God's Word: Help for the Hurting

Let's pray together Lord, we are grateful for the truth of your word and we are grateful, Lord, that you have put everything we need to know in print so we can read it, understand it, believe it, follow it, hold on to it And I pray, Lord, tonight, as we understand what your word says about how it is you help us when we hurt, that Father, we would be able to leave this place encouraged because truly your word is the truth and your commandments are forever We pray in Jesus' name Amen. I remember the wise old preacher who said that if you speak to those who hurt, you never lack for an audience

Well, that's because everybody hurts to some degree And God's word is that one element that helps those who hurt unlike anything else And the psalmist this evening is going to explain to us exactly how that happens in your life and in mine You see, God wants us to cry to him God wants us to call upon him But for the most part, we don't Oh, sure, we'll wait till it's really desperate times and we'll throw a prayer out to God and we'll cry to him

But for the most part, we are not the kind of people who, as the Apostle Paul says in Romans 12, verse number 12, be devoted to prayer or be diligent in prayer He says something similar in Colossians chapter 4 that we are to be devoted to prayer Ephesians chapter 6, verse number 18, we are to pray at all times with all kinds of prayers and petitions, supplications and intercessions We are to be in the attitude of prayer In 1 Thessalonians 5, 17, he says that we are to pray without ceasing The Apostle Paul knew what it meant to pray without ceasing

He knew what it meant to live a life in constant communion with God because he constantly had to cry out to God because of the situations he faced every single day And so he was reminding people that he wrote to, you need to be devoted to prayer You need to pray all kinds of prayers You need to pray unceasingly You need to constantly cry to God Our Lord in the Gospel of Luke would use a very familiar phrase when he said these words in chapter 18, verse number 1, men not always to pray and not to faint That one statement there helps sum up our lives Men not always to pray and not faint

So you have one of two choices, cry or collapse Those are your only two choices, cry out to God or collapse Pray or faint And Christ would tell his men about prayer Lord teach us to pray, they would say And our Lord would teach them what it meant to pray, what it meant to cry out to their father And then told them men not always to pray and not to faint But the reason men don't pray is simply because later in Luke chapter 18, verse number 9, Christ says he also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves The reason we don't cry out to God is because we trust in ourselves

You see, it's true that the self-sufficient are the kind of people who don't need to pray The self-satisfied don't want to pray And the self-righteous can't pray But men ought to learn not to trust in themselves So he teaches a parable about prayer and about trusting God and crying out to him And I wonder this evening if you were to put yourself in a category, are you fainting this evening in your spiritual pilgrimage? Are you one having trouble making it from day to day? Or are you crying out to God and asking God to do a great and wonderful work in your life? The psalmist cried out to God

And he knew that once he cried to God, God would answer and God would help Because that's what God does You see, he wants us to rely upon him He wants us to trust him He wants us to believe in him He wants us to hold on to him He wants us in situations where we need him so desperately, we will cry only to him But he also knows that in our independence, in our search for autonomy, our desire to be all by ourselves, self-sufficient, that we won't cry to God Pride, our trust in ourselves, our sin will keep us from calling upon his name and following his will

So the psalmist, he's going to explain to us how God's word helps those who hurt And he cries out to God And in his crying out to God, we will notice this man and all that God teaches him and how not only his request for help, but his resources for help will teach us that crying out to God will be the way we should live our lives every single day Let's read Psalm 119, verse number 145, down through verse number 152. I'll read the odd verses You read the even, even verses Okay Now, yes, I know that people who get the tape can't hear you read That's not my fault That's your fault

You just got to read louder Now I know you don't have the same version That's okay It's not about having the same version or the same translation. I want you to participate with me. I want you to be involved in this because I want you to learn as I have learned Okay So I'll read the odd verses You read the even verses Verse number 145. I cried with all my heart Answer me, O Lord. I will observe thy statutes. I rise before dawn and cry for help. I wait for thy words Hear my voice according to thy loving kindness Revive me, O Lord, according to thine ordinances

