Psalm 142:1-7

[0:00] So Psalm 142 starting at verse 1 says, I cried unto the Lord with my voice, with my voice unto the Lord, did I make my supplication?

[0:11] I poured out my complaint before him, I shoot before him my trouble, when my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked, hath they privilege laid a snare for me. I looked on my right hand and beheld, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me.

[0:33] Refuge fell me, no man cared for my soul. I cried unto the old Lord, I said, thou art my refuge, and my portion in the land of the living. I tend unto my cry, for I am wrought very low, deliver me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I.

[0:51] Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name, the righteous shall compass me about, for thou shalt deal bountifully with me. I said, this is, it is in the book of Psalms, I'm sure it was put to music at some point, but reading through those words it was more of a prayer that David had made unto God as he was here in this cave.

[1:15] And David would have uttered this prayer, uttered these words unto God out of an experience that he was having, but the experiences previously would have been the reason why David could.

[1:30] Have uttered this prayer unto God. Remember David being Jesse's little boy that Samuel had anointed as king over Israel while Saul was in the seat, Saul was in the seat of being king over Israel.

[1:46] David had, the Lord had delivered David from the bear, he had delivered David from the lion, he had delivered John the Lithe into David's hands, so David would have had plenty of experience with the Lord while he was here in this cave, uttering this prayer, and that is what we call David to utter such a prayer, folks I'm glad that when we find ourselves in similar situations, I'm not saying that you've got a king after you or I've got a king after me, I'm not saying that we've got a band or a country full of Philistines that are after us, but when we get into stressful situations, when we get into the problems of our own, when we get into circumstances beyond our control, we can go unto God just as David here did, and we can say Lord thou art my refuge and thou art my portion here while I'm in the land of the living, but praise God, it's not just when we're here in the land of the living that he's our portion, when we get away under, I can read in the scripture, in the book of Revelation, there's going to be a supper that takes place, there's going to be a spread such as you and I have never seen, and we will have portion upon portion at that table, but even that does not compare to the portion that I will have and do have in Jesus Christ, he is my portion here, he it will be my portion there, he is my portion always, I can go unto him, I can make my petitions known unto him, and his hair is not too heavy nor is his own too short to say to him to heal, to cleanse, and to lift me up out of the mud and the mud that I might get myself into, hallelujah, he's my portion, he's my portion just like he was David's portion here, David said I cried unto the Lord with my voice, with my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication, folks it's nice to know, I don't need to have to cry unto God with my voice, with my physical voice, God knows my thoughts, God knows my heart, hey Romans 8 talks about such things, when it talks about the groanings and the morning mornings that we might make sometime, and the Holy Ghost of God, he can take those groanings that we make, he can make sense out of those things, it soothes my heart to know when I can't pray, when I don't know what to pray, God already knows what I need, he already knows what my heart is saying, and the Holy Ghost takes that need unto him, and he answers, hallelujah,

[4:42] I poured out my complaint before him, I shoot before him, I troll, he didn't even need to do that, God already knew, God knew he was in that cave, God knew when Elijah was in a cave, did he not?

