It was his first
battle, and he was frightened. He ran to the rear,
hid behind a tree, and started to cry. His sergeant
barked, “You’re a coward, but don’t be a
baby!” “I wish I was a baby,” said the soldier,
“and I wish I was a girl baby.” But that wasn’t
true of David. He confessed courageously in Psalm
138:1, “I will praise Thee with my whole heart:
before the gods will I sing praise unto Thee.”
Paganism has its
prayers, but not any praise. It has its teaching, but
not any thanksgiving. And sometimes unthinking
Christians express no thanksgiving. But praising,
like praying, should be a habit. It should be done
continually, not casually. One who had this habit
listed four reasons for praise in Psalm 138.
1, David Praised The
Lord For His Revelation. He said in verse 2, “I
will . . . praise Thy name for Thy lovingkindness
and for Thy truth: for Thou hast magnified Thy word
above all Thy name.” Why?
It’s the word of the
Lord that converts. 1 Peter 1:23 declares, “Being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and
abideth for ever.” The Bible is divine; it’s
God-breathed. God Himself, through His Holy Spirit,
told the writers of the Bible just the very things to
record. And the Bible is durable. It has been banned
and burned, derided and destroyed; yet it lives and
will continue to live forever. One is born again or
converted by the word of God brought home to your
hearts by the Spirit of God. One day a doctor checked
into a motel in Mississippi. That evening he was
invited to a bar. He took a drink, but the drink took
him. In just a little while he found himself in bed
with a prostitute. Ashamed and sorry, he hurried to
his room. Picking up his pistol, he decided to kill
himself. Just as he placed the pistol to his head, he
saw our tract on the dresser. It read THIS IS
IMPORTANT. It captured him. He opened the little
booklet and read, “The Lord loves you.” “No,”
he cried, “He couldn’t love me, an alcoholic and
an adulterer.” But he continued to read, “I have
loved you with an everlasting love” - Jeremiah
31:3. Dropping to his knees, he confessed his sins
with shame and sorrow, and he asked the Lord Jesus to
forgive him. Then he read, “But as many as received
Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of
God” - John1:12. “I receive Thee, Lord Jesus,”
he cried. “Come into my heart.” The Lord Jesus
came into his heart, and he became a child of God. He
called us early that morning to confess Christ, and
he went home to live for the Lord. That doctor, like
the Psalmist, praised the Lord for His word.
It’s the word of the
Lord that consecrates. The Bible reveals the sin, and
the blood cleanses. The Scriptures exhort, and the
Spirit empowers.
One Sunday evening,
after playing at a theater, I was attracted to an
evangelistic crusade by the music. Being of another
faith, I was a little uncomfortable and I asked for a
chair by the door. That night I realized that the
Lord loved me and gave Himself for me. I received Him
as my Savior and confessed Him before others. After
the service the minister said to me, “Remember,
Guido, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6:19 and 20,
‘Ye are not your own. Ye are bought with a price:
therefore glorify God in your body.’” Walking
home I couldn’t shake that verse. I wondered,
“How can I glorify God by playing for a dance or a
night club?” “I can’t,” I cried. Then I
prayed, “Lord Jesus, Thy body was broken for me.
Take my body and live Thy life all over again in
me.” As the word of the Lord consecrated me, I
felt led of the Lord to spend the rest of my days
living and laboring for Him.
It’s the word of the
Lord that comforts. No matter what your heartache is,
there’s comfort in the Bible. No matter what your
problem is, there’s a solution in the Bible. No
matter what your misery is, there’s relief in the
Bible. It’s heaven’s health for earth’s
sickness; heaven’s hope for earth’s despair;
heaven’s wisdom for earth’s foolishness;
heaven’s strength for earth’s weakness.
A wife died. The
brokenhearted husband vowed to kill his son and
himself. Just as he was about to commit the crime I
reached him with a long distance call. After
expressing my sympathy and sorrow, I said, “Hear
the Lord as He says to you in Isaiah 41:10, ‘Fear
thou not; for I am with thee:¼ I will strengthen
thee; yea, I will help thee.’” Weeping, he said,
“Thank you. That’s just what I needed. It has
comforted me, and it has kept me from killing my son
and myself.” He, like the Psalmist, praised the
Lord for His word. Won’t you?
2, David Praised
The Lord For His Response. He testified in the third
verse, “In the day when I cried Thou answeredst me,
and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.”
Don’t you remember
the day when you called upon the Lord for salvation?
He answered you, didn’t He! For it’s written in
Romans 10:13, “Whosoever shall call upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved.” Since everyone needs
to be saved, then everyone may be saved. But it
doesn’t say that everyone will be saved. There’s
a difference between may be and will be. Salvation is
a provision, but it’s also provisional. One is a
fact. The other is by faith. One is by an act of man.
