Okay, welcome back to our live stream worship service this morning. Again I’ll like to welcome not just people from the Klang Valley, but also those who are outside. And I would like to also take this opportunity to make mention of a few people who have surprisingly contacted me in the past week. One is William Ang from Miri Church, wrote to me saying that they had not been able to meet as a church physically and also had not been able to have a live stream service. And so he’s expressed a gratitude in being able to tune in to this live streaming. So also glad to hear from Doreen mentioning that her brother-in-law also tuned in, her brother-in-law from the USA. And so welcome. I welcome all of you to join us in this worship service. 

I say it’s amazing that is already, I think this is into our eighth week in this live stream service. So we just continue to pray to the Lord that He might continue to bless this gathering. And we do look forward to the day where we are able to gather again physically. And also before I begin to meditate on the Word of God to also, I’ll like to wish all mothers, all mothers a Happy Mother’s Day. Alright with that, we shall turn to your Bible. Now we have sent out the bulletins, most of you have it. You can actually follow most of the proceedings by referring to your bulletin. So let me begin by reading our Scripture text. Now, this morning we are going to look at Psalm 142. Psalm 142.

Alright, this is the Word of God. “A Contemplation of David. A Prayer when he was in the cave.”. Verse 1: “I cry out to the Lord with my voice; With my voice to the Lord I make my supplication. I pour out my complaint before Him; I declare before Him my trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, Then You knew my path. In the way in which I walk, They have secretly set a snare for me. Look on my right hand and see, For there is no one who acknowledges me; Refuge has failed me; No one cares for my soul. I cried out to You, O Lord: I said, “You are my refuge, My portion in the land of the living. Attend to my cry, For I am brought very low; Deliver me from my persecutors, For they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prison, That I may praise Your name; The righteous shall surround me, For You shall deal bountifully with me.”” Now let us again turn to the Lord in prayer.

“Almighty God, our dear Father in heaven, we are gathered this morning, once again we want to praise Your name. We pray, O Lord, indeed we will remember to praise You all the days of our life. As we come together as a congregation of Your people, we want to acknowledge that indeed You are our God and that You have been good to us. We thank You that even during this period of trials, of difficulties in this world, You have not forsaken Your people. We want to thank You for every opportunity that Your people can gather around Your Word, and we pray that You would do good to our souls. Bless our time together, O Lord. Bless the proclamation of Your truth. Bless the hearing of Your Word. Bless all of us, O Lord, and help us, that we might be affected this morning in some way by Your Word. 

Lord, we pray even as we draw near together, we are conscious that the people who draw near this morning are not just here in this city or in the Klang Valley. We also want to pray for our brethren elsewhere. We remember those in Melaka, we remember those in Johor Bahru, remember those in Miri, remember our brethren in Singapore, and perhaps elsewhere too who are tuning in, we pray for each one of them, Lord, that You may continue to be with them. Continue to lead them in their life. Continue O Lord to draw them close to Yourself, and continue O Lord to protect us at this time not just from physical harm, for we know that we are in great danger. We know that You are more than able to protect us from the dangers around us and even from the virus. But we also pray for protection from the evil one, for we know that the great danger facing us, it’s not just the physical but that which can destroy our soul.

And so we come together and we plead with You that indeed You would continue to preserve us. And now as we come together as a body to study Your Word, we look up to You and pray, O Lord, that You might be pleased to open up our eyes to see this wondrous truth in Your Law. So we commit the rest of the time under Your hand, for we pray all these in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Alright, we are looking at Psalm 142 this morning, and this morning is really a reflection as I was reading this psalm, kind of reflected on something that is mentioned here. Now I want you to first of all look at what we call the superscription. Now many of the psalms have what we call a superscription, which is like a title to the psalm. But it’s important to take note of the superscriptions because it gives us the context and therefore helps us to understand what the psalmist is talking about. And so if you look at the superscription or the title of this psalm, it begins by saying that this is “a contemplation of David”. Now which means this is what we might call David’s meditation. Or put another way, it is David’s reflection or deep reflection on some very important issues in his life. And that is what we want to do this morning, kind of to reflect, to think deeply about some particular issues in our life.

It is important actually for us not to be superficial in our life, to live our lives and not think deeply and therefore not able to see what is really important, that we should focus our mind and our energy on. But so here’s David, he is contemplating. He is thinking deeply. And it also says here in the title that this is “a prayer when he was in the cave”. So this is not only a contemplation but also a prayer of David. In other words, as he thinks deeply about some particular issues, as he sees the importance of this matter, now he goes into prayer. I think these two things go together. In fact, I would say that our prayer should always be contemplative.