[4:57] Elijah, Elijah a mighty prophet of God, a man that called down fire out of heaven, he called down the Lord's fire from the heaven, and it consumed the sacrifice, it consumed the water, it consumed the altar, it consumed everything that was round about, it took 450 of the prophets of Baal, down by the river, down by the rock, and he slew every one of them, and after this there was a woman that said, hey I'm gonna kill you, by this time tomorrow, the next place you see Elijah is back in the cave, hiding away, this is a man that had called God's fire down out of heaven, how many times has God helped us, how many times has God seen us through, how many times have we seen the power of God in our lives, how many times have we experienced his healing, how many times have we seen him resurrect a dead soul out of his trespasses and sins, and in the life, and in the life everlasting, how many times have we fallen witness to these things, yet we run and we hide in these caves, in these places, God knows exactly where we are, and I'm glad that he did, because he'll trail me right into that cave, and he'll do just like Elijah, Elijah expected to hear him in these wondrous events, expected to hear him in the storm, expected to hear him in the fire, expected to hear him in the storm going on outside, but where did he hear him, he heard him in that still small voice, took back in that cave, he heard him in that still small voice saying, Elijah you need to get out of here, you go do what I've called you to do, you go do what you know you're supposed to do, that's where he heard God was in the still small voice, but God trailed him into that cave hallelujah, and he got him back out, and Elijah finished the commission that God had called him to do, that's what God expects of his people, his children, he expects us to do, what he asks us to do, and we go and tell him we hide, we hide, but God will chase us down by, because we're his, we are his, I'm his child, praise God, I'm his child, I poured out my complaint before him, I shoot him, I shoot him before him in my trouble, when my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then I knew it was my path, and the way wherein I walked, had they privilege laid a snare for me, when my spirit was overwhelmed within me, how often do we feel that way, I thought it would be quite often, quite often I'm going to lie to you, truth be known y'all do too, at least every so often, as the saying is around here once in a blue moon, at least that often your spirit gets overwhelmed inside of you, why is that?

[7:57] because the world comes in, and the world comes down, and cares come in, and they come down, problems come in, and they come down, sickness comes in, death comes in, all these things come around us, and come about us, and come down upon us, and it overwhelms our spirit, but praise God, hey he's one that can lift our spirits right back up where they need to be, he's the one that we can turn to, he's the one that we can trust, he's the one that has already proved himself over and over again, go back to David again, that's why he wouldn't wear Saul's armor when he was going against the line, Saul put his armor on, he said I haven't proved this, but there is one that I have proved, there is one that has proved himself under me, I'm trusting God, when I sling this stone that John will come down, he didn't trust me, he certainly didn't trust man's armor, he certainly didn't trust Saul's armor, a man that was hitting shoulders above everybody else that was in Israel, and David was a little tiny fella, I wouldn't have trusted that either,

[9:06] I'm trusting God, when my spirit was overwhelmed within me, that I knew it's my path, God knows our path, he knows the path that we take right back into that cave, and you know what, when he coaches us out of that cave, hey sometimes it's a still small voice, sometimes he might, sometimes he might have to, sometimes he might have to beat us out of that cave, sometimes he might have to kick us, sometimes he might have to drag us, but either way, he'll get us out of that cave, and he'll get us back out into the world, so that we can shine our lights before men, that they may see our good works, and glorify our Father which is in heaven, he'll get us out of that cave one way or another, he'll track his children down, he won't let us sit in fear, won't let us sit in hiding, won't let us sit in any of these things, because we are his children, and he has the job for us to do God, we'll get us out of that cave, put us back into the world, so that we can be the lights that he has called us to be, and when my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then that I'll do it's my path, and the way we're in our walk, and they've prickly laid a snare for me, those these demons, these demons, y'all have heard me say it before, we blame the devil all the time, and the devil is not, and I repeat the devil is not omnipresent like my God is, he is not everywhere like my God is, but he's got all kinds of little helpers, he's got millions, truth be known, millions, because if my understanding of Revelation 12 is correct, he brought a third of the angels down with him when he fell down to earth, if my interpretation of that scripture is correct, the third of the angels fell down when Lucifer fell, he's got all kinds of demons, every nymph that knows the hell is going to be his home, he has runnin' around here on earth with him, and they will drag us down, they will lay these snaps, these traps, they will prickly lay these snares for us, they will lay down things, hey, and it might seem something completely innocent, I ain't talkin' about just something that's sinful, hey, they'll tempt us with those things too, but more often than not, with the true blue child of God, they will not tempt us without rotten blood and sin, they will try and tempt us, and try us with discouragement, they will try and drag the child of God down in the dirt, so it's our faith's windows, just a little bit, but hey, my God knows every trap, every snare that the devil and the demons have, he already has a way out of it, that way is a man named Jesus Christ, he knows it all, my God knows it all, but my spirit was overwhelmed with envy, I lose my path in the way wherein I walked, that they'd privilege laid a snare for me, in the way wherein I walked, you know how the demons know where we're gonna walk, cause we tell them, oh yeah, we tell them where we're going, we tell them in our actions, we tell them in our thoughts, we tell them with our speech to other people, they know which way we're gonna be walking now, the child of God's got one way, got one path, the Bible describes it as straightening there, the Bible describes that path as straightening there, we stay on that path, hey, they gonna throw snares out there too, they're gonna throw traps out there too, they'll try and tempt us with just as much, or just as much tempt us with discouragement there, as they will another path that we've strayed off to on the left or the right, but even when we're on that path that's straightening there, the God has made for us, the God expects us to stay, they will still lay their snares, they will still lay those traps, hey, sometimes we might stumble and fall into one, sometimes we might get curious and go over an inspect one, but praise God, he is there, he's there, the Holy Ghost is there screaming at us, don't go near that, don't touch that, get away from it, that is not of God, that is of the Prince of this world, the Prince of Valonies, you leave it alone, that's the Holy Ghost screams that to us, just leave it alone, but us being human, we'll tiptoe over, just a little glance won't hurt, we might walk tall with God for 20 years, we might walk tall with Him for 8 years or for 10 years or even for a month, but sooner or later there's gonna be a trap thrown out there, and that Holy Ghost, if it abides within you and if you're a child of God it does, when that trap, when we see it, that Holy Ghost will let us know, but folks, unfortunately, us and our human, and us being human, us and our free will, we want to go over that box or that trap or that snare, we want to go over that hole and see what's down in there, and before you know it, we done got sucked down in there, we done got pulled down back into the mud, back into the mud, like I said, I ain't necessarily talking about sin,

