(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Take your Bibles back to Psalm chapter six. I was going to preach obviously on Psalm six on Sunday, so I have to push it back for tonight. So Psalm six, look at verse number three, just the first part there, it says, "'My soul is also sore vexed.'" The title of the sermon tonight is sore vexed. Okay, sore vexed. And what you're gonna find here with David, as we go through this Psalm, another Psalm of David, is that he is very vexed in his soul. He is very vexed in his body. Man, he's having a hard time right now. And it's kind of amazing because quite often we see King David having a hard time. Quite often we see his enemies against him and he's crying out to the Lord. But what's special about this Psalm is that it's his own fault. Okay, the reason why he's suffering is out of his own fault. So let's pick this up from verse number one there. He says to the Lord, "'O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, "'neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.'" So what is David saying to the Lord? He's recognized that he's wronged the Lord. He recognized that he has sinned against the Lord and he recognizes there that the Lord is angry with him, right? And he recognizes that the Lord is chastising him, right? The Lord is coming to King David and he's making his life hard because he's correcting him, he's chastising him. And the first thing that I want you to notice there in this verse is that David is not asking that the Lord doesn't chastise him. He's not saying, Lord, don't chastise me. He's saying, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. So it's not that he's saying, please don't chasten me. Lord, I've done wrong, please don't chasten me. No, he says, don't do it in anger, Lord. Please have mercy upon me, right? He's saying, don't do it in your hot displeasure. And you know what? This is something very important and I want the kids to learn this right now, okay? Kids, because there's gonna be times when you disobey your parents and your parents have to chastise you, okay? And I don't know what kind of method they'd use. Obviously, I use the rod. I believe that's the biblical teaching that we ought to use the rod of correction in our kids, right? But you don't wanna be chastened and you don't wanna be disciplined and you wanna face that rod when your parents are angry. It's better to be like King David and admit to your faults. It's better to come and say, please have mercy upon me. Yes, I've done wrong, okay? It's not a good thing to hide what you've done. It's not a good thing to lie and not to admit the wrong that you've done because mum and dads, they know when you lie, okay? You can't hide those facts. We know when you lie and when you lie and you try to get away from doing wrong, it makes us angry, okay? There's nothing wrong with getting angry. We get angry and guess what? That chastisement, that punishment might be a lot worse, okay? But you know, when you come and you admit to your faults and you say, sorry, that chastisement will still be there, but it'll be a lot lighter, okay? It'll be a lot more enjoyable, if you wanna put it that way, next to being corrected with a hot displeasure. Same thing with the Lord. Same thing with the Lord. David knew he had done wrong. He was realizing he's being chastised by the Lord and he comes, Lord, please. Yep, chastise me, but not in your anger, all right? I mean, not in your righteous anger, otherwise that punishment will come down even harder, okay? Look at, now, look at verse number, oh, actually, before I get into there, why didn't David want to get out of chastisement? Why was it important for David to realize, yep, I need to be chastised? Well, you don't need to turn there. Actually, if you want, you can turn to Hebrews 12. Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Keep your finger in Psalm 6. Keep your finger in Psalm 6 and turn to Hebrews 12 and while you're turning there, I'm just gonna read a couple of passages to you from Psalms 94 verse 12, Psalm 94 verse 12, because kids, do you like being disciplined? Do you like being corrected? Do you like the rod coming down on you? Probably not, but you know there's a blessing in there. There's a blessing in being corrected and I'll just read to you from Psalm 94 verse 12. It says, blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, oh Lord, and teaches him out of thy law. So being chastised, being chastened, being corrected, having that rod put to you is a blessing according to God. Okay, it's a blessing and if we're being chastened by the Lord, it's a blessing. Okay, it's not something that God wants to curse us and hurt us with, well, I guess a bit of hurt, but it's to correct us and so he can train us to be better believers, to be better Christians, to be more faithful to him and to overcome sin that we have in our lives. I'll just read to you Proverbs 3 verse 11. Proverbs 3 verse 11 says, my son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. So don't despise when the Lord puts you under chastening. Okay, there's gonna be times in your life when things get difficult, okay, when you're under pressure and you're stressed and it seems like there's no way out. Hey, it's not always the Lord chastising you, but you need to consider in those moments of time, could this be the Lord chastising me? Is there something in my life that I'm maybe sinned that I'm holding back on the Lord? Could this be correction that's coming from the Lord? Well, the teaching is, look, don't despise it. It's a