A Study in Psalms - Psalm 86

Good evening, I want to welcome you back to our seventh psalm this summer that we're looking at we've turned to psalm 86 tonight psalm 86 Have a couple announcements We have a churchwide potluck on June 29th If you haven't signed up, but I know there's over a hundred people that have signed up Please sign up as soon as possible because they got to order they got to know how much chicken to order So they want you to sign up tonight or Sunday so they can get the order in for that VBS starts next Tuesday

So if your kids or grandkids haven't signed up, please get him signed up and Roger Flores We'll be teaching a class on Wednesday night July 2nd on how to defend the faith you can sign up for that in the lobby, too So we just saying I think the greatest him ever recorded ever sung amazing grace And I think you know about the writer of it John Newton that he was a slave trader And I could talk a lot about his life but he you know, he was a slave trader and in 1754 after becoming violently ill on a sea voyage He abandoned his life as a slave trader and he devoted his life to God's service He was ordained as a Anglican priest in the year 1764 and he became quite a popular preacher and hymn writer I'm told he wrote over 280 hymns and among them the great one amazing grace But I'm gonna give you eight things about the hymn amazing grace you might not know Okay, I didn't I just got this from an author here and he mentions eight things

You didn't know about this great hymn Amazing grace number one The Library of Congress has a collection of over 3,000 recordings of amazing grace These recordings are made on vinyl cassette tape CDs and other media between 1930 and the present time This collection includes every imaginable genre of classical music to country to gospel to rap to world music Number two one of the six verses. I'm sorry

One of the verses of amazing grace was actually stolen the original version of amazing grace had six verses but in 1910 an enterprising hymn book publisher named Edwin Othello Exel Replaced the last three verses with the one that we just finished when we've been there 10,000 years Bright shining as the Sun he took that from a hymn called Jerusalem our happy home Which apparently had over 70 verses So he probably thought nobody would notice it if he borrowed that that last verse for amazing grace and number three Plain amazing grace on bagpipes is a recent innovation when I die Tim's responsibility will be to my funeral here my celebration service Tim will have to find a bagpiper to play amazing grace at my funeral, but apparently that's very new

It was only in 1972 that the Royal Scots Dragoon guards recorded amazing grace on bagpipes and that version charted on the billboard top for 440 for eight weeks the original title wasn't amazing grace number four the first title was called faiths review and Expectation and it was written for a new New Year's Day sermon and then number five We don't know the original tune to amazing grace Because I'm not a musician, but there were there were different hymn books tune books and they would mix and match different songs so they've gone back in the archives and apparently some of the tunes are very different than what we have and Number six amazing grace became a very popular african-american spiritual though interesting

It was written by a former slave trader Amazing grace has long been cherished by african-american churches as a black gospel song and there have been powerful Performances by different people over the year including Aretha Franklin Whitney Phillips and many others Yet the words were written by a former slave ship captain named John Newton Two decades after he left the slave trade when he was an Anglican minister in the English Midlands He would later move to London and he would make a key Contribution to abolish the slave trade in England Whitney Phillips said I believe God wanted that song written just the way it was written So that we would be reminded that as a Christian whether black or white We are connected by God's amazing grace and number seven, which was interesting to me Amazing grace is actually a paraphrase of the words of King David When John Newton wrote the amazing grace, he wrote it to accompany a sermon on New Year's Day 1773 and the text of that sermon was first Chronicles chapter 17 verses 16 and 17 and that's the passage where Nathan goes to David and tells David that God's promised that you will have a son to sit on your throne forever So David went before the Lord and he said who am I? Lord God and what is mine house that that was brought me here through in other words David's responding amazing grace How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me He was a murderous adulterous King who had found mercy and forgiveness and now God promised He would extend his grace through David's descendants that grace Ultimately would be fulfilled in Jesus Christ as the greater son of David and lastly in number eight Amazing grace is a spiritual practice when John Newton wrote to him

He was part of his regular practice of self-examination he would pause at key moments to consider his sins and God's mercies in the past and Make confession and receive forgiveness in the present He wrote in his diary on January 1773. I am now in the 49th year of my age and May expect in the course of a few years at most to go whence I shall no more return May thy grace keep me always waiting to lab point and change shall come Let's read Psalm 86 tonight We have a superscription that says a prayer of David There's one other Psalm Psalm 17 that has the same superscription two Psalms that are called a prayer of David Incline your ear O Lord and answer me for I am poor and needy Preserve my life for I am godly Save your servant who trusts in you

