An Appeal for Divine Favor

I invite you to turn in the Word of God this morning to Psalm 106 for a day of prayer—returning to Psalm 106. I encourage students and those who may be newer in a congregation who have not yet communicated with me via email, I encourage you to do that. You can find my email at the back of the bulletin. If you email me, then I have your email. Especially if you’re one of the students, young adults, please email me. I encourage you to do that. Or you can text, if that’s easier. Both my email and number are there, just so we can communicate with you the various things that may be available to you.

Psalm 106 is where we are this morning. Psalm 105 and 106 are paired, giving much history concerning experience of the Old Testament. I want to read just the opening five verses. I will refer to some of the verses through the psalm, but let us just read the opening five verses. Psalm 106, let’s hear God’s Word from verse 1.

“Praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? who can shew forth all his praise? Blessed are they that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times. Remember me, O Lord, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy salvation; That I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance.”

Amen. We’ll end the reading there at the fifth verse. What you have heard is the infallible and eternal word of the living God, which you are to receive, believe, and obey. And the people of God said, amen. Let’s pray.

Lord, we ask that thou wilt look upon us in pity. We so desire to be what we’re meant to be. There are some here, I have to believe, that have a deep longing to be at their best for God. There are some here at a critical juncture in their life. This day of prayer has come at an opportune time for them to come and spend time in thy presence. Some may be backslidden. It’d be good for them to be here and get their hearts right in the quietness of the time given this afternoon to confess their sins and get right with the Lord. Some wrestling over matters of providence, needing deliverance and intervention. This is a time and occasion that you have given to the church to come and really lay hold upon the Lord in sincerity. Some are burdened about lost loved ones. Some concerned about the work of God in various aspects. Some, Lord, just wanting to come and express their praise and thanksgiving to thee because thou has been so merciful to them.

We pray, God, whatever our condition this morning, that there would be help given, that this day would not go wasted, it would not be frittered away, that there would be an intentional, sincere, wholehearted calling upon God. We think of those that are bringing life into the world very soon, little ones in the womb, who will soon, God willing, be born—bearing the burden of that responsibility, needing help, feeling the frailty of their abilities. We pray, O God, that you would equip and that there would be a sincere casting upon thee for grace and help and strength.

We ask, Lord, that thou wilt remember our own congregation. We need thee, Lord. We pray that thou wilt visit us. Be very kind and gracious to us in a way that is tangible and unmistakable. There are young people here who are afraid of their future, struggling perhaps to settle in even already into a new environment and school. Oh God, meet the need today. Help us to know this time and season of prayer is God’s appointment to get the comfort and help we need. So come to us now. Answer prayer. Send the Spirit. We ask in our Savior’s name, amen.

It is my hope this morning, beloved, that you will leave our time of worship, having heard the Word, with a sense of the expectation that we’re going to read of and study and consider for a time that was in the heart of the psalmist.

There are times in the collective life of the people of God when the church feels keenly its need for a fresh visitation. If your assessment of the current climate and what we’re living through is one of despair or feeling like, “Is there any hope? Has it ever been as bad as it is today?” I want you to know that the Word of God is replete with evidence of these seasons of extreme challenge to the remnant, to the people of God, to those who feel such concerns.

This psalm is instructive regarding the manner in which one repents. I’m going to read in just a moment that he repents. But even as he feels the need to repent, note how he begins: “Praise ye the Lord.” Hallelujah. His opening expression is one of hope, one believing that God is to be praised, and there are reasons for which to praise Him.

But he is lamenting. Look at verse 6: “We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.”

It gives a triplet here, underscoring in this threefold fashion, layering in this threefold way, the extent, the depth to which he feels the sin of his own generation, of his own heart, and how it very much is likened to what he knows has been true of his forefathers. “We have sinned with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly.”

This is what we do sometimes, or what we read rather of in the Bible sometimes, where we layer terms that effectively mean the same thing. When David confesses his sin in Psalm 51, you find there in the opening verses: “According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.” They’re all meaning the same thing. They have slight nuance of significance, but effectively there’s a call for the same thing, and that is what the psalmist here is doing. He is layering this recognition of sin. He’s not wanting just to whitewash it or run past it in a way that almost is without meaning or significance. He’s multiplying terms so that those reading on might see, “I know that we have sinned.”

The psalm then develops into this litany of failure that is set against God’s mercy. You look at verse seven and following: “Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea.”

