READ: PSALM 40:1-17 TEXT: v17 I AM POOR/NEEDY…LORD THINKETH/ME
But I [am] poor and
needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou [art] my help and my
deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God
These words are first/foremost Messianic/interpretation
Psalm 40 is a Messianic Psalm: v6-8 are quoted/Hebrews 10 relating to the Incarnation/Son of God
Scripture distinctly tells us:
[i] He who was rich became poor for our sakes (2 Corinthians 8:9)
He left the unspeakable glories/Heaven and came into this impoverished
world and became poor for us, so that we might leave this impoverished
world and go to the unspeakable glories/Heaven
[ii] While here, in His impoverished state, He knew the concept/need:
The Lord sent the disciples to fetch another man's donkey, with the prepared answer if challenged: The Lord hath need/him (Mark 11:3)
Again: When the Lord told Judas to do quickly what he had planned (i.e.
to betray Jesus) the others mistook the command and thought the Lord
was wanting him to purchase those things which they (and the Lord
Jesus) had need of against the feast (John 13:29)
We remember that His creatures ministered unto Him, for this very
reason - the angels/God after His temptations (Mark 1:13) and various
women who followed Him. He often had needs.
However, the Lord (His Father) often thought upon Him, Christ (in His
office as Mediator) confessed His Father to be His help and deliverer,
and then offered this prayer again/again: Make no tarrying, O my God.
Thus we get a glimpse into the very real humanity of our Lord Jesus
There was nothing superficial or fixed about it - It was real/true
But these words also belong, experimentally, to the people/God
It may be in some dark night that we will find ourselves re-echoing these words/David. 4 main thoughts:
1) THE PERUSAL OF OUR STATE:
I am poor and needy
We might take this a number of ways
A/ We are poor PHYSICALLY:
Of course, there are those worse off than us - who are actually sick/ill with little time to live etc.,
But even the best/healthiest/fittest of us are poor physically
Must say like Abraham: we are but dust/ashes (Genesis 18:27)
Our body is susceptible to many illnesses and weaknesses - our eyes will start to fail and our hearing etc.,
Body become very weak/frail and we will become more/more dependent on others - without them we will not be able to cope
Our life span is comparatively short, and totally outside our control. Many of the fittest die very young in life
There is ever but a step - a mere heartbeat between us/death -
We live in a world beset with many outward dangers
We know not what a day shall bring forth.
B/ We are poor/needy EMOTIONALLY:
It does not take much to throw us into total array
We know the emotions of fear/distress/great sadness/dread
Bible relates how the strongest saints succumbed to their emotions and became exceedingly weak
Did not Abraham lie about Sarah through fear?
Was not David's grief over Absalom excessive?
Today, we could be the strongest and most-in-control person alive
Tomorrow we could be struggling to cope with even the most basic elements/life.
C/ We are poor/needy SPIRITUALLY:
Not our standing/Christ. We are complete/Him (Colossians 2:10)
But often in our spiritual state
We confess such to God when(and if!) we pray
Never heard a spiritual Christian tell God how spiritual they are.
Heard foolish saints publicise their deeds in horizontal prayers...
...but I've never heard, even the foolish, proclaim that they have arrived spiritually.
We know in our hearts/hearts that we haven't
Words/Laodicean Church have largely put paid to these things: Because
thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of
nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and
poor, and blind, and naked: (3:17)
Is it any wonder we feel poor/needy spiritually?
We have an evil heart unbelief within…a strong, malicious devil without…an unhelpful world around us.
Surely Paul was crying out (in effect these words) when he said: O wretched man that I am!
2) THE THOUGHTS OF OUR GOD:
Yet the Lord thinketh on me
The Hebrew word for "thinketh" is a very rich word indeed and its many different ways/translation reflect its various thoughts:
A/ Turn to: Isaiah 53:4 Word: We esteemed him not.
When the Lord thinks upon us, then He esteems us.
He enlarges upon these esteeming thoughts in Jeremiah 29:11 For
I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts
of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
We are esteemed in Jesus Christ (Accepted/Beloved)
Whatever sinful failures we have are forgiven in Christ, and although we ever fail and grieve God, yet He still esteems us.
"Go…tell his disciples and Peter" (Mark 16:7)
How different are His thoughts towards the wicked.
While every man out of hell is a recipient of large, undeserved
measures of His mercy/grace…yet He does not esteem the wicked,
but rather (for many/them) reserve them/wrath, angry with them daily
etc.,
B/ Turn to:2 Samuel 14:14 For
we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot
be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.
When God is so thinking upon us, His thoughts are active thoughts
He not only thinks, but He thinks as what to do. God is no mere spectator in this world… never mind in His church
While you are poor/needy and helpless, God (who neither slumbers/sleeps) devises action on your behalf
C/ Turn to Psalm 140:4 Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed to overthrow my goings.
While men purpose to overthrow the saints, God has other purposes.
God's purposes do not know frustration
Every last event fits/jigsaw into His perfect plan and although you
feel your helplessness as your many enemies make havoc with your
life…God is thinking/esteeming/devising/purposing for you
D/ A seen, these are not cold, empty thoughts towards us
God Himself condemns such thinking (James 2:15-16) where we are forbidden/pass the hungry and naked without helping them
3) THE CONFESSION OF OUR FAITH:
Thou art my help/Deliverer
Psalmist addresses God directly with these words
They are a solid confession of faith
A/ David is not so poor/needy that he cannot use these words
Indeed…the poorer/more needy he is, the more these words take on real meaning
Just as the sickest patients engage the most of the doctor's time/resources, so too the poorest/neediest in God's Kingdom
No cases too desperate for God!
B/ God is seen to be a complete Saviour in these words
Not only helps, but delivers
[i] God saves us a thousand ways every day
[ii] Saved us in the evangelical sense/word i.e. justifies
Continually saves us in the sense of helping us resist evil, whether in temptation, or in the wicked seeking to destroy us
[iii] Yet save us in the future sense of glorifying us
Till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more
C/ Note use/personal pronoun "my" (x3/text) David had a personal relationship with God. This made the big difference.
D/ Psalmist addresses God alone with these words
God may use many means, even wicked men themselves have been used of
God to help/deliver His people, but Psalmist cuts through the rope and
gives the Ultimate Deliverer - the great Thinker - the One who
esteems/devises and purposes - all the glory
E/ Having confessed it to God, then David writes it down for our perusal/Psalms…not only here, but also in Psalm 70:5
Believer! Talk freely about God being your Deliverer/Help
[i] You will encourage others, particularly those who need it most
[ii] You will encourage yourself and find fuel for praise to God
[iii] You will spite the Devil! Every victory you enjoy is a defeat for
the Devil. It is the devil who made you poor/needy. He did so to bring
you back into his cruel bondage. He failed - again.
[iv] Above all else - you will glorify God
4) THE DESIRE OF OUR HEARTS:
Make no tarrying, O my God
A/ Such truths, especially re: God being our help/deliverer never negate our need to pray unto God, but (as here) only fuel it
B/ It seems as if David was "ordering God about" or thinking for God i.e. as if God did not know when to come
Not so Continuation of the cry/help. David was so poor/needy…he felt he could take it no longer.
The Spirit/God (who helps us to pray) was ordering this prayer, so that the help would be immediate, as God intended it to be
Already declared Himself: "present help/time of trouble" (46:1)
David was only taking the declared statements/Scripture and using them to make his prayer effectual (Secret/praying)
C/ As God thinks up on you, you think upon Him and especially these
words which he has recorded (x2) so that you will not sink under your
poverty/need, but ever cry out and seek His face
THE END