Hamer Bay Conference: 1998
Table of Contents
Restoring Grace of God
The Hand of God
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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I wonder if we could look at the 32nd Psalm. 42nd. I meant to say 42nd.
As the heart paddeth after the water brooks, so patteth my soul after thee, O God.
My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me, for I had gone with the multitude. I went with them to the House of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy day. Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God.
For I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
Oh my God, my soul is cast down within me. Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan and of the Hermonites, and from the hill Mizar.
They call us under deep, that the noise of thy water spouts all thy waves, and thy billows are gone over me.
Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. I will say unto God, my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
With the sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me, while they say continually unto me, Where is thy God?
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him who is the help of my countenance and my God.
Our brother has just been talking to us about the need of restoration when we have failed, and that is so important with us. And I'm sure everyone of us will admit that there have been times in our lives when we have failed. We've got away from the Lord and He has allowed things to come upon us and He has perfect governmental ways.
But in this Psalm particularly, it's not so much the thought of failure in that sense, but rather perhaps I could call it discouragement. And I think that's something that very often happens with us. We become discouraged from various reasons that circumstances that might take place in our lives, and we become like the psalmist here, he was cast down. It wasn't some particular faith dealing with in this particular Psalm, but it's just that he was discouraged.
And you know, that's one of the enemies tactics is to get us discouraged.
We read about that in Peter, it says.
It's I'll turn to it first. Peter 5 verse 6. Humble yourselves, therefore unto the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your.
Care upon Him, for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil as a roaring lion, lock of the boat, seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect.
Establish, strengthen, settle you to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. I think many of us have hung this beautiful verse on our walls and read it often. The seventh verse, casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. And yet I'm sure all of us have had the experience that we've had some care. We really wanted to leave it with the Lord, perfectly, sincerely wanted to leave it, but we found it very difficult to do it every time we sought.
Bring it before the Lord. Why we seem to carry it away again. And it seems to me this little secret in what we have here in this 6th and 7th verses. Notice what comes before that verse, casting all your care upon him, says Humble yourselves, therefore under the mighty hand of God. You know sometimes that's a hard thing for us to do, is to take the humble place.
To submit to the hand of God.
That has allowed it sometimes, I've thought, when a trouble like this has come and we have been discouraged.
That we need to say to ourselves, the Lord has allowed this.
Have I really taken it from him? And as though the Lord were to come to you and say, I could change the circumstances, I could make them just the way you'd like them. It isn't my will for you, but I could do it if that's what you really want. Would we really say, Lord, please change them because that's what I really want. Or would we say, Lord, help me to accept this situation as from thee and I believe when we have the grace to do this.
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I believe that then we can cast our care upon him because he does care for us. Brethren, He redeemed us at so great a cost. He's, uh.
Performed us for such a wonderful place of glory that we're going to occupy for all eternity. Is he not concerned with all those details of our lives, casting all your care upon him for he cares for you. And then the next verse says be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil is a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. I believe that's one of the devil's chief weapons is discouragement.
And we often think of him as a roaring lion in connection with.
Persecution. But could it be, in this context at least, that as a roaring lion, is the thought of being discouraged?
I would say persecuted Christians are quite often very happy Christians.
Sometimes they're much happier than we are while they're going through the persecution, feeling the Lord very near. But you never saw a discouraged Christian that was happy. You know why the devil has got the advantage. He has made us think that God isn't perfectly good. And that's what the enemy did right from the very beginning. He was really saying to Eve, God isn't as good as you think he is. He's holding back the best thing in this garden from you.
The best thing? And he's holding it.
Back, but he was a liar and the father of it. He wasn't holding it back because it was only for their harm to for take of what was forbidden. And every time we take a step in disobedience to the word of God, it's only for our harm, brethren, because the Word of God marks out for us the safe and happy path. Humble yourselves therefore unto the mighty hand of God, and then casting all your care, let it go.
And so.
You know what happened when he let it go? The kite came down. He found out something. The thing that was holding him down was keeping him up. And you know, brethren, it's true. The things that are holding us down are often keeping us up. They're keeping us dependent. We're learning that we're dependent on the Lord. He's holding the string, as it were. And if we feel the wind blowing and the kite doesn't seem to be going up as high as it should.
Better not let the the string go, we might get down.
Well, it tells us here.
My tears have been my night, night, my meet, day and night, while I say, continue unto me, where is thy God?
