Beloved, today, providence has placed before us in the preaching the 142nd Psalm. Psalm 142. And I've entitled this sermon, I intend to preach on it, A Cry from a Cave. And it'll be obvious why as we read this psalm. This is God's Word. Psalm 142. Mascal of David, a prayer when he was in the cave. I cried unto the Lord with my voice. With my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication. I poured out my complaint before him. I showed before him all my trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me. I looked on my right hand and beheld, but there was no man that would know me. Refuge failed me. No man cared for my soul. I cried unto thee, O Lord. I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living. Attend unto my cry, for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name. The righteous shall compass me about, for thou shalt deal bountifully with me. Amen? Amen. The blessed word of Almighty God. A cave dwelling fugitive is a desperate man. That's exactly where David found himself. At one point in his life, described, if you're curious, in 1 Samuel 22, which we'll pass over for now. But David was a believing young man that had rendered noble service to his country, the holy nation of Israel. He was a believer in Jehovah, zealous for God's glory and dutiful to the king. And yet wicked King Saul became jealous. I'm sure you know the story. And from that green-eyed monster of jealousy, determined that he wanted to kill David. So David was running from the king and barely escaped with his life time after time after time. And on this particular, when David wrote this particular Psalm, or at least he was reflecting back to the time when he was hiding in a cave, a dark, wet, probably stinky place, an uncomfortable kind of a prison. where he took refuge. And so right away we have an important spiritual lesson from even this much we've considered. Namely, God sometimes brings his favorites into deep trials like this. We all know that Saul grew worse and worse morally and spiritually and died under divine judgment on the battlefield. While David succeeded King Saul to be Israel's most glorious king until Jesus Christ and God very much prospered David's reign and he died as a blessed old man full of years on his bed. And yet, even though the Lord had planned to show David such favor in this season of his life, he found himself on the run depressed, crying out to God for mercy because of persecutors. It is often the case with God's people in church history that they are sorely oppressed and miserable in terms of their earthly circumstances. Hebrews 11, praising some of our spiritual forefathers say, and of course, godly women as well. Some had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings. Some had bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn asunder, tempted, slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. Hebrews 11, 36 to 38. Now, have you ever lived in a cave? You might you may never have even been in a cave, much less sought refuge in one. However, Even when providence spares us the misery of literal cave dwelling, we can feel just as desperate in our souls as David did. And so a cave is a great metaphor for certain times in the Christian life. And you may not be in a literal cave, in other words, but maybe in a cave of some kind with its misery. And therefore, Psalm 142, a prayer of David when he was in the cave is well suited for us. And it seems one of the most grievous things that David was experiencing during this time of his life when he was a fugitive was loneliness. That comes out in the Psalm when he says, for example, no man cared for my soul. And I looked about me and I couldn't find anybody to help me. Loneliness is a kind of slow death of the soul. And that is understandable because from the beginning, God designed us human beings for fellowship with others. You remember, God made the first man, Adam, of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being. And then the Lord said, it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. And God took a rib from Adam and made Eve and brought her to the man and she became his wife. And he had human companionship in paradise. Paradise wasn't complete while the man was alone. God provided a mate for the man, a fellow, one like him, and yet delightfully different from him, to be his earthly love. And this anticipates that the human being has a relative need for human companionship. But sometimes, to one degree or another, we're deprived of those comforts of loving society, such as David was when he prayed from the cave. And in those down times, those dark and depressing times of loneliness, The believer finds out experientially that the Lord is enough. Now, when I say that, I don't mean to suggest that human companionship and fellowship in spiritual things with other people is unimportant. Not at all. I'm just saying, when through no fault of your own, providence deprives you of that, then the Lord is enough. You don't need to despair. You would think that would be a welcome message to everyone. But I had somebody give me pushback to it already. Not here, on the