Turn with me back to Psalm 119, please. Verses 73 to 80. Let us again come before our God and pray. Heavenly, gracious Lord, you teach us to sing. to sing to you and to each other, to praise your name and to put one another in mind of your truth. We have said to each other tonight, O God, that your word is full of sweetness, full of encouragement, full of comfort, full of wonderful truth, that there we find Christ Jesus before us. Lord, grant that it may prove so, that we might not have exhorted one another in vain, but rather that you, gracious King, would bless us now in accordance with your word, for we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Our responses to distress reveal typically a great deal about our character and our maturity as God's people. The other thing that often has a particular impact on that is not so much the distressed person, but the nature and the depth of that distress. Because even the most mature and even the best instructed and the most well grounded will find that our tone changes as the depth of our distress increases. And that is proper. But with regard to spiritual character and maturity, what we need to ask is what bubbles up? What is my heart instinct in seasons of trouble and distress? Is it anger or is it humility? Am I inwardly shaking my fist at God and saying, why are you dealing with me like this? Or are we humbling ourselves and kissing the rod? Is our instinct one of bitterness? This isn't fair. This shouldn't happen to me. Or is it one of submission? Let him do with me as he wills. Are we inclined to complain against God or, if I put it this way, to complain to God, to cry out to him and lay the matter before the Lord and ask him to be our comforter? If we are in distress now, or if we come into distress, David here is going to put some words into our mouths, and I hope especially some sense into our souls, because we wouldn't want to merely copy the words without having the reality in our hearts. And this verse 76 here shows us something of that experience, both from the human side and from the divine side. We'll trace each of those lines through the verse. This is what the psalmist says. Let, I pray, your merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to your word to your servant. So on the one hand you have the distresses of men. And on the other, the consolations of God. And I trust we'll see how there's a beautiful fitting together of the human need for comfort and the divine provision of that consolation. So with regard to the distresses of men, this verse sets before us a very real cry of distress, a real need of comfort, and a real hope of mercy. And then with regard to the consolations of God, the question there is, well, to whom are these requests being made known? To the God who has an open ear and a kind heart and a true word for those who call upon him. So the distresses of men, there's a real cry of distress. let I pray your merciful kindness be for my comfort. Now some translations drop that phrase I pray and just let your merciful kindness be for my comfort You don't need the words, I pray, to communicate the essential sense, but I think it helps to give us some notion of the depth that is contained in these words. This is a beseeching approach. This is a man who is imploring God. And so I think that fuller phrasing, Let, I pray, your merciful kindness be for my comfort. That gives you some sense of the way that this man is calling upon the name of the Lord. There's nothing watery in this. You know the difference between wanting something that you don't really need and needing something that you now really want. Even you boys and girls, you might say, I want a biscuit. It's like, well, you can live without a biscuit. You'll be fine. But if you're really scared, if you're really distressed, and you call out to dad or mum, you know what that's like. And you might not say, let, I pray, your comforts be towards me, dad. but the sense of that, please help me now. I'm in real trouble. This isn't take it or leave it. I need help. It's direct language. It's strong language. It's the pleading of a troubled soul toward the Lord. Elsewhere here, David will say, it is good for me that I have been afflicted. That's a hard conclusion to come to. But one of the good things that affliction does in teaching us God's statutes is that it brings us to our knees. Some of us have learned to pray through trouble and would not have otherwise learned to pray. Some of us have learned to pray more sincerely and more entirely from our souls because the Lord has put us in positions which have required us, stripped down and exposed by our distresses, to call upon God as our only help. And that's the kind of prayer that's taking place here, a real laying hold upon the Lord. There's a real cry of distress and there's a real need expressed in this cry. Let, I pray, your merciful kindness be for what? For my comfort. That's what I need from you, O God. I need comforts for my soul. These are sweet and substantial consolations. This isn't so much a plaster over the wound, this is the healing of the wound itself. And you might say that the consolations will need to be both objective and subjective. I need to be delivered from my troubles and I need peace in my troubles. What kinds of trouble are we talking about? Well, they are significant. Go back to verse 75. I know, O Lord, that your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. There's at least something in this man's experience of having wandered from God's way, and the Lord has afflicted him. Your judgments are right. If I'm in distress, it's not because I deserve to be blessed. And you, because