Now this first verse, O give
thanks unto the Lord, like in Psalm 106, the first verse here
can't really be appreciated until the whole psalm is understood. When you get what is taught in
this psalm, you'll thank God. And you'll
thank Him particularly for His providential grace unto you.
And to all His people, because as the final verse in the psalm
says you'll see the loving kindness of the Lord in all in all things
look at the last verse who so is wise and will observe these
things the things that he has set forth
in this psalm if you'll think about them meditate upon them
consider how the Lord deals with his people, how he has dealt
with them, and he never changes. He's the same God today and deals
with his people the same way. If you observe these things,
you'll understand the loving kindness of the Lord. And when we do, we'll thank him. Our heart will go out in gratitude
to the sovereign and wise God who loves you in a way that most
people will never understand. Most people in this world will
live and die and never know what love is, never have the faintest
idea what love is. This psalm doesn't describe the
so-called loving God of this religious world. There's a lot
of affliction and trouble and crying in this song. That's what
God's love looks like. So see how God deals with his
people. In this song, we'll see that.
And this is something you can observe every moment of every
day. If you're his, if you're one of these to whom David is
writing, You can see it in the circumstances that you find yourself
in tonight, whatever they are. But you won't understand it unless
you know this psalm. That's what David is saying here,
who so is wise and observe. Look at this. And of course this
psalm, the whole word of God, the same thing. We see his providence in everything.
But do you understand it? You see where everything is heading? Why God does all that he does?
Why did this happen to me? Why did that happen to me? I
think I know. I believe I know. I believe God
has revealed it. And I thank God for it. Now you see in verse
two that this psalm is addressed to us. It's addressed to God's
people. Are you one of his redeemed ones? Those whom the Lord has
redeemed. Now, if you're somebody that
the Lord made redemption possible for, and then you did something
to ratify that somehow or another, then he's not talking to you.
This is talking to people who he redeemed. It's very simple,
isn't it? It's very simple. He either redeemed
you or he didn't redeem you. And those who are his redeemed
ones are commanded to speak out. You see that? To tell what God
has done for us. Isn't that what he said to the
man who had been possessed with many demons? That man said, I'm
going to follow you. I'm coming with you. And the
Lord said, no, he suffered him not. But he said, go home and
tell your friends, tell your loved ones what great things
God has done for you and had compassion on you. Let the redeemed
of the Lord say so, in other words. And that includes all
of the trials that he's brought us through, that are described
and represented by the trials that his people went through
and that are recorded in this psalm, and all of the good things
that he's done for us. And the first and foremost of
his blessings, what are the redeemed going to talk about? The first
and foremost of his blessings is made plain by who it is that
are called upon to speak. The redeemed of the Lord. The
redeemed of the Lord are going to talk about redemption. That's got to come first, doesn't
it? If you're the redeemed of the Lord, how'd that happen?
Well, say so. Say so. The word redeemed means
literally to ransom or avenge. And this is the concept here.
It's Gael is the word. And it's the concept of the kinsman
redeemer, which is so beautifully set forth in the book of Ruth,
which I've been wanting for some time to study and preach through
and will, I pray soon. But Christ is our brother, if
you understand something of the kinsman redeemer had to be a
near kinsman. That was able to buy back to
restore all that was forfeit through poverty, through circumstances
beyond a person's control. If you had a near kinsman that
was willing, he had the right to ransom what you lost. And
Christ is our brother. And the kinsman redeemer has
to be able, he has to have the relationship, he has to be able,
he has to have the wherewithal You got to be willing to do it.
And our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to at great personal
expense, at infinite personal cost, to restore all that we
lost in the fall. We were destitute and lost, and
he paid the price of our redemption. That's what the word is. It's
ransom money. And he had the right to as a
near relative. We are born by his grace, his
kinsmen. And that's because God became
a man. So that as our brother, he might
redeem us. He got to be a kinsman of us.