blessing, okay? It's a blessing that the Lord loves you so much that the Lord of the universe would come down to you, me mortal, and correct you for the wrong you've done. That is a blessing, okay? Verse 12 says, for whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as a father of the Son in whom he delighteth. So when we're getting chastised by the Lord, it says, for whom the Lord loveth. When you're going through chastisement, it's out of love. Okay, yes, he may be reacting out of anger for something you've done, but the fact that he's correcting you must remind yourself the Lord loves me. The reason he's punishing me and causing me to go through this is because he loves me so much and he wants me to change the direction of my life. That I must be doing something so wicked and so harmful that I need to make sure I'm back on track and in fellowship with the Lord. Now while you guys are there, you should be in Hebrews 12. Look at verse five. Hebrews 12, verse five. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. And look, I read this from Proverbs. Look at this. My son despiseth not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor feints when thou art rebuked of him. Yes, if you're a believer, if you're a son of the Lord, if you're a child of God, there's gonna come times he chastises you. There's gonna be times when he rebukes you. And that can be through any many ways. He might come through the preaching. It might just come from your Bible reading. You realize, man, the Lord's correcting me in my life. Or it might be from outward factors. As we saw King David, and we'll look later on in King David's life, his enemies were raised up against him. His enemies were coming down against him. There was a war to be had, and yet David realized the reason this is happening is because the Lord is chastising me. That's what we see in verse six. We'll go there later. But let's keep reading here. Verse six, sorry, Hebrews 12, verse six. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son for whom he receiveth. If ye and you are chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons, for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? Now, parents, I spoke to the kids already, parents, do you chasten your kids? Do you correct your kids? Because look at this verse. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? There's this expectation from the Word of God. There's this expectation from God, just a natural expectation that parents would automatically chastise their kids when they're doing wrong, okay? And parents, let me just recommend to you that hey, if your kids are doing wrong, they need to be disciplined. They need to be corrected. They need to be chastised, okay? And it's a blessing to them and it's something done out of love. And I know sometimes as parents, it's hard for us to take out that rod and deliver that blow on our children, but it's out of love and it's the best way to discipline your kids. It takes a moment in time. The kids weep for a few, maybe a minute, let's say. You make peace, they say sorry, and it's over. Otherwise, you can take the super nanny approach and put them in the naughty corner for 15 minutes, okay? And they're still cranky after 15 minutes. Hey, you can sort this out in a minute. You can sort this out in a few seconds if you apply the rod. Then it's forgiven, it's done, and you never bring it up again. That's how God works with us, right? He sins, he puts them as far as the east is from the west, and as parents, we need to make sure we do the same thing. When we discipline our kids, it's done. We forget about it, and if they do it again later, you don't bring it up that they did it five minutes ago. It's been dealt with. Deal with it again a second time, okay? Now, that's not so much about the sermon, but I just wanna say, hey, there is an expectation here that parents discipline their kids, and if you're not applying that consistently, then you need to do that, okay? You need to do that. Look at verse eight. But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, you've all been chastised by God in your life, including me. We're all partakers of this, according to the Bible. Then are ye bastards and not sons? Of course, we are children of God, and if you haven't been chastised by God in this life ever, if you've never gone through those difficulties and recognized, man, the Lord's angry at me, then hey, there's a possibility you're a bastard. It's a possibility that is not even your father. But of course, the expectation again here is we've like an earthly father that would correct their kids in the same way our heavenly father corrects his children when we do wrong. Verse number nine. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. So notice that. How do children revere or give reverence to their parents? According to the Bible, how do they do it? By being their best friend? By giving them everything they want? By going to the shops and buying the toys that they want? No, the reverence comes from the correction, okay? When you correct your kids, that's what's gonna cause your kids to respect you and listen to what you have to say. And we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live? For they verily for a few days chasten us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. So we're hearing here that when God chastises us, it's for our profits. You know, and I've preached a little bit about this before, but again, just keep in mind if someone came to you and said, look, I've got a deal for you. I've got a way to