I'm happy and filled with joy to see you all here this morning. I hope the storm didn't wake all y'all up like it did me in the middle or this early this morning. But yeah, I hope you all had a productive week. We're here today. Today's the Lord's Day. We gather together to worship and or to learn and to worship. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Our heavenly and merciful God, I thank you, Lord, for this wonderful day that you have blessed us with, Lord. I ask that your spirit may be among us all, Lord, that he may give all who are here and all who are joining online the knowledge of this Psalm, Lord, He may bless this lesson that all may be edified in the words that are spoken this morning. I ask that all may be well, that whoever's had damage to their houses or who may have had damage happen to their houses, Lord, that you might give them the, that you might provide them with a way to and means to fix those things because of the storm last night. And I bring all this to you in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay. So, this morning's psalm is Psalm 142. I had a title. It was the refuge for an overwhelmed spirit. Good morning, everybody. So, Psalm 142. A shepherd's flock is of great value to him. feeds and financially supports his family. Protecting his flock is of the utmost importance. The shepherd must lead his sheep to graze fields and lead them to water to drink. He is always aware of his surroundings. He is always aware of his surroundings. Because of the potential dangers that he and his flock face in the fields. In those fields, the shepherd will master his skills using the weapons he had on hand available to him. He is fearless and confident in his skills and weapons to fend off the predators that pose a threat to his sheep and himself. It was a shepherd's job to defend, the defenseless and vulnerable sheep. Like the shepherd, a warrior's main job is to protect and to serve, not a flock, but the king and his kingdom. The warrior would have honed his skills in training daily. He trains with weapons to become as lethal as possible. He has stamina and endurance to defend against the dangers presented to them by enemy or unfriendly nations. Between the shepherd and the warrior, there are many shared skills, and they both share the same objective, to protect something that they hold to be valuable to them. They are both tough, Both have stamina and endurance, the skill to fend off enemies, and a commitment to defense. David, a young Hebrew shepherd, tended his father's sheep. He was their leader, their provider, their protector. In 1 Samuel 17 34 through 35, David recounts a story of how he defended his sheep. And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear, and it took a lamb out of the flock. And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of its mouth. And when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. He was fearless in the face of danger, even against wild beasts and could have dispatched, that could have dispatched him with one swipe of the paw or one bite. That takes courage and skill. I know if I was faced with a wild animal and many other people without today's modern weapons, we'd stand no chance against a lion or a bear in the fields. So, So we now know that David is skilled at defending his sheep against beasts and wild animals. There's no question about the courage and skill David had. David then goes on to slay the giant Goliath by hitting him in the head with a stone slung from his slingshot. And then he cuts the giant's head off with his own sword in 1 Samuel 17, 40 through 51. David has proven that his skill set is not specific to just killing wild beasts but that his skills could be used against men. David had many campaigns in which he was victorious making him popular with the people in 1st Samuel 18.6-7 The women welcomed David after returning from triumph over the Philistines yelling, Saul has slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands. This made Saul jealous of David. From that point on, David had went from beloved friend to hated enemy. He vowed to kill David and After several failed schemes, plots and javelins, David understood and fled from the king and hid in the cave of Adullam. David was an elite warrior. He knew how to lead. He followed orders. He was battle tested and he was able to accomplish tasks set before him that were meant for him to fail. Why didn't he just trust in his skills to fight back against Saul? Why didn't he pull the javelin off the wall and kill Saul with it? When he faced the bear and the lion in the field that day, Did David say, it was my own skill that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear? I'm confident that my skill will deliver me from the hand of Goliath. Did he say, this day I will smite thee and take thine head from thee? No, David did not say any of those things. In fact, David didn't trust his talents. He wasn't confident in the men that surrounded him, he was completely trusting and dependent on the Lord. So today's Psalm is