Thou art near, O Lord, and all thy commandments are truth All right Listen, the first point I want you to see are the request for help falls in this under six categories Number one, the request was one of great passion One of great passion The psalmist is desperate So he cries to God, the text says in verse number 145, with all my heart We need to cry to God with all that we have All of our hearts So many times we do this Christian life thing half-heartedly We don't pour everything into it Well, the psalmist was in a situation where he cried to God with his whole heart

In fact, it says over in Psalm 111, Psalm 111, in verse number one, praise the Lord, I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart Folks, whatever we do in terms of our Christian life, it should be done with all my heart Not with half of my heart, but with all of my heart There should be great intensity in my walk with God There should be great passion in my relationship with the living God And the psalmist, when he made his request for help, there was passion in his life Now, we don't know if his cry was a verbal cry, but we do know that his cry was from the heart

And you know, it's better that your heart be right than your lips be right. I mean, you can cry out to God and not do it with your whole heart, or your heart can cry to God and your lips be silent because your heart is completely sold on following God and serving God And the psalmist cried out to God And so we don't know if it was verbally something everybody could hear or something that he did inwardly, but it was with all of his heart The psalmist spoke of his heart quite often Verse number two of Psalm 119 Turn back there with me if you would Remember many, many weeks ago, 19 to be exact

Psalm 119, verse number two says, how blessed are those who observe his testimonies, who seek him with all their heart That's the blessed man, the one who seeks God with all of his heart Well, if he's seeking God with all of his heart, when he cries to God, he'll cry with all of his heart Verse number 10, it says, with all my heart I have sought thee Verse number 34 says, give me understanding that I may observe thy law and keep it with all my heart Verse 58, I am treated thy favor with all my heart Verse number 69 says, the arrogant have forged a lie against me

With all my heart I will observe thy precepts Here was one who used everything that he had to cry to God Why do we cry with our whole heart? Psalm 116 says this in verse number 12 What shall I render to the Lord for all of his benefits toward me? I shall lift up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I shall pay my vows to the Lord Oh, may it be in the presence of all his people Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his godly ones

What shall I render to the Lord for all of his benefits to me? What shall I give to the Lord after all he's done for me? Well, I'll call upon him That's what I will do You see, those who call upon the Lord are those who recognize the benefits that God has given to them You see, the more you cry to God, the more you have come to realize that God has blessed you tremendously Those who don't recognize his benefits don't spend time calling out to God But the psalmist did, and he did it with his whole heart And it wasn't like a little whimper When you cry to God, you cry with all of your being

Now, there are all kinds of ways to cry You know, look at your children, right? Sometimes they have a little whimper when they don't get their way Sometimes they have a blown out fit when they don't have their way And sometimes when they're hurt, the cry that they let out is completely different than any other cry You know about those cries You understand the excruciating pain that child must be in by the cry that they let out My wife and I had a deal that when in the middle of the night, my wife, whenever she had a baby, she would breastfeed the baby

And she would breastfeed that baby, but I always had to go get the baby when the baby would wake up in the middle of the night And so, sure enough, through all of our children, we've really, really had to, you know, get up in the middle of the night, change some diapers, and feed some babies In fact, my wife said to me the other day, she says, hey, can you imagine, can you imagine Avery is going to be potty trained this summer and she'll be out of diapers for the first time in all these years Our children will be out of diapers

And my response was, yep, just about the time they're out of diapers, I'm going to have to start wearing diapers So we're still going to be purchasing diapers at Ralph's and Vaughn's and whatever, you know, there's no way to get around it Anyway, cut a long story short, you know, my kids cry in the middle of the night And of course, when they cry, my wife is, she always hears, I never hear them You know what I mean? I never hear them cry My wife hears them, honey, honey, you hear a baby? I'm like, I don't hear a baby. I'm sleeping What do you mean hear a baby? Honey, wake up, the baby's crying

