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A Prayer for God’s Leading

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A Prayer for God’s Leading

11 minuten leestijd Arcering uitzetten

“O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me” (Psalm 43:3a).

Rev. A.M. den Boer (1929-2004)

Psalms 42 and 43 are related to each other. Many believe that these well-known psalms were originally one psalm. The dividing into chapters is the work of man and does not belong to the work of the Holy Spirit. The dividing into chapters was done by Cardinal Hugo in 1250. If you can read both Dutch and English, then you can see that sometimes there are little differences such as in Isaiah 8 and 9 where the last verse of one chapter is added to the next chapter. This, however, is not important, because all the words are in the Bible even when they are in another chapter. Most commentators believe that both of the above-mentioned psalms were written by David and that they were written when he fled from his own son Absalom.

In the beginning of this chapter we read, “Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation,” or unmerciful nation. Here David supplicates the Lord to take care of him. “There be many that say, who will shew us any good?” (Psalm 4:6a). David could not bring deliverance himself; therefore, he fled to the Judge of heaven and earth.

There is no better place to go than to the Lord. So often we try to defend ourselves or try to take revenge, but the Lord has said in Romans 12:19, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” The Church has many enemies, so that they often tremble. It is a blessing when we may ask, “Be Thou my helper in the strife; O Lord, my strong Defender be!”

David may come to this place: “O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.” Ahithophel and Absalom were the unjust men who conspired against the king in a deceitful way. The Lord is the Almighty One who alone can give the necessary deliverance. David flees in great fear to the Lord who promised Jacob and all his children that He would answer in the day of trouble and deliver them at His time. Prayer to the Lord is the life of such a soul. Do you also know the urgent power of prayer in your life? Peter said, “Lord, to whom else shall we go?” When the need is felt under the administration of Word and Spirit, then we will cry unto the Lord because of the urgent need in our soul. Although we feel ourselves unworthy, the Lord has given permission to come unto Him: “Let me hear thy voice and show Me thy countenance.”

When discovering light falls into our heart, then we will also understand Abraham when he drew nigh unto the Lord, saying, “Behold now, I have taken upon myself to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes.” Isaiah saw himself as a man of unclean lips. Even when we cannot pray as we ought, we may still come. Does the Lord not know our needs? Of course, for He is an all-knowing God, but it pleases Him to see and to hear His own work. Often it seems as though the Lord does not hear the supplications of His children, and then they complain, “The Lord has forsaken me and my Lord has forgotten me.”

Is that true? No, not at all! Sometimes the Lord hides Himself because of our sins, but He never forsakes His people, and He remains a refuge at all times. When God’s child does not know what he should pray, then the Spirit itself makes intercession for him with groanings which cannot be uttered. That is a prayer which the Lord works Himself, and that will surely be heard. David was in great trouble; he had no expectation from any man but only from the Lord, “For Thou art the God of my strength.” We all need the help of that same God for time and eternity. David felt in these dangerous moments how dependent he was upon the Lord, and that urged him to pray.

What were the contents of that prayer? “O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me.” Although this prayer is for the instruction and comfort of the Church, it goes against our flesh. We do not like to be as helpless as David. It was so dark for David, and he could not make it light himself. It is a language which many in our days do not understand anymore. Many people do not have any darkness in their life, but this is neither according to Scripture nor the experience of the saints; furthermore, we hear David say, “O send out Thy light.” If we are blind, then it makes no difference, but it is grace when that darkness is uncovered by the Holy Spirit. He who sees his guilt and debt has a true sorrow after God, and this works a true conversion. With this light the desire is also born to keep the law of God and to please Him. It is possible that God’s children then expect to grow as the cedars of Lebanon and to go from strength to strength. They forget that the days of darkness are many and that many sins are still alive in them. There is also the fear that it is their own work, and the enemy begins to mock, “Where is thy God?”

The Lord deals with His people in this manner to make room for greater benefits, and He has promised, “They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them the light will shine.” The Lord first makes empty vessels so that He will fill them at His own time. In darkness He makes the desire for light; “O send out Thy light.” This is the light of God’s countenance, a sign of favor and help. Then the darkness will disappear and the mourner will be comforted. The enemies experienced that the Lord was with David. Once he could testify, “For by Thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall” (Psalm 18:29). In such moments we can overcome everything, but now it is so different. Still, David was at the only address where help could be obtained.

