Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Let me just say that these verses in Psalm chapter 40, there is some dispute as to when these verses were written. It doesn't really matter, it doesn't change the message or the meaning of the verses, but there is some dispute as to when this was written. Some believe, and some commentators will tell you, that this was written during the time that David was running for his life away from King Saul. Now, I'm not going to belabor the story, we've already gone over that, but many of you know how that David was God's chosen and God's anointed. Saul was king over Israel, and David was God's chosen man to follow Saul. And David was an individual that had ministered to Saul, he was close with Saul, and he was his king, but David would often play music to help Saul's mood when he was hurt, discouraged, mad, angry, whatever the case might be. But God's hand was so on David that as folks begin to notice the power of God on David's life, Saul became jealous. What some people don't realize is that Saul was also David's father-in-law.

A lot of people don't know that. David married one of Saul's daughters. And so here he is king, here he is David's mentor, and here he is David's relative, literally his father-in-law, and Saul tried to kill David. And David ran for his life. Could you imagine running for your life from an individual, but that individual being a family member? You know, we have people sitting right here that have been really hurt by family.

That happens in life. Some believe that this was written during a time when David was running from his own son, Absalom. We all know how the fact that Absalom had, I guess, gotten great resentment obviously towards his dad. The Bible says that Absalom would stand at the gates of the city, and I think this is applicable by the way. Oftentimes Absalom would stand by the gates of the city, and as David was the king, his own dad, when he would make rulings or when he would decide things, individuals would come out of the gates of the temple there. And obviously the kingdom that David reigned there in Israel, where David lived, his residence, Absalom would stand outside the gate, and when folks would come out somewhat disappointed, the Bible said Absalom would be there to talk to them, and he would agree with them. In other words, he would say, well, what's wrong with you?

And you look kind of down. They say, well, the king decided something, and Absalom would say, well, I don't agree with that either. In fact, if I was the king, I would agree with you.

If I was the king, I would have made the ruling that way. And the Bible said that Absalom literally turned the hearts of the kingdom, many of them because they had resentment towards David. You know the same thing goes on in churches.

Exact same thing. Somebody doesn't like something the preacher does, there will always be somebody. Be careful when people come to you with their problems, because they're coming to you because they know they can, because they know you're negative and you're angry too. That's why people come. It's amazing when you're not negative at all, nobody will come to you. It's amazing.

You know, you talk to some people, like, nobody's ever come complain to me, because if they did, I would tell them right away. So you got to watch that. So Absalom just waited. He liked to be the guy that ever he was trying to win everybody over.

He wanted everybody to think he was the smartest and he was the this or that. And the Bible says that Absalom literally turned and tried to kill his own father. So David was either running away from his father-in-law or he was hiding from his own son.

Either way, it was a bad situation. The Bible says that David here spoke of fear. And the way he described, we're going to read this in just a minute, but you've got to understand the setting of what David is talking about here in Psalm chapter 40.

Look at verse one. To the chief musician, a psalm of David. This was a psalm that was literally sung in worship. David had written this and then they would put this to worship. He said this, I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God.

Many shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord. We are given just a glimpse here of the heart of David. David, as he writes this song, literally you and I should be reminded of what the Lord did for us when he reached down into the depths of our sin and picked us up out of the miry clay. We're going to talk about that in a minute and set our feet upon the rock out of the mire and into the choir.

Let's brag on Jesus a little bit this morning. Lord, we love you. We thank you for all that you've done. And Lord, we think of what Jesus has done for us. It's a picture of what you did for David, of what you've done for each of us. And Lord, we love you. Bless us this morning, please, Lord, in Jesus' name.

Amen. As David in these three verses, David describes his experience with the Lord, what God did for him. By the way, let me just say that this morning. One of the best ways for you to witness to others is to simply share what God's done for you. Everybody says, I don't know how to witness to people. I don't know all the verses to tell them. Listen, you don't really have to do all that.

