The Lord Accepts My Prayer

Hi, this is the Hymn We Proclaim podcast. Does God give up on his kids when they sin? Will he turn away from his children and ignore their prayers when they have failed? According to John Fawnville, God is faithful. He's a God who disciplines his children.

but we can have confidence that He's a God of mercy as we struggle with our sin. He hears us, and forgives his children. Today, we're looking at Psalm 6 in our mini-series called How to Keep Going. And here's John with The Lord Accepts My Prayer. Psalm chapter 6.

We'll come back to it in just a moment, but just by way of introduction. About what this psalm is talking about. Christians of old used to speak about an experience that they called the dark night of the soul. And what this phrase describes is a time of great spiritual struggle that even the greatest, right, so-called, the holiest so-called of Christians have experienced. For example, King David in this Psalm writes about the dark night of the soul that he experienced at a time in his life.

And so he wrote this psalm during a time in his life when he was overwhelmed with some unspecified sin that he had committed and that he's now grieving over. In the Psalm, he doesn't tell us exactly what this sin was, but apparently it was so grievous to him that he had encountered the severe discipline of God for it, and he was going through a dark night in his soul, and he was in great anguish. As we hear the psalm, you will hear the emotion and the anguish that David is expressing in this psalm.

So Psalm 6 is the first of what is referred to as the penitential psalms. Penitential psalm is simply when an author is confessing his sin and he's asking God for his mercy and forgiveness. And so, this is the first one that we find in the book of Psalms.

So, let's read this Psalm and just listen to David as he is calling out to God in his dark night. This is what he says. He says, Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger. Nor chase me in your wrath. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am pining away.

I am weak. He cries out, he says, Heal me, O Lord, heal me, O Lord, for my bones are dismayed and my soul is greatly dismayed. He says, but you, O Lord, how long? Return, O Lord. Rescue my soul.

Save me because of your loving kindness. For there is no mention of you in death and in sheol who will give you thanks. And listen, he says, and he says, I am weary with sighing. Every night I make my bed swim. I dissolve my couch with tears.

And he says, 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.

And he says he says, All my enemies will be ashamed and greatly dismayed. They shall turn back. They will be suddenly... Ashamed.

So, what happens is this: that often, when a believer, like David describes here, experiences a dark night. Right. He or she is tempted to think something like this. How can I be a Christian and struggle like this? Right.

I am weak. I'm so weak. I'm not this super spiritual on fire believer, right? Rather, I'm quite cold. I'm dry.

I'm too burdened to read the Bible. I'm too tired to pray. I'm too depressed to go to church. God is distant. God is angry with me.

God has abandoned me. He's silent. What is wrong with me? And so I guess I must not be saved because if I was truly saved, I would not be experiencing such a dark struggle like this. And so, what happens is, when believers encounter these periods in their life, they're tempted to not.

Keep going on. Because that's what we've been looking at for the past couple weeks. How do we keep going? Right? No, just a couple of things.

This is a very dark psalm, but actually, this morning, as dark as it is, is actually meant to be for your joy. And you'll see that later on. But I want you to keep in mind as we go through this Psalm, Psalm 6, it was written by King David, who is often inscribed to us as the man after God's own heart. This psalm was not written by someone who was naturally inclined to be in melancholy or given to depression. But in this psalm, David describes his dark night of the soul experience.

He is lamenting over his sense of sin, and he expresses the spiritual, emotional, and physical afflictions which flow from it. And so here's the ironic thing: not only is this psalm dark, but for your joy, it's not only anguish, but it's for your comfort. Yeah. The ironic thing is, this psalm is actually comforting because in it we find David, the man after God's own heart. Right?

Giving expression to his time of intense struggle. Why is that comforting? Because those who actually do go through a period of intense struggling with their sin and experience a dark night can immediately identify what David is lament and they can be comforted by that because they know that it's not just them. But they can identify with another who has actually gone. Oh, I recognize that.

