But I Am Poor and Needy

Amen. Now, you’ll notice he says in verse number one, make haste, make haste, oh God, make haste to help me. And then and then you see down at the last part of the Psalm, verse number five says, make haste unto me, oh God, thou art my help and my deliverer, oh Lord, make no tarrying. And so you have this idea of the Psalmist like many many dozens of Psalms that we’ve seen, the Psalmist is in some sort of trouble and he wants God to hurry up.

And and you know, I know that you can relate to that fact whenever you’re in a you’re in a hard straight, you’re in a difficult place that you want God to help you now. And as we’ve learned when we were in our class on Friday night, last Friday night, we were in Romans five, and it talks about how that patience, that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope. And biblical patience is not just the idea of you know, you’re waiting for something, although it’s kind of a little bit similar to that. Biblical patience is the idea of you’re waiting in trouble.

So that’s why the Bible says tribulation worketh patience because there’s an element of biblical patience that requires suffering and that’s exactly what you see here. But when we suffer, is it not true that we often we often think to ourselves, Lord, Lord, I I wish this would hurry up. I wish this would this would speed up and you would bring me out of this suffering quickly. And so, we understand this idea, but that’s not what what we wanna focus on tonight.

I do wanna call your attention to verse number four before we get to verse five, the Bible says, let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee, and let such as love thy salvation say continually, let God be magnified, Let God be magnified. Let God be magnified. Now, it would do us well to just stop and and really meditate on that that sentence there. Let God be magnified.

You know, we read you know, that kind of religious, you know, kind of religious sounding verse, know, well glory to God and we, you know, and sometimes I’ll be honest with you, sometimes it kind of irritates me when I hear when I hear preacher talk. You know what I’m talking about when I say preacher talk? When you know, you you say, you know, you you’ll be walking out of the church, walking out of the church building and they’ll be shaking hands. Well, god bless you. God bless you. God bless you and you know, can kind of put it on a little bit. I’m not that good at it but you know, we’re it’s just you have the right kind of religious sounding thing to say and and and you know, just at the right time, you say the right thing. I’ve never been good at that. Maybe that that’s why it kind of irritates me but but sometimes, preacher talk causes us to to overlook this. Let god be magnified. In fact, it says, let such as love thy salvation say, continually, continually.

Let god be magnified. First Corinthians ten thirty one, you know this verse, whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. And it here here’s the thing I want us to see about this. Our life, the reason why we have life is for God’s glory and exaltation. It is not for our own happiness, it is not for the happiness of our family ultimately, primarily, it is for God’s glory. That’s why we’re here, and this is what listen, anyone who’s been under the influence of the grace and goodness of God and the instruction of the spirit of God through the scripture, that person is going to ever move closer to the the understanding that I I do not live for me.

My life is for god. That’s why I’m here and and all of us, you know, none of us are are are perfect in this this endeavor, but it’s a it’s a growing sense of purpose in our life. Lord, I want my life to glorify you. I want I want your name to be exalted in my life. I want, as it says here, I want God to be magnified.

Let God be magnified. Is that is that the purpose that you have for your life? And see, say that and just as preachers can have preacher talk, right? Preacher speak and they say the right thing, they say these spiritual sounding phrases here and there, so often we as the people of God often hear things like that and we’re the question is posed to us, do I want God to be magnified in my life? We just instinctively say yes, yes.

But has it really sunk down that is my life glorifying God? Is is my life actually exalting the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it actually actively doing that? Because it should, right? And that that doesn’t mean you necessarily have to go be a missionary, although that’s one way, but that’s not the only way. You can you can serve God and live for God, you can be holy and walk uprightly where in the place that you work and and where you go to school, and all of those things that you can share the gospel and you can witness to people and you can pray with people and you can weep with those that weep and comfort those that mourn and you can rejoice with those that rejoice and many many other things that you can do that glorify and exalt and lift up and bring attention to the lord and that’s our whole purpose. It’s not there’s only one way to do it. There are many ways to do it but that is why we’re here.

That is why we’re here. Do we want God to be magnified? Now go to verse number five. David says this, but I am poor and needy. But I am poor and needy. Let’s take a quick walk through the Psalms. Look at Psalm number nine, we’re gonna come back to Psalm 70, but we’ll just stay in the Psalms mostly. Psalm number nine.

Psalm nine, look if you would at verse number 18. What you’ll notice as you read the Psalms and in other parts of Scripture, word poor and the word needy go together, they’re pairs. In that the way the Hebrews think and talk where they in parallel, so they’ll use one and another and their synonyms are very similar, but you often see them together like brother and sister. It says, verse 18, for the needy shall not always be forgotten.