internet. I said something and got pushback. Remember the story of David at Ziklag. David had led his men away from Ziklag on a military expedition. leaving their wives and children behind and their homes and their goods. And then when David and his mighty men returned to Ziklag, enemy troops had been there and kidnapped their wives and children and stolen their stuff. And this is described in 1 Samuel, I think it's 29 and 30. All of a sudden, David's men turned on him and blamed him for the loss. And he found himself all alone, even when he hadn't done anything wrong, with his congregation, if you will. not supporting him. And it was devastating to his spirit. And what did David do at such a time? Well, the record in 1 Samuel 36 says this, David was greatly distressed because the people spoke about stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters. But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. The Hebrew word, so translated, encouraged, could also be rendered, he strengthened himself in the Lord his God. In other words, when all human helps, all human love, all human support was withdrawn from him and actually everybody had turned against him and they were about to kill him, And he was distressed. He was not without a resource. The Lord was his stay. The Lord was his strength. And we have to learn this lesson, brethren. When everyone else abandons you, the Lord is there to save you. That's what I think is the basic message of Psalm 142. When everyone else abandons you, the Lord is there to save you. If we trace the stream of thought through Psalm 142, it goes something like this. David laments in prayer to the Lord about his loneliness. And he praises the Lord's unfailing faithfulness to him in contrast with the unfaithfulness of people And then David anticipates the legacy of his full salvation where he and others will be regathered, if you will, in God's mercy from all their enemies and praising the Lord together. So that's basically how the thought runs in Psalm 142. We have David's lament in verses 1 and 2, his loneliness in verses 3 and 4, His last resort in verses five and six, and his legacy in verse seven. Let me take you through the psalm then verse by verse, and just reflect for a few moments on each part of the psalm. Not every phrase in the psalm, but most of the words of the psalm and their main ideas. His lament, we could say, is the introduction of the psalm. I cried unto the Lord with my voice. With my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication. I poured out my complaint before him. I showed before him my trouble. Notice that the word voice is repeated in verse one. Cried to the Lord with my voice. And you would think that that would be enough. It could, second line could simply say to the Lord, I made my supplication, but instead of using the phrase with my voice only once it's repeated in the second line of verse one with my voice unto the Lord, I made my supplication. I think here the, um, probably the most significant reason for the mention of his voice twice like this is not. so much that he was praying aloud, but that he was putting his prayer into words. That is, he wasn't merely in the disposition of prayer, thinking about the Lord and with a desire that the Lord would show him mercy, but he prayed, talking to God. Probably out loud, but that's not the most significant part of prayer. Let me remind you that silent prayer is real prayer. Remember when Hannah came to the temple and Eli saw her silently moving her lips and he thought she was drunk and he rebuked her, but it turns out She was praying silently for a son because she was barren. And God heard and answered that prayer and gave her, in short order, the baby Samuel, whose name means ask of the Lord. So prayer is real prayer, even if it's silent. And prayers can be without even forming specific words. The Holy Spirit helps us to pray with groanings that cannot be uttered Paul wrote. But here, when he says, I cried to the Lord with my voice, I think he's stressing that I formed my feelings and thoughts and desires into words that I spoke to the Lord. You know, saints, that is true Christian believers, actually talk to God. Some people these days would think you're crazy if you told them, I talk to God. Of course we do. It's called prayer. And it's not a sign of insanity. It's the most rational thing you can do. Talk to the Lord. Form your thoughts into very words and tell them to God. This is what the psalmist is saying he did. That is an exercise of faith. And then, what is it that he was uttering in words to the Lord? He moves from telling us that he prayed to what he prayed, a little bit at least, in verse 2 when he says, I poured out my complaint before him. and showed before him, that is in front of him, the idea is God heard me, my trouble, my trouble or my complaint are parallel. The Hebrew word, the English word rather complaint means to express pain. And that is a good translation of the term here in the original. I expressed to God in words the pain that I was feeling. Sometimes when we hear the word complaint, it has the connotation of blame. There's not one drop of