And then he says, when I remember these things, I pour out my soul with me. And he thinks of happier times. In the past. I had gone with the multitude. Maybe you can look back and think of happier times. And you say, I don't know why I seem to be depressed and down and discouraged. There's a whole lot of things happen in my life and I don't really understand. And you think of the past. We can dwell on the past instead of enjoying what the Lord is for us in the present. He's a present.
They say, or he's the one whoever lives for us, not only in our difficulties, not only in restoring our failures, but at all times if God before us who can be against us. So he remembers this and then in the third verse he begins to talk to himself. You know, sometimes it's good for us to talk to yourself.
Did you ever talk to yourself? I think all of us probably have. We said, well, what's the matter with me? And.
We talk to ourselves. It's good thing when we do that sometimes. And this is what he is doing. Why art thou cast down? And why art thou disquieted in me? And then he answers for himself too. He says, Hope thou in God.
For I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
Notice he can't at this moment praise him, that he has learned that God is for him. And so he says, I shall yet praise him. He's counting upon God in connection with what lies ahead. And oh brethren, many of these things too, when we look back upon them in glory, we're going to praise him. The children of Israel were told that they were to remember two things about the wilderness.
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How it humbled them in.
Proved them and showed them what was in their hearts, but it also showed them what was in the heart of God. How He had fed them, how He had clothed them, how He had done everything for them. There were the two things they had to remember. And we need to remember how weak and failing we are. It's good for us to think and that keeps us humble because we're not exalting ourselves about others when we realize what we have done ourselves.
But then there is also remembering God's faithfulness. Is there any of any of us look back over the past and say, He's been so good to me and so many difficult and trying situations? We join in that little song together. We'll praise him for all that He's past and trust Him for all that's to come.
Well, he does seem, you might say, temporarily, in the end of this fifth verse, to be taken out of his depression. Shall I call it? I shall yet you notice that little word yet praise him. Not yet fully taken out of it, but he knows that he can count upon the Lord.
But then in the very next verse, he says, Oh my God, my soul is cast down within me.
And so that's why I say this little Psalm seems to me to represent the ups and downs. I think we've all had these experience to come to a meeting like this and this ministry that we've just received. And what we have in this chapter perhaps lifts us up a little bit. And we say, I'm not going to get depressed anymore, but tomorrow we're down again. And that's what he says here. Oh my God, he's honest. He's really saying, Oh my God, my soul is cast down.
It is true, he said. I am cast down. I thought I was lifted up yesterday and everything was all clear. But it's not so today. And so he says, I will remember thee from the land of Jordan and the Hermonites and from the hill misery. These are very interesting places.
Jordan that was where the flowed into the Dead Sea. It was the lowest point in.
The land of Israel, and sometimes we're like that. We're just about down to the lowest point. Mount Hermon was the highest, was the highest mountain in all the land of Israel, right up on top. And we say, oh, I think I'm really up now. I'm up on top. And then this is very interesting, this little expression. You have a margin in your Bible that says the hill Mizar, the little hill, the little hill.
I'm not up all the way I should be. I'm not down as I was just on the little hill.
Well, the scripture is so beautiful, reaching out to all experiences of life and showing what a wonderful resource we have in God.
In our chapter, we've been reading and considering what a wonderful resource we have in God in connection with our salvation, Truly so great salvation. But he's also a resource for all those things that come in our life. And so he speaks of these ups and downs from Jordan to Mizar.
And then to me the seventh verse is very beautiful. Coming in here deep calleth unto deep. But the noise of thy water spouts all thy waves, and thy billows are gone over me.
Now he thinks of what the Lord Jesus went through. All brethren, how wonderful. Think of what the Lord went through.
We think of how he went down.
The weeds were wrapped about his head and they went down to the very lowest place.
Why did He do that? It was for us. Yes, He went down and He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. They took and buried Him right down in the earth. But where is He now? Oh, He's up there. He's exalted. And so if we do have a few troubles, think of what the Lord went through. But the Lord went through.
How can anything that we ever go through compare with the suffering that the Lord Jesus went through?
He deserved none of it. He was perfect. Why did he go through it? Because he loved me, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And next time I'm in trouble, think of what the Lord went through. And if I do have some troubles, why? What are they compared with what the Lord went through? I deserve every bit of it and more that comes in my life. But the Lord Jesus did it for me. He didn't deserve any of it. Wondrous.
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He took that and so when he was feeling down, then he thought, oh, how low the Lord went, and that out of love for me.
And then he has a little restored confidence. Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime. And in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. That precious confidence in the Lord, he'll command his loving kindness in the daytime. Sometimes things do look a little brighter, shall I say, like the daytime.
And in the night?
