Strong Faith In A Faithful God

STRONG FAITH IN A FAITHFUL GOD

Text: "I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me."

(Psalm 57:2)

DAVID was in the cave of Adullam.

He had fled from Saul, his ruthless foe, and had found shelter in the clefts of the rock.

In the beginning of this psalm he rings the alarm-bell.

"Be merciful unto me," he says, and then the clapper hits the other side of the bell.

"Be merciful unto me."

He expresses his misery again and again.

"My soul trusteth in thee; yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast."

With these words, he comforts himself by faith in his God.

For faith to be true faith, it must be active faith.

Its activity, however, must begin with prayer.

This should precede any action.

"I will cry," he says, "unto God most high."

Do you know that when he was in the cave, he was graciously saved by God, even when Saul was close at his heels?

God used the winding caverns to conceal him from Saul and his men, while they were close at hand.

There is an ancient legend that contains a note about this, which may or may not be true.

It states that a spider spun its web over the door of that part of the cave where David was concealed.

If that’s the way it was, David would probably have written about the little things God had done for him which had great results.

If God makes a spider spin a web to save his servant's life, David traces his deliverance not to the spider, but to the wonder-working God, and he says, "I will cry unto God most high, unto God that performeth all things for me."

It is wonderful to hear the prayers of these great men of God when they face adversity.

It’s the sick oyster that makes the pearl, and not the healthy one.

And it’s the Christian in trouble and pain that prays the best prayers.

Our text is capable of three meanings.

I want to call your attention briefly to these three meanings.

David said, "Unto God who performeth all things for me."

First, he could be thinking about God’s divine intervention.

Secondly, there is a possibility he is referring to unbreakable faithfulness. David was confident that God would work out the fulfillment of the promises he had made.

Thirdly, there is a definite certainty that God is going to work it all out according to the covenant He had made with David.

To begin with, the first meaning of the text concerns:--

I. THE DIVINE INTERVENTION.

The text, talks about a service--"I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me."

"All things," suggests the idea that in everything that I have to do, I am only an instrument in His hand; it is God that does it for me.

The Christian has no right to do anything that he cannot ask for God's help to do it.

In effect, he should have no business which he could not leave with the Lord.

Any work in which he cannot ask for God’s help, or that he can’t give the care of into God’s hands, is unfit for him to be engaged in.

You can depend upon it, if I cannot say about my whole life, "God performeth all things for me," there is sin somewhere.

Let’s think about our day-to-day life, and apply the text to it.

Should we ask God every morning to help us through the day?

Although we are not going out to preach or going to church for worship, and even though it is only our ordinary business, that ordinary business ought to be a consecrated thing.

We ought to find opportunities to serve God in our common and ordinary activities and by our service glorify God.

On the other hand, we may do something to hurt the cause of Christ as we go through an ordinary day.

Therefore, let’s begin the day with prayer, and continue all through the day in the spirit of prayer, and at the end of the day thank God for anything that was accomplished.

Any success that we have had, if it is real success, is from our God who gives it to us.

Doesn’t it say in the Bible, "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it?"

That is a statement that can be applied to the whole Christian life.

If we are going to be blessed, as Jabez craved when he said, "Oh! that thou wouldst bless me indeed," it must come from God, and it can come from nowhere else.

So then, if you’re a Christian, pray continually to God that performeth all things for you.