All right, brethren, Psalm 147. This psalm has been a blessing to me to study, and I pray it will be tonight for you to hear. It begins with a command to praise ye the Lord. And he gives three reasons for praise here.

He says, first of all, praise is good. Praise ye the Lord, for it's good to sing praises unto our God. It's good because the only one worthy of praise is God. We owe everything to Him. It's good for us because it brings us to see Him on the throne and see us needing Him. As you recount the things that you're praising Him for and thanking Him for the things He's given, You're reminded you're the sinner saved by grace. He's the God of salvation.

And he says, praise is pleasant. Praise the Lord for it is pleasant. That means it's delightful. And it's so because the God we praise is delightful. He's pleasant and delightful. It says, Psalm 135, three, praise you the Lord for the Lord is good. Sing praises unto his name for it is pleasant. Does that mean that it's pleasant to sing praises to God or does it mean that God's name is pleasant? It means both. It means both.

Then he says, praise is comely. Praise you the Lord for praise is comely. Fitting, suitable, beautiful. There's nothing more fitting and nothing more suitable for a sinner saved by grace than to give God all the praise and all the glory. That just fits us. That fits us because we don't have anything to boast in. You know, man was put on this earth by God to praise God, to glorify God. You take an orchestra, and while they're tuning up, getting ready, this whole orchestra, and it's just dissonance, it's just noise. But when that conductor takes the stand, and he begins to lead that orchestra, and they begin to play, they're all in tune, And it's a beautiful song. And in this world of sinners that are lost and just going about full of dissonance, just complaining and worrying and murmuring against God and hating, hateful and hating one another. But when the Lord comes to his child and he takes the rule in the heart and causes you to see what he's done for you, That's when you'll start praising him and then we're in tune and we're in harmony and we're giving all the praise to the one who alone should have it, that's God.

Now, so that's what we're gonna be looking at tonight is why we praise God, why we praise God. I'm just gonna take these six verses and what struck me here is it speaks there about God naming the stars and that he tells the number of the stars and he calls them all by their names there in verse four. And it struck me that this same God that rules heaven and all the host of the universe, so big and so vast, and yet he comes to you in your little 10 by 12 room, just a dot, in the middle of this vast world and he deals with you so dearly and so intimately and so closely, giving you just what you need. That's what drew me to this and what got me looking at this psalm. How big God is and yet how near he comes to his people and deals with us individually according to what we need.

So my subject is ruler of stars, healer of hearts. Ruler of stars and healer of hearts. We praise him for his grace for gathering us, building us up. We praise him for his grace in healing us. And we praise him for his grace in providentially working all things on our behalf.

Let's look at those three things. First of all, We praise God for his grace in gathering us and building us up. He says here in verse two, the Lord doth build up Jerusalem. He told us to praise, now he's telling us why we praise him. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem. God made earthly Jerusalem. The original maker of it was God, and he made earthly Jerusalem to picture heavenly Jerusalem, the church, the city whose builder and maker is God. Everybody that's gonna be in that city in the end will be entirely the creation of God. In Christ's righteousness, Christ's holiness, and nothing of our flesh will have contributed at all. He's the builder and maker of that city. It's made up of his people, of his people. And he builds us on the one foundation. We don't have but one foundation, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Every city has a foundation, just like a house has a foundation. What's the one over there in Italy? Is it Venice? It doesn't really have a good foundation. They just keep driving pipe stuff in the ground to try to hold everything up, and it's not built on solid ground. But this city is built on the one foundation, the Lord Jesus Christ. Not one center that God saves is built on the shifting sands of man's works, man's will and man's works. That's sand. That's not a good foundation. And when you read a Psalm like this, and it just says so clearly, the Lord doth build up Jerusalem. He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. Doesn't that sound different than what you hear man bragging and boasting about? Man will brag and boast that he brought himself to God, or that he did something to make himself righteous, or he's done something to put his sin away and make himself holy and separate from sinners. No. No. It's the Lord that builds us, and he builds his people on the one foundation, the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 3.11, let's look at it, 1 Corinthians 3.11. Listen to this, brethren, 1 Corinthians 3 11. Just want to read this one verse. Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. You see that? There is no other foundation. No man can lay a foundation and there is no other foundation. Again, you can look there in Ephesians chapter 2, Ephesians 2 and verse 22, it says, In whom, in Christ, you are builded together, I'm sorry, verse 20. Ephesians 2.20, and you're built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself, the chief cornerstone. Who were the apostles built on? They were built on this one foundation. Who did they come preaching? Christ, the one foundation. And everybody the Lord saves, he makes you know Christ is your foundation. Now what does that mean, that Christ is your foundation? That means there's nothing you do to contribute to salvation. Christ, He came and did all the work and laid the foundation. And when He gathers us, He comes to His spiritually dead child. Just dead. And a spiritually dead sinner can do as much as a physically dead sinner can do. Nothing. And He comes to us and He makes us living stones. Go to 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2. He makes us living stones. Now look at this very carefully. 1 Peter 2, and look at verse 5. You also, as lively stones, living stone. You've been born again of the Spirit. You were dead, you were born again of the Spirit. Now as lively stones, you're built up. Who did the building? Our text says the Lord did it. You built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4 tells us that he fitly frames us together. He comes and he gathers his people and he brings you and he fitly frames you together with one another, just like they would take the stones and they would They would bring them to where the temple was and they would fit those stones in there, fitly snug in there with one another. That's what the Lord does with his people.