It's great if you learn to do that, but you don't have to. If you get an opportunity to talk to somebody, all you got to do is tell them this. I was lost and on my way to hell and I heard the gospel. I heard that Jesus died on the cross for me and I heard that I could be saved and I put my faith and trust in him and this is what God's done for me.

Your testimony is your most effective witness to others. Notice if you would in verse one, we see number one under this and this will be on the screen for those of you keeping notes. Number one, David experienced God's tenderness. David experienced God's tenderness. Look if you would at verse one.

I love this. I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. You say preacher, what is he saying here? Well number one under that we see God's tenderness to the waiting one. Notice what David said. Look at verse 40. I waited patiently for the Lord.

We see here that God showed tenderness to David who at the time was waiting. May I tell you this morning that one of the hardest things for you and I to do in our life is to wait. I've said this before. I'll drive two hours on an off-road around instead of sitting 45 minutes in traffic. I hate to sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

I just hate it. None of us like to wait. And by the way, may I tell you this that in your life oftentimes when things are the worst is when you will find yourself waiting. David said I waited patiently for the Lord. That means this you will not wait on the Lord unless you have patience because God does not work on our timetable. God doesn't do things exactly when we want it how we want it or how we think it ought to be done.

God does things God's way. We see here that God showed tenderness to the waiting one. Dear friend, do you realize that God knows you don't like to wait? God knows you're frustrated. God knows that you have needs and God knows that this thing has been frustrating you whatever it is in your life and it's been a burden on you and there are many of you here that probably you don't like the job that you're in.

This isn't what you wanted to do with your life and all these things and you want something different and dear friend I'm here to tell you it'll be worth it if you'll wait on the Lord. He will show tenderness to you. And David said I'm awaiting one. Is there anybody else here this morning that might would categorize yourself as a waiting individual?

It's never fun to wait. Number two, I want you to notice this. Not only did God show tenderness to the waiting one but number two we see that God showed tenderness to the wounded one. Notice if you would in verse one. It says I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry.

Look at verse two. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit. A wounded one. David describes himself as being in a horrible pit. Now that word horrible in the Hebrew means literally an uproar, a tumult. That word pit refers to a cistern or a dungeon. David literally said that the experience that he was going through while he was waiting on God to do something David described it as a horrible pit. A tumultuous dungeon.

That's not fun for anybody. David here literally was a wounded individual. He was so hurt by the fact that either he was running from his own flesh and blood or he was running from his father-in-law, his mentor, his king, either way he was in a dungeon.

A pit. Have you ever been there? Have you ever felt so betrayed by an individual? Or so betrayed by individuals? Or so betrayed by your family? Or so betrayed by society? Or so betrayed by somebody at church? Or so betrayed by this or that? That it literally feels that you are stuck in a miserable dungeon. God showed tenderness to the wounded one. This has the ideal of being trapped in a place of torment. Listen to me, verse two.

It has the ideal of being trapped in a place of torment while enemies constantly cry out against you. David here literally felt that I'm hiding for my life. I'm in this horrible pit. And while I'm here everybody else just seems, they're all after me. Anybody ever felt like the whole world was after you? Anybody felt like you can't get a break?

Am I the only unspiritual one here this morning? You know you've had those days. I told my wife. My wife and I, what night was it, baby, where we went to grab a bite to eat? What night was it? Wednesday night.

Wednesday night. We got to church. I had been busy.

I hadn't eaten supper or nothing. And we were late Wednesday night and had some meetings and things. And so when we finally left church, it was late. And my kids had gone with Grandma and Grandpa, right?

Nanny and Papa. So they were gone. So it was just me and Julie.

And we don't ever get me and Julie, it seems. So I said, let's go eat. We hadn't eaten supper. It was late.

And so you got very few choices. And I just said, we live over towards Colfax. I said, let's go to Ruby Tuesday. They have a salad bar. It's late.