You are my God be gracious to me Oh Lord For you do I cry all the day Gladden the soul of your servant for to you Oh Lord

Do I lift up my soul? For you Oh Lord are good and forgiving abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you Give ear Oh Lord to my prayer Listen to my plea for grace in the day of my trouble I call upon you where you answer me there is none like you among the gods Oh Lord Nor are there any works like yours all the nations you have made shall come and worship before you Oh Lord, and she'll glorify your name for you are great and do wondrous things you alone are God Teach me your way Oh Lord that I may walk in your truth unite my heart to fear your name I give thanks to you Oh Lord my God with my whole heart and I will glorify your name forever For great is your steadfast love toward me

You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol Oh God Insolent men have risen up against me a band of ruthless men seeks my life and they do not see you before them But you Oh Lord are a God merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness Turn to me and be gracious to me give your strength to your servant and save the son of your maidservant Show me a sign of your favor that those who hate me may see and be put to shame Because you Oh Lord have helped me and comforted me

Let's pray Father we thank you tonight that we can read this great Psalm Father you are gracious and you are compassionate and you are loving and I pray that everybody here tonight would have saving faith Saving faith that they'd have Jesus Christ in their heart and may we learn more about David's psalm tonight May we leave here tonight being thankful for grace and being ready to tell people about grace in Jesus name

Amen. I said that we had a superscription and I mentioned that one other Psalm Psalm 17 calls it a prayer of David and This psalm is found in book three There's five books in the book of Psalms and book three consists of only 17 Psalms And this is the only one in book three by David So one commentator called it the lonely prayer of David the type of Psalm It's a lament and I know what some of you are thinking

Oh, no another lament Seems like every Psalm we do is a lament Well, most of the Psalms are laments, right? But I think you're gonna see tonight that this is a lot different than just a normal lament So I'll wait and you can see it in just a few minutes You have three points tonight, I hope you have an outline David's appeal Okay, David's adoration and David's adversaries and we'll start with David's appeal verses 1 to 7 David's gonna make an appeal to God now David's in trouble But we don't know why until much much later in the psalm So he's gonna say four things here grant my prayer guard my life gladden my soul and give me assurance So first off he says grant my prayer in verse 1 and I want you to notice a few things here First off when we read this psalm You might not notice it right away because you'd have to read it in Hebrew But the names of God the names of God in Psalms 86 Yahweh is mentioned four times in verses 1 6 11 and 17 Yahweh is God our Savior God a Redeemer Then the name for God Elohim is mentioned four times in verse 2 verse 10 verse 12 and verse 14 and Elohim means God is the creator the sustainer the provider and Then in verse 15, we have the name for God L which is just a generic name for God But then we have the name of God Adonai 7 times in verse 3 4 5 8 9 12 and 15 and that a 9 means God is the master the owner and Then if you look at like verse 9 It says in verse 9 the name he says and you shall glorify your name and that says that three times in verse 9 verse 11 and verse 12 and Then you have the emphatic second-person pronoun you 16 times So if you added up all those God's name is mentioned at least 35 times in 17 verses So the point is that the psalmist focuses more on God than his problem and the prayer that we think it is But notice the names in English

He says Oh Lord That's Yahweh He says in verse 2 Oh you my God He then says Oh Lord in verse 3 That's Adonai And then he says Oh God in verse 10 That's Elohim and then he says Oh Lord my God So the way he uses the names of God The second thing I want you to notice is that the name that David uses for himself He uses a lot of different names for God, but in verses 2 4 and 16 He calls himself a servant verse to save your servant who trusts in you

You are my God Now a better translation would be slave that new translation the legacy standard Bible, which I mentioned a lot Uses that it changed the name of servant in all the New Testament passages to slave John MacArthur says, you know a servant can quit a servant can walk away and get a new master But a slave cannot quit David is a slave of God as we are slaves of Jesus Christ So it's interesting how David calls himself a slave in contrast to God And then I want to mention David's statement in verse 2 he says for I am godly when you first read that it may sound like a prideful statement But it's not there are translations that say I am holy I think the New Living Translation says I am devoted to you, but this is not a prideful statement It's a declaration that David is a son of the Covenant

He belongs entirely to the Lord David is pleading for help on the basis of the Covenant relationship with the Lord and we kind of do the same when we say In Jesus name, I pray so it's not a prideful statement And then the fourth thing I want you to notice in this psalm and we'll go through them the imperatives What's an imperative? Well, it's a command It's an exhortation It's an entreaty and in this psalm

