In this sermon, the preacher begins by discussing the importance of having a quiet time and being alone with God. He references Psalm 5:1-3, which emphasizes the act of praying and seeking God's presence in the morning. The preacher then shares a personal anecdote about a woman who came to him with a recurring problem, but he initially dismissed her concerns. However, after reflecting on the situation, he realizes the significance of seeking refuge in God and the importance of trusting in Him for protection. The sermon concludes with the message that those who put their trust in God will find joy and rejoicing in His care and provision.

Beans and mashed potatoes and gravy and vegetables. And there are three teenage boys that are at the table. And they always disturb my wife by looking at the latte milk, beans and mashed potatoes and gravy and saying, oh boy, panic tomorrow. Because it happens that a problem with my favorite food is hags. And I'd like to show you a little bit of hags. Just thinking back, I told everyone how other people are speaking, you think of little things, and this is the hags that came to mind along the way as people said different things. Someone was speaking of reading from Psalm 91, where it says that the Lord is our shield and buckler. And I wondered if everyone in the audience knows the difference between a shield and a buckler. They're not both the same. A shield is a piece of fighting equipment that covers the entire body. A shield covers the head, the toe, and was for protection from spears and javelins. A buckler was a very small, you can see them at the museum, those of you from Denver, there's a couple of very good ones in the museum there. They're very small, about 9 or 12 inches across. They're not very much good in the case of a spear, but they were good for arrows and darts, for the little tin fish. Now, the Lord is spoken of as our shield. Nearly everybody believes that. Sure, he'll take care of you in a big calamity. He'll take care of the big problem. There was also in the same verse and breath, our buckler, the little thing. And then someone was talking about the Lord Jesus being asleep in the back of the boat. And it's interesting that nearly every translation except the King James, our King James, said he would sleep on a pillow. But it's the Justice article there, and oh, you could find all kinds of proof. Most of you would appreciate Mr. Darby. He said, do tuition. Do tuition. That's what nearly everybody said. William's translation says that, and Revised Version says that. And Eason's way out to the left, William Beck's translation says that. They saw him as a deity that way in very many cases. Do tuition. Now, the only tuition on board. What had happened, evidently, is the Lord Jesus came on board, and they were glad to have him. The problem he didn't interfere with was what they were doing. They wanted him on there, but they didn't want to talk to him. So they gave him comfort, all the comfort they had. The only tuition on board that was given to the Lord Jesus, and he was assigned the kinder part, the very back end of the place where he'd be out of the way. On board, understand, on board, certainly. But out of the way, and comfortable. That's why he went to sleep. Lots of Christians treating him that way. Lots of folks treating him that way. And we want the very best for Jesus Christ, as long as he doesn't interfere with what you intend to do. As long as he's good and quiet. And then, of course, you'll awaken him, and the case is gone. But if you keep talking to him, he'll never go to sleep. You're laying the injury into your little bit of faith, and he won't do it, ladies. He'll be getting the best tuition, the only tuition. But not saying he's a kinder part of the ship. He'll go to sleep. And then someone was mentioning, who was it? Probably Mr. Tessler. I think he was talking about Dr. Faraday. I admire that man, Faraday. And he was talking about the time when John Stone dropped, an assistant of his, dropped the trowel that Dr. Faraday had been given, and destroyed it, and Faraday replaced it. If you've never read The Chemistry of a Candle, The Chemistry of a Candle, by Dr. Faraday, you should. It's in nine lectures, and they're not very long. And it can be had, usually very cheaply, in a used book store, in the Harvard classes, which are, you can get them for about 25 cents a volume. It's a volume on science. Dr. Faraday's lectures are in there, and it's well worth your reading. You'd never know there was that much chemical action in a candle and fire. Nine lectures. I think they were 30-minute lectures. That's science. That man knew something. I'd like to read you from the fifth psalm. Several remarks have been made about having a quiet time in the midst of this psalm, still being in his presence, talking with him, but that's all. Stop it. Psalm 5. With ear to my word, O Lord, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my pride, my king, and my God. For unto Thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord. In the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up. For Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with Thee. The foolish shall not stand in Thy sight. Thou hastest all workers of iniquity. Just in passing, anytime stand is used in this way in Scripture. It has to do with the overdoing of acceptance, of being accepted, of standing, to stand in the presence of the Lord, to be accepted of him. That's the sense here, that they won't be unaccepted. Thou shalt destroy them that speak lies, that speak leasings. The Lord will I behold the bloody and the peaceful now. But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy, and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies. Make thy way straight before my face. For there is no faithfulness in their mouth. Their inner part is very wickedness. Their throat is an open sepulcher. They slather with their tongues. Destroy thou them, O God. Let them fall by their own counsel. Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against thee. And something's happening here, too. The essence of this is in using the first phrase in the last. Destroy thou them. Why? Did he have a personal God? Was there anything personal in it? No. For they have rebelled against thee. But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice. Let them ever shout for joy. Because thou defendest them, let them also that love thy name be joyful indeed. For thou, O Lord, wilt bless the righteous with favor wilt thou confer to him as gifts appeal. The psalmist here makes four requests and four resolutions and three statements of revolt. Let's look at his requests. The first one is that his words would be listened to. Give ear to my words, O Lord. He requests that God pay attention to his prayers. God is not interested in our grammar, but he listens to what we say and he holds us at what we say. But God listens to more than the words. Other believers around us hearing us pray can only go by the words that we use, by what we say, our expressions. But God listens to the heartbeat behind the words. God listens to what is meant in your heart. That's why it doesn't matter when someone prays, whether they use grammatical English or not, if the heart is with what is being prayed. This man prayed that God would listen, but he had a second running right close behind him, and it was this. Consider my meditation. Now, the word meditate means to think or to cogitate, to plan, to use. That's to meditate. People meditate nowadays. The art of meditation isn't lost because people are still thinking. The trouble is, they are meditating on a... And a man used to sit on his... And a man sits in the middle of his field now, with his head bowed, it's just the same as a subject. People are still thinking. They're still running. They're still moving. But they're forsaken, thinking of God. But this man's thoughts were so well ordered that he was willing that God consider what he's been thinking. But the man's thinking seems hard to listen to. He was willing to subject his thoughts, his deepest planning, his using, his cogitation to God. He was willing that God consider his innermost thoughts. Now, a real prayer that accomplishes with God is that prayer that words correlate with thoughts. When what you pray is just exactly what you've been meditating on, God answers that prayer. God hears that man or woman. From your cogitation, the things you've been moving upon, the things you've been spending time thinking upon, the things you've been planning about, they put into words. You're in touch with God. It stands out when the heart is that way. When you can pray honestly, consider, Lord, consider my meditation. Why I've been thinking. And then he calls prayer a truth, saying here, verse 2, how can he ask unto the voice of my tribe? We don't use the word heart like they used to. Oh, occasionally, especially if you hear English people using it in the sense that you hear. Not long ago, I was very pleased that I was hearing a lecturer talk, and I lost part of what he was saying upon the audience because he was talking about the languages that he could hear. And we don't use that term nowadays. He was using it in the current English way. If you hear it, understand, he was saying. Understand. God isn't there. This man isn't there. But he meant, understand my tribe. It isn't enough that God is here, but understand my tribe. I was in a home in Patinka not very long ago. And they had a young, very young child. They had several children. But one was in a crib. And during the meal, this child let out a growl. And I jumped. I always want to deny it. But before the meal was over, she cried. It sounded to me like the same words, exactly. It just read the cry of her child. She yelled the first time, and then she said, there's nothing wrong. Just a few minutes later, the same kind of yell came on, because she understood the cry. That's what the song is. Someone had said, here's our liquid prayer. God understands. And there are times when we can pray by word. And there are times when we can meditate, we can think, and God considers. And there are times when words fail, and our mind is so cluttered and confused that we can't simply meditate. And we cry. And thank God that he understands of the baby. And this man, when we ask for understanding, we immediately point out his relationship. Understand my cry, my sin, and my God, God's being, while I pray. There's a reason why God understands his cry. The cry of this man is from the mouth of one who acknowledges the lordship of God, my sin, my God. His personally and intimately is there. Then he can call upon God to understand. And then he asks that he might be led in righteousness. And he's asking for guidance. The, uh, Newberry brings it this way, lead me because of my observers, our person here, because of my enemies that were to be led. And, uh, Mr. Garvey has it that way, because, lead me, because of people who are watching. People are watching to see that we stumble. People are watching to see that his name is great. People are watching to learn that God is listening to us. Lead me, Mr. Garvey. That's when we have revolution, first three years. And prayer always leads to that. People who sit on their hands are not people who pray. Folks who can never find anything to do for God are prayer people, always. People who are asking you that nothing really takes time on earth. You can hear it in all some missionaries when you put the Lord's name. That's a good indication that you are busy. You pray to the Lord and you know where the person is. First three though, he says, my voice comes down beautifully in the morning. In the morning, though, I direct my prayer to the angel of God. The word for direct prayer is to order the divine person. Folks