Well friends on these Tuesday evenings when I've been here we've been going through Psalm 32 and I want to turn again to that Psalm this evening and particularly to look at verses 8 and 9. Psalm 32 verses 8 and 9. Let me just read from verse 6 to put this in context. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found. Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. And then the verses that we're going to look at tonight. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. Be ye not as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, the psalm goes on, but he that trusteth in the Lord and mercy shall compass him about. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, ye righteous, and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart. We're going to look particularly at verses eight and nine this evening and consider them together. As we have seen, David, as a child of God, had fallen into grievous sin. We've been looking at that, of course, on some days when I've been with you. But this is a penitential psalm for the saint. Of course, David's great penitential psalm, Psalm 51, is the one supremely dealing with those events. But this psalm is also written about the same time, probably, possibly a little bit later, but certainly in the same context of his genuine and real repentance. And although he speaks of what happened when he kept silent and God's hand heavy upon him in verses 3 and 4, he has begun of course with these words of blessing, reminding us of the wonder of forgiveness, of full forgiveness, and what comes from true repentance and genuine spirituality. Sin concealed is a problem, as it were, to us. But sin that is concealed, but then confessed, and then cleared, in verses three to four, brings about great blessing and acknowledgement. And in verse five, he says that, I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity I have not hid. I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. And so he goes on to describe what it means, we might say, to have business with God, to have dealings with God. I trust as Christians, as I trust many of you are, that you are happy for God to have dealings with your soul. How important that is and how significant with that. And we considered God's great grace to his people in verses six and seven. We saw that God is the hiding place of his people, particularly in verse seven. And then we considered God the preserver of his people. And then God the deliverer of his people. You shall surround me, compass me about with songs of deliverance. Now when we come to verse 8, it seems as though there's a slight change of emphasis, because instead of, in a sense, David's reflection and comment about God and his grace, here comes a command, here comes an instruction. And as we will see, that is very significant. And some have asked, well many have asked the question, who is actually speaking at this point? Is it David speaking to us? Or is it in fact God speaking to David? Well, I'm going to have the best of both worlds. I know that Matthew Henry and David Dixon particularly emphasize the old Puritan commentators say these are particularly David's words and I think that's true. But others see that this is God's word to David. Well, I think it was God's word to David and yet here is David in a sense giving these words to us. The context seems to imply that God is speaking And yet there is something to be said for David instructing us, because he has said that he wants us to be instructed, he wants us to be taught by God in his grace. In fact, that's the whole point of the way in which the psalm begins. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. You need to learn this, you need to understand this, because it's so wonderful and so gloriously important. And it's interesting that Hengstenberg, another commentator, he implies that God has spoken to David, and now David is imparting to us the instruction that he has received from God. So in other words, David is speaking, but he is clearly instructing us with what he has learned from God, that we may learn and understand and take to heart these things. So let's look at this under a number of headings together this evening. We'll spend probably the longest time on the third heading, but of four headings, so you know roughly where we're going. Firstly, here is instruction, instruction. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. And here we have that sense that these are words that come to both mind and heart. When you instruct someone, when you teach them in school, or if you're teaching them a trade, or you're teaching something in that sense of the word, then you are instructing their mind. You're getting them to appreciate, to understand what the Bible sometimes calls knowledge. Wisdom in the Bible, spiritual wisdom, is greater than simply knowledge. Knowledge is important. And godly knowledge is especially important. But wisdom is greater than that and more significant than that. And I'm not going to go into that in detail now. But here we have mind and heart. Doctrine. Now I know, dear friends, you won't argue like this, but there are people today, in fact, throughout my life I have met people who call themselves Christians, but they talk about doctrine and they say, dull doctrine, and we don't want doctrine, we want to hear about the love of God. But my friends, to understand the love of God is to understand something of doctrine. And doctrine actually is liberating and Thrilling when you understand it and appreciate what is happening here. Have you learned the truths of the gospel? Have you taken to heart the things that God teaches in his word? Have you learned to trust the providences of God? Yes, even the frowning providences of God. Now you know how in the Old Testament we have some instruction in numbers when Moses meets with his father-in-law, Hobab. And we have a number of verses that speak about Chobab, but particularly as we come to Numbers chapter 10, and we come to the end of the chapter, we read, or towards the end of the chapter, we read these words. And Moses said unto Hobab, verse 29, the son of Raguel, the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, We are journeying unto the