[14:11] I'm talking about anything that will discourage and will hinder our walk with the Almighty, we will let ourselves get pulled back into that, we will let ourselves get sucked down below the surface, and God, the praise God, in His graciousness and His mercy, He will go back down below the surface, He will pull us up and He will re-establish our goings, the praise, where He has done established Him once when He saved us, He pulled us out of the mud in the mire, set our feet upon a solid rock and established our goings, sometimes we got to re-establish us, because we get off on the wrong track, we get off on the wrong path, I cried unto the old Lord, I said thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living, I cried unto the, once again I'm tickled to death that I don't have to physically cry, I don't have to physically make a sound, in order for God to hear me, He says I cried unto the old Lord, and I'm sure it was an audible noise that David made when he was writing this, when he was writing about this, I'm sure that his mouth and his tongue made an audible sound when he wrote this, he said I cried unto thee, I cried unto the old Lord, and when we cry unto the Lord, hey it's just like a son or a daughter crying unto their parent, for those of you that may be grandparents, it's like one of your grandkids that cry unto you, you know that voice, you know that's one that belongs to you, hey my father's the same way when I cry unto him, no matter what snare I'm about to found myself in, no matter what sickness may be my way, no matter the circumstance that I found myself in, when I cry my father hears me, he knows the voice of his own, hey Jesus Christ said my sheep know my voice, they'll follow me anywhere that I go and praise God if I belong to the Father, he knows who I am, and he knows my voice, he knows me, never went into prayer since me again God, he knows who me again he is, he knows who that is, we don't even have to tell him, but anyway I cried unto the old Lord, I cried unto the old Lord, I said that art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living, again he is not just our refuge and our portion here on this walk of life, he is our portion here, hey he is our portion, when the children of Israel, when they were going into the promised land and they were divvying up the land to split amongst the tribes, he had this one tribe called the tribe of Levi, they didn't get an inheritance, they didn't get an inheritance of land, the folks they got a greater portion than that, they got the service of the Lord, they got the service of the tabernacles, later on they got the service of the temple, they're the ones that took care of those things, they're the ones that made the sacrifices unto God, on behalf of the people, I believe David when he wrote this psalm here,