In other words, our prayer shouldn’t be superficial. So much of prayer is just what sometimes people say, we only say prayers. We are so mechanical, we just utter some words without thinking deeply. But that is not so with David here. He is praying, but he is also thinking deeply about what he is praying about. And so that is what this psalm is, so that is the title. And so as I say, the title tells us, now it gives us a context of the psalm. And so the title here or the superscription tells us that David was in the cave. So I’d like to consider this psalm along these few lines of thought.

Firstly, why was he in the cave? David was in the cave, but why was he in the cave? Now the answer is not because he lived there. Now David did not live in the caves. So we know that in the past, in ancient times, there were people, we called the cavemen, they lived in the caves. But that is not what David is telling us here. And it is also not because he was having what we might call a cave-cation. Now, what is a cave-cation? You know maybe go on a holiday, they call they are going on a vacation. But when you spend your holiday at home, you call it a staycation because you stay at home. And that is what all of us are doing today alright, we are all staying at home. We are having a staycation. But here, David is having a cave-cation, is he? No, he was not having a holiday in the caves. So why was he in the cave? Now the reason is this: so if you would look at First Samuel chapter 19, in First Samuel chapter 19, and we would know the reason. Now all the references are also in your bulletins. And so you can actually look at it in your bulletins.

Now in 1 Samuel 19:10-11, and this is what the Bible says: “Then Saul pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away from Saul’s presence; and he drove the spear into the wall. So David fled and escaped that night. Saul also sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and to kill him in the morning. And Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.””. And so we are told in verse 10 that “Saul sought to pin David to the wall”. And the reason for that is because he wanted to kill David. He wanted to kill David because he was extremely jealous of him. In fact, he has this bitterness, this hatred against David that he was fully intend on killing him. And so David’s wife knew about that, and he (Mistakenly mentioned “he”. Supposedly “she”) told David that your life is really in danger. You have to run for your life.

And so in verse 12: “So Michal let David down through the window. And he went down and fled and escaped.”. So what this reference tells us is that the reason why David is in the cave is because his life was in danger. He was actually running and trying to escape from Saul. And so that is the reason why he is in the caves. And so when we come back to Psalm 142, now we see the reason for the title. This is a prayer when David was in the cave because his life was in danger. Now that leads to my second line of thought here, and that is what did he do when his life was in danger alright- what did he do when his life was in danger?

Now you look at the other reference, and that is in First Samuel chapter 22. First Samuel chapter 22, and look at verse 1 alright- look at verse 1. It says here: “David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. So when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him.”. So this verse tells us that when David knew that he was in danger, he escaped. He ran away and he ran to the cave to hide in a cave. And so that is what he did. He ran and in this reference in this verse, it tells us he went to this cave called the cave of Adullam. And then when you look at the following chapter, 1 Samuel 23:29. 1 Samuel 23:29, now it says here: “Then David went up from there and dwelt in strongholds at En Gedi. Now En Gedi here is actually another cave. So there were caves in this place called En Gedi.

So what we find David doing when his life was in danger was that he was running away from Saul. He was running into this wilderness as it were, these cave regions. Maybe these are mountainous areas. So he first went to the cave and hide in the cave of Adullam. And then he went on to another cave, cave of En Gedi. So that is what he did when his life was in danger: running to hide in the caves. Now well that is what people do, is it not, when they are in danger? When they are in danger. The caves here in a sense is David’s place of refuge. So when people are in danger, they will run to what we call their place of refuge. A place of refuge refers to a place of safety, somewhere you could hide from danger. And so here David ran and sought refuge in these caves.

Now there is something we must remember here that that is a very common thing for people to do in the past and even actually today that people hide in the caves. You can think of the Taliban’s in Afghanistan. Many of these terrorists, they are hiding in the caves. And so the caves, even until today, these are places of safety or refuge. And so we find David seeking refuge in the caves. And I say, remember that he was very familiar with these caves. If you want to hide in the caves, you better be familiar with the caves. So he was very familiar with these caves, and just as again the Taliban’s were very familiar with the caves in Afghanistan. And so he tried this cave and then he tried that caves alright, so he was probably moving from caves to caves.