place which the Lord said, I will give it to you. Come thou with us, and we will do thee good, for the Lord has spoken good concerning Israel. What a wonderful, what a wonderful statement. He said unto him, I will not go, but I will depart to mine own land and to my kindred. And Moses turned to him, and he said this, Leave us not, I pray thee, this is Numbers 10 verse 31, forasmuch as thou knowest how we are going to encamp in the wilderness, and thou mayest be to us instead of eyes. And it shall be, if thou go with us, yes, it shall be, that what goodness the Lord shall do unto us, the same we will do unto thee. So here is hope. I've been encouraged to be with the people of Israel who knew the wilderness and was able to lead them and instruct them under the grace of God. And Moses is saying to him, God has sent you to be our guide through the wilderness. It's one of the reasons why I wanted us to sing that hymn, Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah, today, because that's what he was doing through the wilderness. And Chobab was part of God's answer in the leading of the people. Or again, those words that we read in our reading from Job chapter 29, where Job remembers the days before his great calamities. And in those days, in all the good things that happened to him, he was conscious that God was watching over him. These were things he had learned from God. They're not just Job boasting, it's very easy to read them with our English mindset and think that they're very boastful, but they're not. Job is reminding his critics that in those days he knew that God was watching over him. And he still trusted in God, you know that. Because you know, at the beginning of the book of Job, we read about how his wife turned to Job and said, curse God and die. And Job said, you're talking like a foolish woman. Now, I don't think I've ever talked to my wife like that, and that's not the way to talk to your wife normally, if you understand. But she was, she was talking as a foolish woman. He has said, has not God given us good and ill? Shall we not continue to trust him? Well, that's my paraphrase, but that's what he said. And he is conscious that even though he feels that God has forsaken him, and that he doesn't think at that moment that there was anything that he could learn from the calamity, as though it were one unmitigated disaster, and even his friends don't seem to know what to say to him to comfort him. And yet he knows, he knows, that God has not forsaken him. That's why he said what he said to his wife in chapter 2. And that's why he went on later in those following chapters in Job to speak about that, so that he knew that behind a frowning providence, God does hide a smiling face, as the hymn writer says. And when we get to Job chapter 38, which we won't deal with now, God instructs Job, and he reminds Job that God has been there all the time. I, says God, have been there all the time. I have not forsaken you. I am teaching you through these trials that I am the great eternal God. And Job, as you know, learns his lesson, doesn't he? Because at the end of the book he comes to acknowledge in those wonderful words of repentance, we might say, but also of commitment to the Lord. Job answered the Lord and said, I know that thou canst do everything and that no thought can be withholden for thee. Who is he that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I did not understand, I understood not things too wonderful for me which I knew not. Here I beseech thee, and I will speak, I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I have whore myself and repent. in dust and ashes. Now, Job is not saying that I'm not going to speak, no, because he said, I will continue to talk to you, I will continue to declare unto you my heart. But I repent of anything that I might have said that is out of character or wrong, and I repent in dust and ashes. And God comes to Job, and he tears a strip off, we might say, his three friends. and he commends Job, you have not spoken of me, the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath, says God. Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams. Go to my servant Job that he may offer a burnt offering for you. My servant Job will pray for you and I'll accept him because he's come in the right manner and in the right understood. Job had learned his lesson. He had been instructed in mind and in heart of the ways of God. But there is teaching here. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. God will teach us and instruct us. That is the practical application of the doctrine. God instructs and teaches us with authority and kindness and certainty. Let's look at those three words briefly, each of them. Authority. God's authority. My friend, are you teachable? Are you willing to learn from God's word? I'm sure it's not true here, but I know churches and I'm having to try to help a man in the pastorate at the moment, I'm not going to say any more than that because I don't want to drop anything and say the wrong thing, who is having difficulty in his church because there are people who are opposed to him. People in the church who should jolly well know better. And they're not prepared to accept the authority of God's Word. My friend, are you willing and ready? God says he will take notice. that we are to take notice of what he says, and if not, then he will put in our mouths bits and bridles, verse nine, be not as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, if we will not listen. David Dixon, the old Puritan commentator, his wonderful commentary has been reprinted by the Banner of Truth. He says this, of this verse, whosoever will not submit unto God and seek unto his favor shall find themselves so much more hardly dealt with as horses and mules abounding with bitten bridle. Authority. But when God comes to instruct, not only does he come with authority, he also comes with kindness. