He Who Calls You Is Faithful

Psalm 40, and I titled it, He Who Calls You Is Faithful.

! So it's not a real long psalm, but it's 17 verses. So let me go ahead and read the psalm for us as we begin. Psalm 40 I waited patiently for the Lord.

He inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.

He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie.

You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us. None can compare with you. I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.

In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, Behold, I have come.

In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do your will, O my God. Your law is within my heart. I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation.

Behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord. I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation.

I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me. Your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me.

For evils have encompassed me beyond number. My iniquities have overtaken me and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart fails me.

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life. Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt.

And let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, Aha, aha. But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who love your salvation say continually, Great is the Lord.

As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer. Do not delay, O my God. All right.

So quite a bit in there. I'll warn you up front, it's not going to be too long. We're going to kind of go through each verse and get the main gist of it and move on. But a lot of quotable spots in there.

A lot of verses you'd like to call to memory in times of trial. And that's what we're going to look at. First off, I have at the top of your handout the structure of the psalm.

Verses 1-3, the personal experience of salvation. Verses 4-5, blessedness of God's protection. 6-8, expression of commitment. 9-10, proclamation of God's perfections.

Verse 11, assurance of God's perfections. Verse 12, confession of sin. 13-16, prayer for God's protection. And in the last verse, personal need of salvation.

And I think I've mentioned this before in Hebrew poetry. A lot of times they use a literary figure which is called a chiasm or a chiastic structure. And if you notice, it's kind of a symmetrical thing.

The ends kind of have a similar theme. A, B, C, and D in the middle. And whatever's in the middle is the point of the whole piece of literature.

Sometimes they'll do this in a larger section. In fact, the story of Noah has this in it to some degree. Anyway, but the middle of it, the proclamation of God's perfections and the assurance of God's perfections.

That's where I came up with the title. He who calls you is faithful. He is faithful to deliver you. He has delivered you and He will deliver you. And as a little trivia at the end of tonight, if anybody knows where that phrase, He who calls you as faithful is from, let me know.

It's another scripture somewhere. Alright. So anyway, we're going to work our way through this. So the first three verses, of course, are personal experience of salvation.

Verse 1. I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined to me and heard my cry. We have warranted patience here.

Warranted patience. So David's in a situation, as often he was. And it says, I waited patiently for the Lord.

Now what does the word patiently indicate about David's situation? It probably was a long lasting time.

David waited for the Lord to move for a long while before he received an answer. But in this, we don't see despair from David. The one for whom he was waiting fostered a deep trust in David.

This was warranted patience. I will patiently wait for the Lord. God had delivered him before. And because of God's faithfulness, David knew he could count on God for the future.

And the second half of the verse tells us that God inclined and heard David's cry. And oh, the joy of knowing that the Lord hears our cries. What peace has wrought in our souls when we remember that the Lord knows us thoroughly and understands every detail about our situations.

We may wait patiently for the Lord and wonder why he doesn't answer or doesn't move a particular way. But we can trust him that he knows every detail even though we may not see him working.

So the application for this verse is to wait patiently for the Lord. His character warrants it. He is faithful. He is righteous. He knows. So be patient and wait on him.

Verse 2. He drew me up from the pit of destruction out of the miry bog and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. And this really sounds like a dramatic rescue to me.

Out of the pit of destruction, the miry bog. It's a very bleak situation for David. He could not rescue himself. He was patiently waiting in this difficult arena and recognized that there was only one source of hope.

And take notice how the Lord drew him up. God alone can rescue us from utter destruction. We can't do it ourselves. The dramatic change of scenery demonstrates what takes place when God moves upon his people.

When God moves, dramatic things happen. Do they not? We can say, that's God's hand. I see that. But what happens is, he sets my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.

This is the reassurance of the safety of God's presence. Whenever God moves, it's always reassuring that he is near. Reassuring that he is in control of the situation.

And you're sure God is there. And it reminds me of the hymn. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

On Christ, the solid rock I stand. All of the ground is sinking sand. So the application for verse 2 is, Call to mind God's rescue of your soul. And rest all the more in his love.

He has dramatically rescued you. He drew you up out of the pit of destruction. And he has made you secure in his presence.

Verse 3. He put a new song in my mouth. A song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.

This is glorious salvation. Glorious salvation. The new song that David describes is due to such a marvelous deliverance. It's astounding him.

He has an even deeper view of God than he thought possible by way of the difficult circumstances. Sometimes we don't want the difficult circumstances to come.