make you profit. I've got a way there to make you more partaker in the holiness of God. Wouldn't you kind of like, yeah, that sounds good. If I can profit from the Lord and be more holy in my life, you'll be like, yeah, give it to me. That's chastisement. It's gonna come from the chastisement that the Lord puts in our lives. And if you haven't been chastised, you know, you're either a bastard, you're not saved, or you are saved and it's coming your way at some point in time, okay? It's coming at some time, okay? Because we all fail. We all fail and we all have that pride and sometimes it's hard for us to admit when we've done wrong. And when it's hard for us to go and confess and admit we've done wrong, the Lord's gonna come down with that chastisement. Hopefully it's not in his hot displeasure, right? Hopefully we go to the Lord and seek his mercy when that starts happening. Verse 11 says, now no chastening for the present. This is Hebrews 12, by the way, if you move the way. Verse 11, now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. It is grievous, right? It's not nice to discipline your kids. It's not a nice feeling, right? It's grievous. It doesn't seem joyous. Nevertheless, afterward it yielded the peaceful fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. So there's great profit. There's a great fruit of peaceable fruit if you apply chastening to your kids. And in the same way, if the Lord applies chastening to his children, if you're saved, there will be peaceable fruit, okay? You'll be more holy, you'll be more like him, you'll be able to overcome certain sins because you're gonna remember, man, if I go through that again, if I do those things again, the Lord may very well come down with his chastisement again. Go back to Psalm 6, please, go back to Psalm 6 and look at verse number two, Psalm 6, verse two. And because David recognizes that the reason why his enemy's against him right now, he recognizes that it's out of his error and out of his sin, look what he says and that he's being chastised by the Lord. Verse number two, have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak, O Lord, heal me for my bones are vexed. So he says, look, Lord, please have mercy. I know I deserve this chastisement but I need you to go a bit softer than me. And it's interesting how the Lord has been chastising him there. Look what it says, I am weak, O Lord, heal me for my bones are vexed. So David was going through some physical illness there. Do you see that? He was going through some difficulty in his body and he recognized that the reason he had this sickness or this illness was because it came from the chastisement of the Lord. That's an interesting thing. I mean, obviously we all get sick in our lives and it's not always gonna be out of the chastisement of the Lord, I mean, it's just many times the flu is just going around or whatever and we get sick. But sometimes the Lord can use sickness in your life to bring chastisement upon you. That's what we see here that happened to King David. He recognizes that, right? He's under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost to write these words. And the Holy Ghost is basically telling him, yep, the reason why you're going through the sickness right now, David, is because this is the Lord's chastisement upon your life. And again, you know, again, not every illness, don't think automatically I'm sick, that means the Lord's angry with me, no. But I think it's worthwhile if you are getting sick and you're getting sick often or you have a chronic issue, I think it's worthwhile to consider how is my walk with the Lord going? Could this be a chastisement that's come upon the Lord? You know, I think it's worthwhile to think about that, right, and if you realize, you know what, no, there's not, you know, I have a daily, you know, fellowship with the Lord, I'm confessing my sins to him, I'm reading my Bible, I'm doing everything as much as I possibly can, you know, for the Lord, then it's probably just a sickness that, you know, our bodies are degrading, they're not like Adam and Eve like they were before, you know, perfect, you know, it could be that, but if there's a big gap in your life, in your spiritual life, it may very well be chastisement and that might be something you wanna deal with, okay? And look at verse number three, this is where we get the title of the sermon from, it's not just his bones that are vexed, he says, my soul is also sore vexed, but thou, O Lord, how long? So not only is he suffering physically, but inside his soul is suffering as well, his soul is vexed. It's interesting that your soul can suffer separately to the body, you know, it's an interesting thing there, but why was it suffering, why was his soul suffering? You get a bit of a clue there in verse number three, it says, how long, O Lord, how long, how long, what was this about? Look at verse four, return, O Lord, return. So he's saying, how long? And then he says, return. So you can see that not only was he suffering illness from chastisement, but that he wasn't fellowshipping with the Lord, he wasn't walking with the Lord. To him, the Lord had departed, and he's saying, how long, Lord, until you return? And because there was that break in fellowship, because he had this sin in his life that brought chastisement upon him, he did not feel that the Lord was with him, he did not feel that the Lord was walking with him, and his soul was vexed. And again, if you're failing in your spiritual walk, you're gonna find times where your soul is vexed, you might