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go, I will guide you with my eye. When we read in the Bible of God guiding people with their eye, there is that note of kindness and grace. His eye is upon us, why? Because he cares for us, because he watches over us with tender, loving care and compassion. So this authority isn't hard, it isn't cruel, it isn't unkind, it is with great kindness and compassion. Job thought he was deserted, that he was all alone and nothing to learn, but God was watching over him the whole time. God knew what he was doing. as he allowed him to be tested in that way. God comes to us and he teaches us with authority, but also with kindness, but also with certainty, thirdly, because God never makes a mistake. When God teaches us and when God leads us and when God instructs us, he always does it with great wisdom. We may misunderstand his guidance. We may misunderstand his way. We may choose to ignore his guidance. But my friend, if we are taught by God, we will learn to trust him in all things, because he will lead us certainly and decisively and surely. Teaching. So that's instruction, and that's teaching. Thirdly, there is here guiding. Guiding. And I suggest that in guiding, we're talking about God coming alongside us personally, to teach us and to instruct us. What we might call hands-on guidance. Now, when I was an engineer, many, many years ago now, I hope I'm still an engineer in one sense, but when I was training to be an engineer, I did it by means of an apprenticeship. And what do you do? Well, of course, you go to college, and you study at college, and you learn, but you also learn on the job. And so we learnt, and I was in the factory, and I learnt on the factory floor, and I was instructed and taught and guided and how often it was by an older man who knew what to do coming alongside and showing me what to do and instructing me and helping me as I learnt the trade. Now in a sense there are things that you can't learn in a classroom you can learn technical and theoretical but to learn to have hands-on experience to learn how to file a piece of metal so that it was absolutely perfectly flat. Now I used files when I was at school, I did metalwork amongst lots of other things at school and we were taught, but when you go into industry you learn how to do it properly. and how to solder, because I'm an electronics engineer, and I still reckon I can solder better than my son can, although he's trained as an engineer as well, but there we are, dad being big-headed. But to do it properly and to know that it will work, and to be taught so that you can do it accurately, and when you're dealing with tiny electronic components and fitting them together and making them work, Hands-on experience is very valuable. God guiding us by putting his hand on our hands. Guided by his eye. When you're building, when you're laying something out, or using a spirit level, or getting things level, you're looking along the line with your eye. You're testing it. And God can look upon the line to see if it's straight. You remember how Amos talks about the plumb line and other instructions in that way. God looking for accuracy and care and guiding his people. And my friends, when God loves us and watches over us and we want to love him and serve him, God guides us and instructs us and teaches us. And I suggest there are at least five ways in which he does that. Let me just go through them fairly quickly. He guides us by his word. I hope you regularly read the Bible, God's holy word. If you claim to be a Christian and don't read God's word regularly, then you need to question that. A few months ago, a dear friend of mine in the ministry, he rang me up, he is the pastor of quite a big church in another part of our country, and he rang me up, he said, Ian, he said, I find it so difficult, I have got so many, he's got a big church of 200 or more members, and he said, what I find so difficult, he says, is getting my people who claim to be Christians to read their Bibles. He said, people don't seem to read, daily reading in their families. And I suggested to him, I said, well, I said, well, preach about it, talk about it. say, make it the common thing. This has been my practice over the years to say in churches where I've been the pastor for any length of time, to take it for granted as it were. And to say to people on a Sunday sometimes, I hope you've been reading in God's word this week. I hope that you make it your practice regularly to read the word of God. Say so from the pulpit. Oh, he said, and so I'm not sure yet. I shall be seeing him a little bit later this year and I shall talk to him about that because I've been praying for him that he might have wisdom to know how to instruct and help his people to read the Bible more regularly. He moved to this big church and he was just, taken aback that there were so many people in the church who claimed to be Christian who really didn't know anything about regular daily Bible reading and family worship. Feed on God's Word. How can you expect to know the mind of the Lord if you don't read His Word? Now whatever method you use, make sure that you do have some means of regularly reading from the Word of God, and not just reading your favorite passages. Now that also comes through the regular preaching of the Word of God, and I know you do that and have that here, and that's a wonderful thing. But how can anyone claim to be a Christian who does not regularly meet with God's people and sit under the Word of God, the preaching of this holy and infallible and inerrant Word? And if I was speaking in a conference or in a wider place, I'd say, seek out a good church. Well, I don't need to say that to you because you have a good church, you understand. But how important that is, regularly reading the Bible. Secondly, by Bible principles, by biblical principles. And my friends, the Bible teaches us principles. The Bible will not tell you what you should wear or what you shouldn't wear. The Bible will not tell you what job you should take or not take, although there are some guidelines there. It won't tell you who to marry or who not to marry, but it will lay down principles which will guide you through every experience of life and all of these areas and others. And we ignore the Bible at our peril. be not unequally yoked with unbelievers. That applies to marriage, but it applies to intimate working business relationships, and it applies to close friendships. It's a principle which applies