[17:16] I believe he had quite the understanding of Psalm 91, we talked about Psalm 91 a few weeks back, but there in Psalm 91 where it says that those that dwell in the secret place of the Most High shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty, hey that secret place is in fellowship with God, that secret place that I'm sure that the psalmist was talking about was back in the Holy of Holies, there was only one time per year that anybody went back there and that was the High Priest, but he went back on behalf of the entire nation of Israel, it was secret, it was secret, no other person was allowed back there but the High Priest, and even then only one time a year, and if he came back there without all the ceremony, without all the cleansing, and you better believe without the blood of the atonement, he would have been struck dead back there in the Holy of Holies, God would not have had that kind of filth in his presence, I believe that's the secret place that the psalmist is talking about in Psalms 91, I think that David would have had quite the understanding of that secret place, that secret place is when you and I abide with God, and he was in the Holy of Holies, then he was back there and that's the only place that anybody could go to see his glory, hey I know that he worked wonders outside of there, but to actually be in the presence of God, you can only go to the Most Holy of Holy places, and only one person could do that, it was quiet all the rest of the year, not one footstep would trawl back there behind that curtain, not one footstep, not one utterance would make it behind that curtain, it was silent and it was secret for an entire year,

[19:05] David would have understood that, he says, the tear none of my cry for I am wrought very low deliver me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I, David recognized where he was, just like that woman we talked about this morning in Matthew chapter 15, that woman to recognize when Jesus said it's not me for me to give bread of the children unto the dogs, she recognized who she was, she recognized her low estate, she recognized her circumstances, and she recognized what little clout that she had, David here recognizes who he is, he says, the tear none of my cry for I am wrought very low deliver me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I, he understood not only his estate, but he understood the strength of the enemies that he had, he understood the strength of Saul and Saul's armies, he understood the strength of the Philistines, but he was dependent on one that he knew would be stronger than he was, stronger than they were, he was dependent on the one that had proved himself over and over in David's life, he was dependent on the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, he was dependent on Jehovah God, the same one we must be dependent on, the same one that we have to put our faith in, and we have to put our trust in, we cannot depend upon ourselves, you all have heard me say it plenty of times, don't depend on me, sooner or later I will let you down, don't depend on yourself either, sooner or later you're going to let yourself down, every one of us is weak, every one of us is frail, the Bible describes us like that, I ain't insulting you all, I ain't insulting myself, I'm telling you what the word says, the word says that we're desolate, the word says that we're afflicted, the word says that we need God, and how many times have you heard me say that we are, that God is good and we are not, that's the summation of the Bible that we need God and God is there for those that need him, praise God, don't ever let that get out of your head, there have been too many people, too many people I've seen in my walk and I'm sure you all have seen in yours, they'll walk for just a little while, they'll stay in the light, and Roger taught about it in Sunday school this morning, they'll walk in the light, they'll stay in that light, then it's like they can't do it anymore, they don't want to do it anymore, you know what the Bible says about people like that, John wrote about it in 1 John, he says they left us because they were never of us, they were never of us, they left our presence, because they were never truly of our presence, they were never truly in fellowship with us, it's people that try, it's people that see the people of God and they say boy I'd like to be that happy, ain't it good to know when you go home and you let your head down and I don't matter if your house burns down over now, now listen I've got some sentimental things, yeah I'd miss them, I'd miss them the things I've got packed away, I miss pictures, I've missed all kinds of different things, but it's nice to know that if my house burns down my God will provide, it's nice to know there was people like Job in the Bible that had everything taken away from him, but yet he could say the Lord gave and the Lord had taken away, must it be the name of the Lord, it's nice to know that I could have that same attitude, it's nice to know that the Lord God that Job served, the Lord God that Job was talking about and prayed to, it's the same Lord God that I have, and if he supplied for Job, he'll supply for me, if he supplied for David, if he heard David's cries, he will hear mine, it's the same God and he does not change, he does not change, forget the fact that David was a Jew, forget the fact that he was part of the apple of God's eye, forget all of those things, folks we have been grafted in from the wild, praise God, I'm just as much a child of God as David was, I'm just as much a child of God as Moses was, I'm just as much a child of God as Paul or as Peter or as John or as any of the rest of them were, hey I'm glad that at the cross, the ground is level, I'm glad that the worst sinner can get saved and I'm glad that once we are saved, no one is put above another.