you are faithful, you have afflicted me. So the distresses which cause him to cry are distresses at least in measure that God himself has in faithfulness and love imposed upon an erring child. Verse 77 asks that God's tender mercies would come to him, what? That I may live. Verse 78, let the proud be ashamed for they treated me wrongfully with falsehood. So it's not only God's chastisements that are coming upon him, but there are these sufferings from the wicked. He's being treated wrongfully. Now it's possible that both of those are the same thing. that the Lord is using the wicked to chastise his servant, but it's something that brings him to the point of saying, Lord, I want to live. He is deeply distressed and troubled. The Lord has afflicted him. He has come to the point of death. The proud are treating him wrongfully and are speaking lies against him. And it's out of that experience in its full range that he pleads to the Lord, let I pray your merciful kindness be for my comfort. Sustain me in my troubles. Deliver me out of my troubles. The subjective and objective elements. My friends, what kinds of things make us cry out for comfort from heaven? I think the first and greatest thing, and perhaps more in terms of that affliction on account of sin, it's grief over our iniquities. Have you felt the weight of sin? That's not only something that you feel when you first become a Christian. Most Christians here would testify to that. Sometimes that gets clearer and brighter in a painful sense as we go on as Christians. As we grow in grace, one of the things that we see is how little grace we have in ourselves, how much we have transgressed against God. And so if you are here, with your sins upon your conscience. Those kinds of people that Pastor Doyle was speaking about, not just people who are playing around the edges, but those who want peace with God. If you've reached the point where your sins are a burden to you, you need comfort. You need God to deliver you out of your distresses. But with that, there are so many other things that come upon us. We might be opposed by foes. It may not be that we've got the proud treating us wrongfully with falsehood. We may not have come to the point of death, but there may be somebody at home. There might be somebody at work. There may be somebody you're dealing with who has made themselves a spiritual enemy to you. They are against you. They want to undermine you. and you are feeling the weight and the pressure of those things. It may be some trouble that you have in life, some distress, maybe something that you and you only know about, something that grieves you, something that bubbles up within you, something that niggles and nags at your soul when you're trying to get to sleep. Some of us will be distressed in mind. It could be a flood of dark thoughts that run across our minds. Sometimes we might get fixated on some particular thing that is not good for us to think about, that is not a blessing to us, that is not good and true and sweet, the things that we ought to think about. There can be griefs that come upon us that we find hard to shake off from us. Are you ever weary in soul? We're told not to become weary in well-doing. There's a reason why we need to be told that. It's because sometimes we do. There are battles that we fight, there is holiness that we pursue, we feel like we're not making much progress. We try and use the means that God has appointed and yet we seem to be knocked back rather than to move forward. Sometimes it's because we've been long in the way or there's some particular difficulty that we're now facing. Outwardly, we can stand up and we can move around, but inwardly, that Hebrews language of the knees that need to be strengthened and the hands that are hanging down. If you could see your soul at this point, it wouldn't be the sprinter out of the blocks in the hundred meters. It would be the man shambling along at the end of the ultra marathon with his whole body feeling like it's got an anchor behind it. could be because we're low in supplies. There are particular needs that we have. It may be poverty in our economy. It may be that we don't have much money. It may be spiritual supplies, that you want more strength and you don't have it, that you feel like your patience is exhausted. Sometimes we're hindered in service. You want to do something and you can't. You're too weary. There are other responsibilities that you have to juggle. There are difficulties in the way. You'd love to be able to run in the way of God's commandments and yet at this point you feel like you're shackled rather than liberated. It could be fear. You're afraid of something. You're anxious about something. Very few people are just anxious. Don't stick that label on yourself. I am anxious or I have anxiety. What are you anxious about? That's what troubles us. Something distresses me. Something disturbs me. Something makes me afraid. Something shakes my confidence. Something stirs up my doubts and my fears. What do you need? Let, I pray, your merciful kindness be for my comfort. You're asking, in essence, that the God of mercy would relieve you and strengthen you. My friends, I know that I'm merely scratching the surface here. You and I were a mass of needs. We can be a great weltering mess of sorrows at times. We're so full of burdens and distresses. There are seasons particularly when we pass through a dark and difficult way and everything can seem against us. Relieve me, strengthen me, do good to me, deliver me out of my troubles, sustain me in my troubles. There's a real cry about a real need, but you notice that it comes with real hope. Notice