Psalm 141, we'll read this short Psalm as we prepare ourselves to meet with God in his word. Psalm 141, a Psalm of David. Lord, I cry unto thee, make haste unto me, give ear unto my voice when I cry unto thee, Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth. Keep the door of my lips. Incline not my heart to any evil thing. To practice wicked works with men that work iniquity. And let me not eat of their dainties. Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness. And let him reprove me, it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head. For yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities. When their judges are overthrown in stony places, they shall hear my words, for they are sweet. Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth, as one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth. But mine eyes are unto thee, O God the Lord. In thee is my trust. Leave not my soul destitute. Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity. Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst I with all escape. I trust the Lord will bless His word to our hearts for His name's sake. This evening I want us to think particularly on the words of verse eight. We started our service this morning with these words, but I want us to consider it more particularly tonight, where the psalmist says, but mine eyes are unto thee, O God the Lord, in thee is my trust. leave not my soul destitute." I want us to think on what we have suggested as the theme of this psalm, and that could even be hinted at in the very first words of Psalm 141, Lord I cry unto thee. We might ask the question, and this is our title, what shall I cry? What shall I cry? Well, before we go further, let's just ask the Lord to meet with us. Father in heaven, now we would pray that thou would bless the word. We pray that thou would allow it to be that which is used by your spirit to draw us, Lord, to minister in our hearts, to instruct us in the things of our God, and to lift us up unto thyself by faith, whereby we may find ourselves meeting with our God in the word. Lord, bless this time then. Bless our hearts, we ask. In Jesus' name, amen. Again, it should be noted that Psalm 141 is labeled as a psalm of David. And so that which we hear through the words of this psalm are the outpouring of David's heart. Again, David begins this psalm by saying, I cry unto you, O Lord. I cry unto you. And then he goes on to explain in this psalm both the reason for his cry and what the effect of that cry is that he desires. If we were to just take a quick review of this psalm, we might break it down as follows. Verse one, again, is David's statement that he's crying to the Lord. You know, what he says there, it would seem very obvious that he is saying something that is plainly known to a God. That he is crying, yes, the Lord knows that, but it is not known to any other. Those who would read of David's words here would have to say that David is offering to us then something that we might employ ourselves. He cries to the Lord. In fact, it says that twice in verse one. And so I would say then that here in these words of the first verse are the framework for everything else that is said. It is upon these words that everything else has their meaning. What is it that David is crying? Or may we take it this way, what is it that we also are to cry? The word cry, what does it really mean? Or what does it indicate? What does it suggest? What power is there in that word cry? Well, I think that in some ways, this Psalm, Psalm 141, and if you were to look across the page, at least in my Bible, to Psalm 143, you'd see that they are very similar. And when he says here that his heart is crying to his God, you would see in Psalm 143, verse four, some one of that explained. He says, therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me. There's the spirit of crying. My heart within me is desolate. He's overwhelmed. In fact, we might even say it this way. The reason for the cry then is disclosed as David being unable to stand or do anything. He is desolate, as it were. And so being one who has no abilities, no strengths, no resources, he cries to God. But you might also take that idea of crying to the Lord here to indicate that not only is he not able to do anything, he doesn't know what to do even if he could do something. He is without understanding. He is without strength of mind or heart. He is utterly overwhelmed. But then I think the fact that it uses the word cry would indicate something else, and that is very plainly that David is in pain. There's a pain of heart and soul and mind and spirit that there is something that is being done in and to or around him that is bringing him not only distress, but really pain of soul. So what do you cry in a situation like that? How do you actually proceed to get the attention of God and the Lord's help in a time like that? Well, Verse two tells us then that as a result, or in his crying, he says, let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. See, David here then brings himself to realize, before I go any further to pour out what my troubles are of heart, I stop. I stop and I offer my prayer of worship. I offer the uplifting of my hands. Indeed, what does uplifting of hands mean? What does it symbolize? What does it indicate? Well, we would have to think that the lifting up of a man's hands, especially as his eyes are turned, pleading to the Lord, crying to the Lord, that yes, there is an act of worship in that. But there's also a sense in which that picture's pleading. Lord, I cry, but I'm not just cry. See my hands lifted up to