An angel can't do it. God strictly considered as God
can't do it. God got to become a man. He's
got to become one of us. And he did. He loved us enough
to willingly pay the only price that was sufficient to restore
us in the favor of God. His own precious blood. You see,
what we lost wasn't lands or houses or a fortune. We lost
that which is most precious of all things. The favor of God,
communion with God. And there's only one price that
can restore us to God's favor, and has eternally done so. As
Boaz did for Ruth, he took us to be his bride, to provide for
us, to protect us, to love us forever. Redemption's a lot more
than just the payment of a debt. It is Christ committing himself
to me in every sense of the word. Can we possibly get a grip on
that? Christ is committed to me in
every way that a man can commit to another man or woman. And I'm telling you and everybody
that'll listen, I want to say something. That I'm redeemed
to the Lord. I'm redeemed to the Lord. There
are some who hate me for that, but my Lord told me that'd be
true. It's sad, but bless God I'm redeemed and I'm going to
keep saying so. I'm going to keep talking about the one who
redeemed a people. The lamb slain from the foundation
of the world who obtained eternal redemption for his people with
his precious blood. He didn't just pay my debt, but
gave me everything that is his to give. And he's heir of all
things. And I'm joint heir with Jesus
Christ. He gave himself. I wish I knew how to talk about
that. He gave himself for me. And when he gave me himself,
he gave me everything. Solomon saying, I am his and
he is mine. And that is everything. And David says, if this is true
of you, say so. Say so. Let there be no doubt
about it. Be a witness of your great Redeemer
and what He redeemed you from and at what cost and why. Verse three he gathered them
out of all out of the lands gathered him out of the lands that's still
that's talking about us From the east and from the west from
the north and from the south you see that this is something
that we say together Let the redeemed of the lord say so Whom
he redeemed from all of our enemies and gathered us And so we're
together now. Let's say so together He's gathered us together. The
word gathered there means assembled. Do you know what a church is? In the New Testament, the word
church, have you ever looked it up? It means assembly. That's what God has done. He's
gathered people together. And that's what a church is. It's an assembly of saints. There
is one in one sense, one great church that is comprised of all
of his people all over this world. But he's assembled a people here
too, from the north, south, east, and west. From all points of
the compass, God has brought a family together for himself. What is it that identifies us?
He redeemed us. What is it that identifies us?
He has gathered us. What is it that identifies us?
He said, by this shall the whole world know who you are, that
you're mine, that you love one another. He brought us together as a family
to do what? What has he given us to do? Say
so. He said, go and preach. That's
what we did. And also why? To fellowship. as his family to worship him,
to learn of him, to glorify him in this world. He said, you're
the salt of the earth. You're the light of the world.
Talking to his church. He loved the church and gave
himself for it. That's what redemption is. He
made his own soul an offering for our sins. Loved the assembly
and gave himself for it. We're the redeemed of the Lord.
Now together as a group, as a church, we say so. And we fellowship
and worship and glorify him in this world to tell of his redeeming
love for us and for sinners like us. Here we are. He redeemed
us and gathered us. And by his grace, we're saying
so. How did he gather us? What are we doing here? Why here? Why us? Why me? Why you? Well, in this world there was
nothing for us. You see that in the next verse? What are we doing here? Well,
where are you going to go? He gathered them out of the lands
from the east to the west. Verse 4, they wandered in the
wilderness in a solitary way. You want to go back to the wilderness? That's why we're here. Are you
going away also? No, where would we go, Lord?
You have the words of eternal life. We're here to stay. By his grace, we're here to stay.
What are we doing here? Well, we were wandering in the
wilderness in a solitary way. Now there's an assembly. You
see the contra, solitary assembly. See what he's done? We're gathered
here because in this world without the people of God before we were
gathered by him. We were alone That's what solitary
mean alone When Elijah, you remember when Elijah said I'm the last
one Lord Even your people have cursed
your name and are bowing down to idols Even the Israel if there's
not even an Israelite that worships you You remember what he said
after that? Or before that, I think, actually,
in the context. He said, Lord, it's enough now.
Take away my life. I don't want to be the only one.
This world is a cold place for the people of God. Wilderness. He brought us out of the wilderness. God's people are not solitary
people. Not anymore. They gather because
God has gathered them and they're going to gather from now on.
I wouldn't go back out in the desert for anything, would you? He makes it so that they feel
alone when they're not gathered with each other. You remember
when the disciples were threatened and persecuted in the book of
Acts? What was the first thing they did? They went to their
own people, their own fellowship, the people of God, they gathered
together, they prayed, they sang, and they worshiped God together.
That's what we do too. We're surrounded by people in
this world when we're out in this world, surrounded by people
and yet alone without fellowship in Christ.