So I don't want to eat anything. So we went to Ruby Tuesday. And we got to Ruby Tuesday. And we were sitting there at the wait line. And we stood there and waited and waited.

And waitresses and everything's walking by. We're just standing there waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. We probably stood there five to 10 minutes. Finally, a lady came with her purse, was leaving. And she saw us standing there. She goes, oh, let me find you a table. I said, yeah, that'd be nice.

It's already 10 o'clock at night or about 930 at that point. So she went and put us in a booth. And we sat there and sat there and sat there and sat there and sat there. And we watched them bring two other groups in. And those groups' waitresses came and got their orders, got their drinks.

We're still sitting there, hadn't had anybody even come by us. And one of the two things is going to happen. This is going to get fed. Or, and I've learned over the years. And I told her, I said, let's just go. There's no sense. I don't want to argue.

I don't want to look like a bad person. We've already sat here 20 minutes. So we just got up. And we left. I couldn't even find anybody to tell I'm leaving. You know, when you leave a restaurant, you want to let somebody know you're leaving. It's like it's not enough to walk out. You want to let somebody know I'm leaving.

You just want to find somebody. I didn't get served. I'm leaving.

I couldn't find anybody to even tell. So we got in the car. And I said, man, alive. I said, we're cursed. We can't even get something to eat.

So on 68th, there was nothing else. I said, well, there's hams down there. Hams is open. I don't really like hams a whole bunch.

But I said, let's go. We'll go into hams. So we get in hams, stand there at the line, waiting to be seated.

Finally, a kid comes out, you know. Can I seat you somewhere? Yeah, we like, you know, puts us in a table. We sit there. Wait, wait, wait, wait. People serving everybody else. Wait, wait, wait.

Nothing. So I picked up my phone. And I called Jimmy John's. I'm calling Jimmy John's while I'm sitting at hams. They closed at 10 o'clock.

It was 958. And I called Jimmy John's. I said, listen, I am two minutes away from you.

Is it too late for me to get a sandwich? He said, well, as long as you get here by 10, 10. I said, well, let me go ahead and tell you what I want. He said, OK. So I told him the two steps. We got up out of hams, got in our car, went to Jimmy John's, finally made it home, ate at 11 o'clock, finally had us up. And I just told her, I said, I'll finally get a meal just with you. And I can't even get a meal.

Ever felt like nothing goes right in your life? Here's David. Either he's running from father-in-law or he's running from son. And I'm sure as he's sitting in that horrible pit and he's wounded and he's waiting, he probably felt like everybody was against him. I want you to notice number three that we see that God showed tenderness to the weak one. He wasn't just waiting and he wasn't just wounded.

He was weak. Look at verse one. I love this, by the way. He said, I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me. What does that mean? David literally says here that when he cried to God, God inclined to him. That means God came to him. It means that in that horrible pit, David did not have what it took to get out of that pit and find God. God had to come down to that pit and find David. David was so weak, he said, God, I don't have strength to get to you and I don't have strength to climb out of here and I'm waiting on you. And the Bible said when David cried, God inclined unto him. That means when he could not get to where Jesus was, he came to him.

Dear friend, that's exactly what he did for you. You and I could not get to him. We didn't have what it took, but he came to us.

He's always made the first move. His tenderness to the weak one. Dear friend, if you're here this morning and you don't have Christ, I'm here to tell you, you're too weak to get to Christ.

You don't have what it takes. But Christ has come to you if you'll just accept him. We see that David experienced God's tenderness. Number two, we see that David experienced God's touch. I want you to look at verse two, if you will. It says, he brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings. I want you to see first that David experienced the grace of God's touch.

The grace of his touch. The phrase, he brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay. Now listen to me, I want you to get this.

This indicates that God did not just see what David was going through, and God did not just listen to David's cry. God did something about it. Do you get that?

