Psalm 143 helps us to know God's will for our lives.
It is important for Christians to consider how to know His will, how to discern His will,
and how to walk in His will.
Why?
Because it is in the center of God's will that we find true growth and Christian contentment
and effectiveness.
In Psalm 143, beginning at verse 8, the psalmist in his prayer for help says, "Let me hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for I trust in Thee;
teach me the way in which I should walk; for to Thee I lift up my soul.
Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies, I take refuge in Thee.
Teach me to do thy will, thou art my God; let thy good Spirit lead me on level ground."
The three phrases we need to look at as we ask the question,
"How can we discern God's will for ourselves?"
First, verse 8: "Let me hear."
Second, verse 8: "Teach me the way."
Third, verse 10: "Teach me to do."
Whenever we read one of David's psalms, we immediately sense that he has been with God.
You cannot read a psalm without beginning to feel that you're reading the words
of a man who has spent time alone with the Lord.
That's one of the main characteristics of David's writings.
We see in verse one that David spent time in prayer, "Hear my prayer, O Lord."
In verse 5, we see that he spent time in meditation: "I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy doings; I muse on the work of thy hands."
In verse 6, we see that David has spent time expressing his love:
"I stretch out my hands to Thee; my soul longs for Thee, as a parched land."
Beginning in verse 7, we see David has spent time in communication,
and tells God he needs an answer quickly,
"Do not hide thy face from me… let me hear… teach me the way… teach me to do thy will."
It's very easily understood when you look at this Scripture that there is a correlation
between relationship and communication.
As we spend time with God, we begin to understand the will of God for our lives.
David provides several acknowledgments in this passage that make his walk with God
and his known will of God a reality in his life.
In first 1, we can see that David acknowledges God's faithfulness and His righteousness.
In fact, he says in the last part of verse 1,
"Answer me with thy faithfulness, in thy righteousness."
What a way to be answered.
In verse 2, he recognizes his own unrighteousness: "For in thy sight no man living is righteous."
In verse 3, he understands Satan's power: "For the enemy has persecuted my soul;
he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me dwell in dark places,
like those who have long been dead."
In verse 4, because of the power of the enemy, he expresses his weariness, his oppression:
"Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me; my heart is appalled within me."
About the time he is going to give up, he realizes what God has done for him in the past.
"I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy doings; I muse on the work of thy hands."
Because of God's workings in days past, in verse 6, he expresses his longing for God,
"My soul longs for Thee."
In verse 7, he expresses his lostness without God's revealed will for his life:
"Answer me quickly, O Lord, my spirit fails, do not hide thy face from me,
lest I become like those who go down to the pit."
In this passage, David gives us three phrases that we need to notice.
They will help us to understand that even in our day, God still guides us.
Teach Me To Hear -- Listening
"Let me hear thy lovingkindness in the morning." (Verse 8)
David is listening to the voice of God concerning His will for David's life.
Isn't it interesting that in verse 1, David was afraid God would not hear him?
In verse 8, David is afraid he will not hear God.
In 8 verses, we see that God has begun to change the heart of David.
Now apply that to our own prayer life.
Usually when we sense the need to go to prayer, it is not to listen to God.
Too often our need to go to prayer is not to hear God -- it is to bring our request to Him.
We can hardly wait to get alone with God and began to list all the things
we want God to do in our life.
So for 30 minutes, we will give him that huge list and say,
"Hear this one God. Listen to this one. Take care of this need. Listen to this request."
In the winding down time, we usually reserve a couple of minutes -- maybe -- to quietly listen
to what He is going to say.
This is tragic because when we talk to God we only say something we already know.
When we listen, we learn what God knows.
We need to understand that in trying to know the will of God, we will need to spend a lot of time
just listening to the voice of God, just being silent and knowing who He is.
In distinguishing the difference between listening and hearing, a high school student said:
"Listening is wanting to hear."
That is what David was doing.