I guess I'm not crazy. I guess I am a Christian because here is King David of all people, right? The super saints of the Old Testament, and he is experiencing this dark night, and I can identify with David. And so it's comforting to know that we're not alone in experiencing such a dark time, that this isn't something abnormal that a Christian should not experience. Let's look at Psalm 6 and let's see how David gives us four descriptions of his dark night.

Four descriptions of his dark night. We'll go through it and we're going to come back and say, what do we do when we find ourselves in it? All right, so look at verse 1. The first thing, the first description that David gives is this: look what he says. He's weighed down with the sense of God's anger and displeasure.

Listen to what he prays. He says, Oh Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor chasten, nor discipline me in your hot displeasure. That's how you can translate it.

So let me ask you a question. Have you ever felt like David? Has there ever been a moment in your life where you just felt overwhelmed with a sense of God's displeasure and his anger towards you? Perhaps you feel like that this morning. Right now.

You've done something wrong, you've committed sin. And you know it. And as a result, you're just overwhelmed with this ongoing sense of God's anger and displeasure about that. This is David right here in verse 1. He has this sense of God's displeasure, his severe discipline for a sin that he had committed, and he's just overwhelmed by it.

Look at verse 4. Here's the second description. Verse 4: David laments the loss of God's favorable presence. Listen to how he prays. He says, return, O Lord.

Return, O Lord. So that suggests to us that David senses that God has abandoned him somehow, that somehow God's favorable presence is no longer looking upon him. He says, return. Oh Lord, deliver me. Deliver me from the sin I've committed.

Deliver me from my sin. Deliver me. He says, oh, save me for your mercy's sake. This loss of God's favorable presence is indicated by David's cry, return, O Lord. And so again, maybe you felt like David after you sinned, perhaps greatly sinned, and you say, return, O Lord.

I I'd want to sense your Favorable presence again in my life. See, David, David, and perhaps you have felt that God had withdrawn himself and turned away, that he's become silent and distant, that perhaps he's abandoned you. And you're saying return, O Lord. Come back. Look at verses 6 and 7.

Look at this description. Here's the third description. David experiences a loss of sleep. This is a physical effect. Look at what he says.

He says, He says on verse 6, he says, I'm worn out from groaning. He says, all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. This is New King James. He says, my eyes, verse 7, were weak with sorrow. They fell because of all my foes.

David was weighed down with a sense of God's displeasure and anger. He was overcome with a loss of God's favorable presence, and the result of that is he can't sleep at night. He can't sleep. You see, there is an indivisible union between our soul and our body. What affects us spiritually can also affect us physically.

There are times in our lives when we fall into sinful habits and patterns that lead us to a dark night. And so we find ourselves going through life in a particularly dark and cloudy period, dragging ourselves through the day, hardly able sometimes to function. And then we come to the end of the day, right, and we get into bed, we just sit there and lie awake, tossing and turning, looking at the ceiling. And we get up the next morning and we just feel physically exhausted rather than refreshed. This past April, I got a Fitbit.

And here it is. I keep it on 24-7 for my 24-7 fitness tracker. And it has a sleep tracking mechanism to it. I thought, well, this would be great. I hadn't been sleeping good and I was concerned about a lot of different things and I was like, well, I need to sleep better.

So I'm going to start tracking my sleep. Get my sleep habits down and really sleep good. I've been sleeping better lately, thank goodness. And I've kind of figured out my sleeping patterns and habits and things like that. But I've noticed if you're a married couple, I know this has never happened to you before.

You've never had an argument with your spouse and then gone to bed and didn't make up, right, and ask for forgiveness and make it right, but you just go to bed angry. That's never happened to you. It's never happened to me and Kathy ever. All right. But but when when things like that happen And you're not reconciled.

You just lay there in bed at night in the middle of the night. It's like two in the morning. It's the worst time. I just can't stand it. And you just wake up and you know, it's like, just roll over and tell her you're sorry and ask her to forgive you for being a jerk and go to bed.

You know, and your flesh is like, I'm going to hold out because I'm going to win this argument. You wake up the next day exhausted. Your eyes are burning, your legs are tired, your arms are tired, your back hurts, you just feel bad, you can't sleep because just a whole night. You're like David. You're experiencing a loss of sleep.