feel, where are you, Lord? Where's your presence? And you may need to pray this, how long, O Lord, please return, I wanna have that sweet fellowship with you. And then it says, return, O Lord, deliver my soul. Now, this is not about your soul's salvation, okay? Again, it's saying, deliver my soul, deliver it from what? Well, verse three, from being vexed. His soul was being vexed, and he wanted deliverance out of that vexation to have the Lord back in there. Oh, save me for thy mercy's sake, okay? So it was his soul that needed deliverance, but deliverance from vexation, from the vexation that he was going through without the Lord's presence in his life. And if I can just read, you guys can turn to 2 Corinthians, again, keep your finger in Psalm 6, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 6, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. And just very quickly, this is important in your spiritual life, I'll read to you first from 1 John 1-6, it says, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. So if I come to you and say, hey, how's your walk with the Lord? And you say, yeah, it's going well, I have fellowship with him. But then if you're walking in darkness, you're lying. You don't have fellowship with the Lord. Verse seven says, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, that's an interesting one, as he is in the light. I know we're talking about 1 Timothy 6, but anyway, that's another topic. As he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. So again, sin in our life will break the daily work and fellowship that we ought to have with the Lord. If we're walking in darkness and he's in the light, we won't be able to be in that light with him, we won't be able to fellowship with him, okay? Now you're in 2 Corinthians verse six, look at verse 14. Verse 14, it gives us a little bit more information about how we can break our fellowship with the Lord. It says, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. What kind of friends do you have in your life? What kind of people do you fellowship with? Are you fellowshipping with unbelievers? It says, don't be unequally yoked with them. For what fellowship have righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion have light with darkness? Again, we see that light and darkness there, right? The Lord being the light, and we being children of that light, what fellowship should we have with darkness, with unbelievers? Now I'm not saying we should be hateful toward them, we should be friendly. We need to have opportunities where we can share the gospel with people. In your life, you can't just be always amongst believers only and never cross paths with an unbeliever. But you shouldn't be making your best friends, you shouldn't be making the unbelievers your best friends. You should be looking for people that are like-minded and saved, children of God to fellowship with. Otherwise, they can cause that division like darkness and light. And look at verse 15. And what concord or what union hath Christ with Belial, that's another name for the devil, or what part have he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? What's the temple of God? Well, look at this. For ye are the temple of the living God. Your bodies are the temple of God. The Lord is within you. The Holy Spirit dwells in you, okay? And if a Holy Ghost is in us, then we should be doing all we can to have this temple of our bodies holy and pure without sin, okay? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. The Lord dwells in you. The Lord God dwells in you. And how disgusting when this body, this temple, is defiled, when it's in darkness, when it's sinning. It must grieve the Lord so much, it must grieve the Holy Spirit. Verse 17, wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. Again, this is not salvation. It's not saying, hey, stop living a wicked life and I'll save you. No, it's the fellowship. It's the communion with the Lord, okay? And verse 18, and I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty, okay? So this is a fellowship, you know, between sons and daughters and the Father. If we want to maintain that close relationship, then we need to make sure that we're not walking in darkness, okay? And of course, for King David, if you go back to Psalm 6, for King David, it must be that he was walking in darkness. It must be that he was in sin, and that's why the presence of the Lord felt so far from him, and he was asking, please return it, Lord, please. And it was his sin. It was his own fault, okay? It was his own fault. Look at verse five in Psalm 6. Psalm 6, verse five. For in death there is no remembrance of thee. In the grave, who shall give thee thanks? Now, obviously, when we die, our souls go to heaven, you know, and we can praise God in heaven. And obviously, we see in the Bible that there are those, the angels, or the seraphims, and praising the Lord, and then we see in the book of Revelation, the saints also praising him in heaven. It's not saying that when you die, you can't praise the Lord, but, you know, obviously, in this life, and amongst men, we can praise him. But when we're dead, we can't, okay? We can't praise him and thank him before men, you know, in this life. And so, obviously, what he's saying there, what I believe, if we can put this together, is he's suffering from some illness, and he's saying, Lord, I need deliverance out of this, otherwise, if I die, I can't praise you before men. I can't praise you here in Israel as the king of Israel, so if I die, look, I won't be able to