Psalm 142, the fifth of the final collection of Davidic Psalms, Psalm 138 through 145. This heartfelt prayer to the Lord captures a moment when he was in the cave of Adullam. which we think that could be, because he's in a bunch of caves throughout his life. He expresses to the Lord the troubles of his current situation, the loneliness and distress of being abandoned by those who he had grown to love, trust, and faithfully serve. Despite all the turmoil, David knows that the Lord has not forsaken him. He knows that the cave is not Not the refuge that has saved him from the hand of Saul, but it is the Lord who is his true refuge. The Lord who delivered the lion, the bear, and the giant into David's hand will deliver David from his distress and from persecutors. So in our analysis of Psalm 42 this morning, we will examine the structure of the prayer in verses 1 through 3. David presents his troubles to the Lord, verses four through five. David expresses the trust, the trustworthiness of God above all. And verses six through seven, David prays for deliverance. So if you haven't already, please open your Bibles to Psalm 142, and I'll begin reading verse one. Psalm 142, and verse one. In Muskeel 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 my trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou, 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, attendant to 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. So verses one through three, David presents his troubles to the Lord. Mosquil, of David, a prayer when he was in the cave. Mosquil is a Hebrew word that means instructing or making to understand. Didactic, which means intend to teach something, particularly in having moral instruction as a motive. So when we see the word masculine, masculine, masculine, if or you hear the phrase didactic poem, it means that something is being taught, a lesson is being learned or was learned. The word masculine can find can be found in the beginning of 13 Psalms. It tells the readers that there is something taught here. There is a lesson to be learned to hear the instruction of the Lord. In this case, the prayer took place in the cave where the Lord instructs David and in turn instructs us through prayer. Caves double as shelters and prisons. A person can hide in the depths of it to escape capture. The walls of the cave are rocks, so it is a fortress of sorts. On the other hand, a person can be confined to the dark, cold cave. It can give the feeling of imprisonment, loneliness, or represent being alone. We know that he is We know that he is praying and when we put it all together, he is alone with God in prayer. I cried unto the Lord with my voice. This is still verse one. As we continue reading into the verse, David is voicing his troubles to the Lord, appealing to the Lord, not appealing to his own skills or talents or to his own wisdom or the wisdom of wise men, but to the Lord. He is praying out loud to the creator of all things in the concealment and confinement of the cave. The Lord who can hear through the walls of the cave because he is everywhere. Where shall I go from your spirit or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed and shield, you are there. Psalm 139, seven through eight. So he's there, he's there in the cave with David. The walls, they can't hold the Lord back from being where David is. So that first lesson is that God is everywhere, even in the cave, and there is nothing that can separate us from him. With my voice, With my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication. David repeats that with his voice out loud in the loneliness of the cave, he calls out to the Lord with a spirit of reverence for help. He makes it clear to the reader that there was no one but the Lord that he presented his appeal for help. So lesson two, although we may be alone or lonely, we are never alone. The Lord is always with us and he hears our cries for help. Turn to him and he, turn to him, he is always there. Verse two, I poured out my complaint before him. I showed before him my trouble. In this verse we see a metaphoric language of pouring out. It is as if he is a container or a cup to which the troubles and problems of his life fill up and he has come to the Lord to empty his container of troubles. He is not holding anything back, trusting and knowing that the Lord will hear them and deal with the troubles accordingly. Again, David is not holding back any problem that is causing him grief. He is not grumbling at all. He is declaring, bringing forth the cause of his complaint or concern, declaring his troubles that the people who are after him that are causing the grief, definitely not grumbling. So lesson three is to tell the Lord, tell the Lord everything, present your troubled thoughts to him and don't hold back. Verse three. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, even though even a tough guy like David, everyone, for that matter, experiences fear, anxiety, stress and doubt that can engulf a person to the point of not being able to think clearly or respond appropriately to situations. Not knowing what decision to make or what would be the best step to take in resolving the problem or problems being faced. Then thou knewest my path. Despite the feeling of being drowned or buried beneath the heavy burden of uncertainty, David takes his prayer from from himself and focuses on the fact that the Lord knew what was best for him, that the Lord in his omniscience knew what he was experiencing. He knew that the men with bad intentions were chasing him. He knew that David's judgment would be clouded because of the anxiety, fear and stress of being hunted. He foreknew this and he set out the path that David should go before he arrived in the cave. The Lord was David's guide and the Lord led the way for David. In the way wherein I walked, have they privily laid a snare for me. The unseen dangers, the snare, the hidden trap that was waiting for David could not be hidden from the Lord. The plan to capture David had all been foiled by the all-knowing and all-seeing and all-powerful God. There is no hiding from God, although we may not see Him, He is there. So lesson four, we have God is sovereign over everything. He knows what is best for His people. He guides our judgment for our own good, knowing nothing is hidden from the Lord. Verses four through five, David expresses trustworthiness of God above all, the trustworthiness of God above all. Verse four, I looked on my right hand and beheld, but there was no man that would know me. While contemplating in the cave, he had nobody with him to encourage him, no friends to talk to, no company to share thoughts with. He was all alone. And we as humans, you know, we like to have human company. That's just how we are. That's our nature. We need to have, you know, people to talk to. And so David was experiencing, you know, true loneliness, actually being alone, confined to a cave, thinking back to a time when he was surrounded by friends who loved him and cared for him and what seemed like to be the day before, I imagine, a memory being just that, a memory of how things used to be. Now that he is a fugitive, being seen an enemy, those friends were nowhere to be found. They didn't want anything to do with him. Maybe they didn't want anything to do with him because of fear of being labeled an enemy with David, or maybe they see him as an enemy too. The loyalty of the fallen men comes into frame here and it is exposed for what it is, flimsy at best. Refuge failed me, no man cared for my soul. before his exile there was always a place for him to go. there was always friends who I'm sure would have done anything for him. he was a high-ranking officer. he had hundreds if not thousands of men under his control, his command. all who were loyal to him fought side by side with him in many battles. The camaraderie that was built among them in victory over their foes proved not to be enough to offer him even the slightest bit of help. From one hour to the next, those friends were gone. no concern for his well-being, no concern for his whereabouts, no concern of whether he was dead or alive, of course with the exception of Jonathan. Even the cave in which he sought refuge couldn't provide him with shelter from his enemy for later on Saul would find him in a cave. He wouldn't see him but He was in the same cave, eventually, where David was hit up. In Psalm, 1st Psalm, and you can find that in 1st Samuel 24. Details to that. Verse 5. I cried unto thee, O Lord. I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living. After David's troubles are presented to the Lord, David remembers the Lord's goodness in his prayer. Although he was being hunted and all of his friends had forsaken him, and the refuge of the cave would come to an end, he declares to the Lord that he, the Lord, is his refuge. The Lord is his shelter from the storm. The Lord is his fortress, his shield. That even though it seemed that there was nothing left for him on earth, he had something better, something that could never be squandered or taken away. He had the Lord as his portion or his inheritance. As an eternal inheritance, in the true land of the living in heaven that awaited him. That all he will ever need, will ever need and want is the Lord as long as he lived. So the lesson here is God's loyalty is unchanging and is forever. He will guard his people and he is our eternal inheritance. Verses six through seven, David prays for deliverance. Attend unto my cry. David is speaking to the Lord as if he were physically in the same cave, as if they were face to face. This is a relationship that can be only known by those who belong to God, to the Lord. As a believer, he is confident in knowing that the Lord hears him. And he knew through his life and past experience that the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. Psalm 3415. Fire brought very low. The distress that David is feeling is very powerful. It is robbing him of joy. The doubt that can be caused by the stress, the anxiety brought by the fear of the unknown is what David is