Psalm 143
Turn to Psalm 143 and we’ll read
the last of the three of David’s penitential Psalms. And then
we’re gonna get in the next coming weeks to the fireworks of the
ending of the Psalter. Let’s give our attention to God’s
word. This is a Psalm of David. And he says this, hear my prayer,
O Lord. Give ear to my pleas for mercy. In your faithfulness, answer
me in your righteousness. Enter not into judgment with
your servant, for no one living is righteous before you. For
the enemy has pursued my soul. He has crushed my life to the
ground. He has made me to sit in darkness
like those long dead. Therefore, my spirit faints within
me. My heart within me is appalled. I remember the days of old. I
meditate on all that you have done. I ponder the work of your
hands. I stretch out my hands to you.
My soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Answer me quickly,
O Lord. My spirit fails. Hide not your
face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit.
Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you
I trust. Make me know the way I should
go, for to you I lift up my soul. Deliver me from my enemies, O
Lord. I have fled to you for refuge. Teach me to do your will,
for you are my God. Let your good spirit lead me
on level ground. For your name’s sake, O Lord,
preserve my life. In your righteousness, bring
my soul out of trouble. And in your steadfast love, you
will cut off my enemies, and you will destroy all the adversaries
of my soul, for I am your servant. Amen. This is God’s word. Well,
Martin Luther had a little phrase for some of these Psalms, including
143. He called them Pauline Psalms
because they express exactly what Paul in the New Testament
expresses. These would be Psalms 32, 51.
130 and 143, our Psalm for tonight. And this is what Luther says
of these Pauline Psalms. They all teach that the forgiveness
of sins comes without the law and without works to the man
who believes. And then he goes on to say, and
when David sings, there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared.
This is exactly what the apostle Paul says. And so Luther, who
loved his Psalter, called these the Pauline Psalms. These are
also categorized in general and maybe literarily as the Seven
Penitential Psalms, 6 and 32, and 38 and 51, 102, 130, and
143. And what is, What does Luther mean when he
calls these Pauline? Well, specifically in Psalm 143,
you catch a glimpse of Romans 3.20. For by works of the law,
no human being will be justified in God’s sight, since through
the law comes knowledge of sin. And then over in the book of
Galatians in chapter two, Verse 16, this is the other reference
that we’ll catch in Psalm 143. Galatians 2.16, yet we know that
a person is not justified by works of the law, but through
faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Christ
Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by
works of the law, because by works of the law, no one will
be justified. And so with the apostle Paul,
with Martin Luther, but also with the ancient King David,
We recognize the ending of verse two, no one living is righteous
before you. And so we come to this Psalm
giving thanks to the Lord that he judges us not by our own works,
but by the works of the faithful one, Jesus Christ. So we wanna
pick our way through this Psalm. We’ll look at a prayer for mercy
in verses one and two. We’re gonna see David has memories
in the midst of utter despair, verses three to six. And then
there’s a deliver me and teach me section at the end. So the first section, verses
one and two, David’s prayer for mercy. Hear my prayer, O Lord. Give ear to my pleas for mercy
and your faithfulness. Answer me and your righteousness. Enter not into judgment with
your servant for no one living is righteous. before you. The age-old question, how can
an unrighteous person be righteous in God’s sight? Or how can an
unrighteous person be saved? That was the conundrum every
person of old had to reckon with. And during the Dark Ages, as
Martin Luther brought us out of with the Reformation, the
Bible was hidden. The church kept people on the
hook for their sins, raising money and operating their crafts. penitential system. But how does
the Bible say an unrighteous person is saved? It’s not by
the works of the law. It’s not by the deeds of their
hands. It doesn’t matter your tears,
your zeal. It doesn’t matter your labors.
