A Study in Psalms - Psalm 63

Welcome to Christ Community Church and especially welcome back to our summer of psalms. We've had a break for a couple weeks and Just a couple announcements tonight. Please join us this Saturday in West Wing 2 at 730 to 10 o'clock for our Bimonthly prayer meeting everybody's welcome. And so we hope to see you at 730 for a time of prayer We pray for the church our neighborhood our country all the ministries in the church 730 this Saturday in the back There's a bunch of signups Summer's almost over.

So the after Labor Day in September There's three different new classes new members class You can sign up for evangelism training and we mentioned last week if you want to go to mission trip Don't wait till next year to get an evangelism training get in it now and then there'll be a soteriology class taught So and there's also a women's event on the 17th So look in the lobby at the signups and avail yourself to that Last week if you were here, you heard the testimonies from nine people that had never been on a mission trip with Christ coming church And I mentioned briefly Something that I wanted to continue tonight when we went out Saturday, I Only had three opportunities to share the gospel Saturday.

It was like it was like West Covina. They didn't want to talk It was cold. They went open the doors lots of dogs So it wasn't discouraging but I had three But in Sunday, we went to church to different churches and I preached Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon They said we're gonna go out and we're gonna go to a park and the park was I can't remember about 20 blocks We had to walk and then we're gonna share in the park So Shane Anderson and I and our two interpreters group about four or five people started to walk And we only went about one block and there was a man washing his car When you talk to him, his name was John and He stopped washing the car and gave us about a half an hour to share with him So that was encouraging and while I was sharing with him Shane was sharing with the man named Christian Who was a garbage collector one of those manual guys walking around collecting the garbage and then even before we left I mentioned last week There was a teenage girl named Marion who had the iPod ear things and but she stopped and we shared with her for about 45 Minutes, so it was really encouraging and then I walked around the corner and there were two old men Hector was 75 years old and Felicia Felicia if I'm saying it right was 89 years old Now the Sun was kind of shining in this cold day and you might have seen the remember the picture from last week And they're just their countenance was bright and they said sure we'd like to talk to you We were there for over an hour sharing with them and and just that you know You you have somebody interested in your gospel presentation when they're asking questions, right if you're doing all the talking Maybe they're not so interested, but they they just wouldn't shut up.

They kept asking question after question after question, so that's always great and But when you ask them if they were to die tonight where they would spend eternity I mentioned last week I could not believe how many people told me no one can know Only God knows that was the answer I got and I didn't realize that Argentina is not a Catholic country anymore. It's a secular country like America, so yeah They're Catholic in name, but they rarely ever go to church, and they certainly don't know much So when they would say that no one can know it just hit me like a ton of bricks They don't know because of course the Catholic Church doesn't teach eternal security, and they don't even go to church But is there anything more important than eternal security is there anything more important than your assurance of salvation?

I think not So last there are preacher on Sunday mr.. Mason ended up his message with the verse I'll begin with first John 5 13 I would open up first John 5 verse 13 And it says I write in first John I think at least 13 times It says I write or I'm writing or I've written 13 times, and then it says I write these things To you who believe in the name of Son of God that you may know 32 times in that little book of first John it says no no no we can know and that's what hit me They don't know the lost world doesn't know you know I know I have eternal life I know my real home is in heaven and not here.

I know that any sufferings I have are temporary. I know the Bible is the very words of God. I know about Jesus I know about the Holy Spirit who's in me, and I know about God the Father But when I read Psalm 63 I wish I really knew God more I really wish I had the desire the burning desire that the psalmist had in Psalm 63 J. Vernon McGee said this is a special psalm. It's ointment that is poured out upon all kinds of sores It's a bandage for bruises. It's a balm to put upon wounds to help them heal It has been a marvelous psalm for the church.