But bless God, we do have fellowship in him. He made us realize that we were
alone. And look at the last part of
verse four. They found no city to dwell in. No city. What is a city? You
ever thought about that? Why do people live in cities
or at least near them? Well, there are great advantages
to being with others like yourself. And for all of those reasons,
because of all of those advantages, only in a spiritual sense, God's
people need each other. There are no others like ourselves
in this world. There's no city for us in this
world. There's no home. There's no place
for a believer to call home in this world. Our Lord had no home. And in a spiritual sense, he
is our home. We have no abiding city in this
world. And look at verse five, hungry
and thirsty, alone, no place to live, and hungry and thirsty,
nothing to eat. That's how he found us. That's
how he made us. He caused it to be so. There
was a time I was perfectly satisfied with this world. It was my city,
it was a place to live. I got along great with this world. Now, by God's grace, I can say
with the Apostle Paul, this world is crucified unto me. And me
unto this world. Nothing to eat, lots of food,
but no... Did you notice their soul fainted? This world has delicacies. It
has a lot to offer in the food department, but not for the soul.
Not for the soul. No drink to refresh the soul
of the believer. Christ alone can satisfy that
need. For companionship, for a home,
for food, sustenance for this body, or more particularly in
a spiritual sense, the soul. There's only one who can satisfy.
Christ is our home. He's our family, and we His. He said, who is my mother? Who's
my brother? Well, who's my brother? He is. He is. When my mother and my father
forsake me, the Lord will take me up. He's my family. And bless God, those who are
His are my family. And I realize that more all the
time. That's just the flat-out truth. And so having none of
that and realizing we had nothing, we cried. We cried. You find a homeless man, what's
he doing? He's crying, help me. That was us spiritually. Blind
Bartimaeus, they said shut him up. You can't shut him up. Because
he's seen the Lord. We cried unto the Lord. We cried
unto Him being lonely and homeless and hungry. We cried unto Him
and do you know what He did? You remember what happened when
blind Bartimaeus cried? He stopped. And said, bring Him
here to me. That's what He did for me. He
brought me in. He gathered me. He brought me
into the sheepfold. And Christ became to me home
and shelter, protection. companionship, food, everything. He became to us all that we needed
and all that we wanted. The words of this song express
it very thoroughly. You may remember we've sung this
song before, been a long time. All my life long I had panted
for a drought from some cool spring that I hoped would quench
the burning of the thirst I felt within. Feeding on the husks
around me till my strength was almost gone, longed my soul for
something better, only still to hunger on. Poor I was and
sought for riches, something that would satisfy, but the dust
I gathered round me only mocked my soul's sad cry. Well of water,
ever springing, bread of life so rich and free, untold wealth
that never faileth, my Redeemer is to me. Hallelujah, I have
found Him. whom my soul so long has craved. Jesus satisfies my longings.
Through his blood I now am saved. Do you see that in our Psalm
verse 9? He satisfies the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul
with goodness. He, he does. Only Christ can
satisfy. We're gathered together here
by that common need for Him. Without Him, we're alone. Without
Him, we have no place to lay our head, no rest, no home. Without Him, no food or drink.
And He created that need in us. He it was who made it so that
this world no longer could satisfy. He it was who Made it so that
only Christ could ever fulfill the vital need of my soul. Without
him, we're alone and homeless and destitute. We gather by necessity,
don't we? Where will we go? He is life. We gather in his blessed name.
And verse one, like it said, we give thanks. Thank you, God,
for bringing me home. Thank you for finding me out
in the wilderness, self-destructive and helpless with enemies that
would devour me. And out there. By my own fault. Having wandered
out there myself. Nobody to blame but myself. But
he left the 99 and went after that one sheep. And you know
who it was, don't you? It was this one right here. And
you'd say the same thing, wouldn't you? He came for me. How about you? He came for me. He brought me home. He laid me
on his shoulder and said, rejoice with me. I found my sheep, which
was lost. And he brought me home. And we
give thanks to him for starving us out. You see that? For starving us
out, for making it so we had nothing to eat. That's what he
did for the prodigal son. He starved him out. He brought
him home out of necessity, didn't he? I would fain have filled my belly
with the husk that the swine did eat. But then my Savior caused
me to come to my senses and I said, I'm going home to my father's
house. I'd rather be his hard servant
than a prince in this wretched world. How about you? Sure enough,
I'm honest with you. And you know why it's that way?