At the end of it all, we sometimes get a better view of God through it. We praise the Lord for it. This is what happens to David. And he now erupts in praise. So we must pause here and ask the question, For what purpose have we been delivered?

Was it to show how we saved ourselves? Or how resilient we were during the trial? And whether we're talking about our point of our salvation or the deliverance from a difficult circumstance, God's purpose in all of that is his own glory, not yours.

It's glorious salvation, not your glory, his glory. Notice the end of verse 3. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. That was the purpose of David's rescue.

So we have received a glorious salvation, that testimony to his greatness and to his glory. And our probing question for us is, To whose glory does your life point?

Yours or God's? Someone watched you. Who do you live for? What is it about you that points to God? We should all ask that question and take opportunity to have others put their faith in Christ by watching us, how much we follow the Lord.

Okay, so that's the personal experience of salvation, verses 1 through 3. Moving on to verses 4 and 5, it's the blessedness of God's protection. The blessedness of God's protection.

Verse 4, Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie. We have a trustworthy Lord here. A trustworthy Lord.

Reminds me of Romans 8. If God is for us, who can be against us? Who is there who can prevail against God? No one. So we are indeed blessed if the Lord is the object of our trust.

Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust. He's a sure thing. The second half of the verse points out the folly of trusting in anyone else.

Why would we trust in anyone else? No one else is perfect. Now, sometimes do we? Finding ourselves putting our trust in others.

Why would we turn to the proud for refuge? Sometimes we do. Their confidence lies in themselves. The proud.

And ultimately, that proves to be false. Does it not? To be proud and to go astray after a lie is one and the same thing. If you read that at the end of verse 4, who does not turn to the proud to those who go astray after a lie.

As fallen sinners, we have nothing to be proud about. It's a lie. Why are we proud about ourselves? We have no reason to be. We should put our faith and trust in God.

Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him. He will make straight your paths. So the application for verse 4 is trust God for true fulfillment and blessing.

He wants us to trust Him more. We all could point to areas in our hearts where we could say, I could trust Him more here. Let's work on that.

Let's trust Him more. Verse 5, You have multiplied, O Lord my God, Your wondrous deeds and Your thoughts toward us. None can compare with You. I will proclaim and tell of them, yet there are more than can be told.

I have an incomparable God. God. Incomparable God. David is still overwhelmed at the might and power of Almighty God. God's wondrous works are overflowing in David's mind and He can hardly contain Himself.

The most baffling is that these actions and these thoughts are toward us. If you've seen that. Your wondrous deeds and your thoughts are toward us. What love David is seeing here that this omnipotent ruler of the universe would stoop to act and think so lovingly towards sinful man.

It's an incredible thought. So who can compare to God? No one. No one compares to God. From His power to His character to His wisdom to His majesty.

There's no one like our God. So then David pledges to proclaim His greatness and tell of His works. Only he runs into a problem.

He realizes that there is too much to tell. See that there? I will proclaim and tell of them, yet there are more than can be told. Reminds me of the hymn, O for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace.

You're never going to run out of things to praise God for. And if you had a thousand tongues, you still wouldn't have enough. So the application for this verse is to meditate on our incomparable God and worship Him wholeheartedly.

Our incomparable God. Alright, our third section, moving along, is the expression of commitment, verses 6 through 8. So verse 6 says, In sacrifice and offering, you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear.

Burnt offering and sin offering, you have not required. Here I have wisdom observed. Wisdom observed. Does that verse remind you of another passage in a minor prophet?

Hosea? There probably is. I think there is one in there too. I was thinking of Micah 6. 6 through 8.

Listen to this. With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?

Similar language. It's almost saying sacrifices aren't enough. It's pointing to something. David is recognizing the true meaning of the sacrifices, what they are meant to symbolize, and that is the attitude of obedience from the heart.

Customarily, the king would offer sacrifices before going to battle to atone for the sins of the people, and upon conclusion of a successful battle, siege, he would again offer sacrifices to the Lord.

Now, which king did that wrong? Remember, which king offered sacrifices in a wrong way? King Saul. King Saul did.

He had done this very thing, but he did it with a disobedient heart. He did not do what Samuel had told him to do via the Lord. to wipe out the Amalekites. So David recognizes and probably a lesson learned for him, obedient hearts honor the Lord.

