seated if you'll turn with me in the book of Psalms to Psalm 10. And Psalm 10 is one of those psalms upon which we touched as we are going through the lament psalms because Psalm 10 is a psalm of lament. And yet you may be wondering to yourself, Tim, it's New Year's, Tim. Why are we still in the laments? I hope my reasoning for that will soon be apparent to each of you. But let's go ahead and get something of the context of this psalm and then we'll pray together as we'll then focus on just one verse this evening. The psalmist writes, why oh Lord do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? Now with the verses two down to, I think it's 11, he's going to lay out something of his complaint, which for now we'll pass by. It has to do with the wicked oppressors that are oppressing those that are poor in the land very wickedly. But let's look at verse 12 and continue our reading there, shall we? As this is going to form the petition and the trust, as you'll see as we get toward the latter part of the psalm. Verse 12, arise, oh Lord, oh God, lift up your hand, forget not the afflicted. Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart that you will not call to account? But you do see. For you note mischief and vexation that you may take it into your hands. To you the helpless commits himself. You have been the helper of the fatherless. Break the arm of the wicked and evil doer. Call his wickedness to account until you find none. And how is God able to do that? Well, verse 16 answers that. The Lord is king forever and ever. The nations perish from his land. Oh Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted. You will strengthen their heart. You will incline their ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more. Well, let's once again turn to our Lord, shall we? Father, we thank you again that again and again and again we can come to the scriptures and we can find help in time of need. And as we focus this morning on where our thinking should be, that we should be wise, that we should be men and women and young people of understanding. Lord, we bring our hearts before you this evening, our desires for the year to come. We pray that you would again come and use your word to instruct our hearts to the end, that our desires would be pleasing to you to the end, that you would fulfill this verse 17 in each of our hearts, oh Lord, that you would strengthen our hearts. We pray all these things in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. So a new year is before us. And as we look ahead to the future, if you're like me, there are several thoughts that would probably flood your mind. Some of those concerns might be financial. Will the economy improve? Will the cost of living become more manageable this coming year? What will my housing situation be? Some of you may be thinking. Will the cost of living be more manageable? Will I advance in my income and my career? Some thoughts may be political. Will this new administration deliver on its campaign promises? Well, we're hopeful for that. Will this looming budget deficit be reduced? Perhaps your thoughts are more personal. Your children may wonder, you children, you may wonder how the upcoming sports seasons are going to do or whether you're going to make more friends this coming year. As a student, you may be hoping, well, I have advancement in learning opportunities and success in life. perhaps that budding relationship off in the future. For us more mature adults, you may be focused upon having more stability in your extended family and a greater advance of the gospel in each of their lives. Perhaps it's a health concern that's capturing your mental space now. Will you be able to achieve your fitness goals or address this or that condition that age has impacted your body with? Spiritually, You may be praying for grace, for having a greater usefulness in your church or family or evangelism throughout your neighborhood, victory over this or that besetting sin which has hampered your walk with Christ this past year. But whatever has filled the pages of your journal, you are not alone. We all have concerns and desires and hopes for the coming year, don't we? And it is these which can be fuel, maybe even painfully so, to bring us before God in prayer. And so this evening, I'm borrowing very heavily on C.H. Spurgeon's meditation which he delivered just entering into 1871. If you would look again to verse 17 with me. Oh Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted You will strengthen their heart. You will incline their ear. Now, if you want to take advantage of the outline before you, we want to begin with Roman numeral one, the very blessed fact, the very blessed fact that God hears our desires. That will be point A on your outline. God hears our desires. Now, of course, when you think for a moment, it's not a surprise to any of us that God knows each of us completely and exhaustively just to remind ourselves of that reality. You don't need to turn there. I'll read just several verses from Psalm 139. Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Verse four is what stuck with me. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, oh Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in behind and before and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful to me. It is too high, I cannot attain it. So God already knows what lies along the path marked out for each one of us as we step into this new year. Perhaps during this holiday season, you've had the good habit of taking stock of your life at this point. You may reflect it upon your health, as I've mentioned. Maybe even after some satisfying holiday feast, you may have considered your financial prospects for the coming year or anticipated changes with this incoming administration. You may have plans. to change your career or address what address you're actually going to occupy. God cares over all of his creation, doesn't he, in his kind providence. We'll be looking at that in coming weeks in the Sunday school class. There's a wonderful proof of God's care over all of his works. A rich feast is provided worldwide to all God's creation. Recall that the Lord even took note of the livestock that dwelt there in Nineveh when Jonah came and preached judgment upon them and they repented thankfully. If you'll look with me to Psalm 104 just to remind you of God's providence, his kind care over all his creation and I want to jump in at verse 10. David writes, you make springs gush forth. In the valleys, they flow between the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field. The wild donkeys quench their thirst. Beside them, the birds of the heavens dwell. They sing among the branches. From your lofty abode, you water the mountains. The earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work. Isn't it great in January we can think of these things? or coming into January. You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth, and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen man's heart. The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. And in them the birds build their nests, the stork has her home in the fir trees. The high mountains are of the wild goats, and the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers. He made the moon to mark the seasons. The sun knows its setting. You make darkness, and it is night, and all the beasts of the forest creep about. The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God. When the sun rises, they steal away and lie down in their dens. Man goes out to his work and to his labor until evening. Oh Lord, how manifold are all your works. In wisdom, you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures. And so even in this wintry season, we're reminded of God's abundant care, even for the birds. They have an abundance of provision, even if you haven't filled your bird feeders yet. And God is aware of all the desires of all of his living things. And if God cares for his creation so well, does this not encourage you to bring this fact before him in prayer, that he will care for you? And not only do we have that by an understanding of God's providence, we also have this awareness by covenant as well. Now we can look back and think of the song that we've sung before, his eyes on the sparrow, and I know he watches me. But we also have that promise by covenant, not just by God's good providence. Surely God is aware of your desires. From Matthew six, verse eight, do not be like the Gentiles for your father knows what you need before you even ask. Now, of course, though God does not need to be informed of our desires, of our needs, since he already knows them. But this does not mean that we can dispense with prayer, does it? Calvin writes, on the contrary, believers pray in order that they may arouse themselves to seek him, that they may exercise their faith in meditating on his promises, that they may relieve themselves from their anxieties by pouring them into his bosom. In a word, that they may declare that from him alone they hope and expect both for themselves and for others all good things. God himself on the other hand has purposed freely and without being asked to bestow blessings upon us, but he promises that he will grant them to our prayers. We must therefore maintain both of these truths that God freely anticipates our wishes and yet we would obtain by prayer what we ask. And of course our Lord Jesus focuses on this in chapter 6 later on of Matthew 6 verse 25. Therefore I tell you do not be anxious about your life, what you eat or what you will drink or Not about your body, what you will put on, and not life, is life not more than food, and body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns. And yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which one of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to a span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, and yet I tell you, even Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? And therefore do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Now, does that mean we don't plan? Of course, I would be immediately contradicted by the notes you took this morning, wouldn't I? Of course planning is involved and yet at the end of the day we need to lay our plans, our desires before the Lord whom as we can see he already knows what they are. Perhaps they're deeper needs of your heart that you've also considered beyond yourself. How your family and loved ones will fill your mind with cares at times. or hear amid the Lord's people how God will bring this one or that one along in their lives and in their spiritual growth. And God has taken note of those desires as well. Even before your words took form in prayer, the Lord heard that desire. And so you may think that your prayer's gonna be so poor that they're hardly worth speaking. You may think, well, you know, if I could only pray like Mrs. So-and-so, or if I could only lead in prayer at prayer meeting like this brother here, then God would really hear me. But as you look back to our text, God hears not just words, but your heart's desires. and those which at time you cannot even begin to put into words, and yet God knows your desires for good for this coming year better than you yourself even know. And of course we have the Spirit's help in that labor of prayer, don't we, from Romans 8. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. God can hear what no one else can hear. Perhaps you may even be afraid to mouth that desire, but God knows it already. And so we can see that God knows your desires. Secondly, with me, be God hears the humble. We've looked at the very blessed fact that God hears our desires, but he hears the humble as well. We read from our text that God hears the desire of the humble. Now, of course, you know he does not accept all desires, does he? It is the desire of the humble that draws his gaze, it draws his attention. Some desires are foolish, aren't they? And others are wicked. And so other, even in good people, there can be wicked desires. and still others are empty of any real good or purpose but to satisfy some temporal desire. And yet here it is the humble whom God hears from Isaiah 57, 15. For thus says the one who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. What does God say? I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. So it is not those who enter God's presence making demands of him without considering his person. God is the one who is high and lifted up and he inhabits eternity whose name is holy and yet he dwells he delights in the company of those who are lowly in spirit. It is his ardent desire to revive their spirit and the heart of the country. You perhaps may have passed judgment on yourself. Well, I'm really not humble enough. Well, you're probably right on that. And I know I'm not either. And yet the very fact that you're considering how humble you are may be itself evidence that there's at least some humility in you and so be encouraged that way. And so don't despair of being heard by God. The humble man does not desire anything from God for his own honor. but this person longs for things that bring God honor. He desires his own salvation and though he knows he could never merit that salvation, he seeks his salvation on God's terms and not his own and humbly embraces the terms of faith in Christ's all-sufficient sacrifice and his righteousness as the ground of that salvation. He does not assert his own merit or value before God in order to curry his favor. The empty hand of faith and repentance toward God is all he or she comes with. And so from this context we can quickly see these poor saints for whom David praised, they are oppressed, they're poor, they're exposed to terrors of the oppressor. Even in his net, David says, but our circumstances don't necessarily need to be identical to the ones that we've just considered in this psalm. Remember Hannah, for her, it was the barren womb and it was the taunts of her sister that brought her to Shiloh to pray. And though her husband loved her dearly, it was the lack of children that brought her low. She did not come as Rachel did, as Rachel went to Jacob saying, give me children or else I die. No, she brought a humble petition she could barely mouth, and a promise to raise that child for God's glory and usefulness that drew the Lord's attention to her. And so the truly humble person knows his own desires have no merit in them, in and of themselves, though he may judge those desires may be noble ones. And yet this humble man knows that that desire will come about only through the infinite mercy of God alone. So the humble man may fear his desires, may even lack sincerity, and for that he casts himself upon the sheer mercy of this great and exalted Savior. And some might hear, do you seek an answer from the Lord for this coming year? Then get low. Take the lowest place before him and seek his glory and not your own. Seek that the Lord would be magnified in that desire that you have. I'm reminded of Psalm 37 verses 4 through 6. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in him and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday. So we started out with a lament psalm this evening, and yet we can see how graciously God desires, how he hears our desires, and that he delights to hear that humble heart come before him and dwells with him. Perhaps, like me, the most ardent desire you have is for the salvation of your loved ones, of your siblings that are still not in Christ, your children or your grands. You've been faithful in bringing the word of God before them, and though far from perfect, with God's help, you've sought to set a good example before them in your living. You likely have been praying for them, persevering in that petition over years, and as yet, God still has you waiting. Well, like Solomon, you fully have acknowledged God's sovereignty in that answer. As we read this morning from Psalm 127, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. And so we've considered so far the blessed fact that God