You know, and I'm like, she'll stop He'll stop Let them cry for a while They'll stop They'll come to a point where they're going to wear out Honey, get the baby You know, you just kind of pray for that little brief moment when they stop crying, you think, ah, they're done And then they let it out again And my wife says, honey, you got to go get the baby See? Well, you know, aren't you glad God's not like that? I am

Can you imagine God sitting up in heaven saying, boy, I wish Lance would just stop crying for a little bit here. I wish he'd stop crying out to me and give me a break and let me rest See, but we know that God never sleeps, nor does he slumber He's always there And yet God, God's not like us That's the way we are

Are you crying again? Do you want my help again? Do you need me again? Can't you make it on your own? Can't you become independent? Can't you change your own diaper? Can't you get your own bottle? Can't you do that yourself? Why do you always need me to do it for you? Well, they're babies That's why they need you to do it for them, Dad Well, God doesn't do that to us God doesn't say, you know, can't you handle your financial burdens? Can't you handle your wife and your kids? What is wrong with you? God doesn't do that God wants us to cry to him He wants us to call upon his name

He wants us to seek his face You know, I've come to realize that passion is something, in my crying out to God, is something that just doesn't come and go It's part of the normal habit of life Christ was that way Christ had a normal habit of communing with his Father It wasn't something that was forced It was something that he wanted to do, was to commune with his Father Over in the Gospel of Mark, you have recorded the busiest day in the Gospels of the life of our Lord It begins in verse number 21

They went to Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and began teaching This was his day of confirmation He would confirm Mark 1 Mark 1 Mark chapter 1, the busiest day in the life of our Lord It was a day of confirmation because he would go into the synagogue You've been with us in our study of Luke You know he's going to go into the synagogue, and he's going to teach because that's what he does It was also a day of consternation Verse 22, and they were amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one having authority and not as a scribe

And just then, there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, What do we have to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be quiet, and come out of him And throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice, and came out of him And they were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, What is this, a new teaching with authority? He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him

And immediately the news about him went out everywhere into all the surrounding district of Galilee It was a day of confirmation It was a day of consternation It was a day of compassion For it says in verse 29, and immediately after they had come out of the synagogue, they came to the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John Now Simon's mother-in-law was laying sick with a fever, and immediately they spoke to him about her He came to her, raised her up, taking up her hand, and the fever left her And she waited on them

And when evening had come, after the sun had set, they began bringing to him all who were ill and those who were demon-possessed And the whole city had gathered at the door He healed them, many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons And he was not permitting the demons to speak, because they knew who he was And in the early morning, while it was still dark, he arose and went out and departed to a lonely place and was praying there It was a place of communion

Capernaum was a place of communion, where our God would rise early in the morning and commune with his Father who was in heaven Because down deep, all of his heart, there was a passion to have that communion with his Father who was in heaven So that even as busy as the day was before him, he would rise early in the morning to spend time with his Father in heaven So important There's passion in the cry Passion needs to be in our cry, as the psalmist said Turn with me to Matthew chapter 14 for a moment Matthew chapter 14 Now I'm going to come back to that one Go back to Psalm 119 Sorry Psalm 119

From the passion, I want you to see the person He says, I cried with all my heart Answer me, O Lord. I will observe thy statutes. I cried to thee Save me His cry was to God and to God alone This is very important We need to cry out to God Usually, that's not the first thing we do We cry to everybody else, looking for some shoulder, some soft-hearted soul that will surround me with love and gentleness and kindness, that somehow will, with empathy, feel where I am And yet, it's God the psalmist cried to To thee To thee, O Lord Answer me, God He would cry out to the Lord God of the universe