blaming God for anything in this psalm. The pouring out his complaint to God is more like if I could use the idiom, crying on God's shoulder. Telling the Lord all about it because you're fearful and upset and sad and it just feels like you can't take it anymore. It's what a child does who was rejected by his little play pals outdoors for the sport they were playing and comes running home to mommy and crying and telling mommy what happened. He's not blaming his mother for what happened. He just knows his mother loves him and she will be sympathetic. And so he hugs her around the neck and sobs and explains why he's upset. It's something like that that is going on here in the psalm. One alternate rendering of the second line in verse two, I showed before him my trouble, puts it like this. I tell him all my troubles. In line one, it says I poured out my complaint before him. That's a rich metaphor. And it means I didn't hold anything back. It's as if this large tumbler full of water were poured out. It wouldn't just be a little dribble like that. It would be turning it completely upside down and emptying the tumbler. And our hearts are like that. Full of trouble. And the psalmist is saying, my heart that was full of pain and sorrow, I fully expressed to the Lord. I poured it out before Him. I didn't hold anything back. Listen, brethren, this is a worthy example for our imitation in private prayer. That we would spill our guts. Tell the Lord everything about how we're feeling. That's what David did. And he was a saint. Doing a good thing here, a thing which God clearly approves by giving us the psalm for our worship and singing. It's the most common thing in the world in human society for somebody to walk up to another person and say, how are you? And how do you answer that most of the time? How are you doing? How are you? You say, I'm fine. And that's all they need. Then they say, OK, did you mail me the check that you owe me? Or whatever. They're not really interested in how you're doing. It's a polite thing to say. But if somebody that we feel really loves us asks us, how are you doing? And I had this happen to me this week from a couple of people A couple of young men that I know really care about me. One of them texted me and said, how are you feeling? And so I gave him an honest answer. And another one asked me, how are you doing? And I said, well, right now, there's something crawling around in the wall of my house next to me. And I feel I have a headache and I feel kind of sick. And, you know, I said two other things that were unpleasant that I was experiencing. And I said, but they're good things, too. And I got my pellet stove fixed today. And I said something else. But the reason I indulged a fuller answer is because this young man, I know he loves me and he really wants to know how I'm doing. But dear friends, only God loves you enough all the time to hear the full answer to the question, how are you doing? Everybody else will get tired of it. Everybody else says, OK, OK, OK, I've heard enough. Not the Lord. Here is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18, 24. I couldn't help but think about that old timey hymn. I must tell Jesus all of my trials. I cannot bear these burdens alone. In my distress, he kindly will help me. He ever loves and cares for his own. You know that old hymn? I must tell Jesus. I must tell Jesus. I grew up singing that in a Bible church of my youth and a Baptist church of my young adulthood. Well, it's a worthy sentiment expressed in the hymn. Honestly, in words to God in private prayer is a real therapeutic resource for you. And I commend it to you like David did in the psalm. Now, from this general testimony of David saying, I poured out all my troubles to God in words, he really begins to elaborate the specifics, starting with verse three. And three and four verses three and four amount to David saying, I suffered loneliness. And the substance of those two verses is really bound up in the last phrase. No man cared for my soul. But look at don't don't skip over what he says, beginning with verse three, when my spirit, that is, my soul was overwhelmed within me. Overwhelmed. That's a graphic term. It means submerged. When you're drowning, you know, the water overwhelms you. You're underwater. You're overwhelmed. That's the literal idea. But here it's figurative. When my spirit was completely submerged in my misery, One alternate translation gives it, when I am ready to give up. And that's the way David felt. Ready to give up. One of the beautiful things about the Bible that has people all over the world for millennia looking at it and taking comfort in it is it has no hagiography. Do you know that word, hagiography? It means a biography that idealizes its subject. The story of someone's life that presents them as much better than they really were, being practically flawless. That's not the way scripture portrays the greatest saints of the Old or the New Testament. You know, David, who slew Goliath in one story, also slept with Bathsheba and murdered her husband in another story. So, you know, this is a guy that's a hero in Israel. And this psalm