But we are told in First Samuel chapter 24. If you now look at First Samuel chapter 24, the first two verses. Now it tells us this: “Now it happened, when Saul had returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, “Take note! David is in the Wilderness of En Gedi.””. That means he’s hiding in the caves there in En Gedi. “Then”, verse 2, “Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel, and went to seek David and his men on the Rocks of the Wild Goats.”. And so here is David running from caves to caves. And now here he is in this cave in the cave in En Gedi, and it was reported to Saul. And Saul organized his men, three thousand of them, and they were in hot pursuit of David. And as they were in hot pursuit, and they were probably soon closing in.

Now obvious, now Saul had his best man organized. He probably formed them into different teams, just like today. You know when we go after the enemies, we will send our best men. Maybe we have our CIAs, or the FBI, or MI5. Now you see this is what is happening here in First Samuel 24. So all these different people, they’re best men, the chosen men, they’re all in pursuit, three thousand of them, searching cave by cave. Now David, although he was very familiar with the caves, but with these people pursuing him, he soon realised that it was just a method of time that he would be caught and executed. It’s like after a while, however clever he might be, however smart he might be, however familiar he might be with these caves, he soon realised that he would soon be caught and be killed. And so in this context, he cried out in Psalm 142. Now you see why this psalm is the contemplation or the deep meditation or reflections of David, why he is here in earnest prayer.

And so in a state of danger or desperation, now I want you to note the cry he made in verse 4, where he says: “Look on my right hand and see, For there is no one who acknowledges me; Refuge has failed me; No one cares for my soul.”. So he cries out, no! My “refuge has failed me” and “no one cares for my soul”. Now I want you to note here first of all the phrase “refuge has failed me”.

Now I want also to point out that what is happening to David here is such an accurate picture of our life, is it not, on earth in this world? That we are constantly in danger. In fact, we are constantly in danger of death. Although we are constantly in danger of death, most of the time we are not aware of it. And perhaps during this pandemic., this is press home upon us, that every day when we turn on our television or your computer and to try to follow the news of the day. Now we know that every day we are being reminded of the danger that is around us, that there is this invisible enemy, that there is this virus all around us, that we may catch it anytime and it might kill us.

And every day, we watch and we hear the leaders of the world of every nation literally giving daily updates, and what is or what are the daily updates? It is about the danger that we are facing, and it is a daily report on death. People who have been killed, every day there are thousands of people being killed. Thousands in America, thousands or hundreds in Europe, and elsewhere. Now in a sense, we are today being alerted, again and again, being reminded daily of what David here realises the danger that he is facing. And like David, we are also seeking refuge. We are also trying to run to somewhere where we can hide from our enemies, and most of us are now hiding in our homes. Why are we locked down? Why are we now shutting in our houses?

It’s like David. This is our caves, and we are hiding from this danger. This is our refuge. Of course the other so-called places of refuge that we run to, it could be not just literally places, but it could be in terms of food. We eat healthy and good food so that we would not die. We make effort, make sure that we exercise. We make sure that we take the proper medication. We are looking for a vaccine. Now, these are the kind of places of refuge where we are turning to. It’s like David running from one cave to another. We tried this cave and that cave. We try medicine, we try exercise, we try hiding in our homes, now very soon we would realise like David here that it is just a matter of time that we will be caught and be executed. It’s just a matter of time when we will die. Maybe we’ll die.

Now that leads us to the next point here. And when David realised that he would soon be caught, it’s kind of like inevitability that he would soon die. Now, what did he say? What did he say when he realised that he might soon die? Well, look at verse 4 again. Now he says this: “no one cares for my soul”. “Refuge has failed me”. Then he says: “no one cares for my soul”. Now I want to just pause for a little while and think about what David said here. And I want to say that this is an interesting expression, but also an important expression because it reflects the biblical view of the human life. When David looked at his whole situation, he reflected on his life and he accurately as I say revealed the biblical view of the human life, and that is that we are not just body, but we are body and soul.

Now, this is in stark contrast with how so many people in the world think about our lives, because we only think of ourselves as physical beings, as bodies, including even people who profess to be believers. That although they know from the Scripture that we are not just physical beings, we are also spiritual beings. But how often we forget that fact and we neglect the needs of our souls? And every day from morning till night, we are only caring for our physical body. From our faces, whether there’s any pimple on it, to our body, and whether what the size of our body. And so we are only thinking every day about our body. That is not the biblical view of the human life. We are also souls, spiritual beings.