And sometimes in our Christian lives, when we have sinned or done something, our consciences are afflicting us. We haven't yet repented correctly. and confessed our sin correctly. God's severe discipline comes on us, and you just toss and turn. You can't sleep.

It's exactly what happened to David here. And so you would get a bad Fitbit sleep score until you repented properly. Look at this fourth description in verses two and six. David experiences spiritual and physical fatigue. He says, Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak.

And then he says, Oh Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled. I am weary with my groaning. And so again, we see this inseparable connection here between the spiritual and the physical. There are times in our lives when we just become spiritually and physically exhausted because of our sin. Living in sin in an unrepentant fashion is exhausting.

It's a hard life. And David, whatever he had done in this particular period of his life. He had experienced physical, he was experiencing this physical, this. Physical and spiritual exhaustion. And God's discipline had become quite severe in his life at this time because he's so overwhelmed by his sin that he says he's weak.

And his bones, his bones, his innermost being is troubled, and that he has become weary and that he has groans. Right. And so, what can happen is that when we experience a dark night like this, we can be overcome with weakness and fatigue, and this weariness sets in that makes even normal everyday activities very difficult. This is how one author says it. He says, We become too tired to get out of bed and get dressed.

He says we become too worn out to get into the He says, we get too worn out to care about going to work. He says we get too exhausted to get the kids off to school. We become too weary to clean the house, too depressed to go to church, too burdened to read the Bible, and too sluggish to even pray. Look at verse 3. We just have this exasperation, and all we can pray is what David prayed.

He says, My soul is greatly troubled, but you, oh Lord, how long? That becomes a prayer. How long? This profound grief over sin that he's committed in this has this spiritual and emotional and physical effects that resulted from it. And he longs for the dark night to end and for the light of day, God's favorable presence to come again.

So here's the question: Is that when we experience a dark night of the soul like David, what do we do? How do we keep going when we possess a sense of God's anger and displeasure and a loss of His favorable presence, and we can't sleep, and we're weak, and worn out, and groaning? How do we come out? What do we do?

Well, here's the first thing: as we look at this, here's what you have to do. Here's the first thing. First, you have to distinguish between what is called filial and slavish. Fear. You have to, first of all, when you find yourself in this dark night.

You have to distinguish carefully between what's filial and slavish fear. Look at verse one. This is what David says. He says, Lord, do not rebuke in your anger, nor chasten me. Discipline me in your hot displeasure.

That is a description of what Bible teachers call filial fear. This isn't slavish fear. Let me help you with this. There's a sermon, it's my favorite sermon title of all time that I've ever found up to this point in my life. And this is a title: it's called Law Death.

Gospel Life. Not a great title. Law, Death, Gospel, Life. And it was by a Scottish Presbyterian minister in the 18th century, 17th century. Uh Ralph Erskine.

And in his sermon, he helps us understand the difference between filial and slavish fear. And he talks about how God the Father gives to believers in their life filial fear that is based on God's fatherly chastisement or discipline, as opposed to giving a slavish fear which is based on his vindictive wrath as a judge.

So listen carefully to what Erskine says. He says, I will not send him to hell. He's talking in a first person for God. He says, No, I will not send them to hell, nor deprive them of heaven. In other words, you're not going to lose your salvation.

He says But he says, no more, he says, and I will break my grass. Great oath to my eternal Son. Yet, like a father, I will chastise them. I will correct them for their faults. He says, listen, I will squeeze them in the mortar of affliction and press out the corrupt juice of old Adam that is in them.

Yes, I will hide my face. That's his favor. the sweetness of his presence. He says, well, deny them that communion and fellowship with me that sometimes they had that was sweet and give them terror instead of comfort and bitterness instead of sweetness. He says, Listen, shall I leave all the sweetness that I've enjoyed with God and Take on with base lusts and idols, and hence, when the believer hath gone aside and backslidden, what is it that brings him back to God?