The expectation of the poor shall not perish forever. Look at Psalm 12, just few pages over. Psalm 12. Psalm twelve:five, For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord, I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. Psalm 40 now, Psalm number 40. Of course, we’ve covered all these, but I don’t know that we’ve stopped and taken and made an examination of these two words together, poor and needy. Psalm 40 verse number 17.

David, once again, notice what he says, so this is a pattern we’re seeing in David, he says, but I am poor and needy. Yet the Lord thinketh upon me, thou art my help and my deliverer, make notarying, O my God. So you see it in Psalm 40, you see it in Psalm 71 more Psalm 113. Psalm 113.

Says this, He raises up the poor, verse seven, Psalm one thirteen verse seven, He raises up the poor out of the dust and lifted up the needy out of the dunghill. And so you see the first of all, you see them to go together, poor and needy, and you think well, duh, know, they mean almost the same thing, that’s true. But what’s what’s also interesting is you see David referring to himself in that way. Now pause a second.

Now if you had to pick everybody in the Bible, is David a person that you would name first as being poor and needy? Definitely not. If I was gonna call, if I was gonna think of a person who was poor and needy, would think of something, someone like blind Bartimaeus or Lazarus or you know, definitely one of the lepers maybe that Jesus healed or what are you gonna say?

Mephibosheth is another good one, he was poor. Lame, you know those are the kind of people that you would normally think of as poor and needy, right? But David is not one of them, because David from the basically from the time of the battle with Goliath, the confrontation with Goliath, from that time he became the king’s he he well, first of all, he got he got the fame, and then he became the king’s armor bearer which is no mean position.

No, nobody in that proximity to the king is going to be poor. They and then from there, you know, he became the captain of of the king’s arm. One of the captains of the king’s army and and so, and then it goes on, he’s once, I mean of course, basically from Goliath for the rest of his life, he is rather the opposite of poor and needy, and yet in the Psalms he repeatedly, and I didn’t read them all, he repeatedly calls himself poor and needy, but I am poor and needy. Now, now now you set those two facts against each other, what what do we have here?

How is a man who is not poor and needy calling himself poor and needy? Why? What does he mean by that? Well, just looking at the words poor and needy, I’m I’m not trying to insult your intelligence, but sometimes it does us well just to stop and think, what do these words mean? Let’s let’s meditate on the words the Lord has chosen to use in this in the scripture. Poor just simply means of little means, you know, you don’t have a lot of money.

But needy is a little bit different, although they’re related. Needy means you’re in want, you’re actually lacking. Just because you’re poor doesn’t always mean you’re needy, but in this case, these these two obviously go together. But while you think on that, also think on the reverse, the the the antonym. The opposite of poor would be? Rich. Wealthy, exactly. And the opposite of needy would be what? Okay.

See see, it’s something we just assume we know until we start thinking about it’s like, oh, well, I never thought about that. Right. Right. To be needy means you’re wanting, you’re lacking, then to be the opposite of needy would be Right, you have everything you need, you’re not needy which means you’re, you you might look at it in a good way but in this case obviously poor and needy is viewed in a good way, not bad, although you know we might think of it like that, but he does not he does not mean to say I’m poor and needy, so that’s a bad thing.

He’s saying this in prayer to God. So, the idea of of when you’re not needy means you’re you’re full, you’re you have everything you need, you don’t lack. Now, look if you would at one verse, look at Revelation, I know I say in the Psalms, but will be mostly in the Psalms. Revelation chapter three. You actually see the contrast in this phrase in Revelation three seventeen in the church of Laodicea.

Revelation three seventeen, notice what it says, the church at Laodicea of course is the lukewarm church and we we studied this not too long ago. Verse 17, because thou sayest, I am, what does it say? Rich. Rich, that’s the contrast. And increase with goods, that’s rich, and what does it say? Have need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. This is a terrible state. They were poor, they were needy, but they were unaware of that.

In their own heart, in their attitude toward God, in their disposition toward God, they were not certainly not poor needy. In their disposition toward God, they were full and satisfied. They didn’t feel need. They didn’t feel the pinch of poverty, they didn’t feel anything like that. Now again, we’re not talking about necessarily worldly goods here although they did in Laodicea, they had worldly goods and that was contributing to their self satisfied kind of thinking toward God, but toward God they felt like I’m not poor, I’m rich.

And maybe it was that they looked at their worldly goods and they thought well, I I’m have abundance, therefore I am rich toward God, I am wealthy toward God. Or maybe they looked the fact looked at the fact that they didn’t have need and they that that tended cause them to tend to think that they had didn’t have need toward God. They were had they had need of nothing. But that was the problem.