Look at what Jesus said in Mark chapter 8, in Mark 8:36-37. Mark 8:36-37. Now listen to what Jesus says: “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”. Verse 37: “For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”. Now Jesus is obviously reminding the people that there is something very important about you. You have a soul that you must not neglect. You must not exchange it for the things of this world. What will you profit? In other words, he is saying that you can gain the whole world and it would be nothing, finally speaking if you do not take care of your soul. You have a soul that never dies. Remember, remember when we look at when we read David’s cry here when he says: “no one cares for my soul”, he is reflecting like I say the fact that we must remember that we have a soul, and therefore death.

When you are face to face with death, just as so many people today are. When people are face to face with death, death concerns, not just the body. Remember, when you’re face to face with death, it’s not just about your body. In fact, we must, therefore, remember that Covid-19, the coronavirus has in this sense a far-reaching implication. Every day, when we read about thousands of people dying, and we have visuals of those coffins being travelled by trucks to the burial ground. When we get updates, we must remember the Covid-19 is not just about people dying, but it is also about what the Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Ecclesiastes chapter 12.

Now listen as I read Ecclesiastes 12:6-7. Now it says here, verse 6: “Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed”. Now in verse 6, it’s a picture of death. “Or the golden bowl is broken, Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, Or the wheel broken at the well.”. So all these are metaphors or pictures of death. Verse 7, then what? Then what? When people get the virus and they die, when people meet an accident and they die, when people die of other illnesses, so what? And then what? Verse 7: “Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit”, or the soul “will return to God who gave it.”.

Now that is something that we have to remember. And that’s why this is a contemplation. This is a deep reflection when we are face to face with death. We need to think about the fact that we are not just physical beings and death is not just about people dying physically. Death is about the spirit returning to God and faces God in judgment. Every one of us, we must remember that our life comes from God, it is God who created us, and it is God who demands that we live in a certain manner. And he gave us His Holy Word to help us know how we ought to live our lives before Him. He gave us His moral law so that we might know His Holy demands of us. And at the end of the day, He will require us to give an account to Him of how we lived our lives in this world. We have to meet God. We have to account of ourselves to God.

And that’s the reason why Ecclesiastes ends with these verses. “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter”, verse 13, “Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is our whole duty. For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or bad.”. Now that is the constant reminder from the Word of God when we are face to face with death, remember, remember that our body will turn into dust and goes into the earth, but our spirit, our soul will return to God and face God in judgment. Therefore death brings into urgency the question of the soul. Do you think about your soul? Do you care about people who are dying and about where they would go after they have died? That is the question. It brings into urgency the question of the soul.

And that leads us to the fourth point I wish to raise here, and that is the tragedy. David says: “no one cares for my soul”, and isn’t it sadly true? Isn’t it true that nobody cares for your soul? Now I want you to think again about all the news that we are listening to, that we are hearing today. All the news about Covid-19, all the updating and all the measures. Every day, the scientists, all the people, all the measures that people are thinking to try to resolve this problem. Think about the doctors or what we call the health professionals, or what today is famously called the front liners. In Malay, it’s the “Barisan Hadapan”. The people on the frontline, the front liners. Think about these people, the sacrifices they have made, all the effort and all the resources poured in by these people. 

Now they are rightly to be appreciated today. And we know that there are plenty of appreciation for the front liners today. Stadium has been lighted up to show appreciation for them. Even in Malaysia, the palace has been lighted up to show appreciation for them. I know that that happened all over the world in various countries. We appreciate them for the sacrifices they have made or they are making to save lives. But what about the soul? But what about the soul? Who cares for the soul of these people? And that is what David is talking: no one cares for my soul. They may care for my physical body.

Or think about the governments. Now again I must say that they are doing a commendable job coming up with aid packages to try to alleviate the sufferings of the people in the nations, giving out money so that we have money to buy food, and coming out with policy that will help to revive the economy so that the people can get back to work again. And try to think of how to open up the country again so that people cannot go on to suffer and continue to suffer. But what about this soul package? They have the aid packages for the bodies, for our survival, but what about the packages for the soul? Who cares for the soul? And David says here: no one cares for my soul. Now think also of the society, about the society at large. The NGOs, the schools, your employer, of course they do care. And we find them doing things to elevate the suffering of people at this time.

