Listen carefully. This is God's Word. To the choir master of David for the memorial offering. Make haste, O God, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be put to shame and confusion who seek my life. Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor. who delight in my heart. Let them turn back because of their shame who say, Aha! Aha! May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who love your salvation say evermore, God is great. But I am poor and needy. Listen to me, O God. You are my help and my deliverer. O Lord, do not delay. Amen. Thus far, the reading of God's holy word. Well, if you ever have to call in a danger close airstrike from an AC-130 Spectre gunship, you're in bad shape. For most of us here this evening, that's not a likely eventuality. But if you ever have to call one in, you can take it from me, times are bad. Danger close is the army's shorthand, at least in Britain, I think it is here too, but danger close is the army's shorthand for we're being overrun by the enemy. Whatever you're going to do up there in the sky, it had better be quick or we're all dead. Needless to say, an airstrike called down in such conditions is immensely dangerous. The chances of friendly fire injuries and casualties are extremely high. I learned about this on my recent vacation up in Myrtle Beach, not because I was in combat, but because I was reading a book entitled Sniper One, which is a wonderful, a true story of how a hundred members of the 1st Battalion of the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment held off the Mahdi Army in Al Amarah, Iraq in April 2004. For four months there was continual fighting around their compound in Al Amarah. They were surrounded by the enemy, for most of the time cut off from resupply, and they were under constant bombardment by shelling from mortars and their patrols were ambushed left, right and centre. They were outnumbered and outgunned and for most of the time, as I said, besieged from the outside world. And the author, I think was Dan Hill, I forget his name now, but the author was one of the senior NCOs in the sniper division who were on top of the highest building in the compound and their job, of course, was to pick out the enemy RPG men and mortar men as best they could as they were attacking the compound almost continually. Needless to say the resupply of this base was an extremely tough job and on one occasion when they were almost out of ammunition and fuel and food in their compound they had to risk a convoy resupply and the convoy came in and as it came in through Almara it was ambushed in a bottleneck and even though it was armoured, they had warrior armoured personnel carriers and they had the British challenger tanks, they were surrounded by hundreds, maybe even thousands of local militia, RPGs were raining down upon them from all sides and it was a time of great catastrophe. And were it not for a lone American AC-130 gunship flying overhead, it would have been all over for the British. Now the AC-130, if you know about that piece of kit, it's an awesome killing machine. It's basically a big C-130 cargo plane that's been armed to the teeth, turned into a flying fortress with three major weapon systems. It's got a 20mm cannon, which fired 100 rounds a second, which is a staggering amount of ammunition. the two of those, it's got a 40mm cannon which can take out a car and all in it with one round and it's got its big Bertha 105mm howitzer and if it lands anywhere near you, you're done for, I mean they'll not be looking for a body bag, they'll be looking for a matchbox to put the little pieces of you they find into it. It's overhead and this convoy is being blasted from all sides and they're overrun and they cry out for a danger-close airstrike. From the grind it seemed like Armageddon from on high, as fire from heaven rained down all around on the enemy positions. When it was all said and done, the area around the convoy was a wasteland of devastation, and the relatives of what was left of the Macchi army were looking for matchboxes, lots and lots of matchboxes to find their dead and wounded. Now, all that to say, Psalm 70 is essentially the spiritual equivalent of a radio call to God for a danger close airstrike. This is how it begins. with a note of great urgency, an urgent cry and help. It begins that way, it ends that way. Make haste, hurry up, O God, to deliver me. O Lord, hurry up to help me. And the last verse. But I am poor and needy. Hurry up to me, O God. You're my help and my deliverer, O Lord. Do not delay. And once again, As we read these words, we are reminded by God that there will be times in our lives if we are faithful to God, and often because we have been faithful to God, that we will need to sing this song. So don't panic when it happens. You know, if all of the Psalms of the Bible were all kind of happy, clappy, jumpy, lefty, righty, century kind of songs, you'd think, Great, the Christian life is going to be wonderful. But that's not the case. Most of the Psalms we sing in the Bible are rugged songs from people under conflict, under fire. desperate need of help and this psalm tells us there will be times in our lives when we will find ourselves surrounded by enemies that are both ruthless and heartless. Ruthless, verse 2. Let them be put to shame and confusion who seek my life. Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt. Ruthlessness. Enemies who delight in causing you pain. agony and who want you dead and who will stop at nothing. And of course, we have just such an enemy in the devil. An ocean of hate without a drop of mercy. No pity, no capacity to pity. No capacity to spare. He just wants to do the very worst he can. against you all of the time. He will cause you as much pain as God allows him. It doesn't matter how young you are, how cute you are, whether you're a girl or a boy, He is out to get you. Ruthless, but also heartless. Let them turn back because of their shame and say, ah-ha, ah-ha, we've got you now, type moment. Like Christ this morning when Noah's young buck were rubbing their hands saying, he doesn't know how to answer, we've got him, we've trapped him, his back's to the wall. May all who seek you rejoice. May those who love your salvation say evermore that God is great. So there is this kind of ruthlessness, heartlessness, delighting in causing pain and misery. And there will be time, the psalmist is telling us, when we will be in such need of immediate and swift deliverance that if God does not come quickly, he need not bother coming at all, for it will be all over. And through the Psalm it says, reverently but urgently, hurry up, Lord. Hurry up. I assume this Psalm should be a comfort for you, for I know a lot of you feel, or have felt, in such times of dire need in your lives. in your own spiritual walk with God as dark desires bubble up from the spiritual wickedness of your heart and my heart. You have felt such times of distress in your families, times of great stress when the devil seems to be winning the day in your marriage, or in your relationship with your children, or times in your workplace when you're being assaulted by the part of darkness. In many parts of the world we see Christians hounded by the state. The state putting its oppressive, black, tyrannical thumb upon the people of God. Because they're the people of God. Make haste, O God, to deliver me. If you don't come quickly, don't bother coming at all because it'll be all over. If you find yourself feeling those feelings, if you find yourself facing such a situation, don't panic. God has given you Psalms in the Bible that lead you to expect such times of difficulty. Psalms that imply and promise deliverance from such times of disaster for all those who will wait upon the Lord for salvation. As we read this psalm together this evening, I want us to do so by replacing David with Christ. There are lots of different ways you can read the psalms. I've said that before, there are different levels of application. You could legitimately put yourself in this psalm. As a member of Christ on earth, you can use this psalm as an autobiographical declaration of of spiritual yearning for God to rescue yourself or your Christian family or your local body of believers who maybe are being attacked by the devil at a particular time. But this morning, this evening, I want us to try and take David out of the psalm and put Christ into the psalm. It's a useful exercise, one of the hermeneutical keys that you can use to help you read the psalm. As a young person, There's a delightful candy in the UK called Terry's Chocolate Orange. Do you have them in America? No. Well, it's literally a chocolate orange. It's set up with segments like a piece of an orange, but it's chocolate. It's all stuck together. When you open it, what you do is you keep it all wrapped up, and you tap it on something hard, then you take off the wrapper, and in theory, anyway, in the adverts, it always happens like this. All the pieces just fall out, and you can take the piece and eat them like an orange. Never quite works that way, but it looks great on the advert. The Bible is like that. Sometimes you have to know where to tap to open up a passage of Scripture. A good question, a good place to tap when you're reading the Psalms, is to ask yourself the question, how would Christ use these words? How could Christ sing these words over the people of God? And it's not hard to see the parallel between David and Jesus. David is the king of Israel in the Old Testament, and in the New Testament, no mere man is our king, but God has given the kingly rule of authority into the hands of great David's greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's not hard to see him singing this song to God about his people on earth. It's one of the great Comforting doctrines of our holy religion, isn't it, that the Lord Jesus prays for us. We turn quickly forward in Hebrews 7. Love this verse. Hebrews 7.25. Consequently. Therefore, because Christ holds this high priesthood of his continually, permanently, he never loses office, there's never a term limit set upon his reign in the heavenly oval office, if I can speak like that without profaning heaven. Therefore, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him. Why? Because he always lives to make intercession. It's a wonderful doctrine. That in heaven tonight there is one of infinite wisdom and love and power and grace and insight who always lives to pray for you. What's Christ doing in heaven? He's praying for you constantly. For his people corporately and his people individually. He has your name upon his lips before God. Just like with Peter, you remember when Jesus says to Peter, Peter, the devil has asked for you that he might sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you. And when you've returned to your brethren, strengthen. So what does it look like? What kind of things does Christ pray for his people? And one of the ways to answer that question is to look at these Davidic prayers for Israel in the Old Testament, inspired by God the Holy Spirit, worthy of Christ's singing during his earthly ministry, and I believe also worthy of his continued use in heaven before the throne of God on behalf of his people. If you read this psalm together this evening, I want us to see three principles that govern, I