He cried for God to save him It says over in Psalm 5, these words Psalm 5, verse number 1 Give ear to my words, O Lord Consider my groaning Heed the sound of my cry For help, my King and my God For to thee do I pray In the morning, O Lord, thou wilt hear my voice In the morning, I will order my prayer to thee and eagerly watch The psalmist knew that his prayer was to be directed to God above Over in Psalm 6, verse number 6, it says, I am weary with my sighing Every night I make my bed swim. I dissolve my couch with my tears My eye has wasted away with grief

It has become old because of all my adversaries Depart from me, all you who do iniquity, for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping The Lord has heard my supplication The Lord receives my prayer Over in Psalm chapter 38, listen to this The psalmist says, I am benumbed and badly crushed. I groan because of the agitation of my heart Lord, all my desire is before thee, and my sighing is not hidden from thee My heart throbs My strength fails me, and the light of my eyes, even that has gone from me My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my plague, and my kinsmen stand afar off

Those who seek my life lay snares for me, and those who seek to injure me have threatened destruction, and they devise treachery all day long Verse 15, for I hope in thee, O Lord, that would answer, O Lord my God For I said, may they not rejoice over me, who when my foot slips, would magnify themselves against me For I am ready to fall, and my sorrow is continually before me

For I confess my iniquity, and I am full of anxiety because of my sin, but my enemies are vigorous and strong, and many are those who hate me wrongfully, and those who repay evil for good, they oppose me because I follow what is good Do not forsake me, O Lord. O my God, do not be far from me Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation The psalmist continually would cry it was God There was passion in his heart, and that passion behind his request would lead him to the one and only person that could answer him, that could take care of him, and that was his God

Turn now with me to Matthew chapter 14 Matthew chapter 14, one of those great stories in the gospels. A story that we know well, but sometimes we forget about those important principles that God wants us to learn from his word. A story in Matthew 14 reads as follows, verse 22, and immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side while he sent the multitudes away

And after he had sent the multitudes away, he went up to the mountain by himself to pray, and when it was evening he was there alone, but the boat was already many stadia away from the land, battered by the waves, for the wind was contrary And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking in the sea, and when the disciples saw him walking in the sea, they were frightened, saying, it is the ghost, and they cried out for fear It's always good to to look at Mark's account of this, because Mark's account reads just a little differently than this one does in Matthew

Let me read you what Mark 6 says Mark 6 reads this way, and immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side to Bethsaida, while he himself was sending the multitude away Notice this, God sent them away God made them get into the boat God made them go out into the sea He went off into the mountain to pray, but God had a purpose. for his men He made them go into the boat After bidding them farewell, he departed to the mountain to pray, and when it was evening the boat was in the midst of the sea, and he was alone in the land

So we know that Matthew says it was several stadia out into the sea Mark's account says they were in the middle of the sea That is the Sea of Galilee And it says that, and seeing them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, and about the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking in the sea Matthew's account doesn't record the fact that he sees them Mark's account does He sees them straining at the oars He's alone on the mountain praying He sees them straining He appears to them on the sea

Now how long do you think it took God to get down from one of the mountains to the middle of the sea? How long? A second maybe? Not long He sees them He appears to them on the sea They supposed that it was the ghost when they saw him walking in the sea, and they cried out, for they all saw him and were frightened It says in verse number 48, about the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking in the sea, and he intended to pass by them Matthew's account doesn't record that But he was going to walk by them, because you see, God wants us to cry out to him He wants us to cry for him

As they were in the boat, and they were having all kinds of problem, having more water in the boat than was in the sea, they were beginning to sink, and they intended, or he intended to pass by them in the midst of the storm, and they cried out They supposed it was ghost. A ghost? What do you mean a ghost? They had no idea that the Lord was going to be there Why? The Lord had sent them away They never expected the Lord to show up Last time there was a storm in the boat, he was on the boat, but he was sleeping This time he wasn't even on the boat He was on the land