the relationship that this singer puts himself in to the hearer of his song. It's the spirit of submission and dependence. This is not a demand that is made. This is not beating at the air. This is not throwing something out there and hoping that someone somewhere will be able to help. Help your servant. Comfort your servant. It is the posture of expectant humility. Expectant humility. There's a relationship here. There's a confession that is being made. There's a declaration that is being spoken about this person and the God to whom he calls. There is no resentment here. There is no anger here. There is no bitterness here. This man is not complaining against God, even with regard to the afflictions that God has brought upon him. What does he say of those? This, O Lord, is your faithfulness. This is your gracious treatment of true sons. If I could sin and be spared such chastisements, it would show that I am not a son, that I come to you as your child, as your servant. I'm making no demands upon you. I'm simply calling out in confidence and hope. Now, you know that God is good to all. Our God is a good God, full of grace. He sends his sun to shine and his rain to fall upon the just and upon the unjust. God is good to everybody, but what sweetness to be able to come and to say, Lord, your servant calls. You are my God. I am your follower. The best and the lasting mercies are given to God's faithful children. Do you come to God like this? This is how you come at the first, isn't it? Lord, I have nothing to demand, but I'm coming in reliance upon you. Will you have mercy upon your servant? I wonder if there's something here. Remember the prodigal son when he went back to his father's house? Didn't claim sonship, did he? Didn't say, look, dad, it's your boy come back. Time for a handout. No, make me like one of your hired servants. It's humility, but it's expectant. My father will do me good, but I have no claim upon him. that justice would demand. I can only cry for mercy. Is that how you come to God? Will you come to God that way? This is the way to obtain comfort. This is the way to obtain favour from the God who saves. So you have here just a little pen portrait, if you will, of the distresses of men and women, a real cry, a real need, and a real hope, the servant of God, coming in expectant humility, let, I pray, your merciful kindness be for my comfort. So here is the manward position, the manward disposition. This is the needy, broken-hearted sinner looking up to God. And here now are the consolations that God is pleased to give. Notice, first of all, the open ear. Why do you cry to God? Well, for one reason, he can hear you. He is not deaf. He who made the ear, shall he not hear? You go back to Exodus, for example, chapter two and verse 24. It's beautiful language. God heard their groaning and remembered his covenant. Does God hear your groaning? If you're groaning, yes, he does. Of course he does. The Lord hears all these things that are taking place upon the earth. He who planted the ear, He who formed and created this organ of hearing, is he going to be death to the things that we cry to him? Or Psalm 86 and verse 1, bow down your ear, O Lord, hear me, for I am poor and needing. Isn't that a wonderful expression again of that hopefulness? I don't know if you've ever felt when you're asking for help that you've almost got to say, I don't need too much. You can imagine that, can't you? I really need help, but I don't need too much. That might sound like a good argument with some people. I'm poor, but I'm not that poor. I'm asking you for money, but not that much money. When it comes to our dealings with the Lord God, you can reverse the logic. Lord, listen because of how poor I am. Lord, pay attention to me because I am so despondent and so empty. I need you because I have nothing of myself. You are a God who hears me and my need, actually, if you will, that enlivens my plea to you. My brothers and my sisters, have you considered the relief of having a God who hears your groans? Have you thought about that? That the God of heaven and earth, that the one who dwells in light unapproachable and full of glory, that the one to whom everything in the cosmos belongs by right, that a God who keeps the stars in their courses, that a God who appoints the moon and the stars in their proper places, that a God who is governing every single detail of life on this planet and whatever other planets there may be out there, that that God is listening to you. That is stunning. and he listens to you with a kind heart. The creature calls to the creator. The child calls to the father. And the creator bows down his ear to hear because we are poor and needy. And the father inclines his ear to his child because he is moved by love. Notice how the psalmist prays, not just this open ear, but this kind heart. Let, I pray, your merciful kindness be for my comfort. He prays, relieve me and strengthen me in accordance with your covenant faithfulness. I am pleading your mercy, your faithful love toward those who come to you. Now think again of the way that this is used in other portions of God's word. What is the great expression of repentance in the book of the Psalms? Well, there's perhaps one or two. Your mind may go as mine, I think. Word to Psalm 51. Remember the opening words. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your lovingkindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Lord, it is because of your kindness, it is because of your goodness, it is because of your mercies that I can call upon your name. In Micah chapter 7 and verse 18, this is how the prophet asks there, who is a God like you pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of its heritage. That's why we can go to God, because there's no God like Him who pardons iniquity. There's no God like Him who is so full of tender mercies and forgiving grace. Have you thought about the name that the Apostle Paul uses of him in 2 Corinthians 1 and verse 3? This is a delightful title. Friends, dwell upon it. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. What a name. What a name for God to use to make himself known to us. When we come with our real cry, loaded down with our real need, why do we have this real hope? Because the God whose ear is open to our cry, the God whose heart is primed to listen to the groans of his people, that heart is a heart of kindness and of mercy. I ask for mercy. from the Father of mercies. You pray for comfort to the God of all comfort, perfectly able to supply whatever consolations, however sweet and substantial, for whatever may be your need or combination of needs. There's something again similar in 1 Peter 1 and verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Yes, but what's the measure of his dealing? Why has he begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead? Why do I have an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for those who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. It's because God has acted, notice verse 3, according to his abundant mercy. That, my friends, is the constant measure of God's dealings with those who call upon him. And then you can just turn over if you wish to a couple of pages more, actually turn back, sorry, a couple of pages to James chapter five and verse 11. We count them blessed who endure. You've heard of the perseverance of Job and you have, because we just finished reading him. You've seen the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. That's what God wants you to carry away from the experience of Job. How compassionate, how merciful he is. Where do you see that? How is that communicated to us? 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, verse 16, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting, that's sweet, isn't it? Everlasting consolation. That's the goodness of his heart. Consolations unfailing and unfading. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, may he comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. Where are the merciful kindnesses of God revealed to you? How do you access them? What is the treasury of God's tender mercies? It is his Son, Jesus Christ. If you ask me, how do you know God is good? Look at Christ. How do you know God is kind? Look at Christ. How do you know he's ready to forgive? Look to Christ. How do you know that he's able to sustain? Consider him. It is in Christ that God reveals that heart of love. It is in the Saviour that it is demonstrated, it is through the Saviour that it is poured out upon us. I think it's perfectly natural to hear the language in Psalm 119 of the merciful kindness of God. And for us to think, ah, that is the grace of God that shines in the face of Jesus Christ. I know that. And when I hear of David saying, forgive me according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. I cannot hear that without thinking of him who shed his blood upon the cross. When with Micah I say, who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity? The question comes with all the more force, and the answer is suggested with all the more richness when I think of him who shed his blood upon the cross, the God-man making atonement for us. When I think of the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort, I consider how he has dealt with our souls in Jesus Christ. And when I think of a God who, according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again from the dead, how can you not then think of Jesus Christ? How can you separate that present blessing and that future hope from the very acts of grace in Christ that Peter weaves into his opening hymn of praise? You see, it's the character of God that is the root of our comfort, the heart that is revealed in his Son, who is the brightness of his glory, who is full of his grace and truth. Why am I emphasising the heart of God? Because, my friends, God himself is our chief comfort. sustain me and relieve me. That might not mean that God takes away the cause of your distress. What it may mean is that God draws near to you in your distress and strengthens and suckers your soul. In 1st Samuel chapter 30, this is what David says 1 Samuel 30 verse 6, David was greatly distressed, there's his sorrow, for the people spoke of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. The situation had not yet changed. that David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. Or you think of Habakkuk, when in that prophetic vision, he sees the utter desolation and devastation of the nation which he loves. And he paints that awful, bleak picture of the empty vines and the empty fold and the empty field. And he says, when that comes to pass, yet I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. There is merciful kindness, there is the favour of the Lord. Every distress that you might face, the grief in your soul over the sins that you have committed and do commit, The foes that you face, the life issues that trouble you, the distresses that cloud your mind, the weariness that clogs your soul, the emptiness that weighs you down, the difficulties that you face in serving, the fears that can sometimes grip your heart. Whether it's an objective or a subjective comfort, whether it's a sustaining in or a delivering from, the reason why you get it is because God is kind. He