Do Good in Thy Good Pleasure

Introduction: The Unique Climax of Psalm 51

0:02 I invite you to turn with me to the 51st Psalm.

0:12 The Apostle Paul said on one occasion, this is the second time I'm writing to you. I would say this is the 16th time I have said to you, let us turn to the 51st Psalm. And this 16th exposition will be our concluding exposition, but I trust certainly not our concluding consideration of this psalm. Now, if but a half a dozen of you have begun to learn to use this psalm in your own devotional exercises, times when you sense your need of the cleansing of God's grace and renewing of His Spirit, I trust that at least to say if a half a dozen people have learned to incorporate this psalm into the bloodstream of their own spiritual experience, then the time has been worthwhile. I'm not naive enough to think, all of you have done it, maybe I'm pessimistic in setting the number at a half a dozen. I don't know, but I do trust at least that many have found it of abiding profit. We come now to the 18th and 19th verses of this psalm, which are in a very real sense wholly unique in the psalm.

1:29 For up until verse 18, David's consideration is almost primarily and exclusively, definitely primarily, almost exclusively with himself. And all of his petitions relate to his own spiritual state and his own spiritual needs, and others are mentioned simply in terms of what will happen to others if his own needs are met. He says that ask God to open his lips, that he might show forth his praise, and if he has restored joy, sinners would be converted. But in this section of the psalm, these concluded two verses, David, as it were, shifts gears and moves now into petitions that do not relate to himself, but are wholly occupied with the people of God and with the interest of the kingdom of God. Now, the transition is so marked that some liberal commentators have tried to say, well, it's obvious David could not have penned this psalm because the last two verses so obviously point to a later time in the history of Israel when the walls had been broken down and there was need for restoration, such as in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, that the traditional position that this is a psalm of David should be chucked, it should be jettisoned. Well, you see, that reflects an attitude of mind that is completely unbecoming to a professing Christian. The attitude of the Christian is not,

2:56 I come to this thing and at the first indication that things don't fit, I chuck a given position that seems to be biblical and have the weight of time on its side. But the attitude of the Christian is, I hold my judgment in abeyance until I've pursued every avenue of possibility to justify the position of these petitions in this particular psalm. And I trust as we study together tonight, we will be convinced that in no way are the 18th and 19th verses some kind of an unwanted appendage to the psalm, but in a very real sense are a glorious climax of the petitions. These are the petitions of David in the 51st Psalm.

3:40 Now, as we've done in other nights, let us look at the words themselves, what they mean, and then seek to extract the abiding lessons of those words to us. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion. Build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering, then shall they offer bullets upon thine altar.

David's Petition for Zion and Jerusalem

4:14 In the 18th verse, David's petition is, Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion. And it's obvious that Zion here is synonymous with Jerusalem, for in the latter part of the same verse he says, Build thou the walls of Jerusalem. The substance of David's prayer in the 18th verse is this, that God would be pleased to grant tokens of his favor to his peculiar people and particularly to the people of God at Jerusalem. Now, in a very real sense, the state of Jerusalem was a barometer or a thermometer to give you an indication of the condition of the people of God in general. You remember that Jerusalem was the last to go into captivity. First of all, the ten northern tribes went into captivity under Assyria, and then when God's judgment was ripe upon the nation of Israel, the last segment to go into captivity was Jerusalem, and God allowed the heathen kings to come in and utterly raze the walls, R-A-Z-E, bring them down to the ground, and to bring Judah into captivity into Babylon. And God had given peculiar promises concerning Zion, concerning Jerusalem.

5:35 We find one such promise in the 132nd Psalm, that I think will be a helpful background to our understanding of David's prayer. Psalm 132, verses 13 and 14. For the Lord hath chosen Zion, he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest forever, here will I dwell, for I have desired it.

6:07 I will abundantly bless her provision, I will satisfy her poor with bread, I will also clothe her priest with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud for joy. There, that is Zion, Jerusalem, will I make the horn of David to bud, I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed. It was at Jerusalem that God had ordained the building of the temple, and so in a peculiar way, when the glory of God filled the temple, God was taking up his dwelling place, at Jerusalem. So as David is concerned for the prosperity of the work of God, he focuses his petition upon the blessing of God upon Zion, upon Jerusalem.