He finds the Lord breaking him in many ways, and he reflects through grace. Upon this, sometimes, oh, how I am deprived of these sweet interviews that I once enjoyed. Therefore, I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than now. Yea, his freedom from law threatenings and being only under fatherly correction when he sees this, it breaks his heart and it melts it more than all the fire of hell could do. The slavish fear of vindictive wrath discourages him, weakens his hands and duties, and makes him run away from God.

But the filial fear of God's fatherly wrath, which is kindly, is a motive of love that encourages him to his duty. It's a beautiful paragraph. This is what Erskine is saying when we find ourselves in a dark night, when we have backslidden, when we have gone aside, when we're like David in the Psalm and have committed some kind of grievous sin in our life that is crushing our conscience. He says, be careful to distinguish between slavish and filial fear. Slavish fear views God as your vindictive judge, full of wrath, ready to condemn you to hell.

But He says, in contrast, filial fear views God as our Father who is kind and receives us as sons and disciplines us out of love. As the author of Hebrews writes, the Lord disciplines the one he loves. Listen, and he chastises every son whom he receives. But slavish fear discourages us. Slavish fear weakens our obedience.

Slavish fear makes us run away from God like Adam, who, after sinning, He ran from God and he hid in fear. And he says in Genesis 3:10, he says, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid. Because I was naked. I was fully exposed to you and my guilt. He says, So I hid myself.

That's slavish fear. But this filial fear, the fear of a son to his father. This is what Erskine says. He says, it's a motive of love that encourages our hearts. to repentance and to obedience.

Listen, Ralph Erskine again. He says, Which of these motives, slavish fear or filial fear, do you think will work up in the believer the most obedience? It's a great question. Which of these fears, slavish fear or filial fear, do you think will work up in the believer the most obedience? He says, consider this one, this legal one.

Oh, my wrathful judge. He will send me to hell if I do so-and-so. Or this gospel one. Oh, my God and Father in Christ Jesus will be angry at me and deny me his love tokens. I suppose the former, this slavish fear, works upon enmity and raises it.

But this gospel one, this filial fear, works upon love. and it inflames it. You see, so when you're in a dark night and possess a sense of God's displeasure, His severe discipline, and you lose the sweetness of His presence for bitterness. You have to remember that even at that point, God is not your vindictive, wrathful judge. He is your kind and loving Father who is receiving you, not abandoning you, and who is disciplining you out of love to press out the corrupt juices of the old Adam so that you can be more like Christ.

And so we have to recall that when we're in a dark night because of Christ's satisfaction for us. God our Father, He no longer remembers our sins. This is what the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 8: that God, because of the new covenant, he says he'll no longer remember our sins, hold him against us. He doesn't hold against us even the sinful nature against which we are struggling our whole life, but rather he imputes to us the righteousness of Christ so that we will never again come under condemnation ever again. We have to remember that.

And so listen, when a believer sins, he or she doesn't lose fellowship with Christ. That's salvation. Rather, what do we lose? We lose like David. The sense of the sweetness of that fellowship, the sweetness of our fellowship becomes bitter.

And this is what David laments when he says, return, O Lord. Instead of possessing a sense of comfort of God's presence, David possesses this sense of bitterness. And so, if we're going to keep going on, when we experience a dark night, we have to distinguish, first of all, between filial and slavish fear. This psalm teaches us too that we have to learn to continuously call upon God on the basis of his mercy. Just like David in this psalm, he is repeatedly throughout this psalm five times he calls upon God.

You have what we did this morning: an invocation. He's invoking God. It is an invocation. He is crying out for deliverance to God. He is constantly calling upon God, and he does it on the basis of God's mercy.

The form of the service that we do week after week is so vital to teach us how to live the Christian life because this Psalm teaches us that our lives are to be lived in invocation. We hear God's law read to us, then what is our invocation? What is our cry for deliverance and help? Lord. Have Mercy.

Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. That's a wonderful prayer. I probably pray that prayer 500 times a day, every day. Calling upon God, Lord, just have mercy.