His song shall be with me when those trials and difficulties come, and the Lord allows them in all our lives, as it were. The Scripture says that He might wean us from this world. Just like the eagle. He puts thorns in the nest, and then when the time comes, He stirs the nest, and the little bird that found the nest kind of comfortable feels the thorns.
And it wants to get out now, but when it gets out then it becomes.
Begins to fall down, and the eagle takes and swoops underneath it and bears it up again. And so that's what he is really saying here. I believe the Lord will command His loving kindness in the daytime and in the night.
And in the night but his, his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. So now he values this privilege. And brethren, don't we have a wonderful privilege to come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need?
There is no time of need when that throne.
Grace is not available for us. We can come there and we can come boldly.
Sometimes if a person came to us too often, we might say, well, that person's always coming to me for help. It's kind of weary of it because they're always coming. Never so with the Lord. Never. Now it can come at any time, day or night, and at all times we can come boldly. I always think of that word boldly, the way the child enters into his own house.
Might be a little afraid to go in somebody else's house, but when it comes to home.
Pushes open the door. Comes in with perfect boldness. This is my home.
Thy mother by father's here. Isn't it wonderful? We can come with that same precious holy boldness. We could think now. It's all over now He's really learned his lesson. What's the next verse?
I will say unto God, my rock, why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy. It is not true that sometimes we get like this and we go away from perhaps meetings like this and say, Oh, I don't think I'm going to get discouraged again. The Lord has really made himself known to me in such a precious way.
I failed and he restores me. I get discouraged and he comforts.
Me, I have such a wonderful resource in the Lord. I'm never going to get down again. But we do. But we do, and He did too. See what he says here?
I will say unto God, my rock, why hast thou forgotten me? How easily we forget His goodness to us in the past.
The little song says his goodness in the past for business to think he'll leave us and let us think, no, he never will, so he says.
I and then I go, I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy, and then it says about.
As a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me.
While they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?
Yes, the enemy is quick to notice this when they see that trials come and we get discouraged. Brethren, I don't believe there's any greater testimony to the Lord than for the world to see how a Christian reacts in time of trouble.
How often when they see that we are able to rise above the trouble, they say you have something that we don't have. I don't know how you can take this.
If Stanley Dodds when the doctor told him about his condition, the man that worked with him says I would have been blaming God for putting allowing a thing like that to happen to me. But he seemed to be rejoicing. Yes, he knew God. He knew the God of all grace.
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Into the home that awaited him. And so we do feel it, though as a sword in my bones. Mine enemies reproach me, saying, Where is thy God?
So for the second time he talks to himself. Now notice the similarity between the 5th and the 11TH verse. I'm going to read both these verses.
Why art thou cast down all my soul, and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
And then why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquiet within me?
Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God.
Perhaps he's learned something of the lesson, if I could turn to it in 2nd Corinthians 3.
I think you'll get the thought if I read this verse, Second Corinthians 3, the last verse. But we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image.
From glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Perhaps you've noticed now this little difference. It's in the end of the verse, in the fifth verse. The end is, I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance. But notice now I shall yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance and my God. Notice I shall yet praise Him.
For the help of his countenance, he's been turning to the Lord.
Been seeking help from him through his countenance, and now it's something like Moses. Moses must have been very, very discouraged when he went up to that mountain to make intercession for the people who had failed so grievously. And I believe he was counting on the help of the Lord's countenance when he went up there, because he knew the Lord was gracious and merciful. But when he came down, what happened?
It had reflected in His countenance, and His countenance was so bright that he had to put a covering over his face. Where did it happen? In the presence of the Lord. He had got that, and now it was reflecting in His countenance. And brethren, that's where the Spirit of God seeks to lead us. He speaks to lead us to the source of all blessing.
That precious Savior who died for us, who lives for us, who's for us, and we're going to spend eternity.
With him and Janelle, if we just spend a little time in his presence, maybe without realizing it, it's going to be like Moses. We're going to have these ups and downs as long as we're here, I think. But I believe that if we get into his presence and spend a little time there, it'll begin to reflect in our countenance too. It reflected in the countenance of Moses. And Moses didn't even know it. He doesn't even know it, but the.
People said, why your face is so shining, so we put a covering over His face. Well, brethren, may we know more. We all have these ups and downs in life, but may the Lord grant that spending more time in His presence, we learn that He is sufficient for all these difficulties, all these trials, all these ups and downs, and we spent a little more time in His presence. It'll begin to reflect in our countenance. Who is the health of my countenance?
And my God, my God, shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.