6:52 Now notice that for which he particularly prays. Build thou the walls of Jerusalem. This does not have to be pressed as a petition that God would literally raise up the walls, for if you press it literally, David is asking God to come down from heaven and to become a mason. Not of the 32nd order or something, I don't mean that kind of mason, but a man who works with mortar and brick and stone.

7:21 And certainly David is not praying that God would become a mason and come down and construct the wall of Jerusalem. The poetic imagery of the wall of Jerusalem indicating God's protective presence, God setting apart the people of God at Jerusalem as a peculiar people, is found elsewhere in the word of God, even several places in the Psalms. Notice in the 80th Psalm, as the Psalmist is lamenting the pathetic state of Israel and is crying to God for revival, he uses this picture, beginning with verse 8, Psalm 80 and verse 8. Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt. Now was Israel actually a piece of a limb? No, this is poetic language. Thou broughtest a vine out of Egypt and thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it.

8:17 Thou preparest room before it and didst cause it to take deep root and it filled the lands, the hills were covered, etc. Now verse 12, Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which do pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. Is he saying that the literal walls were broken down so that literal boars, that is wild pigs, were coming by and eating up the vegetables and eating up the vegetation?

8:52 No, not at all. He's using poetic imagery. It's the picture of the people of God being planted and then hedged about with protective hedges and now the hedges have been broken down and the destructive influences have been allowed to come and ravish the people of God. Notice in the 89th Psalm and the 40th verse a similar reference.

9:14 Thou hast broken down all his hedges, thou hast brought his strongholds to ruin all that pass by the way, spoil him, he is a reproach to his neighbors. Well then with this understanding that we need not press these words into a wooden literalism but understanding that David may have in mind the poetic imagery, the poetic imagery of Jerusalem, the people of God, being the well-protected plans of God and whenever sin and the judgment of God come upon them, the hedge is broken down, what is the substance of David's prayer? I believe it's this. Nathan had said to David, David, though you've sinned, upon your confession of your sin the Lord hath put away thy sins, 2 Samuel 12. But he said, Nevertheless, the child shall not live for thou by this sin hast given the enemies of God occasion to blaspheme. The people of God were reproached because of David's sin. There was in this sense, you see, a destroying of the hedges that surrounded Jerusalem and made her a glory and the praise in the earth.

10:29 And when the word gets out that this man who was supposedly a man after God's own heart, this man who was one of whom God said, God spoke, David, who shall do all my pleasure, who had mighty conquest by the power of God, the sweet psalmist, the sweet hymn writer of Israel, when word goes out of his dastardly deeds of adultery and murder, imagine how this would be cast into the teeth of the people of God. You've had this happen when a professing Christian friend falls into some grievous sin and the enemies of God who are just looking for inconsistencies, what do they do? They come and they cast that thing in your teeth. They say, aha, look, there's your Christian.

11:09 Look at him now. Look at him now. And apparently David recognized, if this is the thought of his prayer and according to my own present light I believe it is, David recognizes that harm has come to the total body of God's people at Jerusalem and to the glory of God established in Jerusalem and so having been restored himself, his cry is, O God, not only do I ask Thee to restore me, but O Lord, restore the effects of my sin upon Thy people and upon Thy glory as it should be established and should radiate out from Zion, from the city of Jerusalem. So that seems to be the substance of David's prayer in verse 18 and then in verse 19 he says, Lord, if You will do this, if You will restore the effects of my sin upon Thy people, if You will once again lift up the light of Your countenance with favor and blessing upon Zion, then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, that is, sacrifices that are offered from people who are standing before Thee in right relationship to Thee with burnt offering and whole burnt offering, then shall they offer bullocks upon Thine altar. He had stated in verse 17,

Acceptable Sacrifices from a Restored People

12:37 16 and 17, Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. In other words, in 16 and 17 David had said, God doesn't want even the sacrifices He has appointed until the light is right with Him.

13:02 Now the balancing truth is there when the light is right with Him and when the favor of God is upon His people, then He does delight as they worship Him according to His revealed pattern. In that day, the revealed pattern of worship was sacrifices, burnt offerings upon the altar of God. But even God-appointed worship will never substitute for true repentance and confession. But having repented and having confessed and having been restored, God will now be pleased with the offering up of these sacrifices.