give you thanks here on this earth amongst, you know, amongst the nation that's been given of him. And a verse that goes very well together with this is Psalm 30, you can turn there if you want since you're in Psalms, Psalms 30, verse nine, Psalm 30, verse nine, which says, what profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit? Now, this is not about hell, because look at this, it says, shall the dust praise thee? Shall it declare thy truth? So this is talking about the pit of the grave, I would say, you know, because when your bodies turn to dust, hey, how can the dust praise you, you know? And we need to think about this because we're given a limited time on this earth, we can't praise the Lord and thank him in the same way, you know, if we were dust, if we were in the grave, we got a limited time, we have this life to praise him, we have this life to worship him, and we need to make sure we take advantage, full advantage of the life that God has given us. Go back to Psalm six, Psalm six, Psalm six, verse six, Psalm six, verse six, now this is an interesting verse here, it says, I am weary with my groaning, and look at this, all the nights make I my bed to swim. So he's saying, I'm swimming in my bed, why is that? He says, I water my couch with my tears. So this is hyperbole, this is exaggeration, right? What's King David doing? What's he doing? It's tears, he's weeping, he's crying, okay? He goes to God, he goes to his bed, and he's weeping, he's crying. This is King David, a great man of God. This is King David who took on Goliath as a little kid, well, not a little kid, but probably like a teenager or something. This is a man of warfare. This is a strong and powerful man who's won many battles. And yet, even he would go to bed crying. Even he would be weeping on his couch. And probably those around him never thought, yeah, no, there's no way King David cries. And yet, here it is, it's like he's swimming in his bed, he's weeping, he's crying. And especially men, we need to cry from time to time, okay? There comes a time when we need to weep, okay? It's not a characteristic that makes you weak, okay? It's a characteristic of humility, okay? And who else weeped in the Bible? Our great Savior, okay? The greatest man, who was God, he weeped. We'll have a look at a couple of things of that. If you can turn to John chapter 11, John chapter 11, verse 32, John 11, verse 32. And I was just gonna say, I wrote this down here. You know, what was said of David? What did people say of David? They said, Saul has slain his thousands, and David, his 10,000s. People would praise and sing about David. Man, this great man of war, he's slain his 10,000s. This great man of God. And then he'd go home and cry on the bed, right? He'd cry on the couch. Sometimes that's what we need to do, right? That sometimes that's what needs to happen. And please don't be ashamed of that. Sometimes that's what we need to do, okay? John 11, John 11, verse 32. John 11, verse 32. Then when Mary was come, where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. So this is Lazarus, right? Mary's brother Lazarus. Jesus was a good friend to this family, and Lazarus had died. Verse 33. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came with her, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled. Our Lord Saviour, the Lord God, groaning in the spirit and he was troubled. And look, we know he has the power to raise Lazarus from the dead, right? He has all power. And yet even he could be troubled in that spirit, right? Verse 34. And said, where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Jesus wept, right? Then said the Jews, behold how he loved him. Why did David weep? Sorry, why did Jesus weep? Because he had such great love for his friends. Such great love for his friends. And when his friends were weeping, he could weep with them, right? He could weep with them. He could emphasize with those who were mourning. You know, don't be so hard-hearted, especially men, because ladies are pretty good at this, but men, don't be so hard-hearted when people are suffering, you know, and they're mourning. Hey, sometimes you need to mourn with them, okay? You know, I have a pastor friend who once said to me, a family that he was consulting with, a loved one died in their family and that loved one was unsaved. That loved one was unsaved. And obviously these people knew where he was or where she was. It was a male or female. And he said to me, what do I do? Like, they're mourning, right? They're mourning, they're crying, they're weeping over this unsaved loved one who's gone into eternity without Christ, who's gone into eternity in hell. What do we do? Like, what's the step? All I said to him was, you can't do anything. All you can do is mourn with them. All you can do is weep with them, you know, because there's nothing you can do, right? And we see Jesus Christ, and this is not even an unsaved man. This is a saved man, Lazarus. Even he could feel the pain of other people and weep with them, you know? Sometimes that's what you need to do. Sometimes there's no other answer, but to feel that pain and to emphasize, sympathize and weep and mourn with them. You know, there's a time to mourn. There's a time for those things. We see that Jesus wept. Go to Luke 19, go to Luke 19. Luke 19, Luke 19, verse 41. Luke 19, verse 41. This is another time that Jesus wept. Another time that Jesus wept. Luke 19, verse 41. And when he was come near, this is talking about Jesus, he beheld the city, that's Jerusalem, and wept over it. So Jesus