20260906 Psalm 27.7-13 Sunday Sermon Mike Dickmann

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your help

thus far. You come now again to confess our need,

our weakness, our helplessness apart from you.

And indeed you would help us as we open your

word this morning, that you teach us all that

you would have us to know, that you enable me

to present the word in a manner that is glorifying

to you and helpful to all of us here. accomplish

your perfect purposes in the lives of your people

this morning. We pray again for the loss that

they might be found of you, that you would be

merciful, granting repentance and faith to some

who are yet in their sins. And we have asked

this also for other assemblies who are gathered

together in the truth of your word, that you

would be present among them as well in saving

your people out of their sins. So help me then,

once again, as I present the word. Help us all

to receive it. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.

Well, we're still in Psalm 27 this morning, if

you'd like to turn there with me. We saw the

beginning that the Lord is perfect. in all that

he does, that David and all of his people should

be fully confident in the Lord our God, that

he accomplishes his perfect purposes in us and

through us and with us, that we are the light

of the world because we have received the light

of the world. We're no longer in darkness, we're

no longer in the misty flats, but we're in the

light of God. And then we saw that the Psalm

of David, and as all of his children should,

delights in the communion of God. Delight to

get together with God. Have communion with Him.

What a privilege it is to commune with our God

through our Lord Jesus Christ. Today then we're

going to look at... I suppose what we would call

some specific prayer requests that David called

out for in his communion. And so we're going

to try to learn a few things this morning about

prayer. Yeah, even from the Old Testament we

can learn about prayer. And hopefully we can

and we will take these verses to heart. Examine

ourselves and profit from the word this morning.

So let's read these verses together. Beginning

at verse 7. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my

voice. Have mercy also upon me and answer me.

When thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said

unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. Hide

not thy face from me, put not thy servant away

in anger. Thou hast been my help, leave me not,

neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. When

my father and my mother forsake me, then the

Lord will take me up. Teach me thy way, O Lord,

and lead me in the plain path, because of mine

enemies. Deliver me not over unto the will of

mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen up

against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.

I had fainted unless I had believed to see the

goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

So that's quite a prayer, and we understand it

rightly. If we think about it and meditate on

it long enough, I think we can see all of life

encompassed in these prayer requests of David.

Certainly, they're not very specific, are they?

They're what we would probably classify as general

prayer requests. But in their generality, they

cover all of the specifics, I believe. I could

be mistaken. But a great deal of our lives in

Christ are covered in these requests. So he starts

off and he cries out, Hear, O Lord, when I cry

with my voice. Have mercy also upon me and answer

me. So we should have learned this already from

the preceding verses. All of our interactions

with the Lord are based on His mercy. He owes

us nothing but what He's promised to do. That,

if He is true to His own word, if He is God Almighty,

will come to pass. We can pray those promises

with utter confidence and surety. He's bound

Himself. To the care of his children. What a

wonderful thought. He's bound himself unto us.

For all of our lives. To see us through. To take

us through. What a wonderful thing. So David

is acknowledging that. And he's asking in all

sincerity. all of his desire to be heard by God.

David wants God to hear him. And what does he,

he says, hear my voice. Now here's a clue. Some

of us, we have problems sometimes in our thinking

prose. We have problems controlling our thought

processes. We get distracted, perhaps. Maybe

it happens quite often. I don't know. I know

it happens. The frequency of it, I don't know.

We're all different. But David said when he hears

his voice. So here's the solution. If you pray

out loud, it'll never happen. Have you ever heard

somebody praying? And all of a sudden he starts

talking about what he's going to do in the afternoon.

It doesn't happen. David's telling us he's praying

out loud. The Lord's going to hear his voice.

So again, in the old days, it seemed anyway to

be much more practiced. A verbal prayer in the

quiet place of our closet. I don't know if that's

still going on today or not. But if you have

problems in this area. And it's really hard perhaps.

Pray out loud. And the problems will disappear.

And remember. The privilege it is to go into

God's presence. He told us to come. He called

us to come into his presence. He receives us

as children. And that's all true. But David is

not presumptuous here in any regard. This is

the Old Testament again. But let's just make

sure that we are not overly presumptuous. That

we're not... Barging in that we're not rude.

That we're mindful that this is our father. That

we're mindful that we are his children. We're

mindful of all that we receive is of mercy. David

certainly was. But he lived before Christ. But

we can still learn and should learn. The proper

attitude in prayer is one of dependence. And

mercy. So he goes on. And he says. When thou

said unto me. Seek my face. My heart. Or. My

inner being. My very being. Said unto thee. Thy

face Lord will I seek. There's a great lesson

there. There's a wonderful lesson. The Lord said,

seek my face. Where do we seek his face? We seek

it in the word. It's not out there in the sky.