across many areas of life. Many areas of life are covered by the broad general principles of God's Word. as well as some specific instructions. And there are many who have made shipwreck of their faith because they've ignored biblical principles. And I find it very sad sometimes, fortunately not often, but very sad when occasionally people who have had a good Christian witness in their younger years come to me and say to me something like this, why doesn't God speak to me as once he did? My answer often is to say to them, are you disobeying a clear biblical principle? Are you living according to God's standards? Are you seeking to grow in grace? If God is no longer speaking to you as once he did, there's something seriously wrong with your Christian life. by biblical principles. Thirdly, by the advice of godly men and women. And it's possible, as I say, that these words apply to David, and he is speaking of instructing his fellow believers. God has given us, and given the church, godly pastors, teachers, ministers, to give us biblical advice. Of course, they give us more than that, but they give us biblical advice. And when there is a dearth of godly leaders in the land, it's often a sign of God's judgment upon the church for its apostasy. I think today we live in days of great apostasy in many churches of our land. So seek the advice of godly men and women as you seek to honor God in all you do. Fourthly, by closed or open doors, God will use the very circumstances of our lives to guide us. Some opportunities will come and others will be denied us. Sometimes our health or our family or our prospects will be such that we are shut up to a particular course of action that maybe we didn't expect. But God knows what he's doing and he will never fail us or forsake us. And then fifthly, and it's fifthly because it's probably the least important, but it is important anyway, and that is what I would call by sanctified common sense. Sanctified common sense. Paul receives the vision of the man of Macedonia, and he arrives at Philippi, and he goes out, and he assesses the city for some days. And having taken stock of the situation, he then goes to meet the few believers down by the riverside. He has no direct word from God, but he uses his sanctified common sense. And from that, one thing led to another, till he landed up in prison with his back bleeding from the beating. But God had not forsaken him. God had not forsaken him. Sanctified common sense. Abraham uses his sanctified common sense to pray for his nephew Lot in the city of Sodom. And God answered his prayers, not in the way he expected, but Lot was delivered. And step by step as we go forward with God, he will lead us. Trust him. Simply trust him. each step of the way, not with blind faith, but with true faith that God will guide us. Now sometimes we may make mistakes, but if we have a genuine desire to serve God and follow him, then he will overrule all things for his glory and blessing. Now that's not an excuse for us to sin or to do foolish things, but it's a great comfort. Instruction, teaching, guiding, fourthly and finally, understanding. And this is the wonderful illustration of verse 9. Not like the horse or the mule. It's a negative illustration. We are not like the brute beasts. God has given us a mind to use. Men and women, boys and girls, have minds, they have intellects, they have the power of reasoning and instruction. We can be taught and instructed. Not like dogs, you can teach a dog many things. I've had two dogs and I've taught them. And I have worked with dogs in search and rescue when I was younger. And they can be taught, but not like us. And you can teach monkeys certain things, but not like us. Dogs and monkeys can respond to commands and stimuli. Horses and others can do that. But man, mankind, male and female, is capable of rational thought and of action. You can discipline a dog, you can train it, a horse, a mule, but you can't reason with it. If you will not heed reason and logical argument, then you're no better than the beasts of the field. Without bit and bridle, the horse, the mule are no longer under control. They need restraint. Their wild nature needs to be tamed. Maybe you're like the horse or the mule. You do not follow God. You're rebelling against him. You do not love him and honour him and serve him as you should. You see no reason why you should listen to his word. My friend, if you are, then you are unconverted. You are not a Christian. You need to see your sin and fly to Christ. God will do what he will with you, whether you like it or not. You cannot escape from him. He will use the bit and bridle. But if you persist in rebelling against him, he may well let you get away with it in this life. But the day will come when he will harness your proud and rebellious and sinful spirit. But if you have received Him and know Him, what a wonderful thing to know that He is guiding us and keeping us with understanding and appreciate that. When we stand before Him, we shall rejoice that He has led us and kept us through all the changing scenes of life, in trouble and in joy, and the praises of our God shall still our heart and tongue employ. Therefore, my friends, don't be like the horse or the mule that have no understanding, but learn of Christ as I'm sure you are. And this great salvation, this great gospel, this great work that God has come to do, learn of Him. and keep learning and keep following and keep serving him and keep on going with him. Be instructed and taught in the way in which you will go and be guided by his very eye as he watches over you and cares for you through all the experiences of life. Well, we're going to sing a lovely hymn, which I'm so glad is in your supplement. I was hoping it would be there. 1-1-1-9. Through the love of God our Savior, all will be well. Free and changeless is his favor, all, all is well. And here's the reason. Precious is the blood that healed us. Perfect is the grace that sealed us. Strong the hand stretched out to shield us, forth to shield us. All must be well. What a great hymn of triumph and confidence in our great God as he leads and guides us and takes us through all the experiences of life. 1119, thank you.