather recent knee problems, I have enjoyed hiking in the backcountry of the mountains in Colorado. And usually I would hike into the backcountry by taking a path well worn by previous hikers, but then I would like to get off the beaten path to mark my own way through the forest and through the mountain. But when David prays, cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, he's acknowledging the truth that God has marked out our pathway for us, a pathway in which alone we walk safely to our destination. David understands that we are inclined to wander off that pathway. Now, when you wander off a well-worn path into the backcountry of the mountains, you have to be equipped for being in the backcountry. And you want to let someone know where you are hiking, the general area of your hiking. Because there are dangers to be faced. There are circumstances and terrain in which a person can easily get into serious trouble. But the dangers one might experience in the backcountry are nothing compared to the danger of departing from the way that God would have us walk. When we wander off the pathway God has marked out for us, we immediately subject ourselves to dangers for which we are not equipped. David has learned, also by experience, that to depart from God's way is never a good thing, is never something we do without serious harm to our souls. He knows the inclination to wander. He knows how foolish our desires can be. And he knows that by experience. But lifting up his soul to his faithful Savior he pleads, cause me to know the way that I should walk. God has marked out the way which is to the spiritual benefit, the well-being of his church. But in perfect wisdom, he has marked out the way for each one of us, so that we might also say with personal application, cause me to know the way wherein I should walk. lifting up his soul to Jehovah, David would make God's way his own way. He longs that his walk coincide with the way that God would have him go. And by his walk, he's expressing his longing that his entire life be in harmony with God's will. Our walk includes our whole life in its outward manifestation as governed by our inward thoughts and desires and decisions. Your calling in life and how you are to carry out that calling. Whether you marry and what that marriage is to be like. What is your calling as a husband? as a white. That's all, that all belongs to our walk. How you treat your children, if you have children, how you children view your schooling, how you treat your classmates, as well as how you behave in the home, that all belongs to your walk. And as with David, so also with us. When we know Jehovah in all our way, we make our way His way. Then our way conforms with His way. The way of the wicked and rebellious, the unbelieving and disobedient is a way that ends in confusion and desolation. but all you who trust in Jehovah committing your way unto him shall never be ashamed there's a striking similarity in this text to what David writes in Psalm 26 verse 3 after he voiced his petition examine me O Lord and prove me try my reins and my heart now notice for thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes, and I have walked in thy truth. There David makes the confession, thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes, and I have walked in thy truth. Here in Psalm 143, He expresses his longing to hear Jehovah's lovingkindness and to know the way wherein he should walk. But notice the inseparable relationship between hearing or knowing Jehovah's lovingkindness and walking in his truth. He knows that with the lovingkindness of Jehovah before our eyes, Our walk, a godly walk, will follow. And that's his desire. He would live to the glory of his Redeemer, his Savior, for I lift up my soul unto thee. Do you confess that? David was confessing his dependence upon Jehovah for everything. He knew that he had absolutely no ability to fight victoriously the Lord's battles in his own strength. Nor to deal with, let alone overcome, all the challenges that he had to face in his earthly pathway and in the calling God had given him. He knew that. because he had been beaten to the ground having experienced what it is to be overwhelmed. He also knew from difficult experience what happened in those times when he didn't think so clearly. When his own sinful flesh and desires clouded his judgment and he made decisions with God far from his thought, The results were always disastrous. In the wondrous ways of God, David, with all his strengths pointing us to Christ, the true King, and with all his faults serving as a mirror into our own nature and lives, could write the Psalms as an expression of our own spiritual struggle. We're strong in the battle only as the blessed spirit of Christ sanctifies us and gives us that strength. But blessed be Jehovah. With David, we lift up our souls unto him. Jehovah, our faithful Savior. Ours is the confidence that we belong to Him. He is the one who has proclaimed His lovingkindness towards us, who has revealed His lovingkindness in His only begotten Son, the only mediator between God and man, the one through whom God has reconciled us unto Himself. in him is our refuge. Even when developments in our own lives shake us to the core, God is accomplishing his purpose in your salvation and mine. You may freely and readily cry unto him, cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning, for in thee do I trust. Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto thee. Jehovah is faithful. That belongs to the very essence of his name. he who has established his covenant with his people in Christ maintains it faithfully unchangeably forever live in that joy beloved go forward in a hope that endures amen heavenly father We have heard thy word. We have joined with the psalmist in the petition. Cause me to hear thy loving kindness in the morning. For in thee do I trust. Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk. For I lift up my soul unto thee. For Jesus' sake, amen. We turn again to another versification of Psalm 143, 391. And we sing the four stanzas 391. Christ Jesus Christ. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. When in the right and perfect way, may thy good spirit lead. Redeeming from distress. Praise ye the Lord, ♪ And bless the Lord, he saves me, O ♪ ♪ Who in his grace denied. ♪ ♪ I love his creatures, let his name be honored, ♪ The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. Amen.