think, and describe the kinds of prayers or the kinds of ways Christ prays for his people in times of great distress. And the first thing I want you to see here as we look over David's shoulder and Great David's greater son's shoulder, praying for the people, I want you to see that as Christ prays, he prays for specific people that he identifies as his own. He prays for specific people that he identifies as his own. He marks them out, just like, you know, in those AC-130 gunships. They have these special cameras that are heat-sensitive cameras and other kinds of cameras that I don't fully understand what they are. Infrared, maybe that's, I don't know. Anyway, but there's two or three different views they can look down upon the troops on the ground and the friendly forces have these little flashing things, I forget the name of them, strobes, that they have that flash and they highlight who the friendly guys are and who the bad guys are. So as they look down they can see at least the flashing lights of where the friendly forces are. And as Christ is calling down this danger-close support from God in heaven, do you notice he marks out his people with two distinguishing marks? These are the people for whom I'm praying. Verse 4. May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who love your salvation say evermore, God is great. So you see immediately, as David prays, he's identifying God's people, the true marks of spirituality. And Christ does the same. What are God's people? Who are the ones for whom Christ prays? They're those who seek God and those who love God's salvation. Seeking God is one of the great duties of the covenant people. It's one of the great duties of all of God's children. If you turn in Isaiah 55 a second, a passage we refer to often, it's often in our orders of worship. God is speaking to his wayward people. We'll get to it in six months time as we read through Isaiah chapter by chapter. But verse six, God's calling to thirsty people who are looking for satisfaction in all the wrong places. And God says to them, Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. It's a wonderful thing. In God's economy of grace, Anyone can seek the Lord. Even if you're very far away from God. Even if you're lost in wickedness of thought and wickedness of life. God still says, you can seek me. I'm available to you. Seek the Lord while you may be found. It's one of the great duties, children, of your covenant nature. You are born into the church. God calls you sanctified ones. You've been sanctified by the Spirit of Grace, Hebrews 10, 1 Corinthians 7. Sanctified, sorry, by the blood of the covenant. And one of the great duties is for you to seek the Lord. In your baptism, you've been engaged to God. Parents are promised that they will raise you to fear the Lord and there's a promise made over you that you will seek the Lord and a great responsibility laid upon you to make good your engagement. That one day you will stand up and profess your faith amidst the people of God, that you are owning the faith of your Father and the God of your Father. And saying, I take my Father's God as my God. And that day is a bit like the marriage ceremony. But in your birth and baptism, you are engaged to be the Lord's. And God expects you to seek Him. And if you do seek Him, you will find Him if you search for Him with all of your heart. When you can't seek God and seek sin, God has let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. You've got to be done with sin. Like this morning in John 8, when Christ said to this woman, leave your lifestyle of sin. You're going completely the wrong direction. Your adultery is but a symptom of a deeper problem. A wayward life. That must be forsaken. And God must be sought. Where do you seek God? You seek God in His Word. In Isaiah 55, God says, Incline your ear to me and listen. It's a God who speaks and things happen. You seek God through prayer. And all these things, of course, are done privately, but especially publicly. It's a wonderful thing to come and seek the Lord under the preaching of the Word of God. It's one of the marks of God's people. They seek the Lord. What are you seeking this evening? Seeking pleasure. What are you looking for? Looking for it in God, or are you looking for it in other things? Seeking happiness, seeking fulfillment, seeking meaning in life, security, satisfaction. Where are you seeking those things? And from whom are you seeking those things? As David and Christ pray for his people here, he prays for those who seek you. May all who seek you enjoy these benefits. Also, they who love God's salvation. They love God's salvation. They don't feel apathetic. about salvation. They love it. Number one, I think I've used this illustration before, but the Mormons came round to my house back in Northern Ireland, two by two, and they came, I still had a physician, and they would come round to my house and they would come and tell me all of their theology and their view of this and that and the other. I noticed that there was one word distinctively missing from their whole you know, sales pitch. So after they said, oh, I was polite, I listened to them, after they said their whole shebang, I said to them, I notice you don't mention the word, it's a very important word in the Bible. Salvation. Salvation belongs to the Lord. You could argue the whole Bible could be summarized in those three words. God saves sinners. Tell me, what does the word salvation mean to you? And they had nothing to say. I mean zip. So I then said, well, let me tell you what salvation means to me. And we began the Bible study. But here in Psalm 70, David is praying for those who love