is merciful and gracious. And then last, notice the true word that defines those particular comforts. Let, I pray, your merciful kindness be for my comfort according to your word to your servant. And notice again here, this is the counterpoint to that note of humble expectancy or expectant humility, that submissive spirit toward God. How would you have your comforts measured? Who would you wish to dispense them? What kind of comforts do you want? I want the comforts God promises. There are comforts that are available that fade away. There are passing pleasures that might take the sting off our circumstances but will not sustain our souls. The servant wants comforts that are according to the word of the one that he serves. That's your security and your certainty in your comforts. Your security that I do not want the wrong thing and I do not want it in the wrong way. When I come to a God whose heart is one of merciful kindness, whose hand is disposed to bless, I don't want my comforts I want my comfort according to his word. I don't want to dictate to him what is best for me. If it's his affliction, then Lord, use it and relieve me from it and sustain me under it. If I'm close to death, to you, O Lord, belong escapes from death. If my enemies have risen up against me and treated me wrongfully with falsehood, Then Lord, when it is good and right, you relieve me from those accusations. I want true comforts, I want lasting comforts, and therefore I want them to be according to your word. I want the things that you have promised, I want the blessings that you have defined to be my soul's consolations. And then there's the certainty of it, because these then are the promises of God. When you come to God for merciful kindness, When you come with a burdened and a troubled soul, when you're full of distresses because of fightings within and troubles without, what is your confidence? God has promised to do me good. He has done that in the most sweeping and broad of senses. He's given you those great overarching promises that will carry you from your birth to your death, that will carry you through life as his servant and into eternity as his servant. But he's also given you the promises that are, if you will, the microscopic ones. The ones that as you search the scriptures, you will find particularly and peculiarly suited to your distinct needs. Can you imagine someone whose parents have turned against them because of their attachment to Jesus Christ? When my father and mother forsake me, then God will take care of me. Can you imagine someone who's facing slanders and accusations? Let the proud be ashamed, for they treated me wrongfully with falsehood. But I will meditate on your precepts. Not quite a promise, but there's the sense of those things. You can turn through the pages of God's book. I'm not going to do it now for want of time, but you could turn through any of the epistles, couldn't you? And you can see promises of God stacked up here for your blessing. Confident of this very thing, Philippians, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Do you wonder if you'll last the course? There is a promise for you. Perhaps you're coming toward the end of your life and you're thinking, what lies ahead of me? Well, to you to live is Christ and to die is gain. If you live on in the flesh, that may be fruit from your labour. But what about departing to be with Christ, which is far better? You can turn these things into those promises of God. You can mine out the promises and blessings of the Lord. And my friends, there's no doubt It must come. Why? Because this isn't a word of man. This is your word. And it is by your sure word that your promises are defined and delivered, measured out in perfect wisdom and grace. That means, brothers and sisters, that there is, from the treasury of heaven, the dispensary of God's own kingdom, there is a medicine for all my diseases and yours. There's food whenever we're hungry. There's light whenever we're in darkness. There's help whenever we are downcast. There's a lifting up whenever we are burdened. There's a lightening of the load, either because it's taken off us or Christ puts his shoulder under it with us. So how do we respond to distress? Are we angry at God? or do we humble ourselves before the Lord? Are we bitter because of the way we're being treated or do we submit to his gracious hand? Do I complain against him or can I complain to him? David gives us words and David trains our hearts. Let, I pray, your merciful kindness be for my comfort according to your word to your servant. What need of comfort do you have tonight? I'm not trying to make you feel worse than you are, but a kingdom life in a fallen world probably means that most of us need some kind of comfort this evening. Who will supply it? To whom can you turn when you feel that need? Perhaps when it presses in upon you so painfully and so deeply that the cry cannot but break from your heart and from your lips. Let, I pray, your merciful kindness be for my comfort according to your word to your servant. Is that where we go and is that what you expect? I trust that we will show that we have learned that God is ready to show merciful kindness to all who call upon him. And if you haven't learned it yet, then go to God with your first and deepest and darkest distress, that you are not yet his child. that you now need his mercy. Call upon him, he will answer you. According to his loving kindness, he is ready to give you the comforts of the finished work of Jesus Christ. And it is in those comforts and with those blessings that we go on walking toward the glory which he has assured us must come. Amen.