13:40 Now, without going into detail, this would make an interesting study for you. You can see how this happened with almost every revival in Israel. Israel was going through the motions of sacrifice and temple worship in a terrible state. And then God, or sometimes they even left it off as in the days of Hezekiah.

13:58 They boarded up the temple. Now certainly God didn't want them just to open up the temple and start offering sacrifices. Hezekiah, as recorded in 2 Kings 18 and 2 Chronicles 29, had the Levites go in and clean out the temple. And there was confession of sin, making things right.

14:17 But always after this, there was a reinstitution of sacrifice and of the sacrificial system. These men saw that reinstituting God-appointed worship was fruitless until men's hearts were right. But when their hearts were right, God would now be pleased with appointed sacrifices, namely the offering up of burnt offerings and bullets. That was the Cadillac sacrifice.

14:44 That was the most expensive sacrifice. Offering up a bullet was the expression of the highest abandonment of worship unto God. So David acknowledges that principle in this text. So much then for the core of the meaning of these words.

Spiritual Health and Concern for God's Kingdom

15:02 Now, what is the abiding message of verses 18 and 19 of the 51st Psalm? When you're praying through this Psalm, what should you understand about the relationship of these two verses to what has preceded? Well, let me suggest three or four as time permits and as my voice holds out. I was preaching and answering questions for about two and a half hours this afternoon.

15:29 In fact, it was until about quarter after six. I just about made it to our own evening service. I was privileged to have a ministry in another church in a town or two away. So as long as this holds out, why, maybe we'll get three points, possibly four.

15:43 The first lesson, David recognized and we must recognize the relationship between spiritual health and vital concern for the kingdom of God. Certainly in this period of the year when David was lying down under the power of this sin, unconfessed, unrepented, he had no genuine concern for the extension of God's kingdom or for the health and vigor of God's people. You know and your experience affirms, confirms my statement that when you have a conscious controversy with God, any supposed interest in the kingdom of God is nothing but sham. You have no real vital concern for the extension of the kingdom of God, no vital concern for the people of God. Why? Because you have been encased by the condemnation of your own conscience. And you read the 6th Psalm and the 32nd Psalm and you get a picture of this.

16:45 David says, Day and night thy hand was heavy upon me. I make my couch to swim with my tears. He speaks of bitterness of soul. Here in this very Psalm he says, I have no joy.

16:56 You've broken my bones. There is that inner pain like the pain of a broken bone. And a man in that state is not free enough from himself to be involved in the interest of God's kingdom. But you let that same man come by the way of confession and repentance to a place where joy in the Holy Ghost is restored.

17:18 Once again the consciousness of the smile of God upon his face is reconstituted. Once again he knows what it is to be upheld by the free Spirit of God. And that man will then begin to reach out in his concern for others of the people of God, those who may have been affected by his sin, those who may in some sense be bearing the fruit of his own personal sin. The heart that is freshly touched by the grace of God will instinctively be enlarged in its interest and concern for the others, for others of the people of God and for the work of God's kingdom.

17:58 Now this is a tremendous principle. First of all it's a principle to explain why much of the time we can't, if our life depended upon it, generate three ounces of genuine concern for the work of God's kingdom. It's because there's something defective in our relationship to the Lord. It does no good to tell the people of God, clobber them over the head, you ought to be praying for the souls of men, you ought to be praying for missions, you ought to be praying for the church and try to whip the people of God into a healthy state of true concern for the work of God's kingdom.

18:36 If there is no concern in your heart tonight for God's building the walls of Jerusalem, that God in his good pleasure would do good unto Zion. Who is Zion? What is Zion? The New Testament tells us.

18:49 Ye are come unto Mount Zion, unto the heavenly Jerusalem, God's dwelling place, his church, his people. And if you're not concerned about that, if there is no spontaneous prayer, if you don't find that at least in some measure when you're praying your heart goes out for others, then this is not a cause, this is a symptom. This is a symptom that something has narrowed you down to the sphere of your own selfish concerns. For there is an inseparable relationship between the healthy soul and concern for the kingdom of God.

