Now let us turn to Psalm 143, and we shall read again at verse 7. Psalm 143, verse 7. Hear me speedily, O Lord, my spirit faileth. Hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit. Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning, for in thee do I trust. Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto thee. Perhaps particularly we might focus on the words in verse 8. Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning. And again further down. Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk. Now there's one thing about the Psalms of David. that it is just quite amazing how almost all our experiences are covered or touched on one way or another. And he is so able in these psalms to express what we ourselves know and experience but which we cannot put into words. Sometimes the believer is brought to difficulties and even to dire straits by God, as David is here. We know that Jacob was just absolutely cornered by God on his way back from Paranarum at Penea. We also know that Job was brought into really dire straits by God, permitted clearly by God to be exposed to the malice of the evil one. and there is no doubt that that is the basic fact, the basic underlying principle of all the dire straits and all the difficulties that the Christian comes into, that these things are permitted by God. He allows Satan a certain amount of access and that acts as absolutely limited by the limits that he himself sets. That is the basic principle underlying the experiences of the Christian. So it was with David at this time He was a fugitive from the murderous intentions of Saul, who would kill him if he just got the chance. And from what we read in the psalm, it seems that he was perhaps in the cave. There are two possibilities. There were really two caves in the experience of David. The well-known one is the cave of Adullam. but there was also a cave in En Gedi where he and his men were hiding in the side of the cave and Saul and his men had camped just at the mouth of the cave. Now at this point he is becoming discouraged his humour, his strength and his dependence on God were maybe strong when he set out, with so many difficulties and so many setbacks just like yourselves the point comes when our human failings shows what is really in us and he gets discouraged hear me speedily oh lord he says in verse seven my spirit faileth i am melting my courage is ebbing away from me and I need strength, I need building up. Hide not thy face from me, he says. He feels that God is hiding his face from him. Again, that's something which is very, very real in the experience of the Christian. And, you know, the ways of God are so different from ours, and especially in this kind of thing, as we have very clearly right through the song of Solomon. It is always a case of God withdrawing himself, and even hiding himself, and hiding his face. Why? In order that we might yearn and long for him more, and in order that we might love him more. In human affairs, of course, we don't operate that way, but that is very often the way of God. And very often he leaves us, or he turns his face away from us as far as our experience is concerned. We have something of the old saying, he will fatten you with hunger. and he will nourish you with hunger and he will fatten you by forsaking you or withdrawing himself from you. I remember the first time I heard that, I was listening to it on a tape in the car when I was a student in college and I actually shouted out loud, I was on my way in the car, I shouted, because of my immaturity, I didn't know the reality. I know it so well today, that God does sometimes nourish us with hunger, and that He attracts us and draws us to Himself, fattens us by forsaking us or giving us a sense that He has turned away from us. With all that that is on David, his prayer is firstly not, as perhaps our prayer would be, Lord, change the circumstances. Lord, ease the problem, or take the problem away, or deal a blow to my enemy. That is not what he feels, what his prayer is at all. He is in a state where he even fears that God himself is forsaking him utterly. He speaks there in verse 7, lest I be likened to them that go down into the pit. He is really low. and yet the prayer is not firstly to change the circumstance at the end of the psalm he comes to something like that of thy mercy he prays cut off my enemies and destroy all them that afflict my soul for I am thy servant and what is prayer is firstly, it's on such a high level for somebody who is in such dire states and somebody who is so pressed down with circumstances this prayer is on such a high level it is that God would confirm himself to him that God would turn his face towards him what he longs for. First of all, it's not the changing of the circumstances. That's so often our prayer, Lord, change the circumstances, take away the problem. But his prayer is that he is longing, seeking for a word from God. that's what he longs for more than any earthly thing. I want us to notice how he words that prayer, and I think it is very, very important. Notice in the two parts of the verse, each half of the verse begins with the words, cause me, cause me to hear thy lovingkindness, cause me to know the way wherein I