who can pray at haphazard and God listening. And I'm sure there was much order to arrange when you say that. No, to pray beforehand just as you would if you came before any august person. If you came into the presence of a person no greater than the president of the United States who, because of his office is a great person, if you came in the presence of this, you pray to God and say, I will direct my prayer to the same word as you seem to do, that you would pray to the Lord in the morning before the day began, before you had problems, to do a prayer. You can pray more clearly before you know what all the problems are going to be that day. God listening. He starts out that way that we want good chairs in my prayer. And you know, wait until Jesus comes. And then in verse 7, he says, but as for me, I will come into that. Now look at verses 11 and 12. But let all those that put their trust in Jesus rejoice. The word trust here is, I'm told, a military term that has to do with keeping keeping a record and it's used frequently. The picture is of a chicken, of a hen, sheltered under the feathers of the mother's womb. Or of a great rock in the desert, in this very similar region in the book of Psalms. There's rain in the air and there's a shadow passed by this rock from the heat of the sun that's hidden at the foot of the rock. And here you find shelter from a weary, dreary desert land in the shadow of a gray, gray rock. And this word trust here means to run into a place of refuge. To find a place of hiding. Trust. Does everyone here trust the Lord in that sense? Has it come to him? Has it found him a place of hiding? A place of refuge? That's the way it was used here. When I think of it, running into a place a place of safety, I think of course Fort Lee, Kansas. Fort Lee, Kansas is in the middle of the plains out there. Not the high plains, but the plains. And the ground was made into a tower which is very impressive. And you can see for miles in all directions through the golf course that's a part of it. They've made a golf course out of part of it now. And you can see the golf course at the farthest end of the golf course. And the early settlers around here were a place of safety when they heard good imagery was coming. And many lives were spared. Their pictures were preserved. And they used to preserve there on the inside of that course. You'd get in there and it's like the signs were talking about trusting the Lord coming inside for your safety. And this figure that is used here of running into a refuge is worth times of theological palaver as to the meaning of belief. This is what it's about. When running into a place of safety you're in peril. When you run into a place of safety you're not protected because of your running you're protected by and with them here it's the same word belief. God rescinded it then. It means to cover and to protect from an enemy. The same thought is carried out. And then you see what's all of such. First there's trust. And then there's rejoicing. Let all those that put their trust in being rejoiced let them ever shout for joy because let them also that love thy name the name of God always speak of his character. Now it's not just the letters G-O-D that people appreciate those send no particular thrill into people but it's when you know the person of God through what he has done that you begin to appreciate his character and the appreciation of his character and the knowledge of his person lends you to his name. And then you get to a place after you have learned to trust him that you love his name you value his name. There is no name like the name of the Lord Jesus for those who know him. And not to love the name of Christ and not to value the name of Christ is indicative of only one. Because this is the order that you have here and it's the ordering spiritual things first trust believe then loving him. And then you see something else in the twelfth verse For thou, Lord, wilt bless the lightest. God makes people good He makes them different. Oh, I know that no one is sinless but you can look yourself over and you don't know what kind of you may not amount to very much you may not be very much that good but you can imagine the kind of person you would be were it not for the Lord Jesus. Love him. The result of loving the name of God is always the result of righteousness goodness. And this is what is different from Christianity than any religion whether it is the fundamentalist Christianity or religion. Religion always tells people now you get to be a good person you get to be righteous you get to be good and you will love God. They always go at it backwards. But the order as it is here and it is the divine order is trust first. Run to him and assure that. And then you will love him. And then as you love him you are righteous. I read somewhere where one of you goes the greatest harm you can do in this world is to live simply for yourself. And then he enlarged on that and said that it is the greatest sin for the man to commit Thomas Lawson said this I am just paraphrasing but this is what he said. The greatest sin for the man to commit is to live consistently for himself. And then he said at the end of such a selfish life the most miserable death a man will suffer. But if you trust him you will love him and if you love him you will take a little bit of that selfishness away and you will begin to be like him. You can't love him without becoming like him. For thou Lord wilt bless the righteous. With favor or grace wilt thou compass him as with a shield to surround him. And here is the word shield. Covered from head to toe the shielding compass him and surround him in all directions surrounded by the grace of God. In all directions with great favor wilt thou compass him as with a shield to surround him as with a shield to surround him as with a shield to surround to surround him as with a shield to surround