There are 15 of them So David is going to give 15 commands to God 15 entreaties to God in 17 verses so David knows the names of God and He knows the attributes of God which will look later and he can command ask cry or beg God for certain things So he says incline your ear That's the first imperative incline your ear 15 times in Psalms we see this words Incline your ear It's anthropomorphism because God doesn't actually have an ear It's figurative language God is omnipresent He doesn't need to click incline his ear

He hears every word of every human in the whole world one example psalm 17 6 says I Call upon you for you will answer me Oh God Incline your ear to hear my words The second imperative follows immediately in verse 1 and it says answer me That's the second imperative I looked in the Psalms and I found at least 20 times the psalmist cries out answer me Psalms 13 says consider and answer me Oh Lord my God light up my eyes Lest I sleep the sleep of death Interesting

He says in verse 1 answer me and if you go to verse 7, he says in the day of trouble I call upon you for you answer me Then let's look at some point to guard my life verse 2 He says preserve my life

That's the third imperative Some translations say guard my life or protect my life, but the third imperative is preserve my life again We don't know what the trouble is and we won't find out till many verses later The fourth imperative he just says save or save your servant That's in Psalms over 50 times Now The psalmist calls out, you know to be saved at least 50 times in Psalms 69 one It says save me Oh God For the waters have come up to my neck and I've talked about this before When we see the word salvation or save in Old Testament, it's talking about being delivered or asking deliverance You know the Philippian jailer in Acts chapter 16 verse 30 said what must I do to be saved? That Philippian jailer is talking about salvation But here David is talking about being saved from some crisis or some war or some something that's going on The third sub point he says gladden my soul in verses 3 and 4 and here we have imperative number 5 he says be gracious to me and The there are certain translations that some of you may have that say be merciful to me But most of the better translation the SV the LSB the NSV say the word gracious and I think that's a better translation Because mercy is the act of withholding deserve punishment While grace is the in the act of endowing unmerited favor and David's here is asking God for unmerited favor I don't deserve it God, but please give me this favor

Help me He's crying out God gives us gifts We don't deserve and that's what David's crying out So he says here in verse 5 verse 3 be gracious to me and he'll say it again in verse 16 be gracious to me and Then in verse 6 he asked for grace in my translation and then he mentions in verse 15 grace So four times in this psalm we have grace and that's why I titled it the psalm of grace tonight When you look through the the Psalms many times he says in Psalm 6 to be gracious to me Oh Yahweh for I am pining away Psalms 913 be gracious to me

Oh Yahweh see my affliction Psalms 25 16 Turn to me and be gracious to me for I am alone and afflicted Psalm 31 9 be gracious to me Oh Yahweh for I am in distress Psalms 56 1 be gracious to me Oh God for man has trampled on me So anytime that you feel you're pining away, you're suffering afflictions

You're alone You're in distress or being trampled on you can do what David did and cry out be gracious to me God Then we have the sixth imperative gladden my soul or gladden the soul of your servant in There's four and the NSB says make the soul of your servant be joyful It's they're literally saying make me happy make me joyful God in the middle of a crisis of some type you know the heart of the psalm is that God would be gracious to the psalm and David knew well the promises of God the verses here verses 1 & 2 They would go back to numbers chapter 6 verses 24 to 27 Where God spoke to Moses and he said speak to Aaron and his son saying thus you shall bless the people of Israel You shall say to them the Lord bless you and keep you the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel and I will bless them That's what David is is referring back to and then some point number fought for give me assurance in verses 5 and 7 and here He says for you

Oh Lord are Good and forgiving abound in steadfast love to all who call upon you This is the Old Testament equivalent of Romans 10 13 Romans 10 13 says for everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord Will be saved Verse 5 is one of the most beautiful verses in in Psalms 86 and even the Bible because God is described in triplet here He's described as good ready to forgive and abundant in steadfast love and then he says in verse 6 imperative number 7 give ear so in verse 1 he asked God to incline his ear and Here in verse 6 he says give ear and Then David's gonna say listen to my plea for grace

So imperative number 8 is listen Now God is omniscient God is omnipresent He knows all things but David wants assurance of God answering prayer and that's why he keeps repeating those You know a few weeks ago or last month We looked at Psalms 5 and Lord willing you learned something about prayer But I think tonight David has a very important lesson for us and James Boyce one of my favorite authors on the Psalms points out something that Charles Spurgeon pointed out and That's when we pray to God We should use arguments now