[23:27] We're all in the same boat together, we're all in that same ship together and we're placed there by God, not by ourselves, so I say don't depend on yourself, you depend on God, God saved us, God will keep us, God will get us home, nothing to do with me, attend unto my cross where I'm brought very low, deliver me from my persecutions, they are stronger than I bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name, the righteous shall come pass me about, for thou shall deal bountifully with me, bring my soul out of prison, I may praise thy name, this cave that David was in, it felt like a prison to him, he didn't have the freedom that he had, when he left there, you can read it in 1 Samuel, I believe it was chapter 22 that account starts, you read it for yourself, when he went back in that cave, he was there all by his loa, and there was this band of people that showed up, that 400 of them the scripture says, but they were rejects, they were outcasts, they were people that nobody else wanted, that company with David, and he was said as captain over those people, he was said as captain over them, but nevertheless when he was here in this cave, when he was crying out to God in this psalm or in this prayer, he was alone, he was in prison, he said God I need you to let me out of this prison, that I may praise thy name, he said God I need you to get me out of here, I don't feel like I can do as much for you, hey when we get ourselves stuck back in the cave, there ain't a whole lot that we're doing for God, as far as being lots out in this world, as being the south of the earth, there ain't a whole lot we're doing for God, when we've tucked tail and we've run from the commission to go out to the four corners of the earth, and preach the gospel, spread the gospel, tell the people about Jesus Christ, when we're tucked away by ourselves, we cannot do that, I've said it before, I told preachers how many people hear the gospel from your couch, how many people hear the gospel from your lazy boy, and that comes back and hits me too, that comes back and hits me, how many people hear the gospel from these places, he said bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name, he give the what, bring my soul out of prison, and he give the why, that I may praise thy name, it wasn't so I can have my freedom back, folks listen, you're either a slave to God, slave to sin or slave to Christ, you're a slave to righteousness or slave to unrighteousness, you're a slave to light or slave to darkness, either way we're going to be a slave, either way I'd ten times rather be a slave to God, be a slave in the servant under Jesus Christ, as opposed to being a slave to darkness like I once was, that darkness that he pulled me out of, I had no desire, I have no reason, I have no want to go back to that place, why would I want to go back to that prison that God has released me from David here in this cave, says God bring me out of this prison, bring me out of this prison that I may praise thy name, hey folks when the Israelites were down in Egypt they wouldn't do much praising under God, but God sent a deliverer named Moses down there, they had to come up out of Egypt before they could do the service of God, they had to come up out of Egypt before they could praise God, hey it's no different than where we're at right now, don't let yourself get pushed back into that prison, God has brought you out, give him praise now, now, now, bring my soul out of prison, now I may praise thy name, the roaches shall come past me about, the roaches bring me out of prison, the roaches shall come past me about, folks I was just talking about the gatherer around David, we would have seen them as far from roaches, I said they were rejects, they were rejects, unwanted by society, nobody else wanted them around, there's another man over in the book of Judges named Jeff Tall, the only Tyler time in scripture you read about him is in the book of Hebrews chapter 11, you read about him in Judges, you read about him in Hebrews, the same thing happened to him, he was cast out by his own brothers because his wife or because his mama was a harlot, he was cast out by his brothers, he lost his inheritance at that point, he went off by himself and all these people came to him, the rejects of society came to him, but what happened when Israel started getting in trouble, what happened when the apple of God's eye started getting in trouble, they said hey Jeff Tall's out there somewhere, go find him, he can lead us against these people that are coming against us, hey it was no different, in David's case David had a man to man that were following him, a man to man that were under his command and under his control, but nevertheless that wasn't good enough for David, David did not want the control, David wanted God, he wanted God, bring my soul out of prison that I may praise thy name, the righteous shall compass me about, for thou shall deal bountifully with me, the righteous shall compass me about, post one day after a while, I know we're in church right now and everybody here says they have bored again christening, praise God I hope everybody is, right now we're compassed about with the righteous, we are made righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ, not by our own works, not by our own merit, not by anything that we could do, say or think, it is by the blood of Jesus Christ that he shed on Calvary's cross and of nothing else that we are made righteous, and we are, if you want to get a philosophical attitude, you can say I'm righteous because I do this and because I do that, but my Bible teaches that you are made righteous because of something that's already been done for you, it was something that was done that we call the crucifixion, 2000 years ago that blood was shed on a hill called Calvary, on a place called Golgotha, the place of the skull that man gave his life that we could have life and have it more abundantly, it is not our works, it is not our deeds, it is the deeds of Christ, for thou shalt deal bountifully with me, and he already dealt bountifully with you though, but he has me, he has me, he doesn't save my soul, but this is David, he is already God, he is already God,

