THE HIGH ROCK
Psalm 61: 2
Sermon by:
Rev. P. den Butter
PUBLISHED BY
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
OF THE
FREE REFORMED CHURCHES OF NORTH AMERICA.
( December 2004)
The High Rock
Sermon by Rev. P. den Butter
(September 14, 2003 PM)
LITURGY
Votum and Salutation
Psalter: 387: 3, 4, 5
Scripture: Psalm 61
Text: Psalm 61: 2
Psalter: 235
Apostles Creed
Pastoral Prayer
Offertory
Psalter: 188
Sermon: The High Rock
Psalter: 248: 1, 2, 3
Prayer
Offertory
Psalter: 159: 1, 2
Benediction
Doxology: 243: 15
The High Rock
Congregation, we shall now listen to David’s prayer as we find it recorded in Psalm 61, the second verse. The Psalm from which our text is taken is composed when David, the author, the Psalmist, was in troublesome times. It says, in the beginning, that he cried to the Lord and that he cried from “the end of the earth,” and that “his heart was overwhelmed.” That could mean, we cannot be dogmatic here, but it could mean that this Psalm was written when David was persecuted by his arch enemy, Saul, prior to his ascension to the throne. In David’s own words he said, “In these days he felt like a partridge hunted upon the mountains.” However, more likely those expositors of this Psalm are right who date Psalm 61 in the days when David had to flee for his life because of the rebellion of his son Absalom. And that certainly must have been a very grievous trial for David. It must have been more grievous than any of David’s other trials and afflictions. Absalom, his own son, did not only seize the crown and the throne but he also sought to smite the head that wore that crown; even though it was the head of his own father! David, in these days, was driven away from his palace; driven away from the city of Jerusalem; also driven away from God’s sanctuary in Jerusalem.
And who would ever be able to tell David’s grief? Often David desired to be like a sparrow or to be like a swallow dwelling beneath the eaves in the house of God. Now he is driven away even to the ends of the earth. He is in great trouble. That must have been a very painful experience for this God-fearing king. Under these circumstances this Psalm has been composed. In his great need David begins to pray to God, “Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.” Then David beseeched the Lord to listen to him when he brings his petition before the Lord. Then follows the words of our text, “From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock, that is higher than I.”
So, in David’s own estimation, he is at the end of the earth or as we may also understand these words “at the end of the land; the land of Canaan.” David is driven away to the remotest spot of his own land; far away from the capital city, Jerusalem, and far away from his palace and his throne. He is far away from his people because only a few faithful servants accompany him. For the rest he is lonely.
He is forsaken and that is how he feels too. He feels forsaken, being all alone and that must have pained his heart very, very sorely. To be so fiercely persecuted by one’s own son, is that not terrible?
Reading the words that “he is at the end of the earth” we may also understand these words to have a spiritual meaning for the Israelites looked upon the tabernacle and in later times upon the temple as being the center of the world. They counted themselves to be at the very end of the universe when they could no longer resort to that tabernacle or that temple. And that is how, I believe, that David felt. His greatest burden was that he was no longer able to go to God’s house’ to their worship. That man who so often expressed a strong desire and a heartfelt longing for the courts of God, he must have felt very comfortless and miserable, poor and empty and lost when he was at the end of the earth; far, far from God’s dwelling place. So, he is far removed from friends and companions. Only a few of his former friends are with him. He is far away from human help. He is also far away from the means of grace and the end of the earth is experienced by him as a very lonely place.
Is David the only one that gone through these type of experiences? Is he the only one who can tell what it is like to be at the end of the earth? I don’t think so! I believe that in the life of God’s children there are times when they have similar experiences; that they too will be brought into a condition that they are far away from friends. Even though they are in the midst of their own friends and in the midst of their own relatives, one can feel so much like a stranger. When a soul is way down under the burden of his sin or under other burdens, he does not even know, at times, how to speak about his feelings and about his sentiments. He is not able to make other people aware of what causes him to suffer and even if he is able to relate to friends and to relatives, what bothers him is that these friends, at times, are not able to bring any alleviation. For who and what could have brought alleviation and comfort to David as long as his own son was trying to slay him? At the end of the earth; that is what is experienced when we are far away from human help, when no human hand can remove our troubles and especially when spiritual burdens weigh down our soul. For these burdens particularly are way…..too heavy for human strength to lift. Really, no man is able to afford help to a soul that is burdened with a sense of his sins. A man is not sought to bring relief to a soul that is grieving because he feels unable to change his desperate situation.
There are times in the life of those that fear the Lord, and this all according to what we find in the Word of God, that they are crying for “spiritual mercies.” There are times in which they are groaning under, for instance, the withdrawal of God’s face or times when their sins are hunting them like packs of wolves or times in which afflictions are rolling over them like huge billows or times when their faith is so little and their fears are so many and their hope is so dim and their doubts become so terrible. And who is the man who is able to deliver his fellow man in those days and under these circumstances? Then, we are far…..away from any human help. There is none that is able to really deliver. God alone is able to sustain!
Being at the end of earth, as we have seen in David’s case, was also being far…..,far from God’s sanctuary. It was being far from the alters and far from the other means of grace. And is it not a great deep depravation, for those that love the Lord, when they are no longer able to go up to God’s house? Is it not so that the true, real Christian loves the place where the Lord is pleased to dwell and where the Lord is pleased to meet with His people? People that truly fear the Lord, they also have learned to value the means of grace because it is God’s pleasure to make use of the means of grace to bless a soul, to instruct a soul, to comfort a soul and to warn a soul!! We know from the other testimonies by the pen of David that he too often longed for the sanctuary….to be present there and to behold the beauty of the Lord. And now, it grieves him when he is far away from that place.