You're wondering what I mean arguments Well, maybe the word appeal is better

But if Spurgeon uses arguments, I think we can use arguments We can we can express to God the reason why he should answer our prayers This isn't for God's benefit, but it's for ours, you know, if we can't think of reasons for God to answer our prayers It's probably the case that our reasons for asking are wrong and need to be revised Like we may say God, I need a new car or God. I need a new job and you leave it at that But what are the reasons you're asking for that? Well notice in Psalms 86 what David does? Eight times he's going to use the word for the preposition and eight times David Answers his prayers by giving sound arguments to God why you should answer my prayer

They're really easy to find You just got to look for the word for it's a preposition which means because So eight times they're there So the first four are based upon David and his need in verse 1 David says for I am poor and needy He's crying out for mercy there Number 2 in verse 2 He says for I am godly David saying, you know, I'm devoted to you. I'm a child of yours God in Verse 3 He says for to you Do I cry all the day? David's crying out to the God who answers prayer and in verse 4

He says for to you Oh Lord, do I lift up my soul? He's crying out to the one true God the only God who can answer his prayers So there's four reasons based upon his need Then secondly, there are four reasons based upon God and God's character in verse 7

He says for you answer me It reminds me of James 5 16 the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective prayer works and then in verse 10 He says for you are great and do wondrous things God is constantly doing good things each and every day and then verse 13 He says for great is your steadfast love, you know, I'm a child of God. I'm saved and I'm redeemed and Then verse 17 my Bible actually says because but if you want to switch to the word for same thing Because or for you Lord have helped me and comfort in me

You've helped me in the past He's saying help me in the present So I hope you look at all those fours and you can understand what David's doing You can argue as Spurgeon says with God Don't just give him your prayer requests Give me a new job You know, give me a new house

Give me give him the reason for it and Justify it or maybe you're asking for the wrong thing So, you know, can there be any greater gift in the world than the gift of grace and is there anybody? Beyond the reach of God's grace, I think not Somebody on social media put out something and I saw this and it said the type of people God has used Noah was once a drunk Abraham was an old man Isaac was a daydreamer Jacob was sometimes a liar Leah was not attractive Joseph had been abused Moses stuttered Gideon was often afraid Samson was a womanizer Rahab was a prostitute Jeremiah and Timothy were young David was an adulterous murderer Elijah doubted life's value Isaiah once preached naked Jonah ran from God Naomi was a widow Job went bankrupt Peter denied Christ three times The disciples fell asleep while praying Martha worried about everything Mary Magdalene, let's just say she had a bad reputation The Samaritan woman had multiple divorces Zacchaeus was a small man Paul persecuted believers Timothy had an ulcer Lazarus was once dead Do you think God can use you if he used all those people? Cannot we say like David said God be gracious to me We go from David's appeal in verses 1 to 7 to David's adoration in verses 8 to 13 Point number 2 David's adoration and you know, you know the prayer model we talked about it in Psalms 5 You can model prayer a for adoration C for confession T for Thanksgiving s for supplication Here and here David has adoration in the second paragraph of his prayer And so we have three points here the greatness of God the guidance of God and the goodness of God so begins in in verses 8 to 10 to talk about the greatness of God and The first thing he comes across is he wants everybody know that there's only one true God He says there is none like you among the gods

Now That's small G Those would be false gods in Exodus 8 10 Which would be the second plague the plague of frogs? Moses said to Pharaoh be as it you say So you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God Then in Exodus 9 14 the seventh plague which was hail He's Moses said for this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself and on your servants and your people So that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth There's only a one true God and then he says Oh Lord nor are there any works like yours Not only is the only the one true God

He's the Creator God in Exodus 15 11, which was a song of Moses They're singing

Who is like you? Oh Lord, Oh Lord among the gods small the false gods who is like you majestic and holiness Awesome glorious and deeds doing wonders There's no God that can do the wonders and works of God because they're false gods and then he says in verse in nine All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you Oh Lord, and they shall glorify your name Some commentators have taken this verse 9 that this should be a messianic psalm because it points to that great day in Revelation 9 I think Revelation 7 9 in one of my favorite verses of Anticipating someday in heaven when we stand there it says in Revelation 7 9 After this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation tribe people and languages Standing over the throne and before the Lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb and all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures and They fell on their faces before the throne and worship God saying Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever

Amen So all the nations someday will come and bow and worship before the God all the elect and then he says in verse 10 just a summary statement for you are great and Do wondrous things you alone are God There's no one else So he's talking about the greatness of God and then he moves on to the guidance of God And so now we have another imperative in verse 11

Teach me your way You know, we talked about this in Psalms 27 didn't we that even though David is lamenting about his enemies and seeking deliverance He still takes time to pray to God that God will teach him his ways and give him an undivided heart You know, let's be honest Most of our prayer requests

We seek God immediately to answer some emergency or need Seldom do we pray God teach us when we're praying right? So David knew his heart was capable of wandering and you know He would sin grievously later and he knew he needed to go in God's way So if you remember when we talked about Psalm 27 We said that great Psalm 119 Mentions teach us teach me your statutes ten times I won't read them all Psalm 119 12 says blessed are you a Yahweh teach me your statutes Psalms 11968 you are good and do good

Teach me your statutes Psalms 119 135 make your face shine upon your slave and teach me your statutes Psalms 119 171 let my lips pour forth praise for you

Teach me your statutes So true biblical wisdom consists of right thinking Joined with right believing resulting in right living. I mentioned in one of the messages I think it was Psalms 27 That a W Tozer had that great quote that Satan's greatest weapon is man's ignorance of the Word of God And you know, he says David says in in verse 11 after he says teach me O Lord That I may walk in your truth You know David says says it here and Hezekiah that great King would say in 2nd Kings 20 remember Isaiah went to Hezekiah and says Hezekiah you're gonna die Get your house in order and in Hezekiah would weep before the Lord and he would say to God He's saying 2nd Kings 20 verse 13

Remember now Oh Yahweh I beseech you how I have walked before you in truth He says exactly what David says I walked with a whole heart. I've done what is good in your sight and Hezekiah wept greatly So he He wants David wants to be taught by God He wants to know the truth so he can walk in the truth and then we have the tenth imperative here Unite my heart to fear your name unite my heart unite

My heart means I just want to have an undivided heart That is wholly fixed upon you God And so Proverbs 10 Proverbs 9 10 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom Knowledge of the Holy One is insight So David's asking to be taught He's asking to know the truth that he would fear God's name We know that the Holy Spirit teaches us Helps us in our daily walk and helps us to fear the Lord and let's look at the goodness of God in verses 12 to 13 David already said for you Oh Lord are good in verse 5 and here he just ends with giving

Thanks With a whole heart and glorifying your name forever last week when we finished psalm 79 We finished by saying that was ASAP But ASAP said to give thanks forever and give praise fervently when we finish psalm 79 But here in verse 12 David is giving thanks and glorifying God's name forever Why well because God showed his love to David time and time again Rescuing him God is so good and worthy of our adoration Let's look at point number three David's adversaries and we have three sub points here the arrogant persecute me the Almighty protects me and The assurance that God gives me so David made an appeal in point one For God to listen to him and then point two

He gave adoration to God Yet notice he hasn't actually petitioned God for why he's praying yet So he's given 13 verses and he hasn't actually given the actual prayer request yet So that's a really good lesson for us, isn't it? You know when we pray it's usually we go right to the request God keep me safe. I'm driving to church tonight God Please heal my sister God Give me a new job We we don't give him the adoration

We don't give him the what David's doing 13 verses So finally after 13 verses we see the reason why David wrote this psalm and he says in verse 14 Insolent men have risen up against me a band of ruthless men are seeking his life You know, we don't know the occasion we can assume maybe Saul is chasing him We don't know though, but as with most of David's Psalms There's always some enemy somewhere trying to kill him and that's because David is God's chosen servant and Satan will do whatever he will use Saul

He will use Israel's enemies to try to kill David or destroy him So the arrogant are persecuting him and David is cried out for help in verse 14 But notice verse 15 what a contrast the Almighty will protect me What a contrast verse 14 speaks of the ungodly While verse 15 speaks of our great God Does this verse sound familiar? But you O Lord are God merciful and gracious slow to anger abounding in love Steadfast love and faithfulness

It's a little bit like verse 5 But this verse is a confession based upon Exodus 34 verse 6, which is one of the most copied repeated verses in all the Bible Exodus 34 verse 6 the Lord passed before him and proclaimed now This is God speaking about himself in Exodus 34 6 the Lord the Lord a God merciful and gracious Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness

So it's first said in Exodus 34 6 Nehemiah chapter 9 verse 17 will quote it and that's a prayer by the way Psalms 103 verse 8 will quote this verse Psalms 116 which we'll look at in a couple weeks verse 5 quotes this psalm 145 verse 8 quotes this verse and Lastly, oh, I'm sorry Joel 2 13 quotes it and lastly, you know who knew it Jonah Jonah 4 verse 2 So this is one of the most quoted verses in the Bible from Exodus 34 6 that God talks about himself in his character But turn to me with to Jonah, I think you know the story of Jonah, right Jonah 4 and we'll just look at verses 1 and 2 Because Jonah is gonna quote this verse and you know the story of Jonah right chapter 1

He flees to Tarshish disobeys God, right? Chapter 2 he swallowed by a fish and ultimately he repents and a fish fits him on dry land chapter 3 the greatest revival in the history of the world an Entire city of pagans from the king the greatest to the least repents maybe 600,000 to a million people so you come to chapter 4 and you think it would be a time of rejoicing celebrating, right? Well, no because it says in chapter 4 of Jonah 4 verse 1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was angry and he prayed to the Lord and said Oh Lord is this this what I said when I was yet in my country This is why I made haste to flee to Tarsus and notice what he says for I knew that you are a gracious God and Merciful slow to anger Abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster

So Jonah quotes Exodus 34 6 and also Psalms 86 verse 15. I love how Jonah says I knew you I Know you God. I know you're merciful You're gracious You're slow to anger and you just Gave salvation to an entire city the most ruthless pagans at that time in the world That's why Jonah didn't want to go to Tarsus

This was a City Nineveh if you read history, they slaughtered so many countries and so many people They would cut the heads off of all the people and they would stack them in pyramids at the front gate of all the countries They went to so it's no wonder Jonah didn't want to go there, but Jonah knows that God is Gracious and merciful slow to anger abounding in love and faithfulness and he didn't want that

So chapter 4 is interesting So, you know this I believe is Psalms 86 verse 15 is one of the greatest verses in the Bible and you say well, they're all great But it teaches us so much about God you could preach a whole sermon on this one verse He says God is merciful Mercy is God giving us is God not giving us what we deserve Then he also says grace and a lot of people put mercy and grace together But grace is God giving us something we do not deserve

We deserve death We deserve the penalty of hell, but God is full of grace and he gives us salvation He gives us help then he says slow to anger That's an attribute of God and that highlights the patience of God the willingness of God to delay judgment God could judge anybody tonight today

He does that but he's also very slow in in in his anger and it gives people an opportunity to repent and Turn back to God and then he mentions a steadfast love of God You know for God so loved the world That he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believed in him will not perish but have everlasting life And then number five he talks about the faithfulness of God His unwavering commitment to his own nature his word and his promises

So, you know every time you read your Bible Every time you read your Bible you need to ask questions like is there a sin? I need to confess Is there a promise I need to claim? Is there a principle I learn? But the most important thing you need to do when you read a Bible is ask the question What does this chapter this paragraph or this verse teach me about God now if you're in the New Testament? What does it teach me about Jesus and the Holy Spirit not that they aren't in the Old Testament? But the Old Testament is mostly about God

So every time you read your Bible, you know You ought to have a pen and paper when you read your Bible to or a notebook, but ask yourself Maybe it's just one verse

Maybe it's a paragraph What does this teach me about God and you see here Psalms 86 15 five? Attributes about our great God five characteristics about our great God, but if you go back to Psalms 86 And let me go back There's a lot more and it's interesting that how well David knows them but Psalms 86 And I may not even have them all but I mentioned he talks about grace in verses 3 and 15 and 16 and if you have an ESV translation in verse 6 and Then he says in verse 2 Who save your servant who trusts in you? Well, David could trust in God because God is infinite We're fine

We're finite, you know, he's the creator We're the creature, but he also trusts in God because God is immutable God doesn't change, right? And then he says in verse 5 God is good God is always good and he always gives good gifts, right and Then he says in verse 4 forgiving forgiving would go to the holiness of God

It would go to the justice of God That's another attribute and then of course steadfast love in verse 5 13 and 15 and then in verse 8 he says there's no God like you that's the transcendence of God God transcends his creation And everything there is under it and then in verse 10 He says you are great and you do wonderful things that would speak to the sovereignty of God and Then he says in verse 11 teach me your ways that would teach to the wisdom of God because God is all wise and we want We can learn some of that wisdom and then he talks about truth. I want to walk in truth in verse 11 God is truth