19:26 So I'll not be found beating the people of God over the head because they don't pray. This is why I don't try to cajole and tease and reward people into coming to prayer meetings or any kind of meetings. A lot of churches operate on the basis that if you sort of imitate Hollywood or the side show and have something different all the time and give people a prize, there are some churches down south I read recently who have even given out green stamps if you came to the service. Yes, so many green stamps for the morning service, so many green stamps for the evening service.

19:59 Wonderful state of affairs when the green stamps must be used to somehow bait the people of God. You see, the problem with that is they fail to recognize that people's indifference to the house of God is symptomatic. It's symptom of a deeper cause. Now any doctor who simply treats symptoms is a quack.

20:21 He isn't fit to keep his license. And if enough people discovered this and went to the proper authorities, he'd lose his license. A doctor does not treat symptoms alone. He may have to start if there's a real problem there to tie up the particular area that's causing the problem or stitch up the wound or something else.

20:44 But he goes to causes and seeks to treat causes. And so when there is no concern for the ongoing of the kingdom of God, it is symptomatic of an unhealthy state of soul. So if I pray through the 51st Psalm and I'm content to stop with verse 7, and I'm just so happy that I feel good again, and my conscience is no longer tormenting me, and my spirit is no longer oppressed, and I'm willing to stop there, I'd better be careful. This may be some kind of pseudo-deceptive spiritual experience for all valid experience will lead us to follow David right through the first 17 verses on into the 18th and 19th where our hearts cry out for the working of God in the midst. In the midst of his people. Well, so much then for that first principle. There is this relationship between spiritual health and concern for the kingdom of God.

Divine Sovereignty and the Prayers of God's People

21:43 Secondly, David clearly understood the relationship that existed between divine sovereignty and the prayers of God's people. Notice the essence of his, the substance of his prayer in verse 18. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion. He says, Lord, if anything happens for Zion that could be called good, it will be because of thy good pleasure.

22:13 In other words, Lord, you work according to the pleasure of your own heart. I cannot cajole thee, I cannot somehow earn thy blessing, five pounds of prayer, five pounds worth of blessing in return. This idea that you put a nickel in the slot and get out a nickel's worth of candy, you give a nickel's worth of prayer and God's bound to give you a nickel's worth of blessing, this is a heathen concept. Our Lord said, the heathen think they shall be heard for what?

22:40 Their much speaking. Put in the dime, you get that much more. More prayers, more blessing. Now, there's just a little element of truth in that that has been perverted so that people actually have this idea that we can sort of buy off the blessing of God.

22:56 David didn't have that concept. He knew that if anything happened and good was to be done to Zion, it would be according to the good pleasure of God. If the walls were to be built, God must build them. But, recognizing that, he doesn't say, well, if God alone can do it and God does it according to His good pleasure, you can't fight a God like that, you best just better sit down and hope He'll do something.

23:21 No. Recognizing this, he still pleads. Do good. This is his crop.

23:27 He recognized that relationship that exists between the prayers of God's people and the actings of a sovereign God. I doubt David understood any more clearly than any of us do how those two things stand together. I don't understand it. In fact, at times to me, if it wasn't taught in the Bible, I'd say anyone was crazy who tried to tell me that the God who was in operation long before I came on the scene and was handling things well made the worlds, the infinite galaxies and all the rest, that this God should actually work in response to the whimperings of a poor little creature of flesh, the likes of me. Now, if any, ever I'd be tempted to tell anyone he was crazy and out of his head, it'd be if he told me something like that. And yet that's exactly what the Scripture says. ...all unto me,

24:24 and I will answer. Ye have not, because ye ask not. Concerning the work of my hands, command ye me. Well, David apparently was baffled by this.

24:36 I'm sure he was. I'm sure at times he meditated on this relationship, but he didn't allow the fact that he couldn't understand it to keep him from walking in the light of it. Notice a passage which sets these two things together so beautifully in the 36th chapter of Ezekiel. Some of you perhaps have had problems with people who've come and said, I believe that doctrine.

25:03 You believe that God is sovereign. That's nothing but fatalism. I'd sit back and fold my hands and just say, What will be, will be. Perhaps you've heard the statement about the man who professed to believe that way.