God's salvation. Why do they love it? Because they've experienced it. I once was lost, but now I'm fine. You've been there, maybe children, in a mall, Christmas shopping and you're there with your mum and dad and there's people packed everywhere and suddenly you feel disconnected from mum and dad and you look up and the leg you're holding on to is not your dad's leg or your mum's leg and you're gone. And you panic. Then you start to cry. You feel done for and you walk about in Macy's or wherever you are and you're just, you feel lost. And then suddenly you hear a voice. You know that voice, it's your mother's voice or your father's voice and you look and you see mum or dad coming and they're relieved and you're relieved and you embrace and you appreciate your parents then more than you ever did before. How glad you are to be back again safely in mummy and daddy's arms. Just like that, when people have really felt themselves to be lost dead in sin and in trespasses, as the Bible declares to be our natural state. Children of wrath, deserving God's wrath, under God's condemnation, condemned already, as Jesus says in John 3. And then God, in His free, sovereign grace, as Sherrod said in that famous sermon of his, the exercise of mercy. The exercise of mercy, thank you, optional with God. The exercise of mercy, optional with God. And here is this sinner, dead in sin. And God, in His free, gracious purpose, reaches down, touches the sinner, and brings life where there was death, and cleansing where there was pollution, and blessing where there was formerly the curse. and justification where there was formerly condemnation, and a child of God where there was formerly a child of the devil, a serpent, a brood of vipers. And the response in the heart of the Christian is to rise up and say, I love your salvation. Can you say that? Can you say, I love your salvation? It just is wonderful, God. If you can't, something's wrong. Jesus says, or David and Jesus through him, identifies the specific people for whom he prays. In John 17, just as a quick note, Jesus does exactly the same thing. You remember that if you quickly turn there, we need to move on. And this is the danger when you use a different Bible and don't check where it is in the passage in the Bible you're preaching from. Yes, verse 9, Jesus says, I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. See, when Christ prays, he prays for specific people, his people. Like that in Psalm 70, Jesus prays for those who seek God himself and those who love God's salvation. He also, do you notice, he prays for the people's needs as if they were his own. Make haste, O God, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Verse 5, I am poor and needy. Hasten to me, O God. Now, of course, there's no problem in understanding how David used these words. He was up to his neck in trouble. He was in danger, close situation. So it's no problem saying David using these words. But what about Jesus? Can he pray like this when he's tucked up in the safety and wealth of heaven? Can Jesus say, help me, O God, I am poor and needy. And I would argue that, yes, he can. He can because of the intimate connection that exists between Him in heaven and His people on earth. He is the head and we are the body. He is part of us and we are part of Him. That doctrine of union with Christ that explains the logic of salvation. How do your sins become Christ's? How does his death become yours? How does his righteousness become yours in salvation? Because of your connection. God connects you with Christ. He is the head, you are the body. And all of the sins you ever committed, if you're a Christian, he becomes liable for because of that union. And all of the good things he ever did, you become beneficiaries of. It's a wonderful arrangement. And that union also helps us understand this doctrine of Christ's sympathy. As the writer of Hebrews says, we do not have a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Remember Saul on the Damascus road. When Jesus looks down and says to Saul, Saul, Saul, he doesn't say, why are you persecuting them? What does he say? He says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It's a wonderful thought. To touch one of God's children is to touch Jesus Christ in heaven. I shall encourage you. Christ prays for you, not as someone who's far off and distant, but he prays for you as if your hurts and your pain and your loneliness and your agony were his. I am poor and needy. That's how Christ prays to God when the church is suffering on earth. When Christians are being butchered in Somalia, in Africa, imprisoned in China. When churches are being attacked by the devil in Savannah. That's how Christ prays for you in your marriages when they're under attack. That's why Christ prays for you when you're wrestling with temptation. Father, I am poor and needy. What purchase those prayers must have upon the Father's heart in heaven? Not they, O God, but I. I'm connected to these people. They're mine. I love them. And because of them, I am poor and needy. I feel their pain. Rush to the help, O God. Isn't it encouraging? That's how Christ prays for you, not just some of the time, but all of the time. He always lives to make intercession for you, lifting up your prayers to God as if they are his own. And in fact, they are his own because of his connection with you. He's not distant. He's your brother. He's not ashamed to call you his brother and to represent you in heaven before the throne. of God's grace and mercy. So when you're overwhelmed and danger's close, remember your heavenly friend who prays for you as if your needs were his own, because they are his own. And