And he goes on then to list these various things, these series of sins historically given from verse, really from there all the way through to verse 42. And so when you come to verse 43, he gives a kind of summary: “Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity. Nevertheless he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry. And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies. He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives.”

This is what God has done. And this long middle section, just here’s their sin. You can read it for yourself. All these sins. Evidence of continually turning against God. Nevertheless, nevertheless, verse 44: “He regarded their affliction when he heard their cry. And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies,” and so on and so forth. And He acted on their behalf. “He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives.”

It’s an indication then of the timing of this psalm. This is post-exilic. He’s looking back. They’re coming back into the land. They’re looking back again over their whole history and seeing that this calamity that they’ve gone through is not an anomaly in that sense. That what has brought them there is a series of sins, constantly turning against God has brought them to this point, and yet still God has shown mercy once again, bringing them back.

And so the expressions of prayer and hope, you can see in verse 47: “Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto thy holy name, and to triumph in thy praise. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the Lord.”

He ends exactly as he began. God is to be praised. Look what he has done. And the language of “Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us” is not alone. It bookends the history. So what you have in verse 47 is seen also in the verses we’re looking at this morning. Verse 4 and 5: “Remember me, O Lord, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people. O visit me with thy salvation; that I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance.”

This is his prayer. It’s what he’s looking for, longing for. And I think as we come to our day of prayer, we will see the appropriateness of this request. I trust it will encourage us. That’s my desire. You’ll be encouraged to have the same expectation because you can look at your past, your own individual past, and you can look at the past of the church, recent and distant, and you can see the sin, the apostasy, turning away from God. And yet, again, again, and again, God’s people learn. God can be depended upon. He will answer and show mercy.

I’ve titled my message, “An Appeal for Fresh Evidence of Divine Favor.” An Appeal for Fresh Evidence of Divine Favor.

There’s just two main heads that we’ll look at with the Lord’s help this morning. Remember me. Visit me—remember me, and visit me. You see it in the text, don’t you? Remember me, verse four there, and then the latter part of that verse, visit me, and it goes on into verse five.

So let’s consider then this with the Lord’s help, and pray, pray that it gets into your soul, that God has a word for you.

Remember me. I like that word remember. It’s a good word. Scripture uses it a lot. We are called to utilize our memory in an edifying way. We’re called to remember what God has done, but in this instance, the word is used as an appeal that God would remember. God is constantly saying that we are to remember. Now the psalmist says, “God, you remember. Remember.”

And he knows that God remembers. This is what the account is about. He sees all these sins. He’s going to record the history. And he lives in a time where it is evident that God has remembered us. And he can open his Bible. And look in the record given by Moses. Look right there at the end of Exodus 2. Look at them in the midst of their captivity, which mirrors something we’ve come through. Look at them and all of the hostility that they’ve lived under and the hardship that they’ve had to endure. When it feels as if God has abandoned them forever because multiple generations have had to endure this experience of feeling that God is distant. Yet there at Exodus 2, at the end of that chapter, he remembered, he remembered his covenant that he gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He remembered his word, and he acted in remembrance of that word.

So here the psalmist is praying the same way. Remember, remember me, O Lord. It’s a good prayer. The thief on the cross. Prayed that way, didn’t he? “Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” What a prayer. And it was answered. Suddenly, quickly, immediately. Encouragement that he had been heard. So we are encouraged to pray the same way.

The psalmist knows that the answer to his present concerns is found in God remembering. He is not suggesting, of course, we must understand this, I hope we understand this, that God in some way has actually forgotten. He hasn’t actually forgotten. But we relate to God as we experience it. We use language that correlates with what we feel. We can’t help it. It’s the only way we can describe what it is we’re trying to communicate with God. And so at times we feel forgotten, we feel as if God doesn’t see, God doesn’t know, God’s not being attentive to where I am and what I’m going through. And so he appeals, remember, this is what faith does in a time of despair, in a time when it’s at the bleakest point of your experience, this cry ascends, “Remember me.”

Of all the things that God should pay attention to, the Christian, the believer, has the courage, has the audacity to say, “God, remember me.” And that’s okay. Oh, this is a prayer for us. We need revival. You may look at your own heart today and say, “I know for one thing, I need it personally. There have been happier days in my Christian experience than where I am at this moment.” If that be true, it would be fitting for you to say, “Remember me.” You worked in my life powerfully before, remember me.

Oh, we have had years of delay. Certain things that have brought you the breaking point. And if you’re honest, such has been the delay over some matters that you have almost entirely given up. You don’t even pray the things you used to pray. This moment, this day, God as providence is resurrecting that thing within your mind and saying, “Come to me afresh and say, ‘Remember me in this.’”