By the grace of God. Because I can testify to you
quite honestly, out of all the stupid people in this world,
I'm the stupidest. and never would have sought him if he hadn't found me first. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble. Thank God for trouble. Do you
observe the love of God? He doesn't love like this world
talks about. This world talks about health and wealth and prosperity
and everything. You know, God wants you to have
this and wants you to have that. What God may want you to have
is this world to crash down around your head. And you'll thank him
for it forever if he does. We're learning something of the
loving kindness of God in this song. It doesn't look like religion's
brand of love. They cried unto the Lord in their
trouble and he'd saved them. He saved them. He saves everybody
that calls upon Him. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord will be saved. That's the kind of Savior He
is. He saved them out of all of their distresses. Like the
Lord said to Moses in the burning bush, the people of God were
crying under the oppression and cruelty of Egypt, which is a
picture of this world in every way. trying to make brick with
no straw. And God said to Moses, I have
heard the cry of my people and I've come down here to save them.
And that's what he did. That's what he did. And you know
how he saved them now. That's the words of Christ from
Calvary. God heard the cry of his people and came down here
to save them. Came down here and dwelt among
us. Came down here and lived. and died on a cross and saved
us from our sins. Christ crucified is God saving
us. He said then in Egypt, and he
says now, tonight, as you sit there, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. He's still saving the same way
he always has, by the blood of the Passover lamb. God sent word to Pharaoh, let
my people go. The blood of the Passover lamb
is shed, and go they shall, having just eaten that Passover lamb.
And by the strength of that meat indeed, they walked out of Egypt
and stood at the Red Sea. And God said, You stand right
there and watch me save you. In the very strength of the lamb,
they walked through the Red Sea and sat down on the far banks
and watched as God destroyed every enemy. What did it say
in our text? He redeemed them from every enemy. And they sang a song of salvation
as they sat there on the shore. That's what we're doing. That's
what we're doing. It started with a cry. But really,
it started way before that, didn't it? Because he had to cause us
to cry. But he appeared to Moses and
said, I've heard the cry of my people. Then they cried. when he afflicted them, when
he caused them to, when he made it necessary for them to cry. You see how
in verse 12 now, it doesn't say in the part that we've already
read that he specifically caused them to be homeless and without
food and all that, but we see that in verse 12. Therefore,
he brought down their heart with labor. They fell down and there was
none to help because he brought them down. And then they cried
you see that Which is true in every case here, you know all
through this song. We're going to read the whole
psalm in a minute lord willing We won't be able to look at every
verse For any length of time tonight, but you'll see that
all through And that tells us right there where the trouble
came from it came from him. He brought them down and being
down they cried And we know that it was him He
sends the storm, and he calms the storm. We see
that in this Psalm too. We're going to read it. He afflicts,
we cry, and he saves. Now in what that looks like spiritually,
what is our affliction spiritually? He reveals to us our need, our
great sin, our trouble that we're in with God. We're not in trouble
with men, we're in trouble with God. And he reveals that to us
and causes us to cry, what? Mercy. That's what the publican,
he pounded his chest and wouldn't so much as lift his eyes to heaven
and cry, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. The sinner. That's who cries for mercy, the
sinner. And so that's what he reveals
to us. That's the hunger of our soul. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after what? Righteousness. Who hungers and
thirsts after righteousness? A sinner does. That's who. A sinner who by the grace of
God knows that he's a sinner and knows that he must be righteous
before God. He reveals himself to us. He's
revealed to be our brother, our family, our home, our very sustenance. And we're satisfied with him. We're satisfied with him alone.
And this is the pattern that we see in all of this song. Look
at verse seven. He led them forth by the right
way that they might go to a city of habitation. Isn't that good?
We're in the sheepfold now. We're not wandering alone anymore.
We're in the City of God. We're dwelling in the City of
God. The Kingdom of God. He's King. And we all have pledged
our allegiance to Him. And together, we worship Him. Together, we thank Him. Together,
we talk about His redeeming love. Oh, verse 8. Oh, that man. Isn't
it sad? You know, we see these things,
we look into the Word of God and we see what's real, don't
we? We see the reality. We see what's important and what's
not. In this world, then you turn the TV on or you go to work. You see what's going on in this
world and you think, oh, that men would acknowledge God. Oh, that men would praise him
for his goodness. You know, David cried. Also,
how long, how long are you going to put up with this? How long
will you let people despise you and blaspheme you and oppose
you? How long? Oh that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children
of men. People value that and praise
that which is vile and wretched and that which is most precious
and priceless means nothing. Oh that it wasn't that way. For he satisfied the longing
soul. Think of it this way, oh that
my loved ones would see that only He can satisfy. The ones that are dear to my
heart, oh that they would praise Him. Oh that they could see His
goodness to the children of men. Oh that they could, oh that God would Shut them up
to himself as he did us. Make them hungry. Make them lost. Make them destitute. So that
they would cry. And he would satisfy. He satisfies
the longing soul. You see that? That's the one
he satisfies. The one that can't live without
him. Because he makes it that way.