thirdly, and finally, when Christ prays for you, he prays with three clear, specific priorities in mind. Speedy deliverance, solid joy, and satisfied appreciation. Speedy deliverance in God's time. Make haste, O God, to deliver them. Up until now, God has held back his sovereign salvation from these poor people. Danger is close, but there's one in heaven who prays, O God, hurry up and help them. Isn't that an encouragement? We can often think of God, and the devil loves to represent God as one who is entirely unconcerned for it. He's got his schedule, he doesn't care less about his people. He's marching along like those first world war generals sending thousands of troops to their death and not caring. They get wiped out, we'll send a thousand more, no problem, down the line. They have their big plan, that's all that matters for God and for country, or for country and for God. But not the David of this psalm and not Christ behind this David. He's saying, Oh God, hurry up. They need you now. Speedy deliverance in God's time. What an encouragement. Don't lose heart, Christians. That's the way Jesus prays for you this evening. Hurry up, Lord. Hurry up. Help that suffering marriage. Help that suffering boy with cancer. Help that man struggling to protect, to provide for his family. Help them. Do so in a hurry, O God. They need you now. Also praise solid joy in God himself. May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Lord, don't give them anything else but your best gift. Give them yourself and grant them joy in you. Let not trivial entertainment satisfy them, O God. Rescue them from those trivialities of the world. Let them find those solid joys and lasting pleasures that none but Zion's children know. For in your presence, there's fullness of joy. And at your right hand, there is there are pleasures forevermore. What would change in your life if that prayer of Jesus was answered? Will you find God to be supremely satisfying? How would it affect your work life and your home life and your leisure time if you really find God to be supremely satisfying? That's what Christ is praying for you. May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you, not in your gifts, but in you, O God, in you. Speedy deliverance in God's time, solid joy in God himself, and satisfied appreciation of God's greatness. May those who love you, your salvation, say evermore, God is great. That's what Christ wants. He wants you to be awestruck at God's greatness. Here we see another great contrast between Christianity and Islam. The Muslim snaps a bomb to his body if he really believes the Quran. He stands in the midst of infidels. He detonates himself. His last words before he does, Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar! And His declaration brings death. For the Christians who have been saved by God, when they cry out, God is great, it brings life and love across the world. As the knowledge of God, the God who loves His enemies. And His favourite work is salvation, not forcing people to submit to Him. but wooing them and drawing them with cords of lovingkindness to the Saviour. May they say, God is great. That is really the heart of all true worship. Not those words, but that conviction. Do you know anything of the greatness heart and soul of the Reformed faith. What does it mean? I was asked recently by a Veritas family at a school where my kids go. I was asked by a family we had dinner with last weekend and we were there and they asked us, what is the Reformed faith? We hear all these people talking about the Reformed faith. They're not Presbyterians. What is the Reformed faith? I answered different ways. The centrality of God, over all, the centrality and supremacy of God in everything. That God rules his world and his people by his word and that affects our understanding of salvation, that affects our understanding of worship and that affects our understanding of Christian calling and vocation in life. That wasn't a bad answer I suppose, but really The simpler answer is just to say, what is the reformed faith? It is the conviction, the really life-changing conviction that God is great. So great that He is to be given supreme place in everything. His word is to be obeyed in every facet and feature of life. And that all we do, from the least event, pulling weeds on your front lawn, all the way through to the great issues of our careers in life. Everything is to be done for the glory of God. Nothing is to be trivialised. Nothing is to be done in a Godless way of life as if God didn't matter. You can't put God in a time box. We give God an hour or five hours or six hours or ten. No, He owns everything. And in His greatness we say, yes, Lord, and we give it all to Him, serving Him and worshipping Him. And as Christ prays for us, that's what He wants. He wants God to be great in your mind. He wants your heart to be happy in God. And He wants God quickly to run and help you. It's interesting, the very last words of the Bible practically are, even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly. God is in a very real sense is in a hurry to save you from sin. It's pollution, it's penalty and it's presence. He can't wait to do it. He's moving all of the events of this world together to rescue you and bring you to a place of unparalleled peace and beauty and glory in the new heavens and the new earth. in which righteousness dwells, and all of that is true for all of God's children. And if you're not yet a Christian, seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he be near, and you'll know this great salvation as your own, and this great Jesus praying for you every moment of your life. Let's pray together.