Your good cannot outweigh the bad. It is God who is faithful
and just. And he’s faithful and just through
Jesus Christ. and Christ who has paid for our
sin will forgive us if we but truly repent. But before Christ
coming, people hoped in the atonement. They hoped in the Messiah. They
hoped in the promised one who would come and take away the
sins of the people. And so David appeals to God in
verses one to two. Listen, answer, answer speedily,
be faithful, be righteous towards me and do not enter judgment. Notice he doesn’t say, God, you,
you ought to be pretty, pretty pleased to have me. He doesn’t
walk right up to the altar and say, God, I thank you today that
I’m not like the tax collectors and the publicans. But David
is like the man who stood far off, beating his chest, saying,
God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And so that’s the reason this
is called a penitential psalm. David approaches God with confession
of sin, with admission that he is not righteous in God’s sight
and has no standing. before God. The second section,
though, I think is one of the most important parts of this
psalm, and it’s something that I think will help us in our lives. Verses three to six, David speaks
of memories in the midst of utter despair. I know that’s a little
bit long, but Look at verses three to six. The enemy has pursued
my soul. He has crushed my life to the
ground. He has made me sit in darkness like those long dead.
He’s basically saying their persecutions have beat me down. Uh, he’s,
he’s being just beat down and not just beat down, but he’s
being beat to death where, uh, by the end of verse, uh, four,
he says, my spirit faints within me. My heart within me is appalled. He, he sees himself in darkness,
uh, which is, it’s the grave. He’s a dead man living. And then
he goes on to say, I remember the days of old. I meditate on
all that you have done. I ponder the work of your hands.
I stretch out my hands to you, my soul thirst for you like a
parched land. So here’s King David at rock
bottom. Now in the scriptures, the ultimate
rock bottom is Jesus in Gethsemane. He was so upset facing the task
of the work of the cross that he sweat blood. Nobody has suffered
like Jesus. Nobody has been under the weight
of the wrath of Almighty God, but for sure we hit rock bottom.
We’re told this is a over-medicated world. We have so many people
dealing with anxiety and stress and mental disorders and burdens,
depression, all the rest. And there are a lot of people
at a rock bottom that’s well full of despair. Paul was there
in times. You no doubt have been there,
but there’s a constant persecution by enemies and they have beat
David down and they were leaving him for dead as it were. So for
him, life is death. Life is darkness. Life is the
grave. And what’s the cure for depression?
Think on the Lord’s past goodness. Some time ago, we went through
a hardship in a church and it got pretty dark. And so we called
a pastor friend and said, we really need your help. We’re
down in the dumps. And he came and sat and he read
the Bible to us for two straight hours. And that was the only
thing that would do it. And so we think on God’s past
goodness, his character, his actions and his promises. And
in this Psalm, David appeals to the steadfast love of God,
his covenant love. I remember days of old, I meditate
on all that you have done. I ponder the work of your hands. He remembers, he gets out his
pen, he gets out his paper and he thinks of Maybe God’s creation. He thinks of the fall. He thinks
of God pursuing Adam and Eve in the garden and clothing them
with the skins of animals. He thinks of Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob. He thinks of Moses and the exodus
and the wilderness years. He thinks of the stretch of history,
the judges, and the beginning of the conquest of the land,
and now his own kingship. He thinks on God’s character.
his actions and his promises. And so it’s good for us to recount
the history of God and the history of Israel, the history of the
church, but it’s also good to think about the history of God
in our lives. And what does it do? It leads
him to open up to God in prayer. He stretches out his hands and
he says, I am, in verse six, my soul thirst for you like a
parched land. He just can’t wait to soak in
the spring rain that comes on a dry ground. The cracks open
up. to receive God’s goodness. We
remember in this that hardship has a purpose. And what does
C.S. Lewis say? Pain is God’s megaphone. And
so what’s God doing in David’s life? He’s getting his attention.
And has he got it? Yes, he does. This is the pretty
part of David here. The moaning and the groaning
and the crying out in the darkness. leads him to teach us to think
on God’s past goodness. And then there’s the request,
verses seven through 10. He wants two things to be delivered
and taught. So deliver me and teach me. Now when we teach kids
manners, we teach them to say please and thank you and more.
And you know, when they’re little babies, sometimes we teach them
the sign language, you know, more please and this and that.