Right? That's a perfect prayer. And this Psalm teaches us that our lives are to be lived in invocation, this cry for help, this cry for deliverance. We first find this invocation in the book of Genesis, in Genesis chapter 4, verse 26, where the scriptures record man first calling upon God after man had fallen into sin. At that time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord.

It's an invocation. It's a cry for help. Michael Horton says that the ancient political treaties included the provision for calling on the name of the great king in a time of crisis. And he says, In this treaty, the covenant Lord gives his name. to his people, so that they might call upon him.

in distress. In times of defeat, Call upon God. In times of need and sin and failure. Cry out for help on the basis of God's mercy. Notice in Psalm 6, verse 2, how David calls upon God, how David does this.

Look at verse 2. What does he say? He says, have mercy on me, O Lord. You see that have mercy Look at verse 4. He says, Oh, save me for your mercy's sake.

Verse 2 is literally, give me grace. Oh Lord. And verse 4 is this, literally, save me for your loving kindness, save me for your unfailing love, save me for your steadfast love, this chesid, this covenant faithfulness. Where you've made a promise, God, and you're faithful to keep it for me. Have mercy upon me.

Be faithful to me according to your grace. When we fall into sin, what do we need? Grace. David is experiencing divine discipline. He realizes that God had made a covenant to him in the past.

And so he appeals to God's covenant faithfulness in his request for help in his present time of need. Do you know what David was appealing to? Two covenants probably were in his mind at this time: the Abrahamic covenant and the Davidic covenant, the covenant God had made with him in 2 Samuel 7. The covenant that God had made with Abraham in Genesis chapters 12 and 15 and 17. Because you see, listen carefully, I want you to get this.

Throughout the Old Testament, Old Testament saints like David would appeal to God for deliverance, for salvation, on the basis of his covenant promise to Abraham. The Abrahamic covenant Paul says in Galatians chapter 3, verse 8, listen carefully. Carefully to how Paul describes God's covenant with Abraham. He calls it the gospel beforehand. What is Paul talking about?

He's saying that Genesis chapter 12, verse 3 was the gospel and promise. before Christ came. The gospel beforehand. The Abrahamic covenant equals the gospel in the Old Testament in promise.

So listen, whenever Israel cried out to God for mercy and deliverance, it was always on the basis of God's covenant with Abraham, not with Moses. They never cried out to God on the basis of the Mosaic covenant for mercy. They always cried out to God for salvation, for mercy, for grace, on the basis of God's covenant with Abraham, which Paul says was the gospel and promise before Christ came. And then later on, Old Testament saints like David would appeal to God's steadfast love as promised in his covenant with David in 2 Samuel chapter 7. And so ultimately, what we find is that the Abrahamic and Davidic covenant promises are fulfilled, covenants are fulfilled in Christ.

Matthew chapter 1. Matthew introduces Jesus as the son of Abraham, the son of David. Paul says in Galatians chapter 3, verse 16, that Jesus is, quote, the offspring of Abraham.

So, what does all this mean? This is what this means. Jesus. is the full and complete fulfillment and expression of God's mercy. Jesus is the perfect fulfillment and expression of God's covenant faithfulness to sinners.

Jesus is the perfect expression of grace to restore fallen sinners. In Christ we have displayed before our eyes Faith, the God who keeps his covenant promises and takes sinners to be his covenant people and is faithful to them forevermore. Jesus, listen, is the perfect expression of God's mercy to sinners. When David is praying, have mercy on me, O God, he's referring back to God's covenant faithfulness where he's made a promise and won't break it, won't renege on it. How do we know that God is actually faithful?

Because He has fully fulfilled it, His covenant promise in the sending of Jesus, who is a perfect embodiment of that faithfulness. And so that in Christ we have the assurance that God will never go back on his word. We have the assurance that his promise to be our God and that we will be his people will never change, regardless of our sin. And so, God, for Christ's sake, This is what the other Hebrews says. He remembers our sin no more.