Now, some commentators, I don't know if your Bibles have this in there or not, but the phrase, but you have given me an open ear, some of them say that refers to the slave who wanted to stay with his owner, who had the all driven through his ear.

But that's not what it's talking about here. It's showing that David had learned from Saul's mistakes and had gained wisdom for serving the Lord. The open ear is that God graciously opened his ear to learn the wisdom he needed.

So, where do we get wisdom for serving the Lord? His Word. Study God's Word and listen to His wisdom for a daily living. This is all under the expression of commitment that David has toward the Lord.

Wisdom observed, I follow your Word. Alright, next verse, verse 7, Then I said, Behold, I have come. In the scroll of the book it is written of me.

But servant recognized, servant recognized, it's who David is. He's the Lord's servant. And much like Isaiah who said, Here am I, Lord, send me.

David is willing to be used by God for whatever purpose. He identifies himself as being known by God. Isn't that interesting?

I have come in the scroll of the book it is written of me. God knows who I am. I'm talking to you, Lord, but you know who I am. And that's a joyous thought. Paul says this in Philippians 3, To be known by you, to be known as yours.

David is a yielded vessel for his master's use and he brings to remembrance God's calling of him. So servant recognized. The application is remind yourself of God's redemption.

Who are you in Christ? You are his servant. He bought you for a reason to serve him. Well, what's written in the book of David? It says, I delight to do your will, O my God.

Your law is within my heart. That would be a good epitaph to put on the tombstone, would it not? I delight to do your will, O God. Your law is within my heart.

This is joy internalized. Joy internalized. David loved to obey God's will. It was not seen as a burdensome task for David, but as a great joy.

It almost suggests that David pursued this obedience actively, not simply as a last resort or when I'm faced with a decision I'll decide to do right.

I'm going to obey him with my whole heart. The only way this comes about is if God's law is within our hearts, written on our hearts. Our level of commitment to the Lord is demonstrated by how much we study and immerse ourselves in his word.

Do you want to know what God's saying? Do you know what he wants you to do? You have to be in his word. As we spend time in his word, the Holy Spirit engraves it upon our hearts so that we live lives of dedication to the Lord.

You make decisions every day on how you're going to react to certain situations. And whether you realize it or not, to the degree that you study God's word, you will make better choices or make worse choices.

So the joy you could have from being obedient because it's written on your heart. It's become more naturally like David's saying here. This is my delight to do it. So spend more time in God's word.

So the application, take joy in reading God's word, study it with the intent to please Him, to please God. Alright, now to our fourth section. Proclamation of God's Perfections.

Verse 9, I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation. Behold, I have not restrained my lips. This is unrestrained praise.

Unrestrained praise. This deliverance for David would not be a private joy, but an invitation for all to hear and to celebrate. David took this news to the house of worship to give praise where it was due to God alone.

It's as if David was trying to find every way possible to make known the greatness of God. And he says that he didn't restrain his lips. I can't say enough about what God has done.

So again, he is full of exaltation for Almighty God. John Kaplan said this about this verse. He calls on God as a witness to distinguish between himself and hypocrites whose praise is cold and formal and also to make it clear that he would not defraud God of any of the praise that is his due.

Look at the last part of verse 9. As you know, O Lord. That's a bold statement. You know, Lord, I have not restrained my lips.

That's a bold statement. You know my praise is coming from within. It's bubbling out and you know my heart. Wish we all could be there.

Right? So that's the application for this verse. Do you praise God's greatness with unrestrained lips? And if not, what's restraining it? We have received a glorious salvation and we should give testimony to his greatness and glory.

Alright, verse 10. I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness and of your salvation. I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.

This is a very similar verse, but here I see motivated boldness. Motivated boldness. The amazing character of God motivates David's boldness to praise him in the great congregation.

And you may have different words in there but there's five things in there that I see in my version. God's deliverance, his faithfulness, his salvation, his steadfast love, and his faithfulness.

These are more than enough to awaken David's praise. It should be more than enough to awaken our praise as well. In fact, it's just a starting point. For as I said before, you'll never run out of things for which to praise our Lord and Savior.

Now, I believe the unwillingness to boldly proclaim the glories of God is due to sheer indifference to his greatness. If you really get a good look at the Lord and his word, if you really look at him deeply, how can you not say anything?

How can you not praise him for he is so good? So it's a lack of study. It's a lack of internalization. And it's an indifference to a holy God.