But what do most two year olds know? Now. I want it now. And if they don’t get it now,
what do they do? They throw a tantrum. And what
does mom say? Oh, you know, a bad mom at least. Oh, uh, little,
little Billy, little Johnny, little Susie, you know, I’ll
do whatever you ask. Here’s an iPhone, uh, stick something
in their face, stick something in their mouth. Um, not, not
good, but, but here there’s a sense where David is saying now, Lord,
Bless me, answer me speedily. That’s what verse seven tells
us. Answer me quickly, Lord. My spirit fails. You’re gonna
run out of time. This is a ticking time bomb, God. You better act
or else this won’t go well. And so now, Lord, bless me. Now,
Lord, show me your face. You’ve been hiding your face
from me, but I seek your blessing. I seek your benediction. His
soul is giving way. The problem is getting worse.
Maybe there’s a spike in the activity of the enemies and he’s
at rock bottom now, Lord, it’s time to act. And what gives him
a little salve here? What gives him a bit of hope? It’s the covenant love of God. He says, let me hear in the morning
of your steadfast love, verse eight, for in you I trust. This is the culmination of God’s
character, his actions and his promises. God is a God of steadfast
love and mercy. This is that Old Testament Chesed,
God’s covenant faithfulness. And so he devotes himself to
praying that God would bring him from darkness to light. And
that’s what a good dose of scripture can do when we’re depressed. Martin Lloyd-Jones, some years
ago, wrote a book called Spiritual Depression. And you would think
when you crack open the pages of that book, after living in
America’s pop psychology world, that the book is all about, oh,
you fell down in the dumps. Let’s think of some positive
things and get you back perked up. And what does he do in that
book? He doesn’t go through pop psychology. He goes through the order of
salvation and basically says, here’s who you are in God. Here’s
who you are in Christ. Here are all the benefits you
have of redemption. And so wake up, perk up, be happy. Don’t be spiritually depressed
because you are spiritually blessed. And so when our soul gives way,
we look to the covenant faithfulness. of Almighty God. But notice,
not just a deliver me, hey, help speedily, quickly, but teach
me. And what David is recognizing
here is the age old thing we recognize as Christians. By God’s
word, through God’s spirit, he shows us what is good, right,
and true. And he puts us, as David asks here, on a plateau. Teach me, in verse 10, to do
your will. you are my God let your good
spirit lead me and notice the the the goal on level ground
or on a plateau after we’ve been through some hardship isn’t it
a good kindness of the Lord to teach us but to give us some
flat places for a time and it’s a good gift of almighty God well
the prayer ends with David in 11 and 12 saying, God, for your
sake, for your honor, for your reputation, for the benefit of
your witness in the world, preserve my life, bring my soul out of
trouble. Cut off my enemies and destroy
the adversaries of my soul for you are my servant. Now we got
to remember here, David is in a little bit different position.
Okay, so you got some Facebook enemies. You got people taunting
you at school. You’ve got hardship in the workplace
or whatever it may be. Remember this, you are not the
king of Israel. You are not the one who is leading God’s people
in triumph and in victory in the sight of all nations. Yes,
you have enemies and yes, God will take care of you. But we’ve
got to think specifically about David and Israel here for God’s
sake, for his honor, his reputation, for his witness. We don’t want
the enemies of God’s people saying, oh, they cry to the Lord, but
his steadfast love fails. or they cry to the Lord and he
cannot help them because he can, he is good. And so David appeals
to his reputation, destroy my enemies as king, destroy our
enemies as a nation and destroy your enemies, oh God. So here’s
a penitential psalm. He runs to God for mercy, he
runs to God for help, and he seeks that God’s name would be
held in honor as he deals with his enemies. And we’re thankful
to God and Christ that his honor has been upheld as God, for sure,
in the sight of all, has been gracious to his people. So let’s
pause and pray for a moment. Father, we thank you for these
few words from King David to help us keep perspective, help
us to remember when all around our soul gives way that you alone
are our hope and stay, help us to recount your deeds. your kindness,
your goodness, your faithfulness in our lives and the lives of
your people. As we read your Bible, as we read good Christian
biographies, as we remember in our own lives how kind you’ve
been, help us not to be forgetful so that we don’t live in such
despair. And we pray this in Christ’s
name, amen.