It speaks of the thirst for the water of life Chrysostom who was early church father ordained and agreed that The primitive fathers that no day should pass without the public singing of this song and the primitive church used this psalm It was sung every morning or every time there was a public gathering Derek Kinder says there may be other psalms that are equal the outpouring of devotion But there are a few psalms that surpass Psalm 63 the type of psalm it is it's a lament psalm And I think sometimes we forget that it's a lament psalm lament psalms express the need for God's deliverance So David wrote set at least 73 psalms and maybe 30 of them are a lament psalms asking God for help But this is such a beautiful Poetic psalm that I think when you read at least the first eight verses you forget that David's actually crying out and as a lament The superscription says a psalm of David When he was in the wilderness of Judah and I'll talk a little bit more about that when we get into our message So let's read it and we'll pray a psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

Oh God you are my God earnestly, I seek you my soul thirsts for you my flesh faints for you as In a dry and weary land where there is no water So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary Beholding your power and glory Because your steadfast love is better than life. My lips will praise you So I will bless you as long as I live in your name. I will lift up my hands My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips When I remember you upon my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night For you have been my help and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.

My soul clings to you your right hand upholds me But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down to the depths of the earth They shall be given over to the power of the sword They shall be a portion for jackals But the king shall rejoice in God all who swear by him shall exult for the mouth of liars will be stopped Father in heaven we thank you for another opportunity to open up the perfect Word of God and To look at one of the most special Psalms there are Father, may we leave here tonight knowing more of you having that burning desire that King David had to know you to be with you In Jesus name.

Amen. I hope you have an outline. There's three simple points how David longed for God Verses 1 to 3 and how David lived for God verses 4 to 8 and then how David looked for God Verses 9 to 11. Let's begin with point number 1 how David longed for God and Point number 8 there says where he was where he was Dave begins by saying that beautiful verse. Oh God, you are my God earnestly I seek you my soul thirsts for you My flesh faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So, where is David?

Well, if you look at the superscription, it says a psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah So commentators will debate most of them will agree upon there's two choices Is he in the desert fleeing from King Saul and that would be 1st Samuel 19 to 31?

Or is it when he's fleeing from Absalom his son in 2nd Samuel 15 to 19? Well, if you look at verse 11, it says but the king the king shall rejoice So it's pretty obvious and most commentators agree that it's not when he's being chased by Saul But it's when he fled Jerusalem from his own son King Absalom So because he was not yet the king when Saul was chasing him for the most time and you know the story of Absalom He rebelled against David.

It's told in 2nd Samuel 15 to 19 Absalom was back in Jerusalem, but he was estranged from David and he felt bitter and estranged from him So Absalom spent four years winning the hearts of the people He would sit at the gate and he would lie to the people saying there's nobody here to to hear your requests but I'll hear them and It says that he stole the hearts of the people So when Absalom had the majority of the people on his side that he thought he was ready to set up a rival kingdom in near in the nearby city of Hebron and David was completely ignorant or caught off guard and when it was told of him He feared that there would be a bloody and a brutal attack on Jerusalem So David fled and his loyal generals and soldiers fled and they went east towards the transjordan desert he let the psalmist says he left weeping and crying in the night as Absalom moved into Jerusalem.

So David crossed the Jordan River and he hid somewhere in this desert region It's called the wilderness while Absalom in a couple days was going to come and pursue him this is supposedly have not been there one of the most barren regions of the earth and David uses this region as a poetic background for his condition apart from God He sees himself thirsting for God as a man might thirst in the desert. He begins by saying Oh God You are my God. This is a very personal song if you count the personal pronouns I My and me you see at least 20 times How personal this psalm is David says the name Oh God, that's Elohim That's the name in the Old Testament that appears over 2,000 times It's first used in the very first verse in the Bible in the beginning God Elohim created the heavens and the earth, you know, you hear that phrase today Don't you Oh God as a curse word as a blasphemous word in movies and people say it much like they take the name of Jesus Those people aren't believers, they don't know God but David here when he says Oh God You can sense the feeling inside of him.