In their attitude toward God that was the problem. Now back in Psalm 70, notice this, it says this, I lost my place here, let me get back there. Psalm 70 verse number five, David says, But I am poor and needy. Now remember this, David is speaking to God. Remember, make haste, O God, to deliver, make haste, O Lord. And then he says these various prayers, let them be turned back, let all those that seek thee, and so he’s talking to God. You might say, I know this is a song, but this is a song of prayer.

He’s talking to God in prayer and he’s saying, God, now this is a key element, I want you to make sure we get this, directed toward the Lord he says, but I am poor and needy.

So because of the direction that this is pointed toward the Lord, it tells us that this is, first of all, it’s it’s he’s not talking well, we knew David was was a wealthy man, so it’s not what he’s talking about. He’s not talking about his physical, his his bank account at all. And because it’s directed toward the Lord, it reveals that this is actually a disposition of David.

An attitude of David toward the Lord more than it is an actual condition of his life. And David, as I said, David described himself in these terms a number of times, Psalm 35 verse 10, we read 40 verse seventeen, eighty six one, 109 verse 22, and these that’s just these are five examples where David calls himself poor and needy.

Now, the question I want to ask you is this, when you get before God in the secret place of prayer, do you honestly and sincerely say or think of yourself as poor and needy? Regardless of whether you need any physical thing or whether you have a lot of money in the bank account or whatever. When you get before God, do you feel yourself? Do you sense want and lack, right?

Now, normally we think of poverty and we think of need as negative things in our life, right? We talk about physical things, know, if your transmission goes out, you all of a sudden go, you’re poor, right? That’s basically what happens. You become needy and you don’t think of that as a good thing. You lose your job and you become needy, you become poor, or poorer anyway. And that’s a negative thing, but before God it is a good thing.

Before God is a good thing. Listen to this, I’ll just read it to you for time. Matthew five:three, you know this verse, we studied in detail in months gone by says this, the Lord says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now, we’re not talking about worldly goods now, we’re not talking about money, we’re talking about in spirit. And so that tells us that blessed are the poor in spirit brings us back to Psalm number 70 verse number five. Here’s a man who is not poor in worldly goods.

Yet before God, if it’s not outward things, then it must be talking about something inward and we know that because he’s talking to God about it and so basically, David and as we went through Matthew, especially the the Sermon on the Mount, if you remember, I I repeat it over and over. This is not new information. This is these are things that were already in the Old Testament that the Jews had just missed, but here the Lord brings out the truths of the Old Testament for us to see, and this is one of them. David says, I am poor and needy. Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit. In other words, we’re dealing with an inward thing that’s directed toward God, not toward worldly things, not toward outward things.

To be poor and needy toward the Lord means that you are sincerely, now listen closely, these are just my words, just meditating on this truth, this concept. It means that we are toward the Lord, we are sincerely convinced that we truly, that there is truly nothing in us.

To say this before God means that you’re not just saying words, you know, because you’re speaking to God, one who knows all tries the hearts and drains. It means that you are actually convinced that you have nothing to boast of, like it’s not there. Your your, if you will, your spiritual bank account is empty or even negative. When you talk to God in private, when we speak to God without anybody around to hear us to make us think we got to sound spiritual or whatever, when we get before God we say, Lord I am poor and needy. That is sincerely convinced.

To be poor and needy when you speak speak to God means that you are truly persuaded that there is no good in you. And that any good thing that is in you or any good thing that you have done that is done by you is only so because it was given by the Lord. And that’s the idea of poverty. The idea of poverty is you have nothing, we are nil, we’re zero, our account is empty, and then someone gives us $50 that we can’t boast of that because it was given to us. This is the disposition the Lord wants us to have, this is what it means to be poor in spirit.

Do you Are you truly persuaded that there is no good in you and that any good that comes out of you or any good that you do is given to you by the Lord.

To be poor in spirit, be poor and needy means that you consciously feel a lack and a want in yourself. You actually consciously feel it. Lord, I can’t, I don’t, I’ve looked, it’s just not there. If you don’t help me, if you don’t help me. You know sometimes we look our life, we look, I mean, and I’m just like you, I know you all, I mean to some degree or another, some of you I know well, some of you I know not as well, but each of you has different personality characteristics and different strengths and abilities that you’ve learned. I’ll pick on Sam, you know Sam’s a plumber, right, so he knows how to plumb, is that the right word?

Plumb? Well, I thought plum isn’t making a level, I guess that’s kind of what you’re doing, David’s into, he knows IT things regarding networking and that’s his, know, and there’s some of you in here that are crafty or some of you that are, you have all kinds of things, all kinds of things in your life. Things you might look at those things in your life and you might say, I’m sad, I’m good, I know, I know my stuff.

