Patience In the 'Horrible Pit' Psalm 40:2

Text: “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a Rock, and established my goings.”

                                                                                                                      Psalm 40:2.

Good morning, Christian in a horrible pit!  Life for true and genuine, Bible-believing Christians in this increasingly apostate 21^st Century can be very difficult indeed.  IF we are seeking to serve the risen Christ Jesus as the militant soldiers He has called us to be – we shall experience many such metaphorical ‘horrible pits’.  Fact. 

If you and I do not suffer some form of persecution, hindrance, marginalization at the hands of the world, the flesh, and the Devil in this day of increased evil and unbelief – then I must conclude that we are NOT really true Christians at all!  Let this sobering thought awaken us to harsh reality this morning!  We must examine ourselves NOW!

“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus SHALL suffer persecution.  But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.  But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou has learned them; and that from a child thou has known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”  (2 Timothy 3:12-13)

Verse 2. “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit.  All those international recipients who have been receiving my weekly Bible Lessons consistently over the past two decades, are well aware of God’s testimony of saving grace to me, ‘a very real sinner, who was, and continues to be, in constant need of a very real Saviour’!  (See ‘More About Kenny’ on the www.ulsterchristians.org Blog, or purchase Brent Riggs’ Book, ‘Terrorist to Evangelist’ on his www.seriousfaith.com website)

The Lord God, through the reading of an old Prison Issue Bible in 1979, while in solitary confinement, serving two Life sentences as a political terrorist - granted me His gift of repentance, and faith to believe that I was indeed ‘a chief among sinners’, on my way to a Christ-rejecter’s Hell; and in desperate need of Salvation through the Cross of Christ Jesus alone. Only God the Spirit can ‘quicken’, make alive, dead souls.

“For the Son of man (Jesus Christ) is come to seek and to save that (Spiritually dead sinners) which was lost.”  (Luke 19:10)

I was in a very ‘horrible pit’, the infamous H Blocks of the High Security Maze Prison, here in Northern Ireland, UK.  Only Christ Himself could ever lift me out of that particular ‘pit’ – and He did, praise God He did! 

He gave me faith to believe His Word, granted me repentance from my vile 32 years of sin; redeemed me by His own sinless and precious Blood shed for me on Calvary’s Cross – and on August 12^th 1979, I was born again, saved for Eternity by the matchless grace of a truly loving and merciful Lord God Almighty.  Hallelujah!  This is REAL!  Christ saves repentant sinners!  Glory, Glory, Glory to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world! 

“Neither is there Salvation in any other: for there is none other Name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”  (Acts 4:12)

“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.  Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting.”  (1 Timothy 1:15-16)

Christ lifts the souls of ‘His people’ out of all ‘horrible pits’, bringing Salvation to the Father’s elect, and greater glory indeed to His altogether Holy and lovely Name.

“Now unto the King Eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever.  Amen.”  (1 Timothy 1:17)

Verse 2.  “…An horrible pit. Some of the pits referred to in the Bible were prisons, one such I saw at Athens, and another at Rome.  To these there were no openings, except a hole at the top which served for both door and window.  The bottoms of these pits were necessarily in a filthy and revolting state, and sometimes deep in mud.”  (John Gadsby 1862)

Verse 2.  ‘…Out of the miry clay. Once give a man a good foothold, and a burden is greatly lightened, but to be loaded and to be placed on slimy, slippery clay, is to be tried doubly.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 193)

Verse 2.  “…And set my feet upon a Rock. There would be no lasting point in lifting someone out of one pool of slippery, slimy, miry clay, only to place that person’s feet back into another such quagmire of filth and slime.  Thus, the Lord God not only lifts the repentant sinner’s Spiritual feet out of the slimy clay of his/her sins, but then immediately sets the saved one’s feet upon Christ, the Rock of our Salvation.  God grants us an Eternal Standing – in Christ Jesus the sure and steadfast Rock. Hallelujah!

Verse 2.  “…And established my goings.  When the shepherd rescues his sheep out of a swamp, he always sets the feet of the rescued sheep on solid and safe ground.  Otherwise sheep, being mere sheep, would just naturally wander straight back into the mud and slime out of which they had been rescued.  Sinful mankind will always do the same.  That is why we need the Lord not only to save us, but to establish our goings daily through the great Lamp that is His Holy Word: the KJV Bible!