I want to make sure you get that. It's one thing to know a person is going through something, and it's another thing to listen to what they have to say, how hard it's been. But it's a totally different thing for you to do something about it. And God didn't just know where David was, and God didn't just listen to what David had to say. God did something about it. He inclined unto David, and he lifted him up out of the miry clay, and he set his feet upon a rock, and he established his goings. What's interesting here as you look at this, you think if a legalist would have come by and saw a sinner in a pit, he would have preached a sermon about the dangers of the pit. If a religionist would have come by and saw that sinner in that pit, he would have talked about the steps a sinner could take to get himself out of the pit and avoid the pits in the future. If a pessimist walked by, he would tell the sinner that he was going to die in that pit. If an optimist passed by, he would tell the sinner that he'd seen worse pits than that. If a realist walked by, he would tell that man just to accept his pit. If a spiritualist came by, he would tell the sinner that there really wasn't a pit.

It's just all in your mind. But aren't you glad it wasn't a legalist, or a pessimist, or a religionist, or some kind? It was when Jesus passed by, he brought him out. Dear friend, may you and I never get so bogged down with trying to be holy that we forget to be real simple with people and remind them that he can bring you out of that pit.

That's the purpose. You know, when we get out of the pit, we ought to grow, and we ought to try to get close to the Lord, and we ought to try to grow and be more holy. But dear friend, we got a whole bunch of people that are not going to be holy, and they're not going to cross all their Ts and not all their Is the way we do because they're in a pit. Let's quit trying to treat people like they ought to be some super Christian.

Let's just tell them that God can bring them out of the pit. The grace of his touch. Number two, David experienced the greatness of his touch. David now talks about how that grace was manifested in his life.

This excited me. David points out three things that he experienced with the touch of God. Number one, David saw that God's touch was a touch of power.

Now notice this. David talks about the miry clay. Now what does that mean, preacher? He is speaking of the sludge that collects at the bottom of a well. It has the ideal of a deep, slimy, clinging mud that literally tries to pull you deeper down.

It has the ideal of instability, of feet that are slipping and in danger of falling. David described his situation, that I was down so far and I was so engulfed in this sludge and this mire that I could not get myself out. But the Bible says that when God touched David, he brought him out. That is power. Let me tell you how much power God has. He can do what you can't. You can't save yourself, he can save you. You can't help yourself, he can help you. You can't change yourself, he can change you.

We need people to quit trying to change themselves and just get closer to God and let God do the changing. He's delivered us from death. He's delivered us from doom. He changes every life he touches. He delivers us from the miry clay. He delivers us from anything that would pull us down. He's freed us from that.

He did all that with his touch. Not only did David see it was a touch of power, number two, he saw that it was a touch of provision. Notice this, it says that he set my feet upon a rock. He didn't just pull David out of the stuff that was unstable.

He put David on the epitome of stability. He says, I brought you out of the mire and I set my feet, David says, on the rock. God, the Bible says, is our rock.

They say, preacher, what does this mean? That word rock literally refers to in the Hebrew here of a high cliff. It means this, David was as low as he could possibly get and God pulled him out of that mire and then God not only set him on a rock but he set him on a high rock so that now David was far above where he was. Dear friend, if you've been saved, we've been going through Ephesians and the Bible says that we are seated in heavenly places.

If you've been saved, God has put you in a far higher place than where you were. It was a touch of power but it was a touch of provision. God didn't only take me out of sin, folks. He set my feet on a rock. He gave me stability. He gave me something to count on. He gave me something that was real, something with substance. Everything in the earth's gonna fade away but God says, whatever you do for me, it will last forever in eternity. Number three, David realized that God's touch was a touch of preparation.

It wasn't just a touch of power pulled him out. It wasn't just a touch of provision put him on a rock but it was a touch of preparation. What does the Bible here say? David said he established my goings. David literally says that he pulled me out of the mire, he put me on a rock, and then he gave me a future. Dear friend, do you know when God saved you, he gave you a future? You had no future before you were saved.