He filled the hungry soul with goodness. Are you thirsty? The spirit and the bride say
come and let him that hear it say
come and let him that's thirsty come. Are you thirsty? Such as sit in darkness and in
the shadow of death being bound in affliction and iron being
bound. You know, he said that to the
Pharisees. He said, you know, the Son, if the Son of God makes
you free, you'll be free indeed. And they said, we're already
free. Then there's no hope for you. It's those who are bound in affliction,
who are bound in their sin, who are under the wrath of God for
their sin, who are guilty before God for their sin and understand
that. And are in bondage. Realize it. Better set free. Because they
rebelled against the words of God and contend the counsel of
the Most High. We're in prison. We're homeless.
We're destitute. We don't have anything. No strength. Why? Because of our rebellion. You see that? Because they rebelled.
What's the cause of all of it? Why was the prodigal son eating
corn husks and wallowing in the mire? It was his own fault, wasn't
it? His own rebellion. Same here. Same. Same. Therefore he brought down their
heart with labor. They fell down and there was
none to help. They fell down because he brought
them down. You see how great, you see what his love looks like? Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble and he saved them out of their distresses. God's got to strip you before
he'll clothe you. Got to strip you, you're gonna
be a mercy beggar now. Somebody said one time, well
you don't have to beg God Have mercy he delights to show mercy,
but you know what here's the thing he delights to show mercy
to beggars That's who he delights to show mercy to beggars He brought them out of darkness
in the shadow of death and break their bands in sunder All that
men would praise the lord for his goodness. Wait a minute goodness. That didn't sound like goodness.
He brought them in He brought them down with labor. They fell
down. There was none to help they cried That's the goodness
of God. Job, look at Job on the ash heap.
That's the goodness of God. Because Job from that ash heap
was able to say, I see you. I see you. I know my Redeemer
lives. For he hath broken the gates
of brass, verse 16, and cut the bars of iron and sunder. He set
the prisoner free. Fools! Because of their transgression
and because of their iniquities are afflicted, their soul abhorreth
all manner of meat, and they draw near unto the gates of death. Then they cry unto the Lord in
their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. That's present tense now. It
did say he saved them. He still does. He still does. Are you hungry? Are you heavy laden? Are you
bound? Are you a prisoner of the very
justice of God? Are you a prisoner in your own
sin? Are you taken captive by Satan
at his will as God describes in this book? And willing to
admit it, are you already free? Don't need to be set free. Don't
need to be made to see. I already see. The Lord said,
Oh, if you were just blind, you'd have no sin. He sent his word and healed them.
That's how he does it. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Delivered them from
their destructions. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord. Can we if nobody else surely we can praise him for sending
his word and delivering us from our destructions Oh man, we praise him God teaches
to praise you For his wonderful works to the
children of men And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving
and declare his works with rejoicing there again. Let's talk about
it I understand. I know. Believe me, I know. There's
a right way. There's a wrong way. There's
a right place. There's a wrong place. And it's
not easy to talk about the things of God in this world. It's not
easy, especially to the ones you love most. It's hard to do.
But if God gives you a glimmer, if you see a crack of light,
if you see an opportunity that even smells like an opportunity, Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. And whether you have that opportunity or not to witness
to somebody specifically about the things of God, to teach the
gospel to them, be an example to them in everything, and make
sure they know that Christ is all to you, whether he is to
them or not. Declare his works with rejoicing. They that go down to the sea
in ships, verse 23, that do business in great waters, these see the
works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth
and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. You see that? That's what we
said a while ago. Peace be still. But where did
the storm come from? We praise him, and rightly so,
for calming the storm. Can you praise him for sending
it? Can I? Kind of depends on what that
storm looks like, doesn't it? Maybe if it's not too bad of
a storm. It doesn't matter what the storm
is, how terrible, how frightening,
how destructive it came from him. He commandeth, verse 25, and
raiseth the stormy wind which lifteth up the waves thereof.