presents David as he really was, warts and all. And he says, I was ready to give up. We're all like him, whether we admit it or not. Given the most difficult circumstances, we are vulnerable to despair, aren't we? Sometimes I think, I'm afraid, and I think that good church members imagine that pastors are like superhero Christians that are almost non-human. that pastors somehow don't have these struggles or feelings and they idealize men like me. Well, that's an illusion. We're all like this. We all can feel overwhelmed. And David says, even when my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then, verse 3, thou knewest my path. That is, you knew, Lord, what I was going through. And what a comfort that must have been to David. Imagine what it would be like otherwise. If you were in the crucible of suffering and God actually didn't know what you were going through, nobody, nobody could know and appreciate what you're going through. That is a horrible thought. But David says, you knew my path. You knew what I was going through. And it was due, verse three, to human hatred. Look at verse three. In the way in which I walked, they have secretly laid a snare or set a trap for me. All right, now this is This is battlefield language. This is David knowing that he has enemies. And they want to see him miserable and even dead. They're out to get him. They really are. And they have schemed together for how to ruin him. In David's case, literally how to kill him. In the way in which I walked, I have my enemies and they set traps for me and they're out to get me and to destroy me. They've hidden a trap. You know, this too is every believer's experience to some extent. We live in a hostile world. Even unbelievers suffer traps of their neighbors who hate them. But especially if we're Christians, this is the stuff of fallen human society, especially for those who openly praise the Lord and serve him. Second Timothy 3.12 says, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus That means, of course, every believer, because every believer lives godly in Christ Jesus. All God's people will suffer persecution. Not all God's people will become martyrs and seal their testimony in blood. But all God's people are confronted with the hostility of the world and the devil and the problem, of course, of our own fallen nature. You can't live in this world as a godly person and not be maligned and criticized and opposed and undermined and marginalized and ostracized and blamed. It can't be done. And that ends up contributing to a person's loneliness. Loneliness isn't just Let me say, fellowship isn't just being with other people. It's being with people who love you and show it in the way they talk to you and help you, right? Not just being in a crowd of people. And David knows There's so many of the people in his life that hated him and they treated him with contempt. And that was a miserable experience for him. His loneliness was due not only to human hatred, but it was also due to the absence of human help. Look at verse four. I looked on my right hand and beheld. And I think it's implied. I looked on my left hand too. Although it's not mentioned. But it's the idea, I looked around. I looked around. And what I discovered was nobody would know me, it says. It might be rendered, acknowledge me. Nobody would take notice of me in my distress and come to my rescue, is the idea in the context. Verse 4, it may be one of the saddest verses in the Bible. In fact, in one scholarly commentary I consulted, Psalm 142, they gave the title, Nobody Cares. And that's a little bit pessimistic because the Lord cares in the psalm. So nobody except the Lord cares, maybe be a fairer title, but David looked about and couldn't find anybody that really loved him and would take care of him. He says in verse four, refuge failed me. This is an eloquent expression in the King James Version that means, no refuge remains for me. Or another rendering I saw puts it, there was no one there to protect me. Alec Mateer, whose work I very much appreciate in the Old Testament especially, said, this could be translated, a place to flee has perished from me, no one seeks my soul's welfare." This is what makes for loneliness, hostility from people or neglect from people. They don't care about me. David is saying, nobody cares about me. That's the way he felt. Nobody is ministering to me. Nobody is keeping me alive against Saul's hateful intentions to kill me. And as I was meditating on David's misery, I thought to myself, you know, isn't this really just a consequence of sin? Sin kills love to one's fellow man. You know, righteousness has two aspects. Righteousness fundamentally is love. And the first aspect of righteousness is love to God supremely. The second aspect of righteousness is love to one's fellow man. So sin is exactly the opposite of that. It is a refusal to love and worship God and to worship idols instead. And it is a failure to live for the benefit of other people, to help them. Paradise, because of sin, has become a desert. Martin Luther, the great reformer, observed that sin makes us incurvitus in se, is the Latin phrase. Incurvatus