[29:52] David is crying out to him, and he is saying, thou shalt deal bountifully with me, folks, as bountifully as you were saying, we are born again, as bountifully as God has dealt with you, he is going to deal more bountifully with you in the future, that life and life more abundantly, that's eternal life, that's life everlasting, that is life forever, we either get life forever or we get death forever, and that death ain't a state of being comatose, and that ain't a state of not feeling anything, that eternal death, that second death that the Bible talks about, it's a state of dying forever, it's a state of dying eternally, but we will not ever die, hey God created us mortal beings, immortal beings, he created Adam and Eve immortal, they were made in his image, if they were made in his image, they were immortal, and they were eternal, they were never meant to die, but when sin entered in, hey that cursed man, that cursed the ground, that cursed it all, but we still have an immortal soul about him, and that immortal soul has got to live somewhere, it's got to go somewhere, it ain't just going to float around out here in space somewhere, it will go to heaven or it will go to hell, folks, he says, thou shalt deal bountifully with me, David does, God had already dealt bountifully with me, David, even though he doesn't run to a cave, even though he was being pursued by the current king of Israel, Saul, even though he was being pursued by him, pursued by armies, he was being pursued by all kinds of people, David was still king of Israel because God had had him anointed as such, he was still the king of Israel because God said so,

[31:41] Saul was no longer king, he might have been physical king, he might have thought that he had the throne, he had the palace, he had everything else about him, but David was king, that's why Saul was mad, he was mad, he was jealous of David, and he wanted David dead, and unfortunately this wasn't the end of David's problems that he had, David's whole life was filled with all kinds of problems, some of them was brought on to him by other people, his circumstances, and some of them he brought on his own self, ain't no different with us, ain't no different with us, but nevertheless we can go to God just as David does here, we can go under God and we can say bring my soul out of prison that I may praise thy name, the righteous shall confess me about for thou, shall deal bountifully with me, he'll deal more bountifully with me and the life after this one than I ever dreamed that he would while I was here, he will deal more bountifully with me and I'll be surrounded by more roaches there than I ever have been here, I don't care what kind of revivals you've been to,

[32:43] I don't care if you've been in the midst of 5,000 other born again believers, folks the Bible describes it, John said in the book of Revelation it was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands upon thousands, folks we will be come past about by the roaches by those that are born again, by the blood of the land, by those that have been redeemed by the blood of the land, we will be come past by those people but even more so than those roaches, we will be in the presence of what is righteousness, we will be in the presence of Almighty God and Jesus Christ who is righteousness, we will be made roaches by His righteousness, we'll be come past about with that, we'll be in dwell with that, it'll be all over us, it'll be all in us, praise God I'm going to that city one day, that's why I can praise God now because I know where I'm going and I know why I'm going, because of Jesus Christ and no other reason, praise God, folks don't give up hope, when you find yourself in these circumstances, you find yourself back in a cave, you find yourself being chased down, you find yourself with enemies all about you, y'all got demons or whisperers to you, I know you do because I do, every one of us does, like I said they ain't going to tempt us with blatant sin but they'll do their best to discourage.