He goes on to say Oh God. You are my God He's a child of God. He's conscious of the personal relationship that he has He knows his father and he knows his father's gonna listen to this lament. He's crying out He then continues by saying earnestly. I seek you I don't know if anybody out there still uses the King James Bible or the New King James Bible But your translation says I rise early in the morning So the early translation the Septuagint that was written 200 years before the Old Testament for Christ came Says early I will seek you So this is probably why Chris slum and the early church fathers read this psalm at every Every morning saying it every morning because those translations said early I will seek you our modern translations say earnestly I will seek you but I was thinking about that.

This might be the psalm that you need We've talked a lot about the wilderness with our study in Job and in Hebrews We talked a lot about it with our study in Moses in Hebrews 10, right? So this might be the psalm that you need to read in the morning before the troubles of the day begin to mount up But notice for David though, this is not a last resort.

He always prays always continually praying, right? Next he says my soul thirsts for you My flesh faints for you in our poetry This is called the Miriam and that just refers to the whole being the whole body soul he just yearns for God's satisfying presence much like the sons of Korah said in Psalms 42 as The deer pants for the flowing streams. So pants my soul for you Oh Oh God, my soul thirsts for God for the living God When shall I come and appear before my God Psalm 42 1 and 2 I like what one commentator said about this Verses 1 here in Psalm 63 stranded in an open sea a man was afloat on a small raft Dying without any water His weakened and crampling body was about to collapse.

His lips were parched. His eyes were seeing spots His stomach was in knots There was only one thing he wanted Water, he had no interest in watching television or any desire for amusement or entertainment He was not daydreaming about as many possessions back home Nor was he fantasizing about the stock market or his favorite sports team? He had only one thing on his mind Water he had to have water and until he received it nothing else mattered this is precisely where David was both physically and Spiritually as he wrote Psalm 63 He was in a dry and barren wilderness of Judea without water his body ached for liquid replenishing Yet the deepest thirst of his life was for the living water David's soul yearned for God.

He did not want money or any material thing He wanted God for who God was with all his passion with all his soul He thirsted to know and experience the greatness of God It was David's great desire to feel the presence of God, you know, do we thirst like that? I'll talk a little bit more about that in the application in my life but the mark of a child of God is to have intimate knowledge of God and And of God the Father it's the biggest and most important thing in our life You know in the New Testament in John we have the story of the woman at the well, right in John chapter 4 And it says that in John 4.

I'll just paraphrase it real quickly the Samaritan woman said to Jesus How is it that you a Jew asked for a drink from me a woman of Samaria for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans Jesus answered her and said if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you Give me a drink you would have asked for him and he would have given you living water the woman said to him sir, you have nothing to draw water with and This well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob?

He gave us this well and drank from it himself as did his sons and his livestock Jesus said to her everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again But whoever drinks to the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water Welling up to eternal life the woman said to him sir Give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water And she got that living water didn't she just two chapters later in John 6 35 Jesus said to him I am the bread of life Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst and just the next chapter in John 739 on the last day of the feast that great day Jesus stood up and cried out if anyone thirsts Let him come to me and drink whoever believes in me as scriptures have said out of his heart will flow rivers Rivers of living water now.

He said this about the Spirit who had not yet whom those who believe in him Were to received for as yet the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified And then if you go all the way to the very end of the Bible to the very last chapter Revelation 22 it says in verse 17 the Spirit and the bride say come and let the one who hears say come And let the one who is thirsty come let the one who desires to take the water of life without price Does your soul thirst for God does your flesh long for God if that's not your experience now?

Well, what will it be like when you go into the wilderness someday? Like David all earthly satisfactions are ultimately unsatisfactory because they're earthly I was thinking tonight of Maui, Hawaii. Did you see the pictures? I've been there twice tomorrow's My anniversary and we first went there, but everywhere we were in Maui is gone Just a wildfire in the wind just completely wiped out.