Christ coming near the city, looked at the city, and he wept over it. He started to weep and cry about the city. Why? Look at verse 42. Saying, if thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this day, the things which belong unto thy peace. But now they hid from thine eyes. So Jesus is saying to Jerusalem, that these people have the opportunity to have their peace with God. He's the savior, he's the lamb that's come to take the sins of the world. He's been offered to the Jews first, but they rejected him. They rejected him, and Jesus, out of that rejection, weeps because he knows their fate. He weeps, look, he says, in this day, you know, today is the day of salvation, right? They put it off, they rejected him. And then what? Look at the end of verse 42. But now, so you've had your chance to receive me, you've had your chance of salvation, but now they are hid from thine eyes. And what did we preach about on Thursday? The doctrine of reprobates, and I know it's unpopular, but there can come a time where the Lord's offered you salvation time and time again. Jesus Christ doing these miracles. These people have the opportunity to receive their savior. They reject him, they reject him, they reject him. They call him of the devil, right? They hate him, they want to kill him. And there comes a time when now that truth is even hid from their eyes. No more chance for these people. Now I'm not saying necessarily everybody in Jerusalem, but obviously this is speaking in general, okay? And then look at verse 42, sorry, already, verse 43. So now he prophesies about their destruction, their destruction by the hands of the Roman Empire. He says, for the day shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and come past thee around, and keep thee on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee, and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. Okay, so this is judgment that's come upon Israel for rejecting their savior, for rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ. And that judgment fell upon Jerusalem in 70 AD when the Roman Empire came, destroyed the city, destroyed the temple, and not one stone was left upon another in that temple. Go back to Psalm 6, please. Psalm 6, verse 7, Psalm 6, verse 7. I just wanted to show you, there's nothing wrong with crying. There's nothing wrong with weeping, okay? Sometimes that's how we need to deal with a situation. Look at verse 7. Mine eye, this is because he's been weeping, mine eyes consumed because of grief. It waxes old because of all mine enemies. So now we get a bit more picture of this chastisement. We see that the Lord had raised up enemies to fight against David, okay? And that's what the Lord can do sometimes. When the Lord brings chastisement upon you, he may very well use your enemies to chastise you. He might raise them and trouble you with your enemies. And that was the case here with King David. But what's interesting about how he deals with this, you would think that when the enemies come and the battles come, you would think, probably in the flesh, that I need to fight every battle. And let me say to you guys, you need to pick which fights to, what battles to fight. You know, otherwise your whole life will be fighting. Otherwise your whole life will be battles. This was a battle that David knew he can't fight. He couldn't get there with his sword and armies and fight these enemies. It wasn't gonna happen because this wasn't just a normal war. This was the chastisement of the Lord. The Lord had raised his enemies to bring trouble upon King David, okay? So instead of going to battle with his army, he cries on the bed. He weeps, he cries, he asks for mercy from the Lord. He recognizes that these enemies are here because of the chastisement of the Lord, okay? You need to make sure you pick what battles you're going to fight, okay? If you find yourself fighting a battle constantly, again and again and again and you fight it again and it's still there and you fight it again, you're still there and you never win. It's a battle that you can never win. It's always there, time and time again. Well, maybe the Lord's not expecting you to fight that battle. Maybe that's chastisement that's come upon you and you need to figure out what is this? Do I fight this or is this chastisement? Is there something in my life that's wrong with the Lord? Am I not fellowshiping with him? Do I need to go and ask for mercy? Is this something else, Lord? Is this a battle that I can't fight and I can't win because you have raised your hand of chastisement upon me? That's something you need to evaluate before you just go and fight every battle, okay? Now, there's battles to fight, okay? This is like spiritual warfare with soldiers of the Lord. Amen, there are battles to fight but sometimes some battles that can never be won may very well be the hand of chastisement upon the Lord. And you need to figure out, do I fight it or do I just go to the Lord and cry about it? Sometimes you need to cry about it, okay? Verse eight, verse eight. Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. Now, what did we read in Psalm five? That God hateth all workers of iniquity and yet the Lord is using these workers of iniquity, these enemies of David to bring the chastisement on him. Now, what does David do? Again, does he go to fight the war? Does he raise his army and fight against them? No, he's brought the request before the Lord, he recognizes the chastisement of the Lord, he's going, yep, I deserve this Lord. You know, confessing his sins, confessing his faults, admitting to his fault, admitting to his error, and it's then that he gains his strength. It's from there that he gains the strength from the Lord and he realizes now that I've been able to talk to the Lord about this, now he has the courage to say, depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. Why, why does he have this courage now? Why is he bolden? Because he says this, for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. That's why I know I'm gonna win this battle now, because the Lord has heard my weeping, he's heard my cries, he's seen my tears, he's chastised me and now I'm right with the Lord and now I know those workers of iniquity are gonna depart. Do you see that? He didn't go and fight the battle. He took the chastisement, he humbled himself, took it to the Lord and the Lord's, he knew, yep, now the Lord's gonna take care of this because that was his chastisement and that hand of chastisement will come off. David claims the victory not because he won the battle, but because the Lord heard his cries, the Lord heard his weeping, you see that? Look at verse number nine, verse number nine. The Lord have heard my supplication, the Lord will receive my prayer. He knows it now, right? He's taken that right of correction. It's been dealt with. Now he knows he has the victory. He knows the Lord has heard him. David is renewed in the Lord, but not in a personal prideful victory, okay? It's not been renewed by him going and fighting and having that pride, I've won the war, no, I know the Lord's gonna win that war for me because I took the chastisement. I took it and I deserved it. I love verse number 10, he says, let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed. So I was the one that was being vexed, right? But now that I have the confidence in the Lord that I'm right with him, now I know those enemies will be ashamed and vexed. The Lord was going to bring shame upon these enemies. He didn't have to raise his hand and fight them. The Lord was gonna make sure this was done away with. The Lord was able to raise up these enemies of David against him, chastisement, and the Lord was also able to abase them. The Lord was able to bring them to shame as well. And he says, let them return and be ashamed suddenly, right? Just whatever, just suddenly, the Lord's gonna do it, right? I don't know how, but suddenly it's gonna happen because I know I took my medicine. And this really is a Psalm of taking your medicine, right? It's pausing sometimes when life gets hard or you're trying to fight a battle that can never be won and it just seems to be getting worse, sometimes you need to just look at your life and go, man, is this the hand of chastisement from the Lord? Am I walking with the Lord? Do I have sins that I've not confessed to him? Look, it happened to David. And just in conclusion, when's the last time you've wept? When's the last time you've gone in tears to the Lord? Or are you sometimes too prideful to do that? No, David wasn't too prideful. Jesus wasn't too prideful to weep. You know, one of my fondest memories as a child, you know when you're young, you look at your father and you think they're the strongest, smartest, you know, like nobody's better than my dad. You know, I remember thinking that about my dad at a young age, thinking, man, he's so strong because you know, dads can lift up their kids and stuff and you can never beat them in a restaurant or anything like that. And my fondest memory though was one day just walking into my parents' bedroom and seeing my dad there on his knees with his Bible open, praying and weeping. Just on his knees, Bible open, praying and weeping. And like that touched me, right? Like you look at something like that and you think, man, my dad's so strong and so mighty, but then you see him weeping to the Lord and it's like, whoa, like if, and I didn't interrupt him, I never asked him, I never even asked him to this day what that was about. That was the only time I really saw my dad like that, but it's ingrained in my mind. It's like this photographic memory, right? It's like kind of like a shock. And I just learnt from that, like if my dad, who's so strong and so smart, needs the Lord sometimes, then I'm gonna need him. Like there's gonna be times where I need the Lord, when things are so difficult, I need to just open that Bible, get on my knees and just weep. And you know, and just say, Lord, I don't know, I can't do this on my own. Life is hard. I don't know where to go. I just need you, Lord. You know, please just hear my weeping. Just help me overcome this battle. Help me overcome this difficulty. If it's chastisement, Lord, just chastise me, not in your anger. You know, please be merciful, Lord, but help me take that medicine. And so, yeah, that's one of my fondest memories of my dad. And I think, you know, dad's parents, we need to be mindful of that. I think, you know, our relationship and our walk and our Bible reading and our prayer life will be remembered by our kids. And it'd be a shameful thing if our kids look back and think of dad and mom, and they never seen them read the Bible. They've never seen them on their knees in prayer. You know, I think that would, you know, that wouldn't be good. That wouldn't be good. Look, you know, the fact that I saw my dad do that, and my dad's not even this churchy kind of guy. He's not really into all the doctrines and just I'm studying it, all that, you know. But that was enough. That was enough for me to go, man, if he needs the Lord, I need him too. I need him too.