It's not in the forest. It's not by the stream.

God's face is in his word. And it's in the relationship

between the word and the spirit. And when the

spirit gets a hold of the word and has that,

has that word particularly for you, for me, and

applies that to ourselves, bingo! There's nothing

better than that. There's nothing better than

a sure word of God when you seek His face. He's

told us to do it. And David says, I... I have

responded to what you said. I have sought your

face. Are we content with seeing the backside

of God? Are we content to skirt around the edges?

Or will we be totally and honestly open and committed

to our God? To have our God? Above all else.

To know the face of God in our personal relationship

with him. You know we're looking forward to that.

Aren't we face to face? We're going to see him

as he is. We'll have a time for that. But this

is telling us. Yeah we're not going to see a

physical face. But we are going to see. We are

going to know. We are going to experience. A

closeness in our relationship with God. That

is expressed as. Face to face. It is possible.

It does happen. And it's not automatic. So don't

be presumptuous. Seek his face. He's told you

to do it. He's told us all, seek me, seek me,

seek me. Knock. You will find me. you will be

answered. The privilege of prayer, the privilege

of communion with God, the utter necessity of

prayer in our communion with God. Now he goes

on in verse 9. And he says, Hide not thy face

from me. Put not thy servant away in anger. Thou

hast been my help, leave me not. Neither forsake

me, O God of my salvation. I venture to say that

nobody in this room has ever prayed that. Have

we? Maybe if you ever felt your sin enough. Maybe

if you ever fell into sin enough, we may have

had an occasion to pray that. When our sins weighed

us down so heavily that we couldn't believe that

we are God's son or daughter. That we might have

actually felt forsaken of God, even though we

weren't. Our circumstances perhaps are overwhelming.

We've experienced things that we've never thought

we would experience. We've already heard testimony

of it. Is God with me now? Can I really go face

to face with God now? He seems so far from me.

Well, just the opposite is the case. When you

feel your need of Him the most is when you should

be running to Him the most. And then you should

be anticipating actually communing with Him face

to face and receiving from Him everything that

you need in this particular time, place, circumstance,

whatever it is. God delights to have his children

call upon him in that way. He's waiting for us

to. He's bidding us to. Again, it's mercy. It's

coming in humility. Coming with nothing in our

hands. But coming in surety. God has helped us

in the past. Will he abandon me now? God has

saved me. How can he let me go? He can't. He'll

keep me. I'm persuaded that he will. I know that

he will. He's given us the most important thing,

his only begotten son. Made us at one with Him.

How can He withhold all the rest? We simply need

to come and seek from Him that which we need.

And what a glorious time it will be. And it may

not be immediate. You may go through something

for quite a while. But when it comes, it comes.

And there's nothing like it. And it never gets

old. He goes on and he says, when my father and

my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take

me up. Then the Lord will gather me up. He will

gather me under his wings. He'll throw his arms

around me. He'll make up for every loss I've

ever experienced. What greater loss could there

be than the closest human relationship fails?

Your mother and your father have failed you.

They've cast you off. They forgot about you.

Maybe they weren't any very good to begin with,

and now they're gone completely. Whatever the

circumstances is, it may not be necessarily that

you're father and mother, but maybe your best

bosom friend has forsaken you. That's what's

represented here. If this closest relationship,

and it does include all the other relationships

that we have in this life. Are we afraid we're

going to lose something for serving Christ? Are

we afraid that if everybody knows that we're

Christians, that that's going to be a loss? That

they're going to turn their backs? That they're

going to forget about us? That we're not going

to be given the promotion at work or whatever

the case may be if they think I'm a servant of

Christ? Is that our attitude? Well, please adjust

your attitude. You want just the opposite. You

want everybody and his brother to know you're

a Christian. You want the opportunity to speak

to people about the Lord. And work is just the

perfect example. I've never had so much fun in

my life when I was a kid. I got saved in a factory.

I was a union representative in the steel workers'

union. And everybody knew me. We had three shifts.

Everybody knew me. They knew what I was, and

they knew who I was. And then all of a sudden,

they didn't know me at all. Because all of a

sudden, the Lord came into my life. But I had

all those acquaintances that knew me who I was

and how I acted and what I did. And now I had

all those opportunities to speak the truth of

the love of God in my heart. That's what we want.

He gathers us up. He protects us. He uses us.

He gives us purpose. He gives us a family. Do

I feel a responsibility for all of you folks?

I sure do. Do you feel a responsibility for me?