It's a hard thing to say. We're very visual people. We think, well, if he'd just show up right here in front of me, then that'd make a difference for me. And I think he's put it right in bold letters for us in his word.

It's right in front of us. We just need to look at it and worship him. There is no usse. There is no explanation for why those who have been bought with the precious blood of a sinless Savior would remain silent about it.

We can't remain silent about it. So what motivates you? The application for this verse is revisit the cross and find reason to declare the greatness of our God.

C.J. Mahaney has said that before. The cross of Christ must always be forefront in our minds because that motivates us. It motivates us for the love of our Savior.

Alright, moving on to our fifth section, the assurance of God's perfections. Does anybody have a New King James or King James version? Teresa, will you read verse 11 there?

Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness and thy truth continually preserve me.

Right. And I think the New King James is very similar to that. And that version is more of a prayer, is it not? Do not withhold it. And hold not back your steadfast love.

And it's actually not the best translation. The New American Standard and the ESV read similarly like this. As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me. Your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me.

That kind of changes it a little bit, doesn't it? That's really more closer to the original text. So, rather than a prayer for God's perfections like we had, it's an assurance of God's perfections.

We have a sustaining Father. A sustaining Father. God will not hold back His mercy, steadfast love or faithfulness from His own.

If we disobey His Word, He will discipline us to be sure, but He will not disown us. He's our Father. The phrase not restrain in this verse is key as David is following his Father's example here.

Remember, just a couple verses ago, David will not restrain his lips in praising God. We learned that from God, for God will not restrain His mercy from David. It is the goodness of God that preserves us, not our goodness.

His faithfulness sustains us. So, the application for verse 11 is have assurance that God's mercy is unlike any other mercy, that His steadfast love is unlike any other love, and that His faithfulness is unquestionable.

He's our God. Have assurance of God's perfections. All right, moving on to verse 12. We have confession of sin.

Confession of sin. For evils have encompassed me beyond number. My iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head.

My heart fails me. Here I see overwhelming iniquity. Overwhelming iniquity. After assurance of God's perfect character, David looks to this world and recognizes the utter filth that sin has permeated.

Evil lurks at every corner. That first phrase, evils have encompassed me beyond number. And we can see that at every corner. Evil is lurking. The effects are too numerous to count.

But then David's own sin, the second phrase in there, overwhelms him. And he admits that it has darkened his vision. My iniquities have overtaken me and I cannot see.

Sin does that to us. We just imagine the glories that we would see of God in his word if sin were in the way of it. We're to be continually fighting against that.

And as we go closer to the Lord, we see more of him and we see more to worship him for. compared to God's infinite goodness, David also sees his infinite wickedness.

Its weight is too much to bear and he says that his heart fails. How quickly we can forget the ways of God and fall into sin. I believe that a closer look of God always reveals more change needed in our own hearts.

The more we see the goodness of God, the more we fall woefully short. I think that's where Paul was in Romans 7. The wretched man that I am who will deliver me.

If you line everybody up in front of you, all the believers ever to live, and you had to call one of them wretched, you probably wouldn't pick Paul. Paul's not the wretched guy.

Maybe one of these other guys. He calls himself wretched. He knows himself. I think as we get closer to the Lord, we see the more and more that we need to change. The more and more that we need to be more like Christ.

I think David is coming to grips with that similarly here. That holy God has delivered a wretch out of a situation that he so richly deserved. God, you delivered me out of the miry pit, out of the pit of destruction.

But should you have? I'm a sinful man. I deserve that. But you delivered me anyway. So the application for this verse is be seriously honest about your sin before God.

Christ died because of your sin. Be honest with God about it. Be serious about it. And work on it. Alright, seventh section.

Prayer for God's protection. Prayer for God's protection. Verse 13. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me.

There's a saving principle here. David, again, asks for deliverance as he knows he will need it more and more. It is not sin to ask the Lord to make haste when it seems like he is delayed.

Sometimes we think that. Lord, hurry up. But what's your motivation? We must ask it for this reason, however, that it would please the Lord. Look at that verse again, verse 13.

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. He is Lord, and we are not. So we must, therefore, trust his timing.

Wait patiently for the Lord. He really does know what's best. Remember the principle from earlier in the psalm, God saves us for his glory, not our own. We may suffer in the process, but he is working in us a far greater glory than can we compare to the struggle, as Paul says.

Therefore, as Christ prayed, so much we never let not my will but yours be done. It's the saving principle of his glory. So pray for discernment in what is pleasing to the Lord.