But what about the soul? Or what about your neighbours? We have these times seeing the best of our neighbours, coming to help one another. Or what about your friends? And perhaps they are also doing many things to try to help you or help one another. They care about your health. They care about your livelihood. They care about your education, but what about the soul? That is the question this morning: What about the soul? And what about your parents? What about your parents? And I want here to perhaps, in particular, addressing Christian parents. Today is Mother’s Day. Parents, we love our children. We care for them. We provide for them. We give them a good education. We make sure that they have good food to eat, they have proper clothing on their bodies. We provide them a shelter. We buy them computers and cars perhaps. We help our children. We care for them because we love them.

What about, but what about their soul? How much do you care for the soul of your children? But perhaps the worst, worst of all, worst of all, perhaps is that even you yourself, even you yourself do not care much about your own soul. How much do you think about your own soul? Yes, you’re worried about your life especially today. You worry about your studies. You’re worried about your career. In fact, you’re worried about many things and you’re very busy about your life. You’re thinking too much about this life, perhaps. You’re thinking too much about this life. Do you know that you have a soul, that you also need to take care of? 

Now that leads to the final point I want to say about this psalm. Like I say that David was in the cave because his life was in danger, the caves were his places of safety or refuge, then he realised that these places of safety have failed him, they cannot hide him forever, face to face with death, and then it dawned upon him that death raises the question of eternity, question of the soul. But so few people care for the soul. I say we look around us, we might perhaps exclaim in the same way, who cares? Who cares for my soul? Finally, I want to ask, what about the church? If the front liners don’t really care for your soul, if the governments don’t really care for your soul, if your neighbours don’t really care for your soul, if your employers, they don’t really care for your souls, if you yourself also don’t really care for your souls, so what’s next? 

I want to ask: What about the church? What about us as a church? What are we doing in this pandemic? I’m not sure whether we even asked ourselves that question. We know that many people are doing many things at this time because of Covid-19, but what about the church? What are we doing in this pandemic? Scientists are working very hard to come up with a vaccine. Politicians, I’ve seen them going around distributing food. So what is the church thinking about mostly? These several months, these few months, what are we thinking about mostly? Now, remember everybody is busy. The government is busy, the health professionals had no rest, the economies, the business community, they are anxious and worried, and they’re spending a lot of time thinking. In fact, every one of them is on an emergency mode.

Don’t you see that? They give a daily update, they are concerned about the situation, and they are in an emergency mode, but what about the church? We cannot be in hibernation. While everybody is concerned, while everybody is busy and everybody senses the danger, the church cannot be in hibernation. In this lockdown, can we just shut down? We know that the you know the world has shut down the economy, all the non-essential businesses have been shut down. Only the essential are allowed to operate. But are we non-essential services? Now I think that the sad thing is when the church is not busy like the rest, when the church has failed to realise, has failed to realise our role in this pandemic. 

While everybody is caring for the body of the people, the physical well-being of the people, is there a neglect in the care for the souls of the people around us? And especially as I say, death brings into urgency the questions of the soul. Isn’t that not how we are being affected by this pandemic? So the church I want to underscore here is not a non-essential service. I was reading some reports about some American missionaries in China during the time when Wuhan was the epicentre of this pandemic. And there was this discussion about getting these foreigners out of China and people were leaving China, going back to their own countries. The business people, even the embassies were vacating their staff.

So people are moving away from China. And then I read of this discussion about what about the missionaries? The American missionaries in China. Would they also leave and go home? And I was heartened to read that some of these missionaries saw themselves as essential service, that they had to remain. While people are dealing with the virus, caring for the sick, those have been infected, caring for those who are dying, needing ventilators, and there are missionaries who see themselves as essential service staying there to minister to the needs of the soul. No one case for my soul. I want to ask: Do you? People are dying every day. Even without Covid-19, people are dying every day, but God in His providence has brought us into this situation and make us more aware, perhaps than ever before the reality of death, the danger that we are all facing with.

People are dying every day. Question is: What does that mean to us? What does that mean to us? Are we in an emergency mode, or are we in hibernation? Let me tell you what it should mean for us in this pandemic. It means we should “rescue the perishing, care for the dying, snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen, tell them of Jesus the mighty to save.”. It means that we should “go to the world for the sake of His name; to every nation His glory proclaim. Pray that the Spirit wise will open darkened eyes, granting new life to display Jesus’ fame.”. Now that’s what we should be about in this pandemic. Let us care for the souls of people.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.