It was there yesterday and now it's gone Everything on earth is just temporary, isn't it? Everything you see it could just be wiped out in an instant, but living water that Jesus gives Gives us everlasting eternal life. So that's where he was in the wilderness of Judea What did he want some point B verse 2 and Tim read it? So I looked upon you in the sanctuary beholding your power and glory David had a spiritual appetite How did he acquire it by worshipping God in the past at the sanctuary or at the tabernacle?

Before the temple was built. It was there where David saw God's presence in the sanctuary is there where David beheld God's glory? I think there's a verse that's probably read from this pulpit more than any other verse and it's Psalms 27 for Lance quotes it often. I've quoted it and I think AJ quoted recently one thing I have asked to the Lord that I may seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple David had a passion to come to the tabernacle to sing the songs to learn about God and to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord there the sons of chorus said in Psalms 84 1 and 2 how lovely is your dwelling place?

So Lord of hosts my soul longs. Yes faints for the courts of the Lord My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the Living God And then verse 10 says for a day in your court is a better than a thousand elsewhere I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God Than to dwell in the tents of the wicked and then back to Psalm 42 that wonderful Psalm says in verse 4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul how I would go to the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise a multitude keeping festival what because David had seen God's power and glory in God's house He wanted to experience that in the wilderness as he had so often in the house of God It was Spurgeon who said a weary place and a weary heart Make the presence of God more desirable.

What did David want? He wanted to be in God's present why why he worshipped verse 3 He says because your steadfast love is better than life. My lips will praise you We talked about the past in verse 2. This is the present David David would say in verse 3 your steadfast love is better than life He says in verse 6 when I remember you on my bed. He says in verse 7 you have been my help He says you're right him and he'll upholds me and I think that's verse 8 So here even though David is cut off from the sanctuary in Jerusalem God has not cut himself off from David David knew the steadfast love of God was better than anything in life Spurgeon also said there was no desert in David's heart though.

There was a desert around him You know, we've spent a lot of time I mentioned talking about Moses in the wilderness and Job in the wilderness these past six months But even before David spent time in the wilderness and Moses Elijah would spend time in the wilderness You know a true Christian will say Oh God, you are my God Earnestly, I seek you many people call themselves Christians, right? But when something goes wrong Either personally to them or perhaps to their loved ones Their immediate reaction is to say why has God done this to me?

And often they turn away from God They're like Job's wife who said curse God and die But a true believer does the opposite like David does here in the desert a true Christian is always driven by adversity To God a true Christian is always driven by Adversity to God when I like to share with somebody who's suffering or going through a hard time I like to go to 2nd Corinthians 4 verses 16 to 18. You probably know it It says so we do not lose heart Though our outer self is wasting away our inner self is being renewed day by day and then you have that beautiful verse 17 that says for this light and momentary affliction is Preparing for us an eternal weight of glory behind all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen But to the things that are unseen for the things that are seen are transient But the things that are unseen are eternal that verse 17 is one of my favorite verses because it reminds me He says that our light momentary troubles They're light momentary many years ago in Siliguri India a preacher came and he was talking about Sufferings and he used this first and he brought a rope and it was a really long lope and it wasn't a big church Probably just about this size But he took the rope and it went all around and went out the church and out the church and and the point was that The rope just would kind of go forever and then on that rope He had a he put a piece of black tape about just about an inch And he said that black tape on that long rope maybe a hundred feet or hundred yards That black tape represents your trials your sufferings your troubles But then when you look at that rope someday in heaven, you're gonna look back and say yeah, those were light those were Temporary momentary troubles when you look at eternal life eternal glory forever and ever and I've never forgot that Why he worshiped because David longed for the love of God.

He longed to be with God Let's go to some point number two how David lived for God and here you have four points He worked for God.

He witnessed for God. He waited for God and he walked with God So first off in verse 4, he worked for God.