He wanted to hear the voice of God as God spoke to him.
This may seem to be elementary, but Jesus was once talking to a group of people,
and as He shared with them, He realized that they did not want to hear what He was saying.
Then, Jesus said, "He that has ears, let him hear."
Jesus was saying that it does no good to reveal God's will to you,
if you are not going to respond to that will.
God's revelation must have a response.
As the old proverb says, "You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink."
You and I will never begin to know the will of God until we have a heart that is receptive
to the voice of God.
There are several hindrances to our listening.
One is traditions.
When we have always done something in a specific way, it is difficult for us to listen
to the freshness of His voice.
We should try, though.
We don't want to know His will when not ready for the message of His will.
There are times He shares His will, and it is exactly contrary to what we want to hear.
Our impatience or restlessness
That's why the psalmist says to "cease striving and know that I am God."
That's why Isaiah said that we are to be still, to wait upon Him.
As we wait upon Him, He will renew our strength.
A lack of interest
It is possible that we are not interested in knowing what He is saying.
One pastor was trying to explain the difference between fact and faith.
"That you are sitting before me in the pew is fact.
That I am speaking from the pulpit is fact.
But it is only faith that makes me believe that anyone is listening."
The psalmist knew that to know the will of God, he must get on the level of listening.
Teach Me To Know -- Learning
We see in the middle part of verse 8, "Teach me the way in which I should walk."
Now David has left the listening stage and is coming to the learning stage.
He wants to learn what God's will is for his life.
Let's us paraphrase Romans 12:2 as, "Do not conform to this present age but be transformed
by the entire renewal of your mind so that you may learn by experience
what God's will is for your life."
We should continually be learning the will of God, and that learning will never cease.
As we walk with God, we learn the will of God.
It is not possible to learn it all in one sitting.
Learning the will of God requires walking with God; always learning, always listening.
We learn through exploration (discovering new truths through experience).
We learn through trial and error.
We learn from the example of others.
Now there are several reasons why we need to learn and know about the will of God for our lives.
1. The will of God is the only place for effective ministry.
The only time you and I become effective in our Christian ministry is when
we are in the will of God.
The more we are in the center of God's will, the more productive we will become;
the happier we will be; and the more impact we will have.
Our life is most effective when we know we are right where God wants us.
2. The will of God is the only place of fellowship.
D. L. Moody's life is a constant inspiration.
One day, Moody heard a knock on his study door.
He said," Come in."
His young son entered his study.
"Yes, son, what is it you want?"
"I don't want anything," he answered," but just to be with you."
How different this seems for many Christians when coming to God in prayer.
Their repeated supplications are just to get something from Him.
Their self-impoverished souls know nothing about that "just to be with you" longing
of Moody's little son, or about the deep, but pure joy of just being with God in private fellowship.
A father and his young son were on a journey and were staying overnight far away from home.
They occupied separate beds in the same room.
The room was totally dark, and the father could hear his son tossing in his bed.
"Son, you seem restless. Is anything troubling you?"
The boy answered by asking, "Father, is your face turned toward me?"
"Yes, son, it is."
A short time thereafter, the boy fell asleep.
Nothing satisfies the child of God like the loving look of the Father's face;
and even if for that alone, being in the will of God means everything.
It is His will for us to relate to Him and have fellowship with Him.
Therefore, He wants to reveal His will to us so we can have fellowship
and have communion with Him that we need so very much.
3. Being within the will of God is the best place to be.
We need to learn God's will for us because it is the only place of assurance for our lives.
One of the reasons we need to know we are in the center of His will is
that when problems occur, His will is the only thing we can count on.
We will be more effective in handling the problems we encounter in our Christian ministry
and life, if we know we are where God wants us to be.
4. The will of God is the only place of self-fulfillment.
Since God knows us through and through -- all our strengths and frailties
-- no one else can guide and develop us as He can.