The other is by an act of God. God has offered you
salvation. Accept it by calling on the name of the
Lord now, won’t you? Salvation isn’t to all who
fall, but to all who call. I called, and with the
poet I can say, “O happy day! O happy day! When
Jesus washed my sins away!” If you have called,
you, too, can thank Him for His response.
It may be that
you’re saying, “I’d like to call upon the name
of the Lord for salvation, but I’m very weak. Every
time I’m tempted, I tumble.” That’s not
surprising. It’s everything or nothing. What makes
the difference? The Savior and His strength. With Him
we can do “all things” - John 15:5.
Stuart Hamblen was a
hard drinking, horse-racing entertainer who was
converted during a Billy Graham Crusade on the West
Coast. Fired from his $1,000-a-week radio program
because he refused to advertise beer, he was seeking
God’s will for his life. One day an actor said to
him, “I’ve heard you haven’t taken a drink for
thirty days. Tell me truthfully, Stuart, have you
wanted one?” “No,” he answered. “It is no
secret what God can do.” “You ought to write a
song about ‘It is no secret what God can do,’”
suggested the friend. Hamblen did, and he found his
life’s work, and strength for every temptation and
trial.
Stuart Hamblen
could say with the writer of Psalm 138, “In the day
when I cried Thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst
me with strength in my soul.” For whom the Lord
saves, He strengthens, moment by moment and day by
day. His precepts and promises always carry His
power.
“But,” you may
say, “I see that the Lord answers prayer for
salvation and strength. What about sustenance?”
Didn’t He teach His disciples to pray in Matthew
6:11, “Give us this day our daily bread”? In Luke
11:9-12 there’s first the general, “ask,” in
verse 9. Then there’s the particular, “ask
bread,” in verse 11. Then it’s broken into
detail, “bread¼fish¼egg,” in verses 11 and 12.
This proves that our Lord is anxious for us to speak
to Him about the ordinary needs of daily life, the
little things of personal need.
Our Lord has performed
many mighty miracles to give His children what they
needed, and they’re recorded throughout the Bible.
He gave the Israelis manna from heaven for forty
years, according to the 16th chapter of Exodus. And
according to Deuteronomy 29:5, He saw that their
clothes didn’t become old and their shoes didn’t
wear out. He gave them quail when they prayed for
meat and He gave them water when they said they were
thirsty. He sent ravens to feed Elijah, according to
1 Kings 17:3-6; and He dispatched an angel to bake a
cake for him when he was discouraged, according to 1
Kings 19:5-7.
In the sixth chapter
of John our Lord fed more than 5,000 with five barley
loaves and a couple of fish. And in Matthew 17:27 He
told Peter to go down to the shore, throw in a line,
and open the mouth of the first fish he caught. There
he found a coin to cover the taxes for the Lord Jesus
and himself.
You and I are
encouraged to pray for material things because God
gave His Son to die for us. It’s written in Romans
8:32, “He that spared not His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with
Him also freely give us all things?” Since God
loved us enough to send Jesus to die for us, He loves
us enough to answer our prayers for material needs.
So let’s just praise the Lord for His response in
regards to our salvation, strength, and sustenance.
3, David Praised the
Lord for His Reviving. He said in verse 7, “Though
I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou wilt revive
me.”
There’s a
reviving from the trouble brought on by tepidness.
The blight of the church today is an insipid pulpit
and an indifferent pew, a lukewarm pulpit and a
listless pew, a complacent pulpit and a careless pew.
Uncommitted Christians are unhappy. Tepid Christians
always bring trouble upon themselves.
Oh, they give, but
there’s no glow to their giving. They pray, but
there’s no passion to their prayers. They testify,
but there’s no thrill to their testimonies. They
search the Scriptures, but there’s no sparkle in
their studying. They worship, but there’s no warmth
in their worship. They’re saved, but they sicken
the Savior. He said in Revelation 3:16, “So then
because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot,
I will spew thee out of my mouth.”
The Psalmist went from
tepidness to torridness, from being a blight to
becoming a blessing, from disappointing the Lord to
delighting Him, from being a stumbling block to
becoming a stepping stone. When he experienced a
blaze for Bible study, a compassion for communion, a
hunger for holiness, a warm heart for witnessing, he
went from grief to gladness. Why don’t you come to
the Lord in repentance, rededicating your life to the
Lord, living and laboring enthusiastically and
entirely for Him? You, too, will go from grief to
gladness!
There’s the reviving
from trouble. David was certain of that, for he said
confidently, “Though I walk in the midst of
trouble, Thou wilt revive me.”
Trouble is as old as
man. It started in the Garden of Eden. The father and
mother of the race had trouble, and it has passed on
to each succeeding generation with multiplied means
and increasing intensity.