What does he say specifically? First, remember what you do. Remember what you do. “Remember me, O Lord, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people.” Notice how he appeals. He does not appeal to the merit of the people or the merit of himself. “Remember, because look what we’ve done, Lord.” And that’s what Christ condemned on the Sermon on the Mount. “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” They brought their own merit. That was the problem. Their foundation was their own works. And so the response to them, put plainly by Jesus Christ, is, “Depart from me.” “Depart from me, I never knew you.”

But the psalmist knows that his argument is not to look upon his or the people’s merit or their performance, but to appeal to God’s favor. What does God do? He shows favor to his people. He shows favor. It’s the logic of grace that’s at work in his mind. Grace means God shows unmerited, undeserved favor to those in whom He is in covenant. Those who believe, those who trust, those who belong to Him, He shows favor to them. He shows favor. This is his appeal. It’s our appeal as well today, coming here to this place to pray in a very concentrated and extended for us fashion.

What are we saying to God? What are we going to come and say? “Look what we’ve done, God. Look, we’ve set aside this whole afternoon. Look at how obedient we are.” No! Are we making appeal to our own works? No. Are we arguing the basis of our past performance? No. We’re appealing. Show the favor that you show to your people. All we want is what you do for your people. Your favor.

Go back to Psalm 44. You see this argued out by the psalmist. Again, in a time of calamity. Again, rehearsing history, Psalm 44, verse 1: “We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.”

He favored them. They stood in relationship with him, and he favored them. And so he brought them in this mighty deliverance in the Exodus, and sustained them through the wilderness, and carried them into the land. And in the face of their enemies with their walled cities, went before them and gave them victory after victory. Why? Because he favored them.

Now, the question is, does he favor you? Frame it another way. Are you in Christ? Can you say with Paul, “I know whom I have believed. I know whom I have believed. And am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” His grace.

If you’re a child of God, if you are in Christ, then you are favored. Now tonight, God willing, I’m gonna labor a little more on those blessings that we have. So we go away today knowing the blessings we already enjoy. But you see it already here that the appeal is made based on the favor he already knows is true. God favors his people. He has received us as sinners and he delights to bless us. So we don’t bring, we don’t come to him and say, “Look Lord, look at my spiritual resume” in terms of, “Look what I have accomplished.”

You may have a resume, but it just, the blood of Jesus, that’s what’s on it. That’s it. The blood of Jesus Christ. And that’s enough. If the blood of Jesus is there, applied by faith to your heart, and you’re his, then you’re favored. The whole mass of humanity, you’re favored. All the teeming multitudes, many of which will end up eternally lost. You, you are favored.

And that then is the appeal. When he says, “Remember,” he’s saying, remember what you do. Remember what you do. Just remember me with the favor that thou bearest unto thy people.

So remember what you do, remember for whom you do it, just to build on that idea. Not just what you do, but for whom you do it. It’s “unto thy people,” specifically them. And so the psalmist ties his own identity to the people of God. He says, “Remember me.” But he’s not thinking as if, “Remember me, as if I am some independent, favored individual, separate from the whole mass of everyone.” No, no, no. He’s, “Remember me the way you remember your people. Remember then, me as one of your people.”

Remember what you do and for whom you do it. And so he longs to be remembered, not in isolation, but along with the people of God, along with the saints. And so he puts himself right there. And so this is what you’re to do as well. You’re not to come and say, “Lord, give me some special favor that’s distinct.” No, you’re to look at what God has done for his people, and you’re to say, “That’s what I want. I’ll be content if I have that. I want that.”

And so he’s not just looking for something personal and distinct. It’s a mercy that is appropriate for the corporate body and that if God remembers His people, if it weren’t this way, or should I put it this way, since He remembers, since He has a favor to His people, then He will remember me.

So again, as He gives us history and He sees all the sin, all the rebellion and yet God has remembered them. Again if you go to near the end of the psalm: “Nevertheless he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry: and he remembered for them his covenant.” That’s what he’s getting at. That’s what he’s getting at. He’s saying, “This is what you’ve done. Remember me.”

So, remember me, but also visit me. “Remember me, O Lord, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people. O visit me with thy salvation; that I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance.”