He will cause us to persevere in our faith and finish the good work that he has begun, which is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 9. He says, God is faithful. He's filled with covenant faithfulness, mercy, chesid. Exactly what David is praying here in Psalm 6. God is faithful by whom you are called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

So in Christ, we have God's mercy shown to us perfectly, and we have the assurance of His unfailing love. to restore sinners. This is one of my favorite stories in the Bible, in the New Testament at least. Remember what Jesus said to Peter on the night before his crucifixion? Luke chapter 22.

I've often told you, Luke 22 is one of my favorite chapters in the whole Bible. Jesus Comes up to Peter right after Peter and all the disciples have been arguing about who would be the greatest in the kingdom. I mean, what an argument, right? What pride? I'm going to be the greatest.

Like, wow. Uh um And listen to what Jesus says to Peter right after that argument. He says, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded. Can have you. Then he might sift you like wheat.

He demanded to have you. But I love conjunctions in the Greek.

Okay. because the contrast is so huge. But Satan has demanded to have you. But listen to this comfort. I have Trade.

For you. Amen. I want you to get this. This man is committing horrible sin at this point. Yeah.

I am going to be the greatest. I mean, when you're around people like that, it's just like, come on, man. I'm going to be the greatest. Uh Peter, Satan's demanded to have you. But I have prayed for you.

What did Jesus pray? That your faith May not Fail. And he keeps getting better. Listen to all this grace. And when?

You have turned again. Yeah. When you've repented. Strengthen your brothers. How would Peter do that?

How would he strengthen his brothers? Because he's learned that God is faithful to his promise to restore sinners by his grace. And that's what strengthens everybody.

Now listen to Peter's reply. He sins again. He's got this theology of glory. Peter said to him, Lord. I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.

I just read the book Radical, and I'm totally surrendered. Theology of glory. I am ready to die. Come on, let's go. Jesus said, Okay, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny me three times that you know me.

You're not going to die, Peter. You're going to commit gross. Horrific Thin. Jesus had a theology of the cross and of grace. Peter had a theology of glory and triumph and victorious Christian living.

He was radical. The only The only thing radical about Peter was his gross sin at this moment throughout this whole chapter. And the only radical thing about this whole chapter is that Jesus didn't annihilate him right then. Instead, he prays for him, but you just don't get it, Peter. You have no idea about what I'm saying to you about grace and the gospel right now.

You don't get any of this, but it's okay. I pray for you that your faith may not fail. And when you turn again, strengthen your brothers with this message that you had complete sin, I had complete grace, and that's all that mattered. You see, Peter. Would have been ruined forever after he denied Jesus.

Argued about being the greatest, said, I'll go die with you, just like Judas was. He would have been ruined forever, just like Judas. if Peter's faith was not upheld by Jesus' prayer. That's mercy. That's Psalm 6.

Have mercy on me, O God. Save me according to your mercy. Judas received justice. Peter received mercy. Which do you want?

Jesus, who is mercy, restored Peter, and listen, listen carefully. Jesus restored Peter, and he'll restore you. This brings us to one final insight. When you're experiencing a dark night of the soul, Third. Be assured that God will hear your cry.

for deliverance. This picture I told you that David paints is quite miserable. A dark night is quite miserable. Sin is misery. And what happens is, when we fall into periods like this in our life, we're tempted to lose confidence in God that wants to hear us.

You might be tempted to think, and we're often thinking, well, God is just so displeased, He's so distant, He's not going to hear my prayers, or He's not going to hear my cry for deliverance.

So, why bother? Why pray? He's not going to listen. This is not the case. David's dark night was miserable, but it wasn't hopeless.

David was acutely aware of God's displeasure and anger, and David felt like God had abandoned him and turned away his favorable presence. But listen, God was still there. He was still there. He was still there to listen with David and for David. Do you see what I'm saying?

He was with David. And he was for David. in David's sin. Despite David's sin and failure, the Lord heard David's cry for deliverance and was faithful to him. Look at Psalm 6, verses 8 and 9.

Listen to what David says. He says, For the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord has heard. Look what he says, the voice of my weeping. The Lord has heard my supplication.

The Lord receives. My prayer. Why did the Lord hear David's weeping and supplication, his cry for deliverance, his invocation for mercy? Why did the Lord receive David's prayer? It's because David understood that God is a God of mercy.