He says I'll bless you as long as I live in your name I will lift up my hands David was serious about worshiping working for God you think about about David He was the king that moved the Ark to Jerusalem Right now incorrectly the first time right and Uzziah died, but he did get it right the second time David was the one who organized the temple worship.

He first assembled the Levites He assigned their duties their divisions in a tabernacle, which was soon to be the temple Then David assembled the priests to do the temple sacrifices every day and the many types of sacrifices and then he organized the temple worship the singers the divisions for singing and playing the musical instruments and Finally, he would assemble the gatekeepers to be the soldiers outside and protect the temple and it was also David who would prepare the materials for his son Solomon to build the temple because he says that that Solomon was a young man and David got all the Rocks the temple the gold everything ready to build that temple David was serious about working for God He loved and valued the things of God So he wanted to work for God.

It's a good reminder for us Move on to point number verse five. He witnessed for God He says my soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food My mouth will praise you with joyful lips now This is just a metaphor for joy a metaphor for greatness for satisfaction of intimate knowledge of God That completely satisfies him God feeds the hungry soul with rich and bountiful food And that leads to joyous praise One commentator says that this metaphor is of a royal banquet prepared with the choices to food David probably remembered the stately feasts.

He enjoyed as Israel's king with this regal background He's reminded in his own heart that only God Only God could satisfy the true yearnings of his soul and I like what David says I talked about the past Talked about the present here. I think of the future David knew of God's faithfulness in the past present and now the future. He says will be satisfied My soul will praise you Because of David had a longing passion for God It resulted in him praising God and many of David's 73 Psalms are praise psalms.

This one is a lament song Then let's look at verses 6 and 7. He waited for God and he first off he says When I remember upon my bed and then we'll talk about meditation point to the key here Is that David meditated upon God's faithfulness in the past?

He says, you know thou have been my help when you remembered him the phrase remember you Means to recall what God has said and done in the past and apply it to our present situation Many of the Psalms talk about that Psalm 77 11 says I will remember The deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your wonders of old Psalms 105 which is a history of the the children of Israel Says in verses 1 to 5 give thanks to the Lord call upon his name Make known his deeds among the people sing to him sing praises to him.

Tell of his wondrous works Glory in his holy name. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice Seek the Lord in his strength seek his presence continually Remember the wondrous works that he has done his miracles and the judgments He uttered and in Psalms 119 55 says I remember your name in the night Oh Lord and keep your law, you know, our God is called the great I am Not I was but he must always be recognized in our present situations And that's what David remembered him when he was in the desert remembering those good times Then he says and meditate upon you in the watches of the night Now the Jews had three watches at night from sunset to 10 o'clock From 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock and from 2 o'clock to sunrise So David's saying whenever he awoke in the night, he's gonna remember the Lord Now, I believe I mentioned in the last two years when I've talked a little bit about meditation I believe the art of spiritual meditation has been lost by our current generation Maybe it's because of our social media Television or just being busy all our gadgets we have but older Christians used to meditate upon scripture And last summer of Psalms I told you if you remember take one verse Write it down like today's verse for me was I'm in Psalms 86 today So I Psalms 86 11 was teach me your way.

Oh Lord that I may walk in your truth Unite my heart to fear your name. That was my verse to meditate upon today But why don't you just take the one that we looked at today? Psalm 63 verse 1. Oh God, you are my God Earnestly, I seek you my soul thirst for you My flesh faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water, you know If you would write that down, you know on a sticky note or a cue card in the morning You could memorize it literally a minute or two by saying it five times I bet a lot of you already haven't memorized but then you start to meditate upon it.

You ask yourself. Is he my God? Do I talk about God like David does do I call him my God? Are there any idols in my life? That would prevent him from being my God Do I seek him? is there anything that I need to get rid of in my life that I would thirst for God like David did and And then has my thirst for God diminished since my conversion, you know, when someone comes to the Lord, usually they're really excited They're out doing evangelism to Sharon, but as the years progress, it seems that they they lose that love remember in Revelation chapter 2 and 3 Five of the seven churches God tells them they need to repent.