They weren't expecting him to show up, but they were frightened Millie spoke to them and said, take courage, it is I, do not be afraid Now Mark's account doesn't record what happens next Matthew's does though, and Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water, and Christ has come Now this is in the middle of a storm Come, come on Peter, and Peter got out of the boat, walked on the water, came toward Jesus, and seeing the wind, he became afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out saying, Lord save me It wasn't, hey John, throw me a lifeline

Andrew, throw me a net Somebody save me It was Lord save me He knew that only one could save him, and that was the person of Jesus Christ, our Lord And when they got into the boat, the wind stopped, and those who were in the boat worshipped him saying, you are certainly God's son But Matthew doesn't record what Mark records Mark says it this way He got into the boat with them, the wind stopped, and they were greatly astonished Verse 52, for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened They had a hard heart They had a heart that was dull

They had a heart that was insensitive, because they had not learned anything from the incident of the feeding of the five thousand, because that was the incident that took place right before he made his disciples get into the boat and go out into the sea But they didn't learn the lesson, see They didn't learn what God wanted them to learn Instead, their hearts became dull of hearing They became insensitive to the leading of God in their lives That's why they never expected him to show up in the midst of a storm

And so we realize, as the Bible says in Psalm 50 verse number 15, call upon the Lord in the day of trouble. I shall rescue you, and you will honor me Psalm 57 verse number 2, I cry out to God, most high, to God who fulfills his purpose for me God had a purpose for his men God was going to fulfill that purpose for his men by sending them out into the sea And Peter would learn that his lesson would be to cry out to the Lord God himself to save him, because only God could rescue him The psalmist says, you cry to me in the day of trouble, I'll rescue you And when I rescue you, you will honor me

Matthew's account says, and they worshiped the Lord He truly was and is God's son See, the person you cry to is God He's the only one who can save you Your husband can't save you Your children can't rescue you Your parents can't do for you what God can do for you Only God can do that And don't you think that sometimes God gets a little tired of us crying to everybody else but to him? Wondering, why don't you come to me? Why don't you cry to me? Why don't you call upon me? I want to rescue you

But sometimes I think that God intends to pass us by, like he did the disciples, because we refuse to cry out to the one and only one who will save us It's not that God wants to walk by He doesn't He allows you to be placed in the storm, puts you in a place where you need to be rescued so you'll call upon the only one who can rescue you That's him That's what he wants to see happen in your life and in mine So we move from the passion to the person to the persistence, the persistence behind the request Listen to what it says He says, I rise up before dawn and cry for help. I wait for thy words

My eyes anticipate the night watches that I may meditate on thy word There is persistence here Persistence that lasts throughout the night An ongoing call, an ongoing cry for help all throughout the night. I rise up before the dawn and I cry for help He rises up before the dawn Why? Because, verse 148 says, my eyes anticipate the night watches The translation is my eyes prolong the night watches

In other words, you ever been awake at night and you can't sleep and you wonder if morning ever is ever going to come? When you go to sleep and you sleep through the night, you can't believe it's already the morning time Your alarm goes off. I can't believe it's already time to get up. I just went to sleep But if you go to bed and you can't sleep and you're up hour after hour after hour, you're thinking, wow, it is never going to be daylight How long does night really last? It must last forever And the psalmist is saying that my eyes anticipate or have prolonged the night watches

In other words, I've been up all night. I've been up all night How long will I be up? And so I cry to God before it ever day breaks for help You see, there's a purpose every time you don't sleep It could be insomnia It could be all kinds of answers as to why you're not sleeping But when you don't sleep, there's something God wants you to do He not only wants you to cry unto him, but he wants you to meditate upon his word That's what the psalmist did. I would wait for your word. I before the morning would arise, I would cry to you, he says, and I wait. I trust, Lord, I hope in your word

Because you see, the psalmist knew that the only help he would receive was right here This is it And he would cry until he received that help He will call upon the name of the Lord until that help and that help would arrive for his life to the word of God So he would meditate all night upon the word of God, looking for the answer that he needed as he cried to his God You see, in other words, the psalmist redeemed the time You know, when you can't sleep, what do you do? Put on the TV, don't you? Put the TV on We put the TV on because we can't sleep