should walk. And he is acknowledging here that he meets God's enabling. Indeed, more than that. We pray so often, Lord enable Lord, enable me to do this, enable me to do that, enable us to do this, enable us to do that, but he is going further than that. He is saying, Lord, cause me, not just enable me, but cause me. What he is acknowledging here in that word and in that prayer is that he can do nothing of his own. that he is utterly dependent upon God, that he is dependent on Him not only to do the things that he wants to do, but that he is dependent on God to make him want to do the things that he should want to do. Cause me, move me, bring it to pass in me. He is actually crying for a change within himself, taking that extra step from Lord enable me to Lord cause me. He is so aware of his own weakness and aware of a deadness upon himself. And that deadness is perhaps in his case, as it often is in our own case, it is a reality There's no point in us pretending that we are always, all of the time, lively spiritually. That very often a hardness and a deadness comes upon us. Most of us would hide that and keep it under wraps and pretend that everything was just going fine for us. that we were in good heart. But very often the reality is that we are disappointed with ourselves. We are disappointed with the way that we feel. We are disappointed with the lack of liveliness, spiritual liveliness, that is within us. Though I think that we would be far better off if we brought that to the Lord. And David, if he does that in the way that he prays here, cause me, what's he saying? He is saying the problem is with me. It's not just my circumstances. It is not thee. It is not really my enemy. The problem is with me. I need a quickening in order that I may be motivated moved to do what I know is right and what I really should do, and to desire the things that I should really desire. A quickening is required. He wants to hear the voice of God, and he wants to know the leading of God. So, only God can bring spiritual life, only God can create it, and only God can maintain it, and He maintains it continually within us. David here pleads for two indications of God's quickening. are two things which would result from God's quickening, God bringing his power to bear upon him, God causing these things. Unless God causes them, he seems to be acknowledging that unless God causes them, they will not happen. So first of all of these two things, he says, cause me to hear thy lovingkindness. Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness. That word occurs quite a lot in the Authorized Version. the word loving-kindness, and I think that it is really a wonderful translation of the original word, although many modern versions have forsaken that word. What we have here is a deeply, deeply covenant word. It is a word which speaks of God's covenant love. not just His love, but His love within the covenant, within the way He has bound Himself to His people. And it speaks of His never-failing love for us all. or our love fails, and our love comes and goes, and our love sometimes is so cold it is almost non-existent. But this covenant love is always there, reliable, and indestructible, and utterly independent of the way that we love in return. It is a faithful love, it is a loyal love, it is a steadfast love, and it is a gracious love, not of deserving. Indeed, the opposite of deserving is our state. Nevertheless, it is gracious, it is undeserved, and it is, above all things, it is a sovereign love, purely from within himself, purely loving as God alone can love. not because of anything that is attractive, not because any person is lovable, or anything like that, not because of any obligation, but simply from within himself. That is what this word translated lovingkindness speaks of. So, David prays, calls me to hear thy lovingkinds. How can you hear any kind of love. How can you hear, how could he hear this love, this loving kindness, this covenant love of God? Well, that's what he longs for. He is longing for a word from God to assure him of his covenant love. word from God which will assure him of God's loving kindness, that he is within the covenant. I think he is here on the verge of thinking entertaining thoughts that he might not be within the covenant. That happens to every child of God, I'm sure, at some time. so he prays for a word that he might hear the loving-kindness of God, some indication that he is in God's covenant love, that he is in covenant relationship with God. Let us just think about how God speaks. Just in passing, how does God speak? Is David really asking for a voice from heaven? Is he asking that he might actually hear the voice of God with his physical ears? There is no doubt that God can do that and that God has done that. But we today look for not these things because we have the full scripture before us, but there are ordinarily two ways in which we can hear or know the Word of God. First of all, and obviously, it is through His Word. In order for us to hear God speaking to us through His Word, there must be a measure of diligent, devotional reading of the Word of God. I emphasize devotional reading. reading with love, reading with desire, reading with longing for