They need to get right with God and then think about it What can I do to restore my relationship? What can I align my priorities? So, you know, we'll talk more about meditation later, but David would meditate upon God in the night boy. Do we need to do that? He then says you've been my help and in the shadow of your wings, I will sing for joy Psalm 64 1 verse 4 says let me dwell in your tent forever Let me let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings David remembered the past and how God had protected him and how and it would cause him to sing praises in the present When and you know when you meditate upon Scripture, it should lead you to sing joyous praises for God The more I read the Psalms the more I study the Psalms There's been some incredible amount of music coming out by Sovereign Grace music by the Gettys by City of Light one of my favorite groups There's just so much beautiful worship music out about the Psalms now.

And so when I when I and now there's even a Grace community churches put out a book on Psalms and you read the Psalm and they have maybe one two or three four Sometimes more songs to sing with that song. It's wonderful What's out there now, but when you meditate upon the Psalms, it should lead to joyous praise for God You know when you when you I was thinking about it's not necessarily a psalm But when I was reading in John today, you know I was thinking about that when I surveyed the wondrous cross and you know those words there says love so amazing so divine Demands my soul my life my call.

That's where David was. Let's look at he walked with God verse 8 He says my soul clings to you your right hand upholds me.

You know, there's a phrase It says Tim read this. We had the song tonight, right? God will hold fast to it, but I Noticed in Deuteronomy. There's this phrase Hold fast to him Deuteronomy 4 4 says but you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today Deuteronomy 10 20 says you shall serve him and hold fast to him and By his name you shall swear Deuteronomy 11 22 for if you be will will be careful to do all his commandments that I command you to do Loving the Lord your God walking in all his ways and holding fast to him Deuteronomy 13 for you shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and a boy obey his voice and you shall serve him and hold fast to him and Finally Deuteronomy 30 verse 20 says loving the Lord your God obeying his voice and Holding fast to him for he is your life and length of days that you may dwell in the land That the Lord swore to your fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob.

So what does it mean to hold fast? It just means to stick stick to him Israel was to cling like David saying here intimately to her God David clung to God in the good times and now it prepares him for the bad times Which he's in right now in this wilderness experience So he walked by with God by holding fast to God in the New Testament We have that verse Galatians 2 20 that says I have been crucified with Christ I no longer live but I but Christ lives in me and the life I live now In the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me We don't live for ourselves.

We live for Christ and we need to cling to him So, you know in point one We saw that David had this passion for God and because that passion he would ultimately praise God and then in point two We just saw that David would pursue God in those four ways now we're gonna move to point number three and We'll see that the the passion the praise and pursuit leads to protection from God So point three how David looked for God now these there are many commentators Liberal ones, of course that don't believe verses 9 10 and 11 belong with verses 1 to 8 Because they're not the same poetically if you just read this verse Verses 1 to 8 the poetry is just incredible even in English let alone Hebrew when you get to verse 9 it changes But okay, so there are commentators who attack this psalm, but I don't believe that they are different poetically But remember what our superscription said right a Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah and we've explained the extreme danger that David was in So Dave is in the wilderness.

He's fled from Absalom You know, he's lamenting out to God and finally you get to verse 9 We see the first indication of David's distress.

So two points there He looked for victory and he looked for vindication. So he looked for victory first.

Okay God is on his side Absalom is the upsurfer. So he's looking for victory So during this psalm you see expressions like better than life in verse 3 as long as I live in verse 4 And here in verse 9 Those who seek to destroy my life It reminds us of the danger that David was in the danger of death because Absalom Even though David had fled Jerusalem the situation was very dangerous But you know I think David knew here Even when he's in the desert that he was gonna win because remember what happened in 2nd Samuel 15 David's leaving Jerusalem his army and soldiers are going with him and the priests come Abathur and Zadok came with the Levites and they brought the Ark of the covenant of God and they were gonna take the Ark of the covenant of God to be with David But what did David do?