you. I am pleading before the face of my God for the help of my God. Verse three gives us a bit of an indication of why he is in the situation that he is. Again, he says there in verse three, set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth. Keep the door of my lips. Why would he say that? He's just been crying to the Lord. He's just been worshiping the Lord. He's lifting up his hands to the Lord. Why would he say those words or even what is on what we read in verse four? I think the idea here is that there may be a connection between David's crying, David's pain of soul and what has gone out of his lips. In other words, here may be, I'm not saying is, but may be a cause of his pain. And certainly, you would have to take him as saying that there's a danger that the words that come out of my mouth and out of my heart, unfitting words, will make the matter even worse. Oh, how silly we are to think that we can oftentimes straighten things out by the use of unwise words. unfitting words. David says, oh, keep me from it. Keep me from it. Then in verse four, you have another perhaps cause. Incline mine, not my heart to any evil thing to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity and let me not eat of their dainties. Well, the dainties are perhaps in some ways suggesting what those evil works are. And I think perhaps David is indicating here that he is an example of envy and jealousy. Not only have perhaps the words of my mouth been to me the source and cause of my pain, but also the envy and jealousy of my heart that I wish I could have what these others have had. And he's found that this has been a cause of perhaps wandering away from the Lord. Verse five. David makes a comment before the Lord. In fact, he even suggests it as a help from the Lord. He says there, let the righteous smite me and it shall be a kindness. I think David is saying here, I understand that I have wandered and I'm crying to you, oh God. And if there are some that you could use, if there are friends that are friends indeed to me, let them smite me. I will count it as that which is a good help, a kind help, a gracious help. Now we have to understand that oftentimes the help of the godly may not be what the flesh wants. We don't like to be reproved. We don't like to be put right. We don't like to be shown what we are. But oftentimes it is the very thing that will prove good for our soul. And so David invites that as part of his cry. He's crying, oh God, Here, Lord, come, I plead to you, take knowledge of me. Guard me from the words of my lips. Guard me again from the effects of being jealous and envious. Oh God, while I'm pleading, if you have a helper out there that you're gonna use to help me, then let him, and I will count it a great kindness. And then in verse six. David says that he intends not just to be one who hears right, but now, by the grace of God, he's set to be right. I won't be what maybe I was before. I will not let my words be. what they were before. Now the words, if you'll allow me to know your grace and goodness, my words, even to those that need to be judged will be sweet. I will guard and I will produce that which is glorifying to God. Verse seven speaks of the horrible estimate of what sin actually does. He says, our bones are scattered at the graves. What a terrible picture that is. Bones scattered at the mouth of the graves. Bones as numerous as if one were cutting and cleaving wood upon the earth. So you have David's situation. This is what he's pouring out his heart to God. He's saying, this is what I have been. This is where I have become and where I've come to. And now, oh God, verse eight. Here's what he's crying. But mine eyes are unto thee, O God the Lord. But my eyes are unto thee, O God, the Lord, and thee is my trust. Leave not my soul destitute. Here's the cry of a man who is overwhelmed of soul, doesn't know what to do, has classified himself among the destitute. I have no resources, but I also don't have, as it were, strength, and I don't have wit nor wisdom to know what to do, even if I could do something. And I find that Much of the evil that I find that's distressing me is the evil of my own making What do you cry verse 8 So here's the point of David's prayer my eyes are unto thee Oh God the Lord now I want you to understand something about that particular reference to our God he says Oh God the Lord and You don't see those words in that combination very much in scripture. In fact, those four words together are only found three times in scripture. Oh God, the Lord. They are found in Psalm 109, verse 21. It is also found in Psalm 140, verse seven. And then again here in Psalm 141, verse eight. Something to note about these words. First off, the only one who ever says this is David. He's the only one who uses this particular reference to the name or to the Lord himself. Also, you could say that all of these calls upon, oh God, the Lord, are calls for deliverance from an overwhelming darkness of heart. Every one of them. Lord, I am in a dark place. My soul is in a dark place. My heart is overwhelmed within me. I am beset by things that are too great for me. I am just completely overwhelmed. This is a reference to the Lord God that's only in those hours. Also, I would suggest to you that all three of these Psalms in which that particular name of the Lord or reference to the Lord, they are all in Psalms that we would call imprecatory, meaning they are Psalms that call upon the Lord ultimately to judge the unrighteous, to be remembering their evils and then let them know the things that come from such evil. Let it be on their head. But also, here