I hope you do. It's a family. It's the blood

of Christ that unites us. And there needs nothing

else. The Lord will take me up. The Lord will

gather me up. He will see me through. So then

he says, Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me

in a plain path because of mine enemies. Notice

what he doesn't say. Lord, lead me in the path

that I want to go. Teach me to walk according

to your way. That's what he wants. He doesn't

want the Lord to come and help him along the

path he's chosen for himself. That's two different

things. And hopefully we recognize this all of

our lives because we're going to experience all

of our lives in this way. We're always going

to have a choice. We're going to go do things

the Lord's way or we're going to do them our

way and pray for the Lord's blessing upon us.

And that's no good. You don't make a decision

and then go ask the Lord to bless that decision.

That's what I'm saying. If you don't seek the

Lord first, forget it. Don't even bother. He

might be gracious and merciful, and we know He

is, and save you from going down all these crazy

paths with all these wrong ideas. Maybe so. But

that's presumption. Seek the Lord first. And

pray for a simple plain path. Because we live

in a dreadful place. Full of temptations. Full

of the world, the flesh, the devil. It's all

around us. And think we can stand without the

help and leadership of the Lord. It's presumptuous.

It's pride. It's sin. Before you make any decision,

seek the Lord. Be willing to go in whatever direction

He leads. And we should pray like this. We should

pray this constantly. Keep me from my own will,

Lord. Keep me on Your path. And please, Lord,

make it plain because I'm a simple man. I need

easy instructions. I need to be brought along

so I can be safe in your way. How many times

do we demand to see the end in the beginning?

Again, that's the impossibility. Sometimes the

Lord will open it up long down the road. Sometimes

he'll open it up for one step. Which are you

going to do? Do you need the whole way? Can you

walk one step at a time? That's a huge prayer

that David has just uttered. I can only hope

that we have all uttered it many times. We need

God's leading on God's way for God's glory, for

the good of his people, for our own safety. How's

that? He says in 12, deliver me not over unto

the will of mine enemies, for false witnesses

are risen up against me, and such as breathe

out cruelty. Again, it's the world we live in.

We're fortunate here. We've been spared physical

tortures and abuses and deaths. We have suffered

none of those things. So again, don't be presuming

upon God. It can all change in a night's time.

And even if it doesn't, all of the spiritual

realities of the world, the flesh, and the devil

are all still going to be there. Trying to trip

us up. Trying to ruin our testimony. Laying temptations

before us. They're our enemies. He closes it

out in 13. He says, I would have fainted. I never

would have made it unless I had believed to see

the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Here it is. He says it right before us. What

did he say? He says, I had believed to see. Let's

always get those in right order. It's never see

to believe. It's always believe to see. Faith,

in other words. Faith is the key. Lord, strengthen

my faith. Lord, give me more faith. Lord, send

me somebody that will encourage my faith. Lord,

enable me to encourage someone's faith. Lord,

give me a book to read that will grow me in the

truth and knowledge of Jesus Christ. We believe

to see. And what do we believe? We believe in

the sovereignty of God. We believe in the goodness

of God. We believe in the mercy of God. We believe

in the all -knowingness of God. We believe in

the all -powerfulness of God. You say, I'm not

seeing a lot of that stuff, right? That's right.

Do you believe it? I'm not asking if you see

it all the time. If your faith is right, you'll

see it. But there'll be plenty of times when

you have a doubt here and a doubt there. Look,

you're alive if you're still in the flesh. Faith

has got to overrule those times. Believe to see.

That's what kept David going. He was confident

that the Lord was going to act. That the Lord

was going to accomplish his purposes. That he

might even have something for David to do. To

further the goodness of God. To make the light

shine brighter. To bring some new people in.

To share the good news of Christ. The land of

the living. It starts now. God's kingdom is now.

We're living in God's kingdom now. It is a future

hope as well. But we're experiencing it now.

Not nearly the degree and the extent that we

will when we get there. But we're experiencing

it now. The goodness of God in the land of the

living. Nothing can overpower God. Nothing. Nothing

is happening that's out of his control. His eye

is on the sparrow. We've been singing about this

stuff all morning. Hopefully you've recognized

it in the song. The testimonies. Believe to see.

Have faith. Trust in the Lord. He will direct

your way. We heard that this morning. So that's

the prayer of David. It's a glorious thing. It's

wonderful to commune with God in such a fashion.

To have that confidence that is ours as his children.

We all can have this degree of confidence. We

can all have this amount of communion with our

God. If we want it. If our desire is for him.

Above all else. So I got one more week. To bring

the word. And it's going to be on verse 14. Next

week. So I'll see you then.