Lord, if it pleases you to deliver me now, then alright. If it pleases you to put me through this, then I'm okay with that as well. But he's working on us always for a more dependent heart on him when it's yielded to him.

Verse 14. Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life. Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt.

We have unimpeded purpose here. The unimpeded purpose of the Lord. In many of the Psalms we see David making similar requests to the Lord that his enemies be stopped.

If you've read much of the Psalms you see this in here and it sounds kind of harsh. Well destroy my enemies God. know. Yeah.

Pray that before. And we must acknowledge our own bend to enact vengeance on those who wrong us. And honestly we need to repent of that. It's not the right attitude.

Vengeance belongs to the Lord. He will repay. But David's prayer here is not for personal vengeance. It's rather a statement in prayer that God's purposes are unimpeded.

The more the enemies of God attack his people the more judgment they lay up for themselves. God is not mocked for whatever one sows that will he also reap. God's purposes will not be thwarted.

No matter how much the enemy tries to subvert them David is calling for the enemies of God to fail. And the same should be true of our prayers.

So application for this verse pray for the destruction of evil's influence and that revival would sweep our country. For us personally this is what we need to be praying for.

We want God's purpose through his church to spread the gospel especially in our own country to go unimpeded.

We don't want evil to thwart it. We don't want evil to stop it. We want evil to stop. So we pray for God when you pray the Lord's prayer your kingdom come.

This is what you're praying. May your kingdom come and replace the evil kingdom of this world. Verse 15 Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me aha aha and this is acknowledged sovereign acknowledged sovereign I come by this because of you got to think this through why would the taunting and ridicule of believers appall God's enemies that's why he's asking those be appalled because of their shame how would they be brought to shame well they are attacking God's servants so this indicates a face to face confrontation with God himself you face God himself I've been persecuting your followers this is what Paul did on the road to Damascus either through conviction of sin in this life or the next there is utter shame for sin when faced with the holy

God every knee will bow to him and confess him as Lord every unbelieving heart will know that they have rebelled against the king of kings so everyone will acknowledge the sovereign has some point and he's saying here let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me aha aha!

personally offended by attacks recognize the doom of the enemies of God pray for their salvation that they may avoid his wrath so many times we do get offended by this world and part of it is because they're trouncing on something we know to be right in the bible and we do need to stand up for that but the personal offense there's really no room for that because God in Christ has taken all the offense on the cross and he will repay we don't need to be offended the battle is over the battle is won in God's mind at the end of the age we're supposed to be faithful in it so what is our commission to the vilest enemies of God go and preach the gospel that they may be saved and repent we don't want anybody going to hell we know they will if they don't repent and come to Christ think about the judgment of hell and go and tell folks about

Christ and how to avoid that wrath all right verse 16 but may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you may those who love your salvation say continually great is the Lord this is celebrated Savior celebrated!

David invokes a contrast by describing the blessing of the righteous as we seek the Lord we will rejoice and be glad in him and there is no greater joy than having an audience with our Savior amen do you love the salvation of God do you marvel at it meditate on it celebrate it proclaim it you!

this verse parallels verse 5 in that David will never cease praising God nor cease declaring his greatness this is his prayer for all who worship God this is an old hymn text I sing my plain belief one song my heart outpours never was pain nor grief never was love like yours this is my friend in whose sweet praise in all my days could gladly spend so application for this verse take more and more opportunities to tell of God's greatness say continually great is the Lord the last verse last section tonight personal need of salvation personal need of salvation is the last one and help of the helpless it says as for me I am poor and needy but the Lord takes thought for me you are my help and my deliverer do not delay oh my

God just as he began David recognizes his helpless state the beautiful contrast in this verse is fuel for praise he says as for me but the Lord says I am but you are so praise him for his greatness we are poor and needy but the Lord takes thought for us if the Lord takes thought for us we have already won have we not the Lord is our help the Lord is our deliverer David ends by saying do not delay oh my God once again though in distress David asks God to glorify himself by delivering his people so here acknowledge your need to be delivered constantly it wasn't a one time thing at salvation we constantly need!

deliverance we constantly need to look to him who can deliver us and glory in your Savior and Lord glorify him so Psalm 40 quick look at it but he who calls you is faithful so anybody know where that's found the end of 1st Thessalonians he's talking about the God who will sanctify you completely in peace he who calls you is faithful he will surely do it and that's what David sang in his psalm as well you can trust in the Lord he's going to be faithful to you