Visit me. It’s urgent and descriptive, isn’t it? Visit me. I know you might say, “Well, isn’t God’s covenant blessing include the fact that he will never leave his people?” Yes, that’s true. And yet the psalmist still believes it fitting to pray, “Visit me.” It’s not wrong to pray aligning with felt experience, especially when you have material inspired by the Holy Spirit to furnish you in those prayers.

The psalmist knows God. God is with him. And yet, still he prays, “Visit me.” He wants visitation. It is a cry, “Come to me, attend to me, be near to me.” He’s looking for decisive intervention.

Back on the record that we have in that little book, Ruth, that tells us that God visited His people in giving them bread. He visited. And you see then that the visitation of God correlates with the providence. There had been a famine. People were struggling. Because of the famine, Elimelech had taken his whole family to a land that God had forbidden his people ever to go to, Moab, but he’s just trying to circumvent the famine. Logically, it made sense. Scripturally, it was wrong.

You see Christians do this. God says something, and they logically can’t reason how that’s a good decision to make. And so they make another decision, a decision forbidden by God. And they try to reason it. They think it makes sense to them. Be careful with that, young people, when you’re making decisions. You make shipwreck very quickly.

God visits. He visits. He visited His people, giving them bread. That’s when they knew God had visited, when the famine went away and there was a restoration of profitable harvest. That’s it. I mean, so what I’m trying to get you to understand is to not be so caught up in the theology. I’m not saying forget it. Of course, you have to remember that God doesn’t leave his people. But I want you also to understand that though God never leaves His people, there are times and seasons where He has providentially created a sense, a sense in which He feels distant, far away. And we are to pray in those moments that He might come near and we can providentially say, “Look, He has visited.”

And so when the bread, when the famine turned and the bread came, then he said he visited his people and giving them bread. And we’re to look for the same. Look for God to come and visit us.

Zacharias, he blessed God in Luke 1, 68, because he had visited and redeemed his people. The coming of the Messiah and all that pertained to that was a visitation of God.

When Christ raised the widow’s son in Luke 7, people’s observation of it was that God had visited his people. It was a mark. And they were right, however spiritual they may have been or not have been. This boy has been raised from the dead and their conclusion is, “This providence indicates God has visited his people.” And he had, he had come and his son, made of a woman, incarnate to redeem us. God had visited, even to a degree I don’t think many of them would have fully understood.

So we pray, “Visit me. Visit me with thy salvation.” Yes, “Visit me, visit me with the bestowment of your grace.” I don’t need to just know salvation is a doctrine, I need to experience salvation. And he prays, “Visit me, visit me.”

Sometimes we’re so sick. In the normal course of things, we begin to feel ill, and so we go to the doctor. But sometimes we’re so sick, the doctor has to come to us. And that’s what the psalmist is expressing in a certain fashion. “God, you need to visit us. We’re too sick. We’re powerless to change these circumstances. Visit. Visit.”

Maybe that’s where you are, needing God to visit. Come near, come afresh into your home and into your family. And just a fresh visitation of a wave of deepening repentance, elevated joy, increased expectation. So we’re not to be content with that sense that God is distant. “Visit me with thy salvation. Come to me.” And we come knowing Jesus has said, “I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.” And we are appealing, “O Lord, do as thou hast said.”

So, we noted in verse 6 how there is a triplet of expression of the confession of sin. But note also verse 5 that there’s another triplet, a triplet of expression of the expectation of grace: “that I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance.” That’s what he wants.

And so if he’s going to get it, experience it, he believes it’s necessary, of course, to confess his sin thoroughly, which is what he does in the next verse. And that’s true for you and me as well. “Whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy.” Some of you may get to the point where you confess, you make some acknowledgement of sin, but there needs to be a confession that is followed up with a sincere forsaking. Forsake it. And if that is there then, we can look for him, look for God to come, “to see the good of his chosen, rejoice in the gladness of his nation, glory with his inheritance.”

So let’s look at this. That he may see the good of the people of God, “that I may see the good of thy chosen, thy chosen,” yes, the people of God. That’s how they’re described, thy chosen. It’s always how God has worked. And he chose them, not because they’re the greatest, not because they were better than other nations and people. “He loved them because he loved them.” He set his love upon them.

When you come into the New Testament, the same is said for Gentiles, exactly the same. They’re not loved because of any merit in themselves. They are his chosen, to use that language. And he wants to see it, which is more than noticing. “I may see the good of thy chosen.” He may know about it and he has heard about it. But He wants to see the good of thy chosen, to experience it in reality.