Thinking that that might put us to sleep or turn the radio on or turn some music on or do whatever But you know, you're not redeeming the time by doing that In other words, you're not buying up every aspect of that opportunity for the sake of God's kingdom The psalmist did He knew that, listen, this was time for me to pray This was time for me to meditate upon God's word This is time for me to cry out to God This is time for me to wait in the hope for God to answer me through his word He redeemed the time We waste so much time

And I'm convinced, listen carefully, I am convinced the reason most of us can't sleep is because God wants us to meditate in the night watches upon his word and to cry out to him Now, there could be all kinds of reasons why we don't sleep Could be a medical condition It could be a situation where I'm in so much pain that the pain medication doesn't work and that keeps me awake All kinds of things But if you're awake, believe me, God is sovereign He has you awake for a purpose He knows you need sleep But why does he keep you awake? Redeem the time

Redeem it for the sake of the kingdom of God that you might glorify his name Think about how much time we waste One man said, if God grants you 70 years of life, you will spend 24 of those 70 years sleeping. 14 working. 8 in amusement. 6 at the dinner table. 5 in transportation Unless you live in California, then it's doubled. 4 in conversation. 3 in education. 3 in reading. 3 at the television And if you went to church every Sunday and prayed 5 minutes every morning and night, you would be giving God 5 months of your life. 5 months out of 70 years

Kind of puts things into perspective, doesn't it? We think we're doing God a favor going to church every Sunday, praying 5 minutes in the morning, 5 minutes at night God must be so happy He must be so pleased with my commitment. I've given him 5 months of 70 years That's it While all the while, I've been sleeping 24 of those years, eating 6, working 14, but only 5 months in church and praying So God says, know what I'll do? I'll keep him awake at night So he has to cry out to me So he has to read my word What do we do? We go to the doctor and get some medication to make us sleep

Or we go get Tylenol PM or take NyQuil or whatever it is that can make us go to sleep, forgetting that God wants you to be awake Why? As a psalmist did He couldn't sleep And so he would cry out to his God and he would wait for the word of the Lord We are so impatient We don't have time to wait for God to answer because God just takes too long Well, we cry to God and say, okay, God, I need you to deal for me in this manner. I need you to help me out, Lord, and do it now And nothing happens So I stopped crying out to God because God doesn't work in my timeframe

And yet God has a plan and purpose for all things And he will allow certain things to happen in our lives So we will continually cry out to him because men ought always to pray and not to faint And the minute you start fainting is a moment, you know, you've stopped praying because people who pray don't faint Ask Peter Christ says, will you watch with me and pray with me for one hour? Peter says, sure, Lord. I'll do that for you. I can pray, Lord, for you with an hour Not a problem Christ comes back Those three guys, man, it's zonked right out Peter, wake up

Could you not watch for me? Could you not wait with me? Could you not pray with me for one hour, Peter? Pray lest you enter into temptation Oh, okay Okay. I'll pray So he goes back to praying Christ goes back, comes back a little bit later on Where's Peter? Sleeping Who fainted? Who failed? Peter or Jesus? Better yet, ask the question is, who prayed? Who didn't? Jesus prayed He did not faint Did not fail Peter didn't pray He failed He failed And Christ told him, men ought always to pray, not to faint

So Christ says, I want you to call upon my name. I want you to cry out to me with all your heart If you don't, I'll keep you awake all night till you learn your lesson Because I want you to learn how important it is to rely and trust in me You cry to me, I will answer you and show you great and mighty things that thou knowest not But if you don't cry out to me, you're going to miss the blessing Psalmist, his persistence throughout the night watches because he wanted to wait and hear what the Lord had to say He redeemed the time for the purposes of God's kingdom