in se, that means curved in upon ourselves. Or we might say a little more freely, obsessed with ourselves. And therefore neglectful of others. We have a sinful tendency to talk about ourselves to other people. to tell them how we're doing, even if they don't ask. And then when they tell us how they're doing, we give, you know, scant attention to what they're saying, because really it's all about us. Me, the me monster, is in all of us, isn't it? Selfishness, self-centeredness, thinking about people and things in terms of what they can do for me, rather than how I can use things for God's glory and other people's good. How can I serve other people is the godly way to think. And so because sin has made everybody fundamentally selfish until and unless the grace of God changes our hearts, that means that loving kindness in society is true. Unselfish loving kindness is a rarity. And this is true, isn't it? And this is why even small gestures of concern for others and a sincere desire and availability to help people, these things are relatively unusual and generally appreciated. This is a little secret I'll let you in on. Do you want to bless somebody? Think of them. Consider what you might do to come to their rescue if they're in distress. Or provide for them if they're in need. Or encourage them if they're feeling lonely. And then do it. Do it. And I know you all have done this in your life already. So you know that sometimes even just a phone call, or a card, or a kind word, or a hand on the shoulder, can be so special and wonderful to the person who receives it. Why is that? Because there's not a lot of love like this in the world due to sin. And the church, of course, is supposed to be a place where true Christian love is flourishing among us. It is in any true church to some degree, but I want to say that church membership and attendance does not by itself cure loneliness. You know, none of us can know each other's secret thoughts and feelings. The only way we know another person's soul is if that person is transparent and opens up about it. So I know from what I know of scripture and human nature that right here and now in this place, any particular one of you might be overwhelmed with distress or feelings of loneliness or sorrow. You might be drowning in a congregation of true Christians, being a true Christian yourself. I found one survey conducted by the Lifeway Research Group of pastors that showed that even the majority of pastors said they are easily discouraged in ministry and feel lonely at times. I think that might surprise a lot of folks. Now in the church, God has appointed an official position called pastor that is responsible in an official way for seeking your soul's welfare. When David said, no man cared for my soul, he was cut off from the prophets of the Lord who loved God's people and cared for their souls. And this is no small part of a pastor's official responsibility to care for the souls of the members of the church especially, but even without the pastoral office, each member should care for one another too. And don't, as a regular church member, think to yourself, I need to do what I can to care for my brethren. And don't leave your pastor out of your thoughts and prayers and care. Because pastors need to be loved and cared for like anyone. May God make us lovingly faithful and I would urge you to be transparent with your pastor or pastors and with your godly friends so they know you better and understand what you're going through, which is helpful for the ministry to your heart. But sometimes we are lonely despite all we can do. Yes, we have a duty to be part of a godly congregation and that can be a great help. But providence keeps some of us sometimes from the human companionship that we desire. You know, we have this, for example, one brother here whose dear, beloved wife is in the hospital instead of living at home with him. And she didn't choose that and he didn't choose that. This is providential. And I know there's a trial of loneliness associated with being separated from your spouse. Providentially, I've been living in New Hampshire without my wife for over a week now, and I'm feeling it. So lots of circumstances arise like this. There are people who are practically hindered from fellowshipping with others. like they might otherwise be able to do. There are people who live in nursing homes. And some of them are very lonely places. There are people who are imprisoned, literally in prison. I have a friend I correspond with and even talk to on the phone all the time in a Texas prison. And he can't go to church. He can't be a church member somewhere. There are people that are sent by God on duties of a special mission for evangelizing, missionary service, or military service and are cut off from people who would care for their souls. There are people that suffer the betrayal of others they thought were their friends. who abandon them against the will of the abandoned, and they find themselves struggling with feelings of loneliness. But even then, Christians need not despair. The psalmist brings us to what I'm calling his last resort in verses 5 and 6. Now, I