They mount up to the heaven. They go down again to the depths.
Their soul is melted because of trouble. Has your soul ever
been melted? They reel to and fro and stagger
like a drunken man and are at their wits' end. That sounds
just like what happened when the disciples were on that ship
and he was sleeping in the bottom of that ship, doesn't it? They
were at their wits' end. Lord, we're going down. We've
done everything an experienced sailor can do and we're going
down. Then they cry unto the Lord in
their trouble. It wasn't until they were at
their wits end that they went and woke him up, was it? And
said, Lord, don't you care? And he bringeth them out of their
distresses. How does he do it? He takes away the problem. He
makes the storm a calm so that the waves thereof are still.
He's the one that made us aware of the problem. And so he brings it in that sense.
It's my sin that he brought the storm because
I was fine with it before. Then they are glad because they
be quiet. So he bringeth them unto their
desired haven. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children
of men. Let them exalt him also in the
congregation of the people, those who he's gathered. Let's praise
him. Praise him in the assembly of
the elders. He turneth rivers into a wilderness and the water
springs into dry ground. You see, we're observing now,
who so is wise and will observe these things, even they shall
understand the loving kindness of the Lord. Do you understand
that when he dries up the river, it's because he loves you? And when it flows again, it's
because he loves you. It's easy for us to praise him,
you know, when the Plants are hanging heavy with crops, but
when it goes dry and everything dies, though the fig tree shall not
bear, though the cupboard is empty, what are you going to
do? We're going to worship him, aren't
we? By his grace, we're going to worship him. A fruitful land
into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. Again,
it's our fault. He turneth the wilderness into
a standing water and dry ground into water springs. You see,
he turns the rivers into a wilderness, but then he turns the wilderness
into a lake. He does both. The Lord gives,
the Lord takes away. Blessed be his name. And there he maketh the hungry
to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation. We wandered
without a city, but he brought us in, and now he's established
us here. And what did David say? Oh, Mount
Zion is beautiful for situation. On the sides of the north, the
city of the great king. Let's bless the name of the Lord.
Bless the Lord, O my soul. And we sow the fields and plant
vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase. By God's grace we
abide in the vine, and so we bear fruit. Therein is the Father
glorified, that we bear much fruit. He blessed them also,
so that they are multiplied greatly, and suffereth not their cattle
to decrease. Again they are minished and brought
low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow. If need be, we'll
suffer affliction again. before this is over. He poureth contempt upon princes,
and causeth them to wander in the wilderness where there is
no way. Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, and
maketh him families like a flock. He's made a family, right here,
like a flock of sheep. And he says to us and to all
of his families, all of his flocks all over this world, fear not
little flock. It is your father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. The righteous shall see it. That word observe in the last
verse, by his grace now. I know you don't consider yourself
wise and rightly so because we're fools by nature and we know it.
And yet, by God's grace, we have the mind of Christ. And we can
see things that this world can't see. We can observe things that
this world will never understand. We see something of the love
of God when He takes as well as when He gives. We see His love in the darkness
as well as in the light. David said, though I make my
bed in hell, He's right there. And He's the one that made my
bed. The righteous shall see it and
rejoice. We're gonna see him in everything,
aren't we? Oh, may it be so. May we, as we live this life
and we see in our very circumstances right now, may we see his hand.
May we see his love. May we be able to say with Paul,
we know that all things work together for good. To those that
love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose,
those who are the redeemed of the Lord, All iniquity shall stop her mouth. Who's going to lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? The one who died for my sins
says shut up. Who so is wise and will observe
these things. You observe the redemption that
we have in Christ Jesus. You observe his loving providence
in every cloud and in every ray of sunshine too. You observe his grace and his
mercy in the way he deals with men. He brings trouble, he strips,
he breaks, but even the wounded bones that he breaks shall rejoice
in him. The broken bones who so is wise
and will observe these things. Even they shall understand the
loving kindness of the Lord." Isn't that what Paul prayed for?
He said, here's what I want for you, and I'm going to pray for
you, that you might see something of the height, the depth, the
breadth, the width, and to know the love of God which passes
knowledge. When you see, it's right at the
beginning isn't it? Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. And those who are redeemed by
his precious blood will see it. Verse 42, they'll
see it. See what? It. He's it, isn't he? He's it. Whatever
it is, he's it. By every need, by every desire. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness. Oh, that we would. May He make it so, by His grace.
Let's pray.