Can you imagine how much time you wasted today? I wonder how many people are wasting their time this evening by watching TV instead of being here There's a reason why the writers of Hollywood have gone on strike Nothing happened by accident, right? They're on strike because God doesn't want all these new programs on TV So you have nothing to watch but reruns So where do you have to end up? Church That's the way I look at it. I mean, I'm thinking, man, Lord, this is great, man There's nothing on TV anymore People got to cut the church, man They're going to be bored watching reruns

But, you know, we don't redeem the time throughout the day for God's kingdom Paul would say, redeem the time for the days are evil They are And we must seek the face of Almighty God, meant always to pray and not to faint The fourth thing I want you to see is the purpose We must hurry because time is fleeting The purpose was very simply that he would be dedicated to God's word and depend upon God's word He says this, I cried to thee, save me, and I shall keep thy testimonies. I rise up before dawn and cry for help. I wait for thy words, that I may meditate on thy word all the night

The whole purpose behind his request is that somehow he would meditate, he would observe, he would keep the commands of God Lord, listen, I cry to you because I need you to talk to me And the only way God's going to talk to me is if he talks to me through his word And so, Lord, I meditate upon the night watches and I'm listening for the voice of God so I hear from you because I really do want to keep your word. I want to know what you have to say because I want to observe your testimonies. I want to know what you have to say so I can keep your word That's what I want to do, Lord

And the whole purpose behind his request is that somehow, some way, he would be able to perform his duty and his ultimate desire to obey his God My hope is in your word See, that's why God's word is the hope for those who hurt. I'm hoping in your word, Lord. I trust in your word And I'm hanging on to every word you say. I need you to speak to me. I need you to answer me. I need you to save me. I need you to rescue me. I need you to help me. I need you to revive me And that's point number five, the plea The plea is simply this, Lord, verse 149, hear my voice according to thy lovingkindness

Revive me, O Lord, according to thine ordinances Hear my voice Think about this Think of all the people who cry to God throughout the day And the psalmist says to God, hear my voice Can you imagine trying to hear everybody speak at once and to answer all those? How does God do that? How can he hear everybody's cry, distinguish which cry is whose, and then meet the need of that person who cried? Can you imagine if God got confused and you cried for this and he gave you that instead of giving you what you were crying for? Because he was confused about what he heard

The psalmist says, Lord, hear my voice. I want my voice, Lord, to be heard by you Speaks of the personal nature of his request, doesn't it? Speaks of how God cares for him Hear my voice according to thy lovingkindness Because, Lord, I need you to revive my soul. I need you to quicken me according to thine ordinances This is his plea Lord, my plea is that you will revive me You'll hear me You'll revive me And because of your lovingkindness, because of your mercy, you will hear me And you will revive me according to your judgments, according to your ordinances, according to your word

You will do to me exactly what your word says And, Lord, that's what I want His plea, listen carefully, his plea was for God to revive his soul according to his word, whatever that meant And his cry for God or to God was centered on the glory of God It was more about God doing what God does than it was him being helped his way Lord, I want you to help me. I want you to save me. I want you to revive me. I want you to quicken me, Lord But you need to do it according to your righteous ordinances You need to do it according to your mercy because, Lord, you know how frail I am. I'm like dust

And so I need your mercy and your tender kindness to deal with me But do it, please, Lord, according to your word And then I want you to notice the plight He says, verse 150, those who follow after wickedness draw near They are far from my law Here was his plight Those who are against me, those, Lord, who are against you are far from your law, but they sure are close to me It's a reminder of the world and how close we are to those in the world who want to destroy us and to dismantle us and to discourage us and to bring us down The psalmist knew that

Lord, he says, listen, those who follow after wickedness, they draw near They're getting closer, Lord They're not getting further away They're getting closer They're getting, the closer they get to me, the further they are from you This was his plight, which leads us to point number two, the resources for help They fall into two categories Here was his resources for help One was the nearness of God, and two was the nature of his word The nearness of God and the nature of his word He says this, thou art near, O Lord, and all thy commandments are truth

