READ: PSALM 40:1-17 TEXT: v17 [THE LORD THINKETH ON ME]
But I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me
The first step to getting out/ trouble is to admit: trouble exists
A man in denial cannot be helped
Which is why Christ said: They that are whole do not need a physician, but those who sick (Luke 5:32)
A man who is sick but living in denial will certainly suffer needlessly and might even die a needless death
So, if we can honestly say, “I am poor and needy…” then we have already made an advance and broke the ice
Our next step is to look for the help we admit we need
David’s circumstances certainly made him poor/needy
Little known as to when David wrote these words
Evidently after some time/deep trial (v1-2)
Even after such a deliverance – still poor/needy
These are words which we will carry with us to the grave
Many different kinds/human need that these words fit
No need greater than a spiritual need
We can do without a lot of earthly things, but not poverty/soul
[i] Unsaved have great poverty/soul
Their soul is dead in trespasses and in sin (Ephesians 2;1)
It is barren and dry while they are in bondage/sin
They are the goods which the strong man (Devil) controls
Even if outwardly rich – they are inwardly poor
Think of a billionaire with all the outward trappings
Yet, would you swap places with him if he was dying/disease?
Madness to do so – picture of an unsaved man
[ii] Christians too can often have needy souls
True: In Christ we are positionally complete (Colossians 2:9)
True: 100 years hence every last sorrow will have disappeared
But here and now, we struggle with so much:
Struggle with indwelling sin – a malignant devil etc.,
Folly/Laodiceans who thought themselves rich and need/nothing
Had they only have echoed these words – different story
But help is at hand:
David said: But the Lord thinketh upon me
We want to give consideration to the Lord thinking upon us
4 main thoughts:
1) THE LORD’S THOUGHTS ARE NOT OUR THOUGHTS:
Base this on Isaiah 55:8-9
For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your
ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
A/ Our thoughts tend to be very earthbound
Does not come naturally to think above what we can see/hear
Danger is when we try that we can get into Cloud Cuckoo Land
Assumption and presumption isn’t faith
So we are greatly limited in the way that we tend to think
Must all admit that our faith isn’t particularly strong
B/ God’s thoughts are not only different – but higher thoughts
They surpass our thoughts and are a million times better
[i] They are higher morally speaking
Our thoughts are riddled with sin
Even our pious thoughts are not entirely sin free
We have a tendency to deal with things/lower moral value
Indeed, to bring our thought into line with God’s thoughts:
Bible makes it clear that we need to crucify/mortify the flesh
That’s how much against the grain that our thinking goes
Not only do we need to crucify the flesh, but we need the power of Christ living in us to enable us to crucify the flesh
Yet it can be done and that by the run-of-mill Christian
Let’s forget about the images of lofty saints etc.,
This is something that works on the shop floor/factory etc.,
[ii] God’s thoughts are higher in the matter of wisdom
What do we know about what to do in certain circumstances?
In ourselves, we are fools among fools
At best, we have but limited information and even less knowledge or wisdom to know what to do with it
We only learn from the mistakes of others (and our own)
But God does not get his learning from mistakes
God is all knowing and all wise
You and I (on a good day) push both wise and foolish thoughts around in our heads – and manage to reject the foolish
We test all things and hold fast to that which is good
God’s thoughts are always all wise and therefore above ours
B/ We ought, then, to blend our thoughts into His
Cannot be rubbished if we think as God thinks
Never be intimidated in witnessing to keep close to the Bible
I have been in witnessing situations where an opponent has grown very irritated because I have kept close to the Bible
“Put your Bible away! - I want to know what you think!”
Ans:- "This is what I think!"
I
am not a puppet nor a machine – I am a rational being – and so I freely
and deliberately choose to blend my thoughts with God’s
We have a classic example of one in the Bible who did that
When Namaan/leper went to Elisha for healing, Elisha did things a lot differently from the way Namaan expected (2 Kings 5:11)
But
Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will
surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name/LORD his God,
and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.
But sense prevailed: Namaan’s servants persuaded him to yield
Had he refused to blend his thoughts with God’s – lost soul
C/ Our Lord effectively taught us to pray to this end: Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven
That is a wise prayer to offer and we need to make it personal
Not only on earth – but in our hearts/lives
D/ Let us avoid altogether the thought patterns of Psalm 10:4
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
That is the road to Nowhere -hence designation: The Wicked
2) THE LORD’S THOUGHTS UPON US ARE THOSE OF PEACE:
For
I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith/LORD, thoughts of
peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. (Jeremiah 29:11)
A/ This is what we might expect from the “God of peace” (x5)
His Son, the Lord Jesus, is called the Prince of Peace
B/ Even the sinner may take comfort from this designation
Our Lord Jesus Christ came preaching peace (Acts 10:36)
Went further: Made peace by the blood/His Cross (Colossians 1:20)
Of course, the only comfort which the sinner can draw from these overtures of peace lies in the sinner repenting of his sin
There are no peace terms for the stubborn rebel
The terms/peace are a surrender
A leaving/forsaking of the City/Destruction
The hardened, impenitent heart will be destroyed
Cut off and that without remedy (Proverbs 29:1)
But those who seek mercy find it if they repent/believe
If no desire for mercy – then no peace to be found
There is still a war on as the parable makes clear:
Or
what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down
first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him
that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other
is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth
conditions of peace. (Luke 14:31-32)
Evidently the peace isn’t there, but war
Where peace is not sought, then there is still war
Thus we read in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9
And
to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking
vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his
power;
But let the sinner now find peace with God which is on offer
C/ One thing, without any doubt, is God’s thoughts of peace towards His own redeemed people
I am poor and needy and therefore troubled
But when God thinks on us: thoughts/peace
… as a shepherd lifting up a weak little lamb (Isaiah 40:11)
carrying them/his bosom, and gently leading those/with young.