What is the good of His chosen? What is the good of his chosen? I don’t know exactly what may be going on in his mind, but I can think of a few things that he wants to see more tangible in the good that is true of the people of God. First, the promise of pardon. The promise of pardon.

Exodus 34, verses 6 and 7: “The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”

So he knows that that is one thing that is the good of his chosen, that they are pardoned, the promise of pardon. Oh, to see a people who live in their pardon, who live in their pardon. I was talking yesterday with a man who just in recent weeks has gotten himself back to church. And you wouldn’t be talking with him very long. You would know he’s had a hard life, at least for a significant season of his life. And in talking with him and going and explaining the gospel with him and trying to encourage him in what he was doing and exploring was he truly saved or so on, he said, “I understand what you’re saying. And I believe it’s true. And I believe I’m forgiven. But what I’m struggling with is forgiving myself. I’m struggling to forgive myself.”

I tried to explain to him that the Christian has the right not to believe what he feels about himself, but to believe what God has said is true about himself. That he is forgiven. He has to believe it. That ties in with assurance. The Holy Spirit needs to help him see that. That’s how we get relief. When you see a people who know, who know because they’ve heard personally the Word from Jesus, that “you’re forgiven. Go thy way.” And when you know He has spoken those words, you say, “That’s my identity. That is who I am.” And you live in the joy of it.

And even though the world might point their finger and like to resurrect your past in your face, you will say, “Yes. And there are multitudes of sins you don’t even know about. Some of them worse than what you have named. And over them all, I write, ‘the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.’”

When people start living in that, you’ll see it. And this is what the psalmist wants to see. See the good of thy chosen, the promise of pardon. Oh, that this church, there’s a palpable sense that we are a pardoned people. It should be evident. Live your life, beloved. This is your right. The psalmist is saying, “This is what I want to see.”

The promise of presence, not only pardon but presence. Exodus 33, 14: “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.”

And so they know it. That’s what some of the good that is true of His chosen, they have the presence of God. Oh, what it is to see a people who are walking with a palpable sense of the presence of God. “He’s with me.” Ah, you will know it, you will know it. You’ll know it because they will be running from sin. That pardon that they have, they want to maintain a sense of appreciation for that pardon by running from the things that needed the blood of Jesus to be shed. So they’re trying to cultivate and maintain and enjoy and live in the expression and feeling of the presence of God with them.

The promise of protection. Deuteronomy 20 verse 4: “For the Lord your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.”

So this is the good of thy chosen, that they are protected people. God protects them. And they know it, and they love it. You can see a sense of confidence about them. “The Lord’s with us.” When you go to that passage, you see the requirements concerning going out to battle. One of the things is that the people are confident that God is with them. And if they’re not confident, then they should just head home. Because faith matters more to God than numbers. You need to believe Him.

That’s true of our prayer meeting, you know. Today, as we pray, the faith of this body matters more than the numbers who will attend. And we will go up knowing that the numbers don’t matter. It’s God being with us and his protection on our behalf. And you see it in them.

Who are these people? Here’s Gideon’s army. How dare they? So few in number. And these people who are slaves coming out of Egypt and no real experience in warfare. How dare they take on Egypt? And how dare they go on and march around Jericho? Who are these people? They know they have the protection of their God.

Who is this man, Peter, in prison, who has been appointed to die the next day? And he’s sleeping like a baby there in the prison, totally at ease. Who is this? What is this? Someone who knows he’s protected by God. And this is what the psalmist wants, he wants to see the good of thy chosen.

The promise of provision, Deuteronomy 2.7: “For the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.”

And so, again, what is it about these people? They know, they know that that cruse of oil will not fail. It won’t. That it’s not, it’s not, my confidence is not in the stash in the bank or in the warehouses. My confidence is not in the stash. It is in the living God. And you can see it. They live knowing he will provide. And you look upon these people, see the good of thy chosen and the promise to our posterity as well.

I know it has its own implications. At the very least, we can extrapolate that God cares about and we should believe He cares about our posterity. Genesis 17, 7: “And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant.”

And I don’t care where you are in baptism or what you believe in covenant theology, but I want you to understand this. There’s absolutely no way, no way that in the new covenant era, we should abandon any hope for our children when words like that were given in a day that was lesser. The new covenant is better. What we’re living in is better. And if that means that we have a lesser view of expectation regarding our children, then I don’t know what better means.