I I know I’m not dumb and I know I’m, you know. You might look at those things and look at yourself and might think, well, I’m not exactly poor at least in that department. Right? I’m not lacking. You know, How many of you ever been in a situation where somebody somebody was arrogantly trying to tell you something that you knew better than they?

You know that sensation, that’s where you feel like you’re not needy, like I do not need you to tell me this. I know way more about this than you. But let me ask you something. So we all have that tendency to look at ourselves in that way. What I’m challenging you with though, is when we get before God, that we that we do we truly consciously feel like we lack, like we really don’t have anything.

And we we we are we are actually and sincerely aware of the fact that whatever is in us is only there by the grace of God. You see, we dare not if we’re poor and needy, we dare not trust ourselves for we know that we have nothing in us upon which we might trust. You know what this is? I propose to you, a lot of times people, they debate or they discuss, what does it mean to be humble? What does it mean to be meek?

Especially the word humble. And I would suggest, know, some people think that the word humble means you think think yourself the scum of the earth or something like that. No, don’t think that at all. Some people have said humility is thinking less of yourself, not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less, they say. Maybe that’s a good way to describe it, but might I suggest you that a way we can describe humility is when you sincerely feel and are convinced that you are poor and needy.

Not that you’re the scum of the earth worse than you actually are, but that you’re totally bereft of anything but by the grace of God. Lord, I’m poor and needy. I come up here to preach, Lord, I can’t preach.

Come up here to lead the music, Lord, I I can’t I can’t lead the go to work, Lord, I can’t glorify you and I’m just I need you. I need I need a handout. Lord, I need a handout.

I think this is a good way to describe humility. Can you say that in your relationship to God sincerely, when you’re private, nobody’s around you say, Lord, I am poor and needy.

These are not spiritual sounding words that we speak to other people to make them think that we’re humble, These are words that we speak to God in private. And you know what, there should not be a distinction between our attitude toward the Lord, which is what we’re looking at here, this is God word. There shouldn’t be a distinction when we speak to God and we say, Lord, I am poor and needy.

And then when we speak to others toward men, we have a different kind of attitude. You know, it’s foolish to think that we can have this kind of disposition toward God when we say, Lord, I am poor and needy, and that that kind of humility, that kind of poverty of spirit toward the Lord, and then somehow we can be boastful or arrogant toward man.

Because the truth is that this, if we are truly sincere, not just saying words, just sounding spiritual, but if we’re truly sincere before God and we say, Lord, I am poor and needy, that disposition toward God will overflow and affect our attitude and disposition toward others. If we’re truly convinced that this is the case and see there and there lies the, you know, I’m gonna tell you because I’ve got this figured out, right?

There lies the one of the keys to humility, you know, just hear me out, right? But it really, humility is less about you speaking down of yourself in front of others, and it is more about you speaking poor and needy before God in private. Because when that is real to us, then that will affect the way we conduct ourselves before others, because we really believe it. And this is what it means, this is one instance of what it means to be, I don’t mean to use a trendy term, but to be an authentic Christian. In other words, what we are in private is overflowing into what we are in public.

In other words, we’re just real, whatever we are is what we are before God and before man. You see if a man is proud toward man, he certainly is not poor and needy toward God. You see that’s why I say it overflows. So if a person exhibits pride outwardly and arrogance and condescension to others in the bad way I mean, if they’re that way outwardly, it’s because before God they do not feel they are poor and needy, because it overflows, overflows.

How many times in the Psalm, Psalm 119 I wrote them down, we don’t need to read them. How many times in Psalm 119 does the Psalm has described the proud, the proud, the proud, the proud, how the proud oppress him? Why the proud? Well it’s because they don’t feel they’re poor and needy. They have hubris, they’re bold, they think they’re self satisfied, they don’t need anything, they don’t have that kind of poverty toward in the spirit.

So the method to transform our character from one who has pride, because I mean, if you have the spirit of God in you, I guarantee you that he talks to you about pride from time to time, right? He does. Because that is that is the opposite, that is a vice, that is the opposite of the virtue that the spirit of God is producing in us. So he is going to work it out of us.

But the way he does that and what we should be paying attention to is that transformation of character from proud to poor and needy is a transformation that is done before God in private in the private prayer closet. It is really a function of where what our disposition is toward God more than anything else. Sometimes we spend all of our time trying to sound humble to other people when before God we are not.

And before God, we might even use spiritual words, but before God there is no sincerity where we cry out of even sometimes desperation or despair. Where we say, Lord, I am poor and needy, I have nothing, I have no good thing except what you give to me as a handout in your grace. If we’re convinced of that, if that is our sincere heart, the effect of that will be humility outside in public.

So may the Lord help us to be people who are poor in spirit, not just so people think we are, but that we are actually before the Lord. Let’s pray together.