He asked not only for light but also for truth. The Lord is faithful in His promises, and David, who was anointed to be king over Israel, was the man after His own heart. Light and truth go together. For our nature the truth is hard since man believed the lie in Paradise. The truth uncovers our sinful nature and disobedience to the Word; it shows that we do not love the Lord and forget Him days without number. When the truth makes us see our misery, then there is a special meaning. We see this in the prayer of David.

We know that Israel’s high priest had a breastplate with the names of the twelve tribes on it. According to Exodus 28:30, there were in the breastplate the Urim and the Thummin, which means light and truth (or perfection). The high priest is a type of Christ, in whom only there is light and truth. The Lord Jesus called Himself with these names: “I am the Light of the world,” and “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” As Mediator for His Church, He hung in darkness and was called a deceiver, but He fulfilled the law and bore the curse of the law. He had destroyed the works of Satan who is the Prince of Darkness. Christ has merited everything for the salvation of His Church, and He also applies it in the hearts of the elect. This happens in two ways—by the light of the Holy Spirit and by the truth of the Word. “O send out Thy light and Thy truth; let them lead me.” The poet knew of the necessity to be led by the Lord. He could not keep his paths straight. Is that also the problem in your life? No one can solve this problem; only the Lord can when He takes us by heart and hand.

When we see David in these difficult circumstances, fleeing before his child, what is now the purpose of his prayer? Was it in the first place to return to Jerusalem to again ascend his throne? No, that is not most important to him; it is that he may go up to the tabernacle. Mount Zion was set apart from all the other mountains. Bashan and Lebanon were more beautiful, but the Lord had chosen Zion, an unfruitful mountain which is an example of the Church which is unfruitful in itself. There innocent lambs had to die instead of death-worthy sinners who went free. That altar points to Golgotha where God’s justice was satisfied. This is understood when light and truth shine over Golgotha in our lives. To come to Golgotha is possible only by faith, which is the instrument to receive these benefits. When it pleases the Lord to bring us to an end with everything of ourselves, then the Lord opens the Truth that we may see the Way in Christ. No matter how much we can rejoice in the work of the Lord, nothing has changed in our relationship with the Lord because the debt is still open. The more light we receive the better we will comprehend this, and the cry will be born in us, “Be Thou my Surety.”

When the Lord calls us before His judgment seat, then Satan stands at our right hand to accuse us. We are not able to answer one word, and we see ourselves as the chief among sinners. There we must declare that the Lord would be righteous if He cast us into hell, which we deserve. When we may love God’s justice more than our salvation, God the Father will acquit us on the basis of Christ’s satisfaction and pleading. The peace we then experience in our heart is indescribable. Death loses its sting and the grave its victory, as the soul may rest in the sacrifice of Christ. In this light and truth God’s children find true rest for their soul, and they end with the blessing in the Lord, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts.”

May the Lord give this light and truth to lead us and our children.


Conversion

Now we should labour to keep the work of God upon our souls that was at our conversion; for conversion must not be only at one instant at first. Men are deceived in this, if they think their conversion is finished merely at first; you must be in a way of conversion to God all the days of your life, and therefore Christ saith to His disciples, “Except ye be converted and become as little children.” “Ye be converted.” Why? Were they not converted before? Yes, they were converted, but they were to continue the work of conversion all the days of their lives, and what work of God there is at the first conversion is to abide afterwards. Thus, always there must abide some sight and sense of sin; it may be not in the way which you had, which was rather a preparation than anything else, but the sight and sense of sin is to continue still, that is, you are still to be sensible of the burden of sin as it is against the holiness and goodness, and mercy of God unto you. And the sight of the excellence of Jesus Christ is to continue, and your calling out of the creature, and your casting of your soul upon Christ as a King—still receive Him day by day—and the subduing of thy heart, and the surrendering of yourself up to God in a way of covenant. Now if this were but daily continued, there would be no space nor time for murmuring to work upon your heart.

— Jeremiah Burroughs

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