hears, he knows our desires, And he delights in hearing the desires of the humble, the blessed fact. So to continue in prayer, continue to watch, continue to wait upon the Lord as God's watchman. He hears your desires, your humble petitions. Waiting on the Lord is never wasted. And so what does King David have for us to cause us to persevere in prayer? As we see, that is one of our primary needs, isn't it? To persevere in prayer. Well, Roman numeral two, there are two very blessed assurances. Two very blessed assurances. First, A, a strengthened heart. a strengthened heart. He shall strengthen your heart. Now the verb chosen here is the sense of establishing, to set up, to make firm, to prepare, to be fixed, to be steadfast. Later in his life, David prayed to the Lord regarding all that he had laid up for the building of the temple, and for his son Solomon, who was soon to be anointed king, and I quote from First Chronicles 29 verse 18, because this exemplifies this steadfast heart. David prays, O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people and direct their hearts toward you that they would be steadfast to the Lord. In the first place, as Spurgeon has pointed out, it is God who first prepares our hearts to trust in Christ, to set our hope and our trust in him. You may think, I don't feel like I can come to Christ. My heart is pulled in this way and that with this fear and that worry. How can I come when my heart feels so divided? Well, your desire to be saved may come and go and yet go now to him and tell him all about this. He will establish your heart by grace. who are reminded of our Lord's words. A bruised heart he will not break and a smoldering flax, a smoldering wick he will not quench until he brings justice to victory. He will strengthen your heart. He has promised that. To those who have known Christ for years now, think back for a moment. Have you not learned more and more of him with each passing year, of his faithfulness, of his sustaining your life and your heart? and then he will yet strengthen you to know him more in 2025. More of the beauties of his person, of the excellencies of his character. Perhaps you've had a setback. You've failed to keep watch over your heart as you should and have played the devil's fool and have suffered for it. will lay hold of this promise again. God will strengthen your heart. Pray, oh Lord, establish my heart again. Strengthen me to persevere and to seek you more this coming year. And so each one of us needs God to prepare our hearts for the work that he has planned out for us for the coming year, to lay hold of this promise and trust that he will prepare you for the unknown that lies ahead of you. There may be a loss of heart for this one, bereavement for another. A job loss, persecution may arise from an unexpected direction. None of these are yet known to you or to me, but one thing is certain, that God will prepare your heart. for that which he has ordained for you. And so there is in our text also a second blessing, not only that God will prepare our heart, he will also incline his ear. So part B, an inclined ear God will give to you. You will incline your ear, God says. I'm sorry, David is saying to God. The verb here meaning to listen carefully, to pay attention, to give heed. From the part of man it would be to obey, to listen with an ear to obey. Similar verses enter in here, Psalm 17 verse 1. Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer. from the end of the earth i call to you when my heart is faint lead me to the rock that is higher than i the lord will exert himself to hear our prayers our supplications and what a joy that is that he has promised to attend to our prayers Spurgeon at this point in his message he reflects upon William Cooper who had fought with depression for most of his life and he says, I feel as though I don't even have a ground to come to pray before God. But Spurgeon's reply to that is, if I am permitted to pray then I will pray. And if I may have whatsoever to ask of God in the name of Jesus, oh, I will ask, because we do have that promise. I think of Psalm 46. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. And then down to verse 10 and 11. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah. God will incline his ear to hear us. And so you and I have such a confidence that God will indeed incline his ear. He will exert himself to listen to the humble heart and to respond in accordance with his eternal love, his determined purpose, his peerless wisdom, and his almighty power toward those who believe. And yet when we think of it, that's not really the big worry here, is it? That God will hear. Whether or not he will incline his ear toward you. The real matter here is if you and I will come. will really come and pray, isn't it? Will we take this amazing verse for what it says and come before God and express those desires to him? Now, as I quoted John Calvin a few moments ago, Yes, God does know the desires of our hearts, each one of us, but we are to come, aren't we, with that strengthened heart that God gives us to pray according to the will of God. Will we exercise this tremendous privilege in prayer in 2025? Just to remind us of the tremendous privilege that we have from 1 John 5 verses 13 through 15, where John writes, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. Well, as God's