Trouble affects
every part of the person. People suffer mentally,
morally, materially, physically and spiritually. And
trouble affects everyone. Every back has its burden.
Every heart has its hurt. Every mind has its misery.
Every soul has its sorrow.
Think of Job. Like
a series of devastating dominoes, he lost his crops
and cattle, his property and prosperity, his sons and
his own soundness. On top of all this, his wife
cried, “Curse God and die!”
Broken in health and
bankrupt in holdings, he heard his friends find fault
with him, condemning him for his own condition.
But Job refused to
turn aside to doubt and despair. Looking to the Lord
he said, “He performeth the thing that is appointed
for me.” Think of it! God performs, He brings to
pass, what’s appointed for you and me. The trouble
that you’re facing is just as God designed it. It
didn’t come to you by accident, but by appointment,
God’s appointment. And He will make it work for
your good. Romans 8:28 says so: “We know that all
things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His
purpose.”
“comforteth us in
all our tribulation.” The word “comfort” comes
from a Greek word that signifies “to call
alongside.” God is called alongside you in your
troubles. He suffers as you suffer. He’s personally
involved in your life, caring for you and comforting
you, strengthening you and sustaining you. Right now
He’s developing you in your trouble. But presently
He’ll deliver you in, or through, or from your
trouble. If you submit sincerely, your trouble will
become your treasure, just as Job’s boils became
his blessings and David’s perils became his psalms.
A black pastor was
asked, “What’s the most comforting verse to you
in the Bible?” He thought for a moment and
answered, “And it came to pass.” “But,”
protested the college professor, “that’s not a
Bible verse. It’s only the beginning of one.”
“I know,” said the minister. “But they’re the
most comforting words to me in the Bible. A lot of
trouble has come to me. But it didn’t come to stay.
‘It came to pass.’”
David felt that way
too. Knowing from experience all his troubles “came
to pass,” he praised the Lord saying, “Though I
walk in the midst of trouble, Thou wilt revive me.”
4, David Praised The
Lord For His Redemption. He said in verse 8, “The
Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: Thy
mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever.”
A contractor toured
our Studio. He was impressed with the workmanship. He
asked, “Where can I get a good finisher?” “I
have just the Person you need,” I answered.
“He’s my dearest Friend.” “What’s his
name?” he asked. “The Lord Jesus,” I answered.
“He never begins anything He can’t finish, and
everything He does is good, very good.”
He began with Jacob, a
treacherous trickster. As a youth he was a cheat. As
an adult he was a con artist. But he didn’t die
that way. One night he met the Lord and surrendered
to Him, and he became a prince. He began with
Matthew, a mean materialist, who sold his soul for
silver. He was one of the crookedest crooks. “Once
a thief, always a thief,” some say. That wasn’t
true of Matthew. The stealer became a saint. He gave
up his silver for the Savior, and he became the
writer of the Gospel according to Matthew. He began
with Thomas, a whining doubter, and he became a
winsome disciple. He began with the Samaritan
adulteress, a dirty tool for dirtier men. But she
turned her life over to Him, and He cleansed her. She
became sweet and sensitive, a successful soulwinner
who brought her whole village to the Lord. He began
with Peter. His soul was like the surging tide; once
high, then low. How often he was caught in the
backwash of doubt and denial. He meant to follow the
Lord, but a servant girl laughed and he changed his
mind. But the Lord won him at last. The salty, soiled
hands of that cursing fisherman became the holy and
healing hands of a fisher of men. Nailed to a cross,
they point to the verse that the Lord will carry to
completion that work that he starts in every heart.
A man brought his
watch to a jewelry store for repair. “The mistake I
made,” he confessed, “was dropping it.”
“No,” replied the watchmaker, “your mistake was
picking it up.” David’s life had been shattered
by sin, crushed by cruelty and broken by badness. He
was an adulterer and a murderer. But he brought the
pieces of his broken and contrite heart to the Lord.
He pardoned him and put the pieces back together
again. He became a king-administrator of first rank
and a poet second to none. His psalms glow like
living coals. And it was he who wrote, “The Lord
will perfect that which concerneth me.” Oh, how he
praised the Lord!
Has your life become
shattered by sin? Have you made a mess of things and
are you wondering, what’s the use? Oh, the Lord
loves you. He longs to change you. He wants you to
soar, not sink; to overcome, not to be overcome.
Bring Him your broken and contrite heart. He’ll
make your life beautiful, profitable and victorious.
For He who begins a good work in you will keep right
on helping you grow in His grace until His task
within you is finally finished on that day when the
Lord Jesus Christ returns!
copyright 1999 Guido Evangelistic
Association
All Scripture verses are
quoted from the New International Version.
Each month, Dr. Guido writes a
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