25:16 And someone taunted him by saying, Well, when you fall down the stairs, what do you do? Look up at the bottom and say, Well, I'm glad that's over with. You see the idea that, Well, it was inevitable. What will be, will be.

25:26 That kind of fatalism. Well, how do you answer people like that? Well, notice this tremendous passage in the 36th of Ezekiel. God begins by stating in the 25th verse what he will do.

25:39 Perhaps we should even back up. Verse 23. I will sanctify my great name. Verse 24.

25:48 I will take you from among the heathen. Verse 25. I will sprinkle clean water upon you. Verse 26.

25:56 A new heart also will I give you. Verse 27. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. And ye shall keep my judgments and do them.

26:07 Verse 29. I will save you. Verse 30. I will multiply the fruit of the tree.

26:12 All of these things God says he's going to do. And then he summarizes in verse 32. Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord. Be it known unto you.

26:21 Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord in the day that I shall cleanse you from your iniquities. I will cause you to dwell. God is saying over and over again, this will be done not because of anything in you, but because I purpose to do it and that's the only reason.

26:40 And yet how does he conclude it? Notice verse 37. Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. I will do.

26:57 I will do. I will do. I will do. Yet I will be inquired of to do it for them.

27:03 And there you have those two things joined together. Inseparable. God working according to his own sovereign pleasure and purpose for nothing in his people. Either foreseen or actually in them at that point.

27:17 God says I don't do it for your sakes. I do it because I purpose to do it. And yet wonder of wonders, he said I'll be inquired of to do it for them. You say I don't understand that.

27:30 Neither do I. But God declares. And David apparently understood that principle. And I trust as we pray through the 51st Psalm, we too will understand that principle.

27:41 Where sin has done its devastating work in us and it has affected others and we're going to see in a minute that it always affects others. God alone can restore the effect of our sin. God alone can restore the effects of the sin individually. God alone can restore the effects of that sin corporately.

28:02 If Jerusalem is to know health and blessing, it must be according to the good pleasure of God. For we have forfeited blessing by virtue of our sin. But moreover I will be inquired of to do it for them. And so David recognizing this prays, do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion.

Spiritual Health and Acceptable Worship

28:24 Fill thou the walls of Jerusalem. And then there's a third principle in these two verses which I trust will be helpful to us in our own spiritual experience. David recognized the relationship between spiritual health and acceptable worship. He says, Lord, if you'll do a fresh thing for Zion, then Zion's worship will be acceptable.

28:54 Do good in thy good pleasure. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness. God ordained sacrifices offered up by people who were not walking in righteousness actually became sin and an abomination unto God. In Proverbs 15 and verse 8 we have a categorical statement of this.

29:21 Proverbs 15 and verse 8. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. Even though God has ordained sacrifice and the man brings the sacrifice exactly as God commanded. He brings it in the proper way, presents it to the priest.

29:45 The priest offers it upon the altar. God never viewed the sacrifice separated from the one who brought it. This was true of the first sacrifice recorded in scripture and it sets the precedent for every sacrifice that follows. Notice in the third chapter of Genesis the record of Cain and Abel bringing their sacrifices.

30:06 I'm sorry, the fourth chapter of Genesis. Genesis 4 and verse 3. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord and Abel brought of the firstlings of the flock and of the fat thereof. Now notice.

30:25 And the Lord had respect unto two things. Abel, his person and to his sacrifice or his offering, his worship. But unto Cain, his person and to his offering, his worship he had not respect. See the two things join?

30:46 God never viewed the sacrifice as a thing in itself. It's as though God always saw with the sacrifice the hand of the man and the heart of the man and the life of the man who presented it and that hand and heart and life either cancelled the validity of the sacrifice or made it an acceptable sacrifice unto God. Now David saw that. That's why he said in those previous verses, Lord, it's not enough for me who've been out of fellowship with you in sin to simply do what a good Jew is supposed to do and offer up a sin offering.

31:18 No, Lord. Until my heart is broken for sin what good will it do to lay open the heart of a lamb with a knife? Lord, first of all, put the knife of conviction and contrition into my breast. Then when I come and offer that sacrifice unto thee from a broken heart you'll accept the broken body of that little lamb.

31:39 For with it will go my broken heart. Now, of course, the application to us who live this side of the cross is just as clear. God has appointed prayer for his people. God's appointed our gathering together like this.