The nearer they get to me, the nearer the wicked get to me, the nearer God is to me Thou art near, O Lord Remember over in Psalm 145, verse number 18, the psalmist says these words, the Lord is near to all who call upon him Sometimes we don't recognize how close God is because we don't call upon him The Bible says he's near to all those who call upon him You say, well, I call upon the Lord, and I don't sense that he is near Well, you got to finish the verse, to all who call upon him in truth That is, truth from their heart It's a true cry, and it's a cry based on the truth of God's word

And so the psalmist is very clear about that But we need to realize that God is near Psalm 65, verse number four, says this, how blessed is the one whom thou dost choose and bring near to thee That's the blessed one, that God would bring us near to him Over in Psalm 75, verse number one, it reads this way, we give thanks to thee, O God, we give thanks for thy name is near In other words, Lord, you, the name of God, is the character of God Lord, you are near to us, and so we give thanks to you for that

The psalmist says, look, I know that my resource falls into number one category, the nearness of God He's right here We read it to you on Sunday, Psalm 73, the nearness of God is my good Philippians 4, verse number eight, the Lord is near The Bible says in James 4, draw near to God, he will draw near to you God is close How close is God to you? The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6, that he dwells within us That's how close he is to us He dwells within each and every one of us that we might experience his person How close is he? He should be close enough for you to see

Remember Moses in Hebrews 11, the reason he was able to choose eternity over Egypt, the reason he was able to choose to endure affliction with the people of God rather to enjoy the passing pleasures that's in for a season, is because the Bible says in Hebrews 11, that he was able to perceive him who is invisible He was able to see the invisible God Well, how do you see the one who's invisible? What is that? How can Moses see something that's unseeable? Because you see God with a spiritual eye, that's why The pure in heart shall see God, Matthew 5 tells us

You see him with a spiritual eye, and Moses saw him He saw him in the bush and see God in the bush The bush was burning, that's right It was burning, it was on fire And yet that's where he saw God He heard the voice of God The same way as Jeremiah tells us, that is not my word like a fire So when you read the word of God, you see God there because his word is like a fire And as Moses would perceive God in the bush, so we perceive God in the book, the Bible, because his word is like fire And when you perceive the one who is invisible, you perceive the fact that he is near, he's close to you

No matter how close the wicked are, God is always closer because God's on the inside The wicked are on the outside, God's on the inside And so the resource number one was the nearness of God, and the resource number two was the nature of his word He says this, thou art near, O Lord, and all thy commandments are truth Of old I have known from thy testimonies that thou hast founded them forever God's word is the extension God's word is the expression God's word is the explanation of God

And so the psalmist says, I know, Lord, that all your commandments, not some of them, all of them are true, and therefore they are forever And so his resource for help comes because of the nearness of God and the nature of his word, a word that's everlasting, a word that's reliable, because it's truthful, it's faithful, he knew it, and he trusted in it so much so, he'd stay up all night meditating upon that word in the night watches, that he might wait, hope in the Lord and his word, because he knew God was the only one who could help him He knew that

And the only way God was going to help him was to give him his word, because his word would sustain him, his word would stabilize him, his word would strengthen him, his word would be that which would become what nothing else could, the comfort of a soul How about you? When you hurt, what do you hope in? Do you hope in God's word? Do you hope in the God of the word? Because that is truly the only way we can receive the help we need when we hurt Let's pray again Father, we thank you for your truth and the greatness of how your word is so applicable to our lives

Lord, many people that are here this evening, many more who one day will listen to this on the radio, will have hearts that are broken, lives that are shattered, and Lord, they need help And the only way they're going to receive it is through the nearness of God and the truth of your word And I pray, Lord, that as a people of God, we would cry out to you and to you alone, asking you to save us, to rescue us, to revive us, that Lord, we might truly be all that you want us to be for your glory We pray in Jesus' name, amen.