is a call for deliverance and judgment of what oppresses. Let me just simply say this, it is right for us as the people of God to ask God to judge sin. We are in a day when it would appear that we are being convinced for us to plead with God to judge sin is something that's completely inappropriate. Oh, now that's not loving, or whatever else it is. That is not the truth. It is right for the people of God to ask God to do right, to judge that which is against His law, against His holiness, against His name, And I say more particularly, as we would turn that thought inward to ourselves, it is right for us to call upon our God to judge our own sin. Destroy sin. And then David makes, in the last two verses of our psalm this evening, a reference to what he sees as the need for him in the light of God's deliverance. He said, Lord, they've laid snares for me. There are many snares, and Lord, let me escape out of the snares. Lord, by you helping me, let me be one who is delivered from the traps that come with sin. Let those who are in sin, who promote sin, who lift it up as if it is something that is glorious, let those be caught in their own snare, but let me escape. So, we have then verse eight, I said all of that, everything I've said so far is nothing but introduction. We come to verse eight, which is, what is it that I should cry? And we're going to look at that verse in its parts. And I have just three things to answer the question, what can be said of the words of verse eight? Before I do that, I'm going to read to you verses five through eight of Psalm 143, because there are things, as I said, in Psalm 143 that directly reflect what David is praying in Psalm 141. So I'm gonna read these verses, and then I'm gonna note with you the parts of verse eight. In Psalm 143, verse five, it says, I remember the days of old. I meditate on all thy works. I muse on the work of thy hands. I stretch forth my hands unto thee. Doesn't that sound like verse two? I stretch forth my hands unto thee. My soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land, Sela. Hear me speedily, O Lord. My spirit faileth. Hide not thy face from me. Doesn't that sound like our text? Mine eyes are unto thee, O God, lest I be like them that go down into the pit. Cause me to hear thy loving kindness in the morning. For in thee do I trust. Again, doesn't that sound like our text? In thee is my trust. Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk. For I lift up my soul unto thee. The lifting of the hands unto God. The man who doesn't know what to do. Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies. I flee to thee to hide me. Oh, there's some very strong parallels there, which I think will help us to understand verse eight. So what are the parts? Well, I'm just, I don't even have a point here. I'm just gonna break it down. First, see with me as the first point, this statement, my eyes are unto thee. Eyes unto thee. Again, you'd have a parallel to verse seven of Psalm 143. Hide not thy face from me. There's a seeking of the face of God. My eyes are unto thee. Well, what does that entail? What does that suggest? What does that mean? My eyes are unto thee. Well, I think first, this picture of the eyes lifted up to God. is an acknowledging that there is only one help for our souls. As I was thinking on that thought, the words of the hymn, Abide With Me, came to me. When other helpers fail and comforts flee, O help of the helpless, abide with me. Yes, when the eyes are lifted to God, that means that the eyes are lifted from everything else. There is an acknowledging that there's only one helper. There's only one who can ever do for me what is needful. And then when you look at Psalm 143, verse five, he says there, I remember the days of old, I meditate on all thy works. To have the eyes lifted to God is in itself a remembering that the Lord is faithful. and remembering what the Lord has done in the past. I look to you, O God, because what I need to have you do for me today is what you have always been doing for me, that you have been faithfully leading me, that you've been faithfully delivering me, even though I am not faithful to you. Yet, as the scripture says, he abideth faithful. Lord, I remember these old works, these former works. My eyes look unto you, do again as you have done in the past. And third, I think there is in those words an expectation. An expectation to be shown from God what is his way. Again, Psalm 143, verse 10. Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God. Thy spirit is good, lead me into the land of uprightness. The eyes are fixed upon God, the eyes are lifted to God because we need to know from our God what is the way that we should go. Perhaps we can equate that to the statement that is often made in scripture, wait upon the Lord, my soul, wait thou only upon God, and so forth. So I say, here's what to cry. It seems odd, but it is not only a statement of need, but a guide to action. Lord, I lift my, I'm crying to you, Lord, my eyes are unto thee. That's a very good thing to pray. That's a very good thing to cry to our God, where it indicates many things. But as I said, it's a guide to action, but we have to ask the question, what action? So here is the action. The second thing, you see here, in thee is my trust. In thee is my trust. You say, that doesn't sound much like an action. Oh, yes, it is. In thee is my trust. Now, I want you to understand that these words here are not saying, in thee do I trust. It's not saying that. It says in the, is my trust. What does that suggest? Well, it's simply this. You don't have another trust. My trust is in