That's another attribute of God and then we mentioned in verse 15 mercy Slow to anger grace and Patience and faithfulness there and in verse 16, he talks about God's strength That would be the nippet and omnipotence of God the power of God And there were 17 He says you have helped me and you know me that would be omniscience of God And if he added all those up together, it would just go to the in Comprehensibility of God

It's almost impossible to understand who God is But the more we look at the psalm the more we look at Scripture we learn about God You know when I see all these attributes of God it makes me want to sing that hymn and we sing this hymn here I stand in awe of you

We sing that on Sunday quite often and the first first words say about God You are beautiful beyond description too marvelous for works words too wonderful for comprehension Like nothing ever seen or heard who can grasp your infinite wisdom who can fathom the depth of your love You are beautiful beyond description majesty a throne above so you see even though David is writing this psalm about a crisis He waits till verse 14 to tell us about his crisis

So this psalm is more about God His character his names and his attributes Knowing these attributes the Apostle Paul would say in the New Testament in Romans 2 for or do you presume? that the riches and kindness and Forbearance and patient not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance And let's look at some point see the assurance that God gives us verses 16 and 17 here They David is crying out for God's favor God's strength in God's deliverance

So we have imperatives number 11, which he says turn to me Turn to me in verse 16 and then he has the repetit one be gracious to me again That's the 12th imperative So in verse 3 David could say be gracious to me and now verse 16 David says it again Grace might be the sweetest and most beautiful word in the avowal bar Vocabulary so we can see why David is continually at crying out for God to be gracious to him grace is a favor from God We don't deserve but David says be gracious to me So he cries out for God's favor in verse 16 then he says Asked for God's strength there

He says give strength to your servant

So give strength your servant is the 13th Imperative that we have in this psalm and when I read that it reminds me what Isaiah said That God says to Isaiah in Isaiah 40 verse 21 to 31 very common passage Have you not known have you not heard the Lord is the everlasting God the creator of the ends of the earth He does not faint or grow weary his understanding is unsearchable He gives power to the faint and to him who has no might he increases strength Even youth shall faint and be weary young men shall fall exhausted But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength

They shall mount up with wings of Eagles They shall run and not be weary They shall walk and not be faint I think I mentioned once more 30 years ago in the youth group of Christ Community Church We was Tom smaller worship leader would have us sing that song in Isaiah 40 We would sing that so David is calling out for God's strength to be able to fight his enemies So he calls for God's favor

He calls for God's strength and then he calls for God's deliverance So imperative number 14 He says save or he says save the son of your maidservant, which is the same imperative as number four So be gracious to me is listed twice save is listed twice and what he says save Save the the son of your maidservant That's an interesting work usage of word Psalm 116 Verse 16 says Oh Lord. I am your servant. I am your servant the son of your maidservant

What does that mean? Well children born to slaves were considered especially faithful because they're brought up in the master's house so David was the Lord's faithful servant and it was the master's duty to protect him and to deliver him from this trouble that he's in and The number four God's assurance God's assurance here We have the last imperative number 15 He says show me a sign of your favor God Okay, he wants that he wants two things here He says for those who hate me may see and be put to shame

So he wants condemnation for the enemies He wants his enemies to be put to shame and then he says Lord you helped me and comforted me David just wants comfort for two things

He wants condemnation for his enemies and comfort for me So let's just talk in application ending I mentioned about praying Mentioned about looking at the names of God the attributes of God, but let's just talk about grace number one Grace, we get the word caris from that which means to rejoice we get the English word charity from it It was Augustine who said beggars need charity Even as sinners need grace for we are all spiritual paupers outside of Christ, but God gives where he finds empty hands So it's a word which you know means many different things Some people say that the word grace is probably the greatest word in scriptures even greater than love because grace is love in action and Then there are many types of grace one one commentator. I read listed 15 types of grace I think that may be a little bit too many, but I'll just review four types of grace with you tonight The first off of course is common grace This is the grace that God gives to all mankind believers and unbelievers Jesus said in Matthew 5 45 So you may be sons of your father who is in heaven for he makes the Sun rise on evil and on the good He sends rain on the just and on the unjust every time I read that verse. I think of India I think of Thailand I think of Myanmar God gives rain because there's three and a half billion people almost half the people in the world eat rice Last week. I had a pastor from Myanmar at my house He's studying at the master's seminary and you know, he wants rice for breakfast He wants rice for lunch and he wants rice for dinner Some of the Filipinos here might understand that tonight, but God gives grace to half the people the world Hindus Muslims Buddhists to grow rice Almost four billion people