He said no, he said put the Ark of the covenant back where it belongs He says carry the Ark of God back into the city if I find favor in the eyes of the Lord He will bring me back and let me see it both and its dwelling place I know David knew he was the king and Absalom was the upsurfer and David knows that his foes are gonna be doomed Those who would kill him would be doomed Remember he said I know he had the victory but he cried He told Joel he told the generals deal gently with my son Absalom because generally what you need you an upsurfer you slaughter him Right and Job didn't listen to David.

He slaughtered Absalom, but David David didn't have to execute his enemies But he knew that they were doomed All he had to do was ask God to deal with them Well, David and the believer hold fast to the Lord. The wicked will be cast into the depths of the earth So his foes were doomed his foes were also defeated He says they shall be given over to the power of the sword When you read the story of the battle in 2nd Samuel 18 It says that 20,000 men of Absalom were killed but when you get to verse 8 it says and the battle was spread over the face of the country and The forest devoured more people that day than the sword.

I love that verse. I can't get the thought It's like that movie the Lord of the Rings One of my favorite movies and they have those ants those tree people and they devoured all those people I keep thinking about that when I read that verse so more people the forest devoured more people Then were killed by the sword God killed more people than the soldiers killed But the foes were defeated and the foes were devoured The last part of verse 10 says and they shall be a portion for the jackals what this means is they're not getting a proper burial You know the wicked their bodies will be left exposed to be eaten by the jackals and the birds no proper burial So then we come to the last verse here verse 11 David looked for vindication But the king shall rejoice in God all who swear by him shall exult for the mouth of liars will be stopped I said, I believe David knew he would win That's why he wanted them to deal gently with Absalom, but triumph always succeeds over liars Absalom lied to the people Absalom upsert the throne Absalom lied and he stole the hearts of the men, but ultimately he would fail You know, the Bible tells us in 2nd Samuel and when you get to night check after 19 David will go back to Jerusalem and it looks like he would have about another 10 years to reign of that reign So he was vindicated.

He would rejoice in God. He would go back to that temple He would repair he'd go back to the tabernacle and he would prepare the stones the gold the iron So that his son Solomon could build the temple. He would arrange all the the things that would have to be done for that temple So tonight just a or Apple you've seen a lot of application through this Psalm already, but just a couple points number one Do I seek God?

above all earthly pursuits Do I desire God above all else the Westminster shorter catechism says? The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Do I glorify God? Do I enjoy him forever? You know this Psalm 63? So much of what I've said just kind of dovetails everything Lance has been teaching recently for the last six months We've had a lot of messages I think at least eight of them on the church its meaning and its ministry right about Loving God and loving the church and not being away from it And then do you remember that message one of my favorite messages Lance taught was he said was do I adore God You remember that one and Lance gave us seven points there.

There's an excitation to be with him There's a proclamation about him if you're excited about him if you adore him, there's a meditation upon him There's a satisfaction with God. There's a celebration with him There's a presentation to him and there's the appreciation of him So do I seek God above all earthly pursuits our lives are to be like that of the Apostle Paul who said in 1st Corinthians 2 2 but I desire to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified So I hope that when you leave here tonight You'll have your your earthly pursuits will be temporary like the all that all Lelani and Maui that burned down you desire God and the number two do I spend sufficient time?

Meditating upon the character of God, you know, I mentioned any times there's five disciplines to Scripture, right and Hearing the Word of God is one and we do that on Sunday But let's be honest most people are gonna forget that 90% of the message by lunchtime unless you're taking good notes So hearing the Word of God is number one Number two is reading the Word of God and I trust the Wednesday night crowd is the choir of our church You're reading God in the morning and having a quiet time Number three would be studying the Word of God.