All you had was death, hell, and the grave to look forward to. But now that you've been saved, God has established your goings. What does it mean establish my goings? That means this, God has already decided where you're going and he is causing all the provisions necessary to get you there. He said, I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. That means this, God's already established when you've been saved that you're going to heaven, you've got a future there, and God is establishing it right now. It's already been done, it's already set in stone, you're going, if you've been saved, you're gonna live for an eternity with your heavenly Father, with God the Son, with God the Holy Spirit. We're gonna spend an eternity in heaven together that has been established by God. I don't know about you, but that ought to excite us.

Look at me, I want you to get this. The fact that God took enough time to pull David out of the mire and set him on a rock means this, God had a plan for David's life. Look at me, dear friend, why would God save you if he didn't have a plan for your life? Do you realize that means if you've been saved by the grace of God, God has a plan for your life. It isn't you get saved and you just keep doing what you wanna do. No, why would God waste his time?

If God saved you, he only put all that effort into that for one reason, and that's because he has a plan for your life. He's established your goings, and our job is to find God, what do you want me to do? God, what do you want me to do?

Whatever it is, I'll do it. Number three, David not only, number one, experienced God's tenderness, number two, David not only experienced God's touch, but number three, David experienced God's transformation. Why don't you look at verse three. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God.

Many shall see it in fear and shall trust in the Lord. Now let me tell you why this excited me. I see two changes here. Number one, the personal man was transformed, and number two, the public man was transformed.

Now notice this first. The personal man was transformed. David said that there is a new song where?

In my mouth. Listen to me. The mouth can sing because the heart's been changed. You know why David had a new song in his mouth? Because he was a new man in his heart. That personal inner man was transformed is what the Bible calls quickened. We've been changed.

The moment you got saved, that inner man was changed. David says that he hath put. David didn't say I got a new song in my mouth. He said he hath put a new song in my mouth. God did the changing. Listen to me. I want you to get this. When the Lord delivered David, now please, if you don't get anything, just wake up and get this, okay?

Please. When the Lord delivered David, he didn't just change David's surroundings and circumstances. He changed David. You know what you and I want a lot of times? We want God to fix everything around us, but we don't want God to fix us.

We want new circumstances and we want new changes, but we don't want a new song. Dear friend, when God changed David's life, he changed David. He didn't just take him out of the clay. He didn't pull him out of sin. He didn't just give him a new location. He didn't just give him a new future.

Look at me. He gave him a new heart. The personal man was transformed. When this psalm began, look in verse one. When this psalm began, David was not talking about singing.

He was talking about crying. Then in verse three, he's talking about singing. David said, when I was in that horrible pit, I cried unto the Lord. But after God delivers, now David says, I've got a new song in my mouth.

By the way, this is somewhat unrelated and yet it's some related. Never in this church ever should we ever have to get up and sing songs to the Lord and say, folks, would you please sing? God has saved our hearts. We ought to want to sing to God. You say, preacher, I don't sing very good. David did not say he put a good song in my mouth.

He said he put a new song in my mouth. You don't have to be the most on tune. You don't have to have the greatest voice. That's why we have corporate worship. That's why we don't make everyone in this church come up here and sing a solo. That's why we do it as a group.

Aren't you glad about that? Somebody's like, yeah, you'd be glad about that because I wouldn't be a member of this church if you did it the other way. I ain't getting up there and singing a solo.

Look at me, dear friend. We shouldn't have to ask anybody to sing. It ought to be whenever anybody comes up here and leads singing that our church just sings.

There's nothing like walking into a church when you sing congregational music and everybody's just letting a rip and singing. It's as if God takes notice. The personal man was transformed. Number two, the public man was transformed. You see, dear friend, all of us have an inner man and we have an outer man. All of us have who we are on the inside and all of us have who everyone else sees on the outside. God bless you.