31:56 Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. God has appointed the singing of hymns and praises to him. We read in Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3 as singing one to another with songs and hymns and spiritual songs making melody in your heart unto the Lord. I will that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.

32:16 These are the sacrifices God wants. The sacrifice of praise. Hebrews 13. By him therefore let us offer continually the sacrifice of praise.

32:25 The sacrifice of our giving. Philippians. Paul says that your gifts have come as an odor of a sweet smell unto God. A sacrifice acceptable in his sight.

32:36 Now, these are what we would call the New Testament sacrifices. Praise. The giving of our tithes and offerings. Corporate prayer.

32:43 But oh beloved, we need to recognize what David did. God has absolutely no respect to these things apart from our relationship to them. And every voice that's lifted up in praise God sees the man, the heart, the spirit behind that voice and the expression of praise is accepted or rejected in terms of the heart and life. Now, if we recognize that as David did, see what it would do?

33:18 Just as David did not dare offer a sacrifice until he had come with the true sacrifice of the broken and the contrite heart. Oh, what would happen if we dared not come to a Sunday morning worship service to open our mouths in praise until we were sure that the heart behind that mouth was right before God. All our accounts right up to date. Any controversies with God settled.

33:48 Any areas where we've been hedging on the Lord or with His people or with one another all brought up to date. Don't you think as God bore witness to the acceptability how, I don't know, but as God bore witness to the acceptability of the offering of Abel as opposed to Cain. And as God bore witness time and time again to acceptable offerings before God, by sending fire from heaven or manifesting His presence. Oh, beloved, don't you believe God would love to bear witness from heaven that our offering of praise was acceptable by sending His Spirit down upon us in power?

34:26 That's what He did in the book of Acts. That sacrifice of praise and worship that came up in the fourth chapter of Acts was answered with a witness from heaven. He shook the building as if to say, I'm pleased with your sacrifice. I want to let you know that I am.

34:42 And the chairs began to dance around the room. Well, you see, we're not asking God to make chairs dance around the room. But we want what that signified. An answer from heaven that the sacrifice of praise and prayer was what? Acceptable.

34:57 Isn't that what you long for? That's what I long for. And how God will bear witness, I do not know. Sometimes perhaps with deep conviction.

35:07 So that as you read in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul says, if the unbeliever comes into your midst, the thoughts of his heart are laid bare, and he falling down on his face will cry, God is of a truth among you. Sometimes God will bear witness to the acceptability of the praise and sacrifices of worship of His people by a deep spirit of conviction. Other times it may be with abounding joy. Other times with a new spirit of boldness.

35:35 Other times with a spirit of brokenness. We never know how God would bear witness from heaven. But oh, the expectancy there be. You just wonder, what's the Lord going to do today?

35:46 And you come together with hearts prepared to offer acceptable sacrifices. And oh, the joy of having God bear witness from heaven. Now is this just some kind of a mystical itch that I have? Or is this a scripturally based longing for my own life and for us as His people?

36:05 Beloved, the thing that should mark us off from every other religion in the world is that we should be called the people of the presence. Not P-R-E-S-E-N-T-S, but P-R-E-S-E-N-C-E. The people of the presence. God in the midst of His people.

36:26 Well, David recognized this. So often the people of God have failed to recognize it. In the first chapter of Isaiah is the declaration of the prophet to a whole group of Israelites who completely forgot this principle, even though they had the 51st Psalm probably to help them. God had to speak in such strong language and say to His people as recorded in Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 11, What purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me?

36:57 I am full of burnt offerings of ram and of the fat of fed beast. I delight not in the blood of bullets or of lambs or of he goats when you come to appear before Me. Who hath required this of your hand to tread My courts? Bring no more vain oblations, incenses and abominations unto Me.

37:18 What was wrong? They were offering the right sacrifice. They were offering it the right way. But you see, the life that offered it was wrong.

37:27 And so God said, That which you bring is an abomination, though I have ordered it, and you bring it in the right way. Externally, what I want is the broken heart. Oh, beloved, may God teach us the inseparable relationship between the state of spiritual hell and acceptable worship. And this fits in with one of the goals that I set forth last week.