He alone knows just what kind of place and service will provide for us a maximum return
on our invested talents.
To have our own will and way often seems much freer and more grand,
but that is because we cannot see as far as God does.
The most places of all true self-realization is when we are following our heavenly Father's plan
for our lives.
In the very center of God's will is the place where we will find the utmost self-fulfillment
and, therefore, the most satisfaction.
5. The will of God is the only place where we can effectively build God's kingdom.
God has a special place for each of us.
When we understand how the body of the Lord Jesus works,
that we are dependent upon each other, and that our gifts can complement the church,
then our joy of Christian ministry will begin.
In our country, we make a hero out of a man who is independent.
We like that self-made man, and we put him on a pedestal.
But for a Christian, there is no such thing as a self-made man.
There is no such thing as a church that grows by itself, or the church that grows
because of one person.
It grows because many people are working together, loving each part of the body of Christ,
each finding a place to serve.
Remember in the late 60s when we finally put a man on the moon?
Do you remember when they panned the cameras around the Houston control center
and we could see engineers and scientists and mathematicians, men of great genius,
jumping up and down, throwing their coats around, hugging each other.
They were hugging each other and were so happy because they understood that together
they had accomplished what they could not have done alone.
The greatest thing that can happen to us is to find God's will for our lives,
discover our gifts, and become part of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You cannot be the main thing.
But because you, like others, share your gift, you could have do something
that can only be accomplished as a team.
Remember, when Edmund Hillary in his native guide, Tenzing, made their historic climb
up Mount Everest?
Coming down from the peak, Hillary suddenly lost his footing.
Tenzing held the line taut and kept them both from falling by digging his axe into the ice.
Later Tenzing refused any special credit for saving Hillary's life;
he considered it a routine part of the job.
As he put it: "Mountain climbers always help each other."
Should we, as Christians, be any different?
"There isn't a single person in the world who makes a pencil"
said a Newsweek columnist, Milton Friedman as he opened his new television series,
"Free to Choose."
"The wood may have come from a forest in Washington.
The graphite from a mine in South America.
The eraser from a Malaysian rubber plantation.
Thousands of people cooperate to make one pencil."
Someone has said: "What's causing so much disharmony in the church is the fact
that some want to be the big drum, few are willing to face the music,
and none play second fiddle."
Our goal as Christians, however, is to find God's will for our lives and just lift one another up
and love one another rather than seeking any special honors for ourselves.
Teach Me To Do -- Loving
Look at Psalm 143:10, "Teach me to do your will."
You may be saying, "Are you saying that doing and loving are the same thing?"
Absolutely!
That's exactly what I am saying.
Jesus understood that when He looked at Peter (in John 21) and said,
"Do you love me?"
Peter answered, "Oh, you know I do."
But before Peter could slip into religious sentimentalism, Jesus said,
"Peter, if you love me, you will feed my sheep."
In other words, Jesus challenged Peter to back up his claims of love with action.
In Matthew 7, Jesus talks about the fact that if we know God's will, we are to do God's will.
He is teaching us that it is our action, our loving Him, or (as James says) our works,
that show and demonstrate our faith.
In Matthew 7:20 we read, "You will know them by their fruits.
Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven;
but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven."
Then in verse 22, He tells us that paying lip service for Christianity is easy.
"Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name,
and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform any miracles?'
And I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me you who practice lawlessness.' "
Look at verse 24, "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and acts upon them,
may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock.
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house;
and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock."
So you see, the way to be strong, to be founded upon a good and firm foundation,
and not only to hear the Word of God, but also as He reveals His will to you,
to become active in Christian service.
That's where you will grow!
In Psalm 143:8, David said, "Teach me to hear."
He said, "God, I'm listening."
In Psalm 143:8, David said, "Teach me to know."
He said, "God, I'm learning."
In Psalm 143:10, David said, "Teach me to do."
He said, "God, I'm loving."