Thought: If you are in some ‘horrible pit’ today – wait patiently and faithfully for the sure rescue promised by the Lord God.  Christ will never let us down!

Psalm 40: The Christian & The Christ Psalm 40:1

Text: “I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry.”

                                                                                                                        Psalm 40:1.

Good morning, Christian blighted by impatience!  If this description fits you today, dear friend in Christ – I can assure you that, I am ashamed to say, it suits me also.  Of all things lacking in the author’s Christian witness and faith – in my latter years especially, I am become a most impatient man!  Please pray for me, dear reader, and I will pray for you?  The Lord Jesus Christ loves honest, impatient Christians, just as much as he love the successfully patient ones.  Praise God it is so!   Amen.

Dictionary Definition: Patience – (noun) the quality of being able calmly to endure suffering, toil, delay, vexation, or any similar condition; sufferance…Patient – (adjective) sustaining pain, delay, etc. calmly and without complaint; not easily provoked; persevering in long continued or intricate work; expecting with calmness; long-suffering; enduring…  (The Chambers Dictionary, page 1193)

Impatience, therefore is the lack of this vital grace, as defined above, and a level of inability with which to calmly endure suffering, pain, delay, vexation, etc.  In other words, the author is a Christian man who is known ‘…not to suffer fools gladly…’, and one who can be quite impulsive due to a lack of calm patience.  This is merely self-honesty!

“O wretched man that I am!  Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”  (Romans 7:24-25)

In Psalm 40: we can clearly see both the Christian and the Christ: David in this Old Testament time of inspired writing, and Christ Jesus in time and Eternity.

“Subject: Jesus is evidently here (in Psalm 40), and although it might not be a violent wrestling of language to see both David and his Lord, both Christ and the church, the double comment might involve itself in obscurity, and therefore we shall let the sun shine even though this should conceal the stars.  Even if the New Testament were not so express upon it, we should have concluded that David spoke of our Lord in verses 6-9, but the apostle in Hebrews 10:5-9 puts all conjecture out of court and confines the meaning to Him Who came into the world to do the Father’s will.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 193)

Verse 1. “I waited patiently for the Lord.  Patient waiting upon God was a special characteristic of our Lord Jesus.  Impatience never lingered in His heart, much less escaped His lips.  All through His agony in the Garden, His trial of cruel mockings before Herod and Pilate, and His passion on the Tree, He waited in omnipotence of patience.  No glance of murmuring, no deed of vengeance came from God’s patient Lamb; He waited and waited on; was patient, and patient to perfection, far excelling all others who have according to their measure glorified God in the fires.  Job on the dunghill does not equal Jesus on the Cross.  The Christ of God wears the imperial crown among the patient.  Did the only Begotten wait, and shall we be petulant and rebellious?”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 193)

Oh that you and I, dear Reader, might be more like the Lamb Whom we love!

Verse 1. “I waited patiently.  Rather anxiously; the original has it, waiting I waited; a Hebraism, which signifies vehement solicitude.”  (Daniel Cresswell 1776-1844)

The patience the Psalmist is referring to is a patience that is not entirely passive but  marked by, or evincing, an urgency and forcefulness born of strong conviction.  It is a totally determined patience that will wait out the most violent assaults of opposing forces, until the violence of such oppositions and hindrances are spent, and wear themselves out upon such patience, without any over-coming success on their part.

“Our Lord’s patience under suffering was an element of perfection in His work.  Had He become impatient, as we often do, and lost heart, His Atonement would have been vitiated (rendered ineffective, faulty).  Well may we rejoice that in the midst of all His temptations and in the thickest of the battle against sin and Satan, He remained patient and willing to finish the work which His Father had given Him to do.”  (James Frame 1869)

In spite of all our puny faults and failings of human patience – as ‘born again’ believers in Christ Jesus – we are still exhorted to WAIT, to be as patient as we can be, knowing that the Living Lord God Almighty is always present with us in our trials and testings, and that He is, will, and will always be, working circumstances together for our eventual good.  Praise His gracious Name!

“Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted in the earth.  The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.”  (Psalm 46:10)

“And we (the elect) know that all things (even the negative!) work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”  (Romans 8:28)

“…And lo (look and understand), I AM (Jehovah God) with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”  (Matthew 28:20)

Verse 1. “He inclined unto me. Can we not hear the Lord’s Divine Voice informing us afresh: ‘Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.’”  (Jeremiah 33:3)  Pray earnestly, God will hear.