The Individual Saint and the People of God

37:51 What would happen if we individually, and I can't emphasize this enough, if individually we felt the burden of this, not the idea, Well, I'll be lost in the hundred people next Sunday morning, and so if I am out of touch with God and all out of sorts with the Lord and with His people, it doesn't make too much difference. But if I fear, lest I should be a hindrance to God, bearing witness from heaven of the acceptability of our worship, and I cry to Him to search me and to purify me and cleanse me, an unworthy sinner though I am, come with the consciousness that I have no conscious controversy with my Lord. Oh, how blessed it would be as God would bear witness to the acceptability of our worship. And then the last principle that I should like to bring to your attention that I believe is found in this passage, is that David recognized the relationship between the individual saint and all the people of God. For his prayer is for all the people of God. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion, build thou the walls of Jerusalem. In other words, David seemed to know that his sin, though it was between him and his God and only affected two other individuals directly, had far-reaching influence, like the circles that go out from the stone

39:18 dropped in the pond in ever-widening degrees till they splash on the shore. So the circles of the influence of David's sin had gone out in many directions. And David, acknowledging that, cries that God will in some sense repair the damage done to the people of God by the sin of one of the children of God. And that principle is found very clearly in the Scriptures.

39:45 It's taught in that story of Achan that all of us know. We've known it from our childhood. One individual took a Babylonish garment and a few shekels of silver and a wedge of gold that God had said you're not to take, hid them in his tent, and the whole nation came to a standstill. And when Joshua was on his face praying and crying to God, they went up against that little city of Ai after the mighty conquest of Jericho.

40:12 This is recorded in Joshua, I think, chapters 6 and 7. Joshua was on his face crying to God and the Lord says, Look, you've prayed enough. Time to stop praying and go to a meddling. There's sin in the camp and I want you to go ferret it out.

40:25 For until you get it out, no victory. No victory in the camp. And then the narrative goes on to say that they narrowed it down to Achan's family and then they came to Achan and Achan made confession and he was judged. He and his whole family were stoned to death and covered with stones.

40:41 And then they went up and took Ai and went on from conquest to conquest. The sin of one affected the health and vitality of the nation. And then the New Testament states this very clearly in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. We have a categorical statement that the sin as well as the blessing of the one affects the whole.

41:05 1 Corinthians chapter 12, having dealt with this whole matter of the unity in the body of Christ, the interdependence of the body, the hand meeting the foot, and the foot the hand, and the eye and the ear, all meeting one another. The apostle says in verse 26 of 1 Corinthians 12, and whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. Or if one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular.

41:42 Though we maintain our individuality in the body of Christ, and though in a very real sense every man stands or falls in terms of his own relationship to God, just as this finger must draw its own life from the blood stream, its own impulses from the nervous system, must operate on the basis of its own muscles, in that sense it's a unit all by itself, and yet in a very real sense it can't operate without the entire body, the entire body operating with it. For the messages come from the head that tell the finger to wiggle, and the blood that goes through bringing nourishment is pumped out from the heart that's here within the chest. And that's the thought that the apostle is dealing with here. Each one of us a particular distinct individual with particular distinct gifts and functions, but though we are individuals, though there is this individuality, there is not isolationism. The finger doesn't operate as a healthy finger, cut off and stuck on the shelf. The moment it's cut off, it loses its connection with the source of life.

42:50 And so the apostle says in this same way, if one member of the body suffers, all suffer with it. If one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Beloved, we affect one another. We affect one another.

43:03 And David realized this. His sin and then his year of spiritual barrenness had brought terrible effects. And now he is not content that he himself be restored, but that God do a work of restoration in the area where sin has brought devastation. Now you can apply this in a number of circles.

43:29 Take it in the circle of the family. If you as a husband got a controversy with God, to that extent, you can't bear your spiritual rule in the home. You can't be the priest unto God that you ought to be. And if you're not willing, and if you're not walking with God, to that extent, you can't be the nurture and help to your wife and children spiritually that you ought to be.

43:51 And in turn, they cannot be the witness and the salt in their neighborhood that they ought to be. And in turn, you see the ever-widening circles? You come to this assembly. I'm not talking about now that you need to always come feeling full of joy.