God is a God of unfailing love. of covenant faithfulness. God hears our prayers. Listen, because of mercy, not because of our merit, and not because of, in this case, David's demerit. It is the mercy of God that motivates us to pray to Him.

And it is the mercy of God on the basis of which He receives us and hears us. Because what is mercy? Christ, and who is interceding for us and praying for us. Christ And why are we heard? We are heard because of Christ, who is the mercy of God.

And the Father receives our prayers. As I've said, we have the assurance that God will never go back on his word. He will never go back on his promise to be our God and for us to be his people. He will not reject his people. He will be merciful and faithful to his promise to preserve his people forever.

They learn this comforting truth. Listen to Psalm 37, verses 23 and 24. If the Lord delights in a man's way, He makes his steps firm. Though he stumble, He will not fall. That is ultimately fall away and not make it to the end.

He'll keep going. He says, Why? Why will you keep going? How do you keep going? Here's why, David says: He says, Because the Lord upholds him with his hand.

Peter, I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. The Lord was upholding Peter. With his hand. Listen to this comforting truth that you've heard many times in this church in the promise of Jude 24 and 25.

Now, to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, that is to fully fall away and not keep going. To him who is able, he's got the, this Greek word is the power, the dynamite, the dunamis. He's got the ability and the power. to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless. Before the presence of his glory with great joy.

There's no fear here. Standing blameless before the glory of God, you don't have to be consumed and afraid with slavish fear. You can rejoice in that glorious presence. Because he's able to make you do that. To the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever.

Amen. Psalm 30 verse 5, David prays, he says, For his anger is but for a moment, his discipline is but for a moment, but his favor, his grace is for a lifetime. Weeping may endure for a night. But joy comes in the morning. Listen, sometimes because of our sins, we have incurred God's displeasure.

He is holy, and sin in our life is just as bad as sin in an unbelievers' life. But here's the promise that we have that David learned: God's severe discipline comes to an end. When he says joy comes in the morning, morning stands for the time when God gives relief on the basis of his mercy. Psalm 90, verse 14. Listen, Moses prays.

He says, Oh, satisfy us in the morning. With your loving kindness, that we may sing for joy and be glad. All our days. God's loving kindness, His grace, His mercy in Christ is what makes us sing for joy. and to be glad all our days.

Listen to Walter Marshall's counsel as we finish. If you fall into some gross sin after you have come to Christ, as both David and Peter did. Do not throw away your confidence. Do not expect the wrath of God. Do not think that you are not allowed to be comforted by Christ's grace for a good long time.

If you think this, you will be weaker than ever. He says, and then you'll be more prone to fall into other sins. But strive to believe even more confidently that you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one, and that he is the propitiation for your sins. The cloud comes over your qualifications so that you see no grace in yourself. Continue to trust in him who justifies the ungodly.

Believe in him who came to seek and save the lost. And be confident that he Who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion. Until the day of Christ Jesus. Amen. Yeah.

Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your faithfulness. Given to us perfectly and fully embodied in the giving of your Son. In Jesus we find both grace and truth fully revealed to us. And as we go through our life, and as we go through moments of dark nights of the soul, and when we experience a dark night, Help us to remember that it is your fatherly pleasure and love that is disciplining us for our good to squeeze out the old Adam.

and to put in that new Adam, that new image of Christ. Help us to remember that we can call upon you continuously on the basis of your mercy. on the basis of your son. And we thank you that even in the midst of our struggle with our sin. That you hear our prayer.

hear our supplications, you hear our cries, you receive our prayers. For Christ's sake.

So, comfort our hearts this morning, and though we heard a Miserable state in David's life. We see the ironic thing is it leads to joy and comfort and peace. May we leave here today with joy. And comfort and peace of the Holy Spirit, walking in the fullness of assurance. Given to us both through your word here and at your table now.

We pray, minister to our hearts. Holy Spirit, come. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen. Thanks again for listening to the Hymn We Proclaim podcast.

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