the Lord my God. I don't have, it's not just that I'm trusting you, but I could also trust something else. It's, there's this strength that I find from my God, but there are strengths that I can draw from other places. No, this is an exclusive statement. My trust is only in the Lord my God. I don't have another trust and I don't want another that I would look to. But also I think there's this element. When he says, my trust is in thee, or in thee is my trust. That's a statement that says, my trust is founded in the character of my God. My trust resides in who you are. My trust abides in all that my God is. In Thee is my trust. In the character and mercies, the character being the internal things that we would know of God, the mercies of God being the external ways in which God presents himself and shows himself. In your character, oh God is my trust. But also there's a third thing that's involved here. Not only does it mean that God is my trust and I don't trust in something else, and that is founded on his character, but trust is always the answer. Trust is always the answer. My eyes are unto Thee, O Lord, O God, the Lord. Why? In Thee is my trust. That's always the answer for every situation, for every trial, for every trouble, for everything that I would ever cry to my God about. The answer is the Lord. The Lord and His character. That's the place of my trust. Here is a limiting of the action. Trust alone is the answer. It's not trust plus, well, I'll go out and do something. It's not trust plus, I'll seek to somehow make my mind better by reading this or understanding that. No, sir. Our actions, when we're in a place when our hearts are overwhelmed, when we are in the dark place, when we are in the place where we would also have to cry to our God, as David is doing here, the answer is only the person of the Lord and who he is to us, who he is, period, and who he is going to prove himself to be as he outworks all of his promises that are yea and in Christ, amen. Then there's the third thing that's part of our text, and that is this. He says, leave not my soul destitute. Leave not my soul destitute. He's crying, my eyes are to you. You are my trust. Now, leave me not destitute. And I would say that perhaps we could say there's perhaps another interpretive way in which that could be said. And I think it's something like this, don't leave me in the condition, oh God, the Lord, where my only help is my own strength and my own wisdom, because I don't have any. I don't have any. You know, sometimes you and I think we have some strength, You know, it's getting more and more evident, I think, as years go by, that we don't have a whole lot of strength. But one thing that we never do quite get beyond is that we never are quite convinced that we don't have wisdom. Sometimes we think a lot more of ourselves than what we ought. David here is saying, don't leave me destitute. I am destitute. Without the Lord working, without the Lord helping, I am destitute. I don't have strength, but I also don't have wisdom. Don't leave me like that. Psalm 143, verse 12. And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies and destroy all them that afflict my soul for I am thy servant. Yes, leave me not destitute. Why? Because I'm your servant. Leave me not without the face of my God shining on me because I'm your servant. Leave me not without the help and the wisdom and the undertaking of my God for I'm your servant. I want you to understand that this was a Psalm of David and this was David's crying to the Lord from this situation. And David has to confess that there were reasons that were for his having to cry. And then he comes to the place where he says, my eyes are to you. I want you to also see that perhaps not David's confession of what he was worrying about the effects of his own failings, but I want you to see that in some ways you have here a glimpse also of what may have been a true statement of the greater servant of the Lord, that being the Lord Jesus. Could you imagine Christ? But mine eyes are unto thee, O God, the Lord, and thee is my trust. Leave me not. Leave me not. Well, the point of saying that is that if that is what would possibly even be what the Lord Jesus prayed in a way when he was at Calvary, Ought we not to take that same thing to our lips when we would pray to our God in a time when our hearts are overwhelmed? I think in some ways you read that in Psalm 22. Psalm 22. You have the words that are prophetic words of the Lord Jesus, but I think you have the same sentiment. I'm overwhelmed. The strong bulls of Bashan are against me. They gape on me with their mouths and so forth. We can cry this to our God. Lord, mine eyes are unto thee. O God, the Lord, in thee is my trust. Leave not my soul destitute. In other words, come and be gracious to me. Come and undertake for me. Come and overrule in me those things that are displeasing in thy sight, that I might be one who is able to rest in the Lord my God and in the mercies that come from his hand. Well, amen. May the Lord bless his word to our hearts for Jesus' sake. Lord in heaven, now we would pray that you will allow the word of God to remain with us and to do with in us that which is your good pleasure. Only, oh God, we would pray with David, Lord, leave us not destitute. Do not leave us to ourselves. Do not leave us to our own strength. Do not leave us to our own wit and wisdom. Allow us to be those who realize that our hope is all in the Lord who gave himself for us. Bless now the time that we've spent by continuing to speak to us through the spirit, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.