I believe David’s plight was still worse. He is not only far away from his own house. He is not only far away from the Lord’s house BUT he feels that he is far away from GOD Himself! Not only is he far removed from the means of grace but, obviously, also from the God of grace! “At the end of the earth,” means to David that he has lost contact with God and that makes his condition even more fateful. That is why he expresses his deepest need and his greatest misery in the words, “my soul, my heart is overwhelmed.” What does that mean? What is it to be overwhelmed? It means that his heart is in heaviness, in anguish. His heart is sinking. Calvin translates the words of our text, “while my heart is turned about, tossed hither and thither, agitated.” David means that his heart is brought into a kind of chaos; a situation of confusion; it is out of order.
Let me illustrate. Imagine a ship at sea. The ship has been laboring in a storm. Sometimes it is lifted up, even almost to heaven. Then again, it descends into the deep. It staggers this way. It staggers that way. It reels to and fro. It is like a drunken man who has lost his way. Then….at last…..a huge sea comes rolling on and when it comes on and on it gathers up all strength and then it dashes against the ship! Down goes the vessel!! Overwhelmed!! Well, David says, this is his case. Overwhelmed he is! Pulled down by a tremendous sea of difficulty; crushed and broken. The ship is lost. The sailors must perish! So is a man whose heart is overwhelmed within him. He can only fear that he will be swallowed up by his miseries and that his burden of afflictions will sink him to the bottom of the sea never to see God’s face again. That is the situation that David was in.
And what does he do under these circumstances? He “cries!!” He “cries out.” He “cries out to God!!” He brings his case before God’s throne; before the Lord’s mercy and asks Him and supplicates Him that the Lord will deliver him. Think again of that ship that was tossed up and down in the storm and it was finally overwhelmed by the waves. The sailors have been plunged into the sea and there is one…..one of these sailors…..look how he buffets the waves….how he struggles for his life; how he pants for breath and how he is just about to give up for lost. And then suddenly he discovers “a rock” towering over him. Oh, if he can but climb that rock!!! If he could but get on top of the rock!! If he could only have sure footing upon that rock….then he will be saved! Then the billows will no longer be able to reach him and then he will be safe! But….. to give great disappointment he finds out that the rock is too high for him. He is already spent and exhausted and he certainly cannot reach it, let alone climb it! So, what can he do? He needs help!! He needs help desperately!!
So, he begins to shout aloud for a hand….for someone who is able to extend a hand to him; someone who is stronger than he! Or he cries for a rope that may be flung to him by those that are already on the top of the rock. I remember that I once read a story about the rocky northern coast of Scotland. It quite often happened that ships perished in that area and that many lives were lost because the rocks there were so inaccessible that the shipwreck mariners could not climb them even though the coast was nearby. The sailors simply were not able to climb the rocks which were at such a close distance. They were too high for them. Then some people took the initiative to cut out steps in the rocks and to drive in iron stanchions so that they could be used for hold-fasts by shipwrecked sailors. In that way the sailors could climb the rock and they could be rescued; who otherwise would have perished.
Now, David is at the end of the earth and his heart is overwhelmed. He is like a drowning sailor being at the point of death. But, he has seen the rock and with his last efforts David has tried to bring himself into safety upon the rock; but he has failed. For the rock was too high. He could not climb it! It was impossible for David to save himself. And then, almost in despair, he cried out to God that the Lord would answer him; that the Lord would rescue him; that the Lord would lead him to that rock and that the Lord would plant his feet upon the rock!!
Congregation, in the meanwhile you may have noticed that I have made a little change in the translation of the words of our text. In our English Bible we read David’s prayer, “lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” Now, of course, the rock is higher than David. How else could David be rescued by a rock? Could he be rescued by a rock that is smaller than he? Could he be rescued by a rock that is only a small one when the top of it just shows itself above the sea? Then the waves still are able to wash away and wash him off the rock. Such a rock would not afford any help to a shipwrecked sailor. Therefore, all of us, no doubt, understand that the rock about which David is praying, is a huge one; a rock by far higher than David. Though this is all true, I must say that I prefer a different translation of the words of our text. I believe David means to say, “Lead me to the rock that is too high for me.” Some of you may remember that this is the way the Dutch has translated the words of our text; “A rock which is too high for David.” David is not able to reach it and certainly David is not able to climb it! Whatever he tries; he fails because the rock is too high. It is beyond David’s powers to bring himself into safety. Yes, the rock is there! And the rock certainly is a place of safety but poor David, in his weakness and in his misery, is not able to climb it. If the Lord does not deliver him…..he must yet perish… in the sight of the rock…. just like when a ship is drowned in the sight of the harbor.
What does David mean when he speaks about “a rock?” Speaking from the Old Testament I think we must say that David, in the first place, is thinking of God’s mercy and divine support and His divine protection. David desires to find mercy with God; to be protected by the Lord. David desires to be out of the reach of those tempestuous waves that death shall rage and threaten to kill him! But this place of protection, this place of safety lies beyond his reach! Without special grace he will never be able to find it! He must be led and that is the word he uses. He must be led, he must be guided; he must be directed; be must be brought there; he must, as it were, be carried by someone else to be upon that rock! He must be lifted up by the Lord. Therefore he prays that the Lord will lead him to that rock. When we speak from the fulfillment of the Old Testament, in the New Testament, then we do not have any difficulty identifying “the rock” with the Lord Jesus Christ.