experiencing, sharing with the Lord. He knows that only the Lord could deliver him from these feelings that he is experiencing. in a situation too. Deliver me from my persecutors. In sorrow, weeping, he asks the Lord to rescue him from the people who are the cause of his grief. They are hunting him like an animal, planning all sorts of ways to entrap him. They have cruel intentions toward him and they find, and if they find him, they'll murder him with without any remorse or forethought. They would just kill him on sight. For they are stronger than I am. Not only do they outnumber him, but it is the king who is after him. The person who has the authority to put him to death, and it didn't matter what anybody else thought. whether the king's judgment was wrong or not, they were going to do and follow the orders of the king. So with distress, sorrow, anxiety, fear, David is weakened, physically tired from the sleepless nights of being on the run and spiritually tired from the burden of just being hunted. His skills are no match and no help against thousands of trained soldiers. all him, by himself, in his weakness, David is kept humble despite his talents to depend on the Lord. Verse seven. Bring my soul out of prison that I may praise thy name. Being in a cave sets the appropriate mood for what David's sadness is like, for how David's sadness is like a prison for his soul. This reverent conclusion reveals that the Lord is the only one who could return the joy of being free from the anguish of knowing there is a death warrant upon him. That he might praise the name of the Lord with a soul liberated from the prison of distress and replaced being replaced with the soul of Thanksgiving. The righteous shall compass me about. So the righteous are the children of God, the true Israel, who will surround David upon his deliverance and celebrate the good tiding of his deliverance, just as it is in heaven when a child of the Lord is brought into the flock from the wilderness. The angels and the saints all rejoice and sing the good song of praise and worship, for the Lord is glorified in the salvation of his own. For thou shalt deal bountifully with me. When the Lord works in the favor of his own, it is always abundantly and exceedingly generous. He fulfills the promises, his promises to the uttermost. There is no deceit in the Lord. He is trustworthy and loyal to his covenant and his covenant people. As David pours out his cup of troubles before the Lord, the Lord is filling. his cup with blessings that will exceed the limits of the cup and spill over into eternity. So the lesson we learn here is when the righteous cry out to the Lord he hears. He is exceedingly generous in his response to the supplications of his own. So brothers and sisters, When we are in the deep, dark caves of life, hiding or just being alone with our Lord in prayer, although He knows what is in our heart and in your heart, present it all to Him. Don't keep things from Him, because you can't. Don't rely on your own wisdom, for the Lord gives wisdom. For the Lord gives wisdom. From His mouth come knowledge and understanding, Proverbs 9, 10. Trust His word. He gave, he trusts that he gave us David in this psalm as an example of how we too should seek the Lord as our refuge when we are abandoned. This, this psalm taught us that God is everywhere, even in the cave. There is nothing that can separate us from him. Although we may be alone or lonely, we're never alone. The Lord is always with us and hears our cries for help. Turn to him. He is always there. Tell the Lord everything. Present your troubled thoughts to him and don't hold back. God is sovereign over everything. He knows what is best for his people. He guides our judgment for our own good. Nothing is hidden from the Lord. God's loyalty is unchanging and forever. He will guard his people and he is our eternal inheritance. When the righteous cry out to the Lord, he hears and is exceedingly generous in his response to the supplications of his own. So that brief introduction brings us to the main section of this morning's lesson. We will examine how this psalm points to our Lord Jesus, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And I'm going to share two points this morning. The first being that Jesus, like David, experienced moments of suffering and isolation, and Jesus totally entrusted himself to the will of the Father. So Jesus, like David, experienced moments of suffering and isolation. Jesus, our King, although He is God in the flesh, He is also man. He experienced life as a human. He had family, formed relationships, felt joy, love, compassion, pain, suffering, and suffering as a human, except He experienced all those things and remained sinless. The only way he experienced sin was through observing fallen men in the flesh. He was tempted by the devil in the wilderness in Matthew 4, chapter 4, verses 1 through 11, but his response to the temptation was resistance and trusting in the word of the Lord. Hebrews 4.15 tells us that Jesus can sympathize with our weakness