realized when I use this phrase, his last resort, Honestly, one of the attractions of the phrase is it starts with L, his last resort. The psalmist's lament, his loneliness, his last resort, and his legacy. But I hesitate to use the term last resort because I don't mean last resort as in after trying everything else, you know. Like somebody gets sick and they take medications and they try to adjust their sleep and their eating and their exercise and that doesn't help them. And then they go to the doctor and that doesn't help them. And then finally they pray as their last resort. But they weren't praying before. That's not how I mean it. When I use the phrase last resort here, I mean that when all other helps failed him, the Lord didn't fail him. The Lord helped him. To quote Alec Matier again, though David was man-forsaken, he wasn't God-forsaken. And this is His testimony in verses 5 and 6. I cried unto Thee, O Lord. I said, Thou art my refuge. See, there's the term refuge again. It harks back to verse 4. Refuge filled me. There was no refuge for me, Lord, in this world except for You. You are my refuge. My only refuge. I was reminded again in my meditations on the psalm of the Charles Wesley hymn, Jesus lover of my soul. And in verse two, the poet wrote, other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on thee. That is on God. Leave, leave me not alone, still support and comfort me. All my trust on thee is stayed. All my help from thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with the shadow of thy wing. Jesus, lover of my soul. Charles Wesley was expressing the very thought of Psalm 142, verse 5. I cried to you, Lord, when nobody else was there for me. And I found you to be my refuge, my only refuge in my distress. A sufficient refuge. I found you to be my portion in the land of the living. This is a very eloquently translated phrase. My portion in the land of the living. But it may be a little bit odd to your ears. What is he talking about? Well, this is a metaphorical expression that alludes to how the Levites were sustained in their lives in the promised land. They didn't get a whole region of the land to be their own like all the other tribes of Israel. The Lord was their portion, it reads in the book of in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. The Lord is the Levite portion. That's why they didn't get a region of their own. Now, God did designate dozens of cities to be Levitical cities and some farmland around those cities so they could work the land in their off time and help provide for themselves. And God also gave them tithes and offerings brought by the people to sustain them. But I think this line, the Lord is my portion in the land of the living, alludes to that. And if we would kind of convert it into a very literal expression, it means, God, I found You to be my ground of support in this present life. My ground of support in this present life. In other words, I was kept safe and I was able to go on Because you support me, Lord. You are my portion, my support. Listen, faith in God sustains believers in lots of ways. Spiritually, we remain saved in Christ through faith that's supported by the almighty power of God. 1 Peter 1.5, saints are kept through faith in the power of God to everlasting life, it says. We're supported by God psychologically. How is it that God's people have endured some of the most heart-wrenching experiences in this life and not lost their minds? It was because the Lord is their support in this life. Faith in God can even support us physically. I read the most heartbreaking news this week about a teenage girl who was beaten up and then killed herself. And I'm not making any judgment about her in particular, because I don't know the girl. But I know lots of Christians have been tempted to suicide. but faith in the Lord has strengthened them to keep living another day. I think that's a pastoral and safe thing to say about that. It's like the Apostle Paul testified in Philippians 4, one of the prison epistles. I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I know how to be abased I know how to be hungry. I know how to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. The Lord is enough for you, I'm telling you. If you will cry out to Him and cry on His shoulder, so to speak, and depend on Him when everyone else is untrustworthy, The Lord can get you through. And thank God for that. Now, contentment in a season of loneliness and trial doesn't stop David from praying for an improvement to his situation by the mercy of God. And you see him making that prayer request in verse 6. He prays to the Lord, attend to my cry, for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I. David here is admitting his weakness. It's not unmasculine for him to do that. It's not just women that are weak. We're all weak. except the Lord should support us and sustain us. We all need the Lord. And David, the mighty warrior, fleeing for his life, says to the Lord, I know my enemies are stronger than I am. Lord, if you don't deliver me out of their hand, they're going to kill me. And this is David, by faith, casting himself upon the