people, how shall we pray for the coming year? What should be some of the priorities that we must not neglect in our praying? We have prayer meeting on Thursday night, right? And so Roman numeral three, a call to prayer in 2025. We need to pray for revival of God's work. That needs to be a priority. And it was really the same priority as it was back in 1871. I quote directly from Spurgeon on this. When it is said, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear, does it not mean that the Lord will so hear as to answer our petitions? As a church, we've prospered by prayer. Glasgow flourished by the preaching of the word and the tabernacle has flourished by the prayers of believers. There has been the secret of our strength, Spurgeon writes. And therefore let us still believe in the efficacy of prayer. God does listen to the voices of his children. He does regard the cry of the humble. He is moved by the desires of his own people. And so let us then during this year, Be more in prayer than ever. Let us pray in faith, pleading the precious blood of Jesus, the promises of God's word. And let us hear the Lord saying to us from Isaiah 45, thus says the Lord, the Holy one of Israel and the one who formed him, ask me of things to come. Will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands? And so there is a need for great revival. A wave of the late revival has gone, he continues, and now we want another one. We have had a long winter spiritually. We need to have an awakening springtime and a glorious summer and a golden autumn in the church. And so let us pledge ourselves to pray for it. and not merely pledge ourselves, but to really pray. Let us cry mightily till the Lord shall hear us and bring in tens of thousands who shall be the reward of the Savior's sufferings and death. The Lord bless you and make this year to be very rich and fruit bearing for God's glory to every one of us. Well we've seen a very encouraging signs of God's moving in Latin American countries. When you look back there is a work that God is doing in Africa as well as in India and even the Far East. So let us continue to pray for what God is doing. We need to pray for our brother, certainly his labors in India and Pastor Mitch being a part of that in June. So let us continue in prayer that the flame would sweep across the globe. We desperately need a revival in North America and Europe. I'm reminded of our Lord's command on how we're to pray from Matthew 9, verses 37 and 38. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, and therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. And still closer we must pray for our Judea, our Jerusalem, this area around us, Downingtown and Coatesville, but still more for our hearts, For heads of households that our men would be as priests of their own families, rocks of strength and stability and constant in prayer. Think of Job, that though his children had grown up, they'd left the home, and yet still Job was there offering sacrifices on their behalf. And as for mothers, that they would be as Hannah, or even Spurgeon's mother, or Susanna Wesley, as she prayed for her sons. We must also pray for those yet to be born among us and those who've left this place but left God behind when they did. And so finally, my hearers, perhaps you've never really prayed before, not really. The Lord Jesus lays before you this open invitation. Your own crimes must be punished. And one day, perhaps even in 2025, your very soul may be required of you. And yet Christ has come already and is very willing that he take the punishment on your behalf and to grant his perfect record of obedience to you. But like us all, you must ask. You must keep asking until such a blessing of forgiveness is granted to you and the Holy Spirit washes over your soul with his cleansing power. Amen. Well, let's pray, shall we? Our Father in heaven, we're glad for the review of the passages that we looked at in Sunday school, of the necessity of regularly, daily meditating upon the word, of having dedicated seasons of prayer, of making use of the public means of grace, of focusing on those besetting sins, of reading good Christian literature, of fellowship with the saints, of taking advantage of one another and building one another up and being built up by each other. Lord, help us in each of these matters for this coming year. And Lord, you know the desires of each of our hearts. We pray that you would give us grace to lay each of those desires before you, trusting in your wisdom, your omnipotent power, your ear that is open to the cries of your children, that we would see those desires fulfilled according to your good and perfect will. Lord, help us to be encouraged in our times of private prayer. Help us to be encouraged as we come out during prayer meetings as well, that we'd be able to look back and see how you kindly heard, you kindly bowed down your ear and heard our petitions. And we pray that you bless us, dear Lord, as a church, that you'd multiply us in number, that you deepen us in our love for Christ. for the coming year that it would our our love for you would be deepened that our hands would be strengthened with a young man coming in at our midst to to help with the work of God to teach your people for the coming generation bless those commitments that have already been made and we commit all these things to you