So they have confidence that God’s going to have mercy, that putting these children under my care, my charge, under God’s Word and His instruction and discipleship, by God’s grace, has to be an indication that I should hold out hope that He intends to save them. Now it may not be. It may not be. Our hearts break. Our hearts should break when one sitting under the word does not show saving faith, evidence of regeneration. But it should not lead us to living out in a sense of despair to see the good of thy chosen as a people who believe God will use the means he has given and have mercy upon the souls that are under us, even our own offspring.

He wants to see the good of the people of God. Also, that he may rejoice in the gladness of the people of God. I need to be quick, just mention this. Rejoice, that’s what he says, “that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation.” He doesn’t want to just be this happy person on his own, he wants to enter into a corporate expectation and praise.

They’ve gone through all these difficulties and trials. And yet, there’s this expectation of the gladness of thy nation. You know, I think sometimes there is in the mind of some that a dour and sour and miserable frame should mark the people of God. I’ve been in churches where it feels like this, they would not say this, I don’t think, but I’ve been in churches where it has felt like they have made misery an expression of piety. It’s like, I don’t feel the palpable joy and the gladness of thy nation, I feel the misery. It feels miserable. Everyone here, where’s the joy?

I want you, I want to see, I want to see you rejoice in this place. Lift the roof when we sing, faces that beam with this truth that it’s true not only in this objective sense, but subjectively it’s true about me. Living in the joy of it. Oh, that we would know this rejoicing in the gladness of thy nation. Yes, the people of God are marked by gladness. Oh, there are seasons of sorrow, for sorrow, yes, absolutely, but overwhelming mark of gladness. Oh, let it be so, let us pray for it. Ask God, “Lord, make me more glad.”

Psalm 4, think about it often. “Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.”

In other words, he’s saying that God giving him gladness was greater than the natural gladness expressed at the time of harvest. When you’re bringing in all the wealth of what you’ve sown and expected for, and you’re filling up the storehouses, and you’re preparing all that has been, that is laid up now in the harvest, there’s a natural gladness there. “Yes, we have provision for this year, yea, even for years beyond.” They’re glad because God has sent the right sunshine and warmth and rain, moisture, and there’s been a great harvest and there’s gladness. And he says, Psalm 4, “Thou hast put gladness in mine heart that exceeds that.” And this psalmist here is saying, “I want to see this gladness in thy people.”

And that you may glory with the people of God. “I may glory with thine inheritance.” To boast, that is, to exalt, to shout with triumph with the people of God. They want to boast. Why? “The Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance,” Jeremiah 32.9.

And so when God visits His people, there are expressions, public expressions of saints’ glory, not in themselves or what they have done, but in Christ. “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord,” 1 Corinthians. So there is this desire to see “that I may glory with.” I want to enter into the boast, the boast of the people of God, their testimony, their public expression, where their pride is replaced with praise and the focus is moved from self to the Savior. And you can see in them that their boast is their God.

This is a good prayer. I’m going to frame some of our praying today around this. Remember me, oh visit me. And to know that whatever the lament over our sin, that we can burst out of the gate with a hallelujah, and we can end the season of prayer with a hallelujah. God has been so gracious to us. As we stand complete in Christ, we have the expectation of divine favor.

“Remember me, O Lord, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people.” That which is true of your people, let it be true of me. Lift your eyes higher, Christian, higher, higher. Wherever they are, lift them higher. There’s more. God remembering, God visiting, seeing the goodness that is true of His people, rejoicing with the gladness that is peculiar to the people of God and boasting with the people of God because we unite around this common desire that He must increase, we decrease. Worthy is the Lamb.

Maybe you’re here this morning, you’re not even saved. You can’t pray this way. I mentioned the prayer of the thief on the cross. “Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” Make that your prayer. “Lord, remember me savingly. Remember me today. Pardon my sins. Remember me as you bore sin in your own body. Remember me.” You can be forgiven today.

Let’s bow together in prayer. Appeal for fresh evidence of divine favour. Oh, may the Lord help us. May he give us a sweet time of fellowship together this afternoon. Enjoy the meal together and then enjoy the time of prayer.

Lord, give grace. We receive thy word. May it be hidden in our hearts that none of us will sin against thee. We pray that thou wilt give to us expectation, increase our faith, and teach our hearts to pray in line with thy Word. Send revival. Even today, send a little reviving, a little quickening, a little season where we can testify. “I don’t know about others, but the Lord met with me.” Yea, Lord, we would pray that such would be thy visitation, that collectively we would know the Lord has met with us. Bless our time together, and may the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God our Father, and the fellowship of the Spirit be the portion of all the people of God. None, never more. Amen.