You've got a help book a commentary. Maybe a MacArthur Bible You're you're studying. What is it? What does it say? Maybe reviewing the messages out there number four, of course is memorizing Scripture and I think we used to have Bible Bible Memory Association We used to have to memorize one verse a day and if we did it for I can't remember how many weeks we got to Go to summer camp. I don't know if they still do that anymore But you know, we're lucky if we can get our kids to memorize one verse a week but number four is memorizing and then number five meditating, so I mentioned briefly about meditating, but Meditating upon Scripture is as a lost art I mentioned and it used to be when we didn't have all the social media all the sporting events all the things going on And I remember 23 years ago.

I thought something like that Right before I went to India. There was a man in our church named Omar Have you any graduate from the Master's Seminary and began a church have somewhere out in the riverside But he taught a Sunday school class right before I left to go to India and I think maybe Gil Martin remember that class Basically, it was a follow-up from dr Ruska about how to pray one of the professors at the Master's Seminary and It was an hour prayer and you had a chart you would pray five minutes on this particular Five minutes for this five minutes for that fine and you went through one hour of prayer And I took that to India because when I went to India, you know, I didn't have a wife I didn't have a daughter I didn't have a ministry because the pastor that I was gonna work with Was in Manipur and I couldn't go there.

So he said stay in siliguri Work stay there for six months. I'm coming learn the language, you know But so I show up and I'm living in a missionaries house. He's not who's home in America, you know, I don't know the food I don't know anything. I don't know how to cook anymore Finally realized that I need a wife but what was it was the most special time of my life Because every morning I would get up and I'd go through that prayer for one hour and I would sing songs That was one of the best times of my life.

And and by the way at that exact time Lance was preaching in Genesis 24 how to choose a wife now I left he only had three of the messages done and so I had to wait to get message four But I read I read listen to those cassettes is what we had then But that was a special time because I had sufficient time To meditate upon God and marriage and all the things of the Bible and that's what I want to get back to That's what I want you to get back to you know today, you know, we have that saying I'm busier than a one-arm wallpaper hanger got a wife got a kid got a ministry doing this doing that But remember the song take time to be holy Speak off with the Lord Abide in him always and feed upon his word Make friends with God's children help those who are weak Forgetting and nothing his blessing to seek verse 2 says take time to be holy the world rushes on Spend much time in secret with Jesus alone by looking to Jesus like him Thou shalt be thy friends in thy conduct his likeness shall see I'm gonna pledge myself To spend more time Meditating upon God and less time upon the Dodgers and all the other things in the world that are out there And number three do I cling to God and do I depend upon his power to uphold me?

You know, we need to stay so close to God that no sin can get between us and God or us and Jesus We need to spend time alone with God in the Word of God and prayer and cling to God You know, we are all gonna have wilderness experiences, maybe you've had them maybe you're over them Maybe you're going through that wilderness experience now and maybe you haven't had it But it will happen in the future and I trust like David in Psalm 63 It will drive you into the arms of our Savior and our God the Father Psalm 63 has taught people for centuries how we should deal with ourselves when we find ourselves in a wilderness Situation so I hope that you will cling to God I hope that you'll spend more time meditating upon God and I hope that you will seek God above all earthly pursuits May you leave here tonight saying Oh God, you are my God earnestly, I seek you my soul thirsts for you my flesh faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no Water, let's pray Father may we leave here tonight Thirsting for you the living water the Holy Spirit has given us living water if we have Jesus Christ in you But father we can get distracted like the churches in Revelation we can get busy now that we're married now that we have kids now that we have jobs now that we have ministry and Sometimes that our relationship you is lacking.

We don't spend time talking to you in prayer We don't spend enough time studying your scriptures and growing in knowledge of who you are And we need to spend more time just Meditating upon what you have done the miracles of the past in the Old Testament the miracles in the New Testament Father may we leave here tonight? Trying to do more and more thirsting for you like a dying man in the desert thirst for water May we thirst for the living water more and more we ask this in Jesus name. Amen