because he was tempted just like we are, but he never sinned. The Jews plotted to trap Jesus and ultimately conspired to kill Jesus as King Saul did to David. Jesus knew their plans as David knew King Saul's. the agony Jesus experienced in the garden of Gethsemane in Matthew chapter 28, 36 through 39 and Luke 22, 44 is described in Hebrews chapter 5, 7 through 8. In the days of his flesh Jesus offered up prayers or summarized prayers of supplication with loud cries and tears. Jesus cried And he was, you know, when he was isolated in that garden, he cried and he was speaking with the Lord all by himself. Though two of his disciples were with, or his apostles were with him, they were back away, far ways away from him. You know, he was in communion or in prayer with his father. He's crying and he is, fearing something and we know what that is right to him was to him who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his reference although he was a son he learned obedience through what he suffered he was having this internal struggle with what uh... with what was what was excuse me he was having an internal struggle with what was about to happen to him. He was about to face death and he was experiencing all the same struggles that a human, a fallen human would face when they're about to be put to death. So he was human all the way through, through and through. He was in agony and distress. His agony and distress was so bad that the blood vessels underneath his skin, the little capillaries in his skin began to burst and blood began to run down his face like sweat. But through the struggle, but through that struggle, he was perfectly obedient to the will of the Father. Jesus was abandoned by all of his disciples, even the apostles. Judas betrayed him to the Jews, Peter denied Jesus three times, and the rest ran away to hide out of the fear of persecution from the Jews. So he was abandoned, left alone, all alone from his human brothers. And on the cross he prayed, Father forgive them for For they know not what they do. He didn't pray for his own deliverance from the cross. He prayed that the Father would forgive their sin against him, the people's sin against him. And he also cries, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Which is reminiscent of the desperation we read in Psalm 142. Jesus totally entrusted himself to the will of the Father. Though Jesus wrestled with the same struggles we experience as humans, he was not fallen. He was holy and blameless, sinless. He only took on the likeness of sinful flesh from his mother, Mary, and was righteous because his father, Yahweh, is righteous, and so is his word that became flesh. So he himself was righteous from the beginning. and from his time here on earth. He didn't have the struggle of entrusting himself to the Father as we fallen humans do. Peter walked on the water for a few seconds, for a few moments, a few steps, and started to sink because of his fallen flesh and the struggle to entrust himself to the Lord. And Jesus was on the water with him, right in front of him. Jesus was standing before Peter on the water and Peter still couldn't fully entrust himself to the Lord. When he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He's referring to Psalm 22. The prophecy of that psalm was fulfilled in Jesus that day. Jesus was glorified on the cross. He was the most afflicted of all who are afflicted. Jesus knew this was him in Psalm 22. He was living out every verse of that psalm until the last verse. Psalm 22, 31. They shall come and proclaim His righteousness to the people yet unborn, that He has done it. Knowing all things were accomplished, He still is entrusting Himself to the will of the Father, to the very detail, saying, I thirst to the sponge filled with sour wine on a hyssop branch. He took the sour wine and he said, it is finished. And he gave up his spirit, John 19, 28 through 30. So brothers and sisters, the main idea of 142 is that God is our refuge. Jesus understands our pain and agony. He understands how it feels to be abandoned and left alone. He understands our pain and our suffering. The affliction of the cross, He calls those who belong to Him to seek refuge in Him and find comfort in pouring out your hearts to Jesus. He is loyal. He will never leave us. He will never forsake us. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3, verses one through three. Let us pray together. Our Father and our God, we thank You, Lord, for this Psalm, this beautiful Psalm 142. We thank You, Lord, that You are our refuge, Lord, that we may turn to You and hide, Lord, that we may rest on the finished work of Christ Jesus, that He is who we are hidden with in heaven, Lord. I thank You, Lord, for all this All who are here this morning and all who have joined us online, I pray for the worship service, Lord, that your spirit may be among us and that you may fill Pastor Greg with your spirit and all the words that are needed to say to feed your sheep this morning. And I pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.