They don't know him, but that's common grace God gives grace He gives us grace every day to unbelievers He doesn't know anybody another day of life He could judge them and send them to hell Instantly, but God gives common grace But that common grace does not save you and that leads us to the second grace and that's saving grace And I think Tim read the verse tonight, you know, Ephesians 2 8 and 9 For by grace you can save through faith

This is not of yourselves is a gift of God not by works so that no one can boast So saving grace initiates our journey God gives us the grace and we need that saving grace if we're to be saved and I trust tonight that every person here Has saving grace if not see me afterwards or you have any questions, but once we have saving grace We then have sanctifying grace and this is the grace that transforms us to be in the likeness of Jesus 2nd Corinthians 13 is that but 1st Thessalonians 4 3 says this is the will of God your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality in Titus 2 11 and 12 says for the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people Training us to renounce ungodliness Worldly passions and to live self-controlled upright and godly lives in the present age

So there's common grace There's saving grace There's sanctifying grace and then there's Sustaining grace and I think that's what David is crying out in this Psalm 86 He says in Psalms 86 3 be gracious to me O Lord He says in Psalms 86 16 turn to me and be gracious to me And this is what Philippians Paul would say in Philippians 1 6 and I'm sure of this that he that's God or the Holy Spirit Who began a good work and you will bring it to completion on the day of Christ? So we can cry out for sustaining grace

This is the grace that helps us through trials through persecutions through suffering We can say to God be gracious to me like David when he says be gracious to me for I am poor and needy Be gracious to me for I am godly Be gracious to me for to you. I cry all the day be gracious to me for you Oh Lord, do I lift up my soul? Be gracious to me for you Answer me Be gracious to me for you are great and do wondrous things Be gracious to me for great is your steadfast love be gracious to me for you Oh Lord have helped me and comforted me

So just a little bit about grace and the third thing tonight We need to get to know this God of grace So you've got a homework assignment

You need to memorize Psalms 86 verse 15 Which I said is one of the greatest verses if not one of the greatest verses in Psalms or the Old Testament in the Bible But you oh Lord are a God merciful and gracious Slow to anger abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness memorize that verse meditate upon that verse and the five attributes and you could just you could meditate on that verse for hours at a time and Number four we can leave here tonight Proclaiming God's grace to other people

We're gonna have vacation Bible school next week I hope you pray for the children the parents the grandparents who bring kids that they would know God's saving grace We were passing out flyers on Saturday and as I'm walking up the street, I noticed that you know, most the homes over there I think are older people and a lot of them are Asian Chinese I don't know and I'm assuming you know how hard it is for an older person to come to Christ and When when I was driving around making a map to pass out the flyers They were like 50 to 100 people walking exercising and most of them were Asian and I'm looking at a lot of them They're old and how can we reach them for Christ? Because they've probably been a Buddhist for 70 80 years a lot of them But we can try to proclaim to them God's grace and we need to so may vacation Bible school lead people to Christ In one month from yesterday will be in Argentina 19 people from Christ Community Church and we're gonna play in God's grace because you know Lance has said from this pulpit many times There's only two religions in the world Evangelical Christianity that believes it's salvation through grace alone through Jesus Christ alone or all the religions of the world Jews have their commandments Buddhists have their five pillars Muslims have their five pillars, you know Even there's Christians that have works so it's either by grace or by works two religions Galatians 2 16 says yet

We know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ So we also have believed in Jesus Christ in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law Because by works of the law, no one will be justified So may we leave here tonight proclaiming grace to others as we leave Let's pray Father, thank you tonight for Psalms 86

It's we can just talk about your names We can talk about your attributes and then we see David can give you 15 commands God Because you are so gracious to us father You gave us common grace, but I believe you gave everyone here saving grace And I pray that everyone here today Would know that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior and that they believe in him and confess in him and have Jesus Christ in their heart tonight Father, we ask that you help us with that sustaining grace that we would be holy and there not be anything in our lives That would cause you to look in shame upon us May we live holy lives with that Sanctifying grace and then father we ask for anybody tonight who's undergoing a time of difficulty a time of trouble Father, there are many prayer requests in the in the prayer There are many people hurting in our church or friends and family But we pray as David said we could cry out to God be gracious to me and may God answer that and give us grace Sustaining grace till that great day

He comes in Jesus name Amen