He pities us as a Father doth his children (Psalm 103:13)
He cares for us with the comfort of a mother (Isaiah 66:13)
He says that he will not leave us as orphans (John 14:18)
Every last thought towards us is one of peace
That’s a lovely thought to chew on!
Sometimes when we are poor/needy, we get taken advantage of
Become a prey to those who could not take us on when we/strong
Our poverty/need only gets worse and overwhelms us
But God will not take advantage of us
His thoughts are those of peace and not of evil
3) THE LORD’S THOUGHTS TOWARDS US: STEADY THOUGHTS:
A/ They are not subject to unwarranted change
Need to tread carefully with this one
God is angry with the wicked every day (Psalm 7:11)
They are described as children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3)
Yet we read: Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6) i.e.
He loved them so much as to die for them: Romans 5:6
When we get saved, we become justified (Romans 5:1)
No longer objects of His anger nor are we children/wrath
Have God’s thoughts changed toward us?
We answer “Yes” and thankfully so
But when we speak of His thoughts not changing, we are thinking along the lines that He will not go back to being angry with us
His change of mind is always consistent with His attributes
He will not declare Himself to have accepted us and then cast us out again in a fit of temper
His gifts and callings are without repentance (Romans 11:29)
There is therefore no turning back on God’s part
Words of Balaam were inspired words when he said:
God is not a man, that he should lie;
neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall
he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
(Numbers 23:19)
God’s word is His bond
When He thinks these high thoughts towards us of peace etc., then they are not subject to a change
B/ How different are our thoughts towards Him
Peter is but a representative of us all
In days of spiritual excitement and supposed strength, we vow and claim all kinds of great things
We might even give some kind of display to our spiritual feelings
Peter said: would never forsake Christ and would die if necessary
Have you ever been there?
Every thing is going well spiritually for you
You are enjoying/Bible – place/prayer is a delight to your soul
You tell God that you will always be like John/Baptist: Burning/shining light etc.,
But soon our thoughts change
Bible reading becomes a chore and praying a purgatory/earth
Maybe like Peter, in a tight spot we deny God
If we are going to be hard on Peter, we’ll be hard on ourselves
If His thoughts were regulated by our thoughts – sorry business
C/ But this is not the case
Malachi records a great pastoral application of this fact:
I am the LORD, I change not i.e. I do not change my thoughts
[i] Some of these thoughts are His permanent thoughts;
He will always love righteousness and hate sin
[ii] Some of these thoughts are local and particular
He will always love His people – even when they err
O Ephraim, how shall I give thee up (Hosea 11:8)
Having declared Himself to be unchangeable, He makes this great pastoral application: So the sons/Jacob are not consumed
Go back to our text: We might be poor and needy – but we are not and will never be consumed
4) THE LORD’S THOUGHTS TRANSLATE INTO ACTION:
A/ The Lord does not do what He condemns others for doing
But whoso hath this world's good, and
seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion
from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? (1 John 3:17)
When I am poor and needy, I may expect help from God
Covered this a little earlier:
A helpless little lamb may look to the good Shepherd for help
A little child may look to its parent for help
If ye then, being evil, know how to
give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? (Luke 11:13)
B/ Do you remember the parable of the Unjust Judge?
The poor widow woman who was poor and needy
Her adversary ruining her already hard/difficult wife
What was the outcome of that story
She finally got what she needed even from a reprobate/Judge
And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? (Luke 18:7)
God will not leave you in your poverty/need
C/ That Samaritan in the parable will not be seen to have a greater heart than God
He might have had a greater heart than God’s professed people
The Levite and the priest hurried on by and left a fellow Israelite bleed (perhaps nearly to death) on a dangerous road
It took a half breed heretic to do the decent thing
And will God hear our cries and entertain positive thoughts but at the end of it all do absolutely nothing or a minimum?
I do not think so
Such things would be totally incompatible with the everlasting love He has towards His people
Remember: We are the apple of God’s eye (Zechariah 2:8)
Your body will automatically protect your eye
Head will automatically jerk backwards if it sees the blow coming
Your arm ill automatically shoot up to prevent the blow
Your whole body will duck down and swerve
Your legs and feet will start to get you out of range
God will protect us in such a manner
His thoughts will be positive and will result in positive action
D/ Although God overall will protect us, yet (wise reasons) He often leaves us to endure hardness as good soldiers of Christ
While we may be content that a gracious/wise hand is on/tiller
Yet such does not prevent the great storm rocking the boat
The wise gardener loves each and every plant in the beds
But he must use the snippers and prune for best results
Such does not suggest either contempt or neglect
They are rock solid evidence of his care for his garden
E/ Perhaps we find ourselves in straits from time to time
Let us do what the Psalmist does here
He confesses his need: I am poor and needy
He locates his only place of help: Lord thinketh on me
He cries out in faith: Thou art my help and my deliverer - make no tarrying, O my God
[i] Let the child/God ever make this cry to be his
Even if you are walking with God – never forget your need
[ii] Let the backslider make this cry to be his
How poor and needy the backslider is!
Are you a Samson grinding in the Philistine prison house?
God says: I will heal your backsliding freely (Hosea 14:4)
[iii] Let the sinner make this cry to be is
The more we try to make ourselves respectable- the further we put ourselves away from the mercy/God
The more we confess our need and flee to Christ, then the more sure we are of saving mercy and saving grace being extended you
THE END