44:07 You know me well enough to know that I don't have that artificial view. I'm not talking about the saint of God coming with a burdened heart, coming with perplexity, coming with deep inner conflicts. But I'm talking about the saint of God who comes with conscious controversies with God. You've got issues that you know you ought to settle, but you aren't.

44:25 And you figure, oh, well, what's the difference? Those issues don't have anything to do with brother so-and-so and brother so-and-so. They don't. And you walk through that door, and there isn't the inner glow.

44:36 I'm not talking about a forced artificial thing, praise the Lord. No, I'm not talking about that. But if there isn't that inner glow of reality that communicates, to your brother, to that extent, you've robbed him of part of the fellowship that he deserves when he comes with God's people. And when we open our hymnals and begin to sing, and there is no song welling up out of a full heart and out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, and your praise lies half dead upon your tongue and may be utterly dead upon your heart, that's contagious.

45:07 Just as holy abandonment and enthusiasm in the worship of God are contagious, so are deadness. Lifelessness. And you affect the praise. And as you affect the praise of those about you, so that affects, you see, you don't live to yourself.

Conclusion: Longing for God's Work in Zion

45:24 The Scripture makes this clear. And when we begin to recognize that, the sense of responsibility, not only to God, but to His people, will begin to press down upon us and will cause us, like David, not only to pray that God will restore us when we have sinned, but that God would build the walls of Jerusalem and do good in His good pleasure to Zion, that He might bless His people and, as it were, make up the effects of our own spiritual barrenness. Well, I'm sure, as the Lord is pleased to spare you and me, and we pray over this psalm many, many times, God will give us new light as to some of the meaning and application of the 17th and 18th verses, or 18th and 19th verses, but I suggest these four that cause David to pray as he did. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion. Build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering.

46:28 Then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar. David saw the relationship between spiritual health and concern for the kingdom of God. That's why, frankly, I can't fathom a healthy Christian not wanting to come to prayer meetings unless he's providentially hindered, because here he can enter into the burdens of the kingdom of God. He's not content to come and receive Sunday after Sunday after Sunday.

46:57 He longs to cry to God that the pleasure of the Lord would prosper in his hands. So whenever God revives His church, what happens? Instead of being the poor little girl who never gets a date, why, the prayer meeting's the most popular girl on the block. See, her popularity ratings change.

47:16 Why? Because when the people of God get in a healthy state, they get concerned for the extension of the kingdom of God. Second principle that we see in the text, the relationship between divine sovereignty and the prayers of God's people. David understood it probably no less than we do, how it fit, but it fits together, and so he cries.

47:36 And so let us not be embarrassed to confess to the world, it's only the good pleasure of God that brings blessing, but we're crying to God that He'll give it. And if they say, well, that's the craziest thing I ever heard of, say, I'm sorry, your controversy's with God. He's revealed it and I believe it, and I'm going to walk in the light of it. Third principle, David saw the relationship between spiritual health and acceptable worship.

48:02 Lord, no sacrifices, even though we bring them in the way You've commanded, will be accepted unless the heart and life behind them they must be sacrifices offered in righteousness, practical godliness, rooted in faith, in the blood of Christ, and in the intercession of Christ. And then the last principle, he saw the relationship between his own individual spiritual condition and the rest of the people of God. Well, may the Lord burn these things into our hearts and help us to walk in their light for His glory and for the good of His kingdom. I've just got a sneak peek and suspicion, it hasn't come to the place of what I could call faith yet, that God is yet going to do some wonderful things for Zion.

48:43 Ere our Lord returns, I see little encouraging signs, maybe it's because I'm looking for them, but coming from these two days out in the Pittsburgh area, I see some things that encourage me that God is stirring up a concern in His people for the prosperity of Zion, where people are now disturbed that the church has languished for so long that they don't know what God is doing for them. And I see some things that encourage me that God is stirring up a concern in His people for the prosperity of Zion, where people are now disturbed that the church has languished for so long in the grip of spiritual barrenness and powerlessness here in our own America, and there's a longing that God will bear His arm for the cause of righteousness and truth. And so, maybe the prayer of David will become increasingly our cry and God will yet privilege us to see Him doing in His good pleasure that which is good for Zion. Let us unite in prayer.