Lord and His mercy. This is the God-glorifying thing to do in trouble. To confess our weakness and our need of the Lord's help and just pray and entrust the whole situation to God. Ask that He would improve our lot. This is really such a big part of the practice of what I would call true religion. Psalm 50, verse 15 says, Call upon Me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you and you shall glorify Me. That's the way it works. We're the ones in trouble. We're the ones that will perish unless we call upon God. And when we, by faith, call upon God and pray for mercy, He says, I will deliver you. And when we have been delivered, we and others praise God for the salvation we enjoyed in answer to prayer. You see, the arrogant and ungrateful people will not pray like this because, number one, they feel self-sufficient without the Lord. And number two, they will not credit the Lord for the good things that they enjoy from Him. Remember James 1, 17. Every good and perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father of lights, with whom there is no shifting shadow. That is, there's no change whatsoever in God himself. He's utterly unchangeable and unchanging. The righteous acknowledge that all the good gifts we have come down to us from above. And as God sends the gifts down, we send the praises up in thanks to God. But the ungodly don't do that. They're like the pigs that eat falling acorns from the tree and never look up to see where they came from. Well, the psalm has a happy ending in verse 7, which envisions God's glory and his people's happiness. And this brings us to the fourth point of the psalm, his legacy. When I use the term legacy, I mean something that happens or exists as a result of things that happened at an earlier time. That's one of the dictionary definitions for the term legacy. Something, a situation that arises that came out of the consequences of something that happened earlier. So that's what you have in verse 7, where David is still praying, bring my soul out of prison. And then he envisions the new situation that will arise from that when God answers his prayer. Or his legacy. So that I may praise thy name. The righteous shall compass me about. That means surround me. When you hear my prayer request, Lord, to deliver me out of prison, I will praise your name. I will be surrounded by other righteous people also joining me in praising your name because you shall have dealt bountifully with me. In other words, David anticipates full salvation. An alternate rendering of the verse puts it like this. Set me free from my distress. Then in the assembly of your people, I will praise you because of your goodness to me. And this deliverance and congregational praise of the Lord is the believer's destiny. This is what we're all headed to. God answering all of our prayers according to His will, delivering us out of loneliness and every other aspect of misery into the full, indescribable, incomprehensible blessedness of being in union and communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and all God's elect in a society of love, perfect love for all eternity. Revelation 21 verse 4 says, God in that day shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain. And you know, part of that is loneliness. We could add to this without irreverence. There won't be any more loneliness. Because the former things, these former things, are passed away. Death, sickness, deformity, injury, meanness, theft, every sin, and all that's left is the Lord, in and with His people who are perfectly blessed in Him. And with one another. This is what David is pointing to in verse 7 for his legacy. One day, Lord, I know You are going to deliver me from my loneliness and my vulnerability to being killed. and hunted down like prey? You're going to save me out of all this mess and answer to my prayers? And when that day happens, I will be saying, Thank you, Lord, my Savior. Thank you for this heaven. This perfect heaven I experience now with all my friends who love you as I do. You have saved us all, Lord. Glory, glory, glory. That's what we all have who are believers in Christ to look forward to. That's our legacy. Of a living faith. I can hardly wait. Even so come, Lord Jesus. Amen? Even so come. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Christian or not, lonely or not, we most likely have the pain of loneliness in our future. And the Lord is our only Savior. Trust Him for your portion, the ground of your support, and know the blessing of His saving grace. Hell is the most lonely place of all, reserved for those without Christ. Utterly, eternally forsaken by God in hell. Even if you have no faith in God or this holy book, the Bible, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, you don't want to go to hell. Let him hear your cry. your cry of faith from your own cave now. The Lord Jesus said, all that the Father gives me shall come to me, and him who comes to me I will in no wise cast out. John 6.37. That's a promise. that no matter who you are or what your past has been, if you will come to Christ by faith, He will receive you as His own. I urge you to it. Amen.