Thought: The Lord God is patiently waiting to hear our cry, and to a answer us.

5. Regenerative Prayer! Psalm 39:12-13

Text: “Hear my prayer O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not Thy peace at my tears; for I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.  O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.

                                                                                                              Psalm 39:12-13.

Good morning, ‘low-battery Christian’!  As your eyes light upon this weekly Bible Lesson,  perhaps you know in your heart of hearts that you are not ‘firing on all cylinders’ in your Christian commitment to the Living Lord Christ Who has suffered and died on that cruel Cross to save your never-dying soul.  You are, perhaps, very aware of your luke-warm state in Christ, and know your deep need to be recovered out of the state you are presently in. 

If this is your case this morning, praise God that He has already made you aware of your urgent need of renewal!  Praise God, He is not ignoring your luke-warm state!  Praise God, He has caused your eyes to light upon this Scriptural message this morning, for after reading this exposition from God’s Word, you shall be ready to receive His regenerative power again.  Hallelujah!  What a loving and gracious Lord God we seek to serve!

If the Lord God is making you aware that your Spiritual ‘battery’ is low in power – get ‘plugged in’ to God’s Word; open your Bible with zeal to learn and receive the renewal of Spiritual power you so desperately need.  Do so right now, Christian!

“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”  (Acts 1:8)

“So then faith cometh by hearing (reading), and hearing by the Word of God.”  (Romans 10:17)

‘Low-battery Christians’ are true and genuine ‘born again’ believers, who seem to have forgotten how they were first regenerated from having a DEAD spirit, to being blessed with a full-powered Spiritual nature from God!  Having forgotten how they were first saved from Spiritual death, they are currently at loss as to how they might recharge the Spiritual life they have been blessed with.  Sad, but too often true.  

Reminding such ‘low-battery Christians’ of how they were originally Spiritually regenerated, can be the knowledge they desperately need to be empowered anew for active service in the army of Christ Jesus.

Therefore, we must take such forgetful Christians back to the day of their Salvation, and from that vantage point, direct them to God’s Word once again.

“And you hath He (the Spirit of God, God the Spirit) quickened (made alive), who were dead in trespasses and sin…Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved).”  (Ephesians 2:1;5)

1. Election: God the Father elected us to be Eternally saved, before the foundation of the world, and gave us to His Son, Christ Jesus, Who would save us in the appointed time.

“Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the father in My Name, He may give it you.”  (John 15:16)

2. Salvation: Quickened by God the Spirit to know our sinful state, Christ’s impeccable righteousness; and the judgement that must surely come – the Lord drew us with His cords of love and truth to know the way of Salvation in the full Atonement Sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cruel Cross; and to receive his gracious gift of Salvation faith in Him.  We were ‘born again’ of God the Spirit, and adopted into the Spiritual family of the Living Lord God Jehovah.  We were truly saved by Christ.

“All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him/her that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out, for I came down from Heaven , not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.”  (John 6:37-38)

3.  Empowered:  We could never have done this great thing by a making a mere human decision; or being born into a Christian family; or by some super-human act of the fallen human will.  God had to empower us to become His Spiritual children.

“But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe (trust) on His Name: which were born, not of blood (family relationship), nor of the will of the flesh (human willpower), nor of the will of man (human reasoning and decision-making), but of God.”  (John 1:12-13)

4. Kept Secure:  Once genuinely saved, we shall always be securely saved – IF we are really the elect of God!  God does the convincing of our sin; God does the ‘quickening’ of our spirit; God does the redeeming of our souls; God does the saving of our souls – and therefore, God alone is tasked with the keeping of all souls He has truly saved.  ‘Salvation is of the Lord’, from beginning to end.  Glory to His Name!

We are “…KEPT by the power of God through faith unto Salvation…” (1 Peter 1:3-5)

Thought:  God’s Word was the means of receiving this Salvation grace.  Therefore, it is God’s Word that must renew in faith all those who are lacking in Spiritual power to serve the Living Lord God Who has redeemed our never-dying souls from our sin.  In God’s great Name I say unto you, ‘Live in the full power of the Spirit of God, Christian!  Lift that Bible and recharge your spirit!’