God himself. And that has to be application. These things don't just happen. This certainly can't happen without the help of God. but as in all our prayers, we must look for means, and we must engage ourselves in the means which God puts before us. Now, there's another way that God speaks. Now, one of the great writers of the past said that there are two ways that God speaks, and that every Christian should be able to, as it were, read not just the Word of God, but read God's providence. God sometimes speaks through His providential dealings. If we are His, then we can say that nothing happens for nothing. I don't know what just empty brute facts or empty brute experience for the Christian. Every experience means something and it is all for a purpose. God makes all things to work together for good to them that love him. So, the question we have to ask ourselves is, as we look at an experience or a turn of events, or something that perhaps was unexpected, or even something that is just completely ordinary, we have to apply this all the time. asking ourselves, what is God saying to me? In this experience, in what I'm doing at the moment, in what is happening to me, is God speaking to me? Am I reading the events? Am I interpreting the events? Interpreting them in such a way that I am reading God's, as it were, book of providence. David yearns to hear the word of God. from these things and he adds in the morning in the morning i think that's so tremendously important what a lesson is in these words in the morning morning is a crucially important time for the believer i think we just do not realise how important the beginning of the day is for the believer. And if it is at all possible that we must have a devotional time, I'm not talking about length of a time, however short, of intensity and seeking for God, seeking to cry to God, Lord, let me start my day on the right foot, let me go on the right foundation, guide my steps right from the very start of this day. before we meet man, before we meet and engage with the world. Is it not better for us, before we do that, to meet with God and to be engaged with God? So, the psalmist is seeking life, to do these things He is seeking a quickening calls me come and do something in me enliven me, quicken me that I may hear Thy voice hear Thy lovingkindness in the morning and endure so He couples it up with a pledge. For, he says, in thee do I trust, pledging himself to God, pledging himself to trust in God. And then we have this second mark, or second consequence of God's weakening. To know the way wherein I should walk. Cosmes is to know the way wherein I should walk. must examine their own life. Every Christian should be continually examining their own life, examining their own conduct, examining their thoughts, their words, and their deeds, examining their motives, It is just not Christian. It is not Christian way to behave or to live, to be without self-searching and self-examination. You should do so at the most fundamental level. Making no assumptions. Never assuming that things are okay. My conduct is okay. My witness is okay. My thoughts, words and deeds are okay. There's nothing wrong with them. My motives are okay. We cannot begin like that. We must begin with an open mind with regard to ourselves. And if the Word speaks to us, then we must be sure that that Word speaks to us with authority, that we are under the authority of the Word of God. There is always room for improvement. There is always room for a closer walk. What is the crux of this? There's something which I, as a minister, and I know that most ministers are conscious of this. And that is the problem of teachability. Question for myself, am I teachable? It is essential for the Christian life to be a teachable person, to be able to learn, to be able to change, to be able to respond to the Word of God, rather than just reading the Word, hearing it preached, and all these things, and things go on as before. That is not right. That's not the way it should be. I think it is a tragedy of many Christian lives, unteachableness. Sometimes we are good at analysing others, but not so good at bearing our own souls before God. What happens is stagnation. No change is allowed. No encroachment on the pattern. And that is unspeakably sad. David says, Cause me, he says, to know the way wherein I should walk. Folly says, I lift my soul to Thee. I think there's a connection. But here's, see where it said, we're lifting his soul unto God so that God may examine it. Teach me the way that I should walk. Here is my soul. Tell me what is wrong. Search it. Search my soul, however painful it may be for me, so that I can then walk in the way that I should walk. Our gracious God, we pray for thy blessing upon thy work. and we pray especially, Lord, that thou would cause thy word to be effective and fruitful in our lives. May it be to us a word that matters, a word that decides for us how we should walk and how we should think. Make it effective and effectual in our lives. Make it quick and powerful and sharper than any torched salt. Fear us no, Lord, be with us during these moments and wash us and cleanse us and forgive us for all our sins, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.