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AFTER THE PREACHING IS DONE (Psalm 40)

I absolutely love the preaching of the Word of God. I love to preach and to listen to preaching. It stirs the heart and brings you to truth.

David, who is known as a psalmist, was also quite a preacher. Consider his own words in Psalm 40:9-10.

“I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.”

That is quite a statement. It is also a challenge for every person who teaches and preaches the Bible. Do not hold back God’s truth. People need the whole counsel of God; give them His Word.

The phrase “great congregation” is a reference to the people of Israel. It is not because they were great in number, although they were, but because of the greatness of their need. That is true of any congregation; it is much more about spiritual needs than size.

Interestingly, as soon as David made this statement we just read, there was a shift in the psalm. The first 10 verses are a progression, actually an ascension. Verses 1-6 speak about what God has done, and the next four are about what He allows us to do. It is as if the Lord carried us to the mountaintop.

But verses 11-17 are more like a picture of a battle, of desperation. After the time on the mountaintop, it is a descent into the valley of life.

Isn’t that so much like the way we live? It is after the preaching is done that the great needs come. It is after the crowd has dispersed and the meeting is a memory that the test arises. It is after the preacher’s voice is silent that the truth has to live. It is after the emotion has subsided that the will has to be exercised.

What are you going to do after the preaching is done?

Psalm 40 is so practical. There are many ways to approach it. You can take a magnifying glass to David’s life and see many of his own experiences, the danger and the difficulty. You can also approach it as a window, for a look at Christ. Verses 6-9 contain a definite messianic reference that is connected to Hebrews 10 and His obedience to the will of the Father.

But think about Psalm 40 not as those things, but as a mirror to yourself. When we look into God’s Word, it shows us the need in our own lives. It shows us that after the preaching is over and the emotion has subsided — that is when you have to live the Christian life. To do that, you have to apply what you have learned.

Verses 11-17 show us what we need to do after the preaching is done.

We need to have God preserve us. Verse 11: “Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.” Meditate on the fact that God alone can keep us.

Personally, I have discovered that often the greatest battles come right after the greatest victories. You have a huge blessing and then, all of sudden, you are fighting for your life. That is when you have to depend constantly on the mercy of God. You must go back to His lovingkindness and His truth, which never change.

We need to win some personal victories.

Verses 12-13: “For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me.”

When the congregation is gone, that is when you find yourself alone with God, yourself, and your sin. After spiritual encounters with God, you often have to go back and face the reality that you still have your own wicked flesh. You must do battle with your own sinful heart.

Sin tends to put its tentacles around you and beat you down. That is what these verses are describing, and that is when you have to find your own victory in Christ alone. Every victory in life is won by living in the presence of a holy God. When the congregation is gone and the preacher’s voice is no more, you can still have the presence of God and experience victories for yourself.

This is the essence of the godly life. It is not for public consumption. It is private and personal.

We need to spend some time in prayer.

Verses 13-16: “Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil. Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha. Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified.”

Preaching is for a set time, but prayer is to be done without ceasing. This is how you continue in victory. It is easy to get right with God in a moment, but the only way to stay right with God is to live a life of prayer. It is a life lived on your knees, saying repeatedly, “Lord, help me.”

Do you know when Jesus prayed most often? If you study the Gospels, you will see that He did most of it after His preaching. It is after the seed is planted that the devil wants to steal it away. After the truth has been sown, the battle for truth begins.

After the preaching is done, spend time in prayer. Pray for yourself and those around you. Pray that the Lord’s people will be kept and, ultimately, for the glory of God as expressed at the close of verse 16.

We need to rest in God’s promises. Here is how Psalm 40 ends, in verse 17. “But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.” I quote this often to myself.

“But I am poor and needy; yet …”

Aren’t you glad for God’s “yet”?

God thinks about you. It is wonderful that we can think of Him, but it is positively awe-inspiring to know that He thinks of us.

The Bible says in Psalm 139:17-18, “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand.”

After the preaching is done, the living begins. This is where we move on from being hearers of the Word to being doers of the Word.

Take Psalm 40, and what you are gleaning from all of the psalms, and ask the Lord today to help you apply it — to live constantly in the presence of God, and to rest on Him.

"God is thinking about you today. He will help you, He will deliver you, and He will be right on time."