The word in Ephesians 4 is he cements us together, binds us by this gospel, by this work that he's done for us, making us know that he is our righteousness, he alone. And he binds you together and through his blood, He's made us priests unto God.

So now, the picture Peter's talking about is of a temple. And you're the temple of God, and the Spirit dwells in you, built on Christ the one foundation. All the works are finished. And now, as a priest of God, we're offering up spiritual sacrifices.

the calves of your lips, scripture says, giving praise to God, giving glory to God. That scripture says that pleases God better than a goat or a calf. Anything, there's nothing you could sacrifice that's as pleasing to God as coming to him and giving his son all the glory for saving you. And that's what we do.

And those sacrifices and whatever we do, By the Spirit of the Lord, whatever He brings us to do in His name for His glory and His honor is in all our worship and our praise and our singing, everything. It's all accepted by God through the Lord Jesus in His righteousness and His wholeness.

Do you remember when we went through Exodus and we saw the picture of the foundation of that tabernacle? The Lord told him to bring the pure shekel of the sanctuary. And he did it to remind them, to be a reminder that he redeemed them out of bondage. And so they brought that pure silver shekel of the sanctuary and they melted it together and they made these giant silver sockets.

And that tabernacle had boards that fit into those, in the sockets they had little places for the boards. And it fit in those boards. It wasn't put together with hammer and nail. It was all made to stand by the foundation. And those boards went in that foundation, and the tension it created made that tabernacle stand strong, so that when the winds blew in that desert, it couldn't shake that tabernacle.

And then when the priest went in there to offer the sacrifices God commanded, They did everything they did on the footing of that silver foundation. And the picture is this. Christ came and paid everything his children owed. Everything that God's elect owed, Christ paid it all. He paid the wages of sin, which is death. His blood justified his people and made us righteous with God, so God's just to receive us.

So now, as priests unto God, Everything we do is on that foundation already fitted. We're not adding to our salvation. We're not adding to the righteousness Christ is to us. We're not adding to the holiness that he is to us, that he's made the new man to be. We're not adding to that at all. It's all on this foundation of Christ's righteousness alone.

And the one that keeps this whole building built and this city standing in the middle of this treacherous wilderness we live in is the foundation Christ Jesus. Just like those boards held everything, that foundation held the tabernacle up.

Well, Christ having justified his people, God's glory, his name, his justice, guarantees he can't lose one member of his city. He can't lose one lively stone of this house. Every one of them have to be saved. In other words, the whole house is held up based on what Christ has finished for us, the foundation. It can't be moved because it's solid. The work is finished. We praise him, brethren, because that's what he did for us.

And here's why we praise him. We wouldn't have known it if he hadn't gathered us. Look here in verse two. He gathered together the outcasts of Israel. Sin, our own sin, separated us from God. We were cast out, we were alienated, we were strangers, we were without God, and we couldn't do anything about it.

He said in Isaiah 59, verse 2, he said, your iniquities have separated between you and your God, There is a difference between iniquities and sins. Iniquities is your very best works that do not equal the righteousness of God. They don't equal, it's iniquity. So if our best doesn't commend us to God, what do you think our sins do? If our best are iniquity, if it's sin, what about the worst?

Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear, not without a perfect righteousness, and not without a perfect holiness he will not hear, as he can't because he's holy.

But you know who said that in Isaiah 59? Christ said it, and he declared, the Lord opened my ears, He gave me His eternal purpose. He told me what He would do from before creating the world. And Christ said, and I wasn't rebellious, I didn't turn away back like we did. He said, I came down, and I gave my back to the smiters, and I gave my face, my beard to them that plucked out the hair. And He laid down His life for us.

And now He's the righteousness and the holiness in whom God receives us. And no matter how far our sin has scattered one of his elect, no matter how far, no matter how bad the sin is, we're never too far gone for the Lord Jesus to come and save his lost sheep and gather us. And he gathers us to him. He leaves the 99 to find that one lost sheep and he puts us on his shoulder and he brings us home.

The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. And the Lord God, you know, when we talk about Christ, we're talking about the three persons in the Godhead. He's the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And the Lord God said, He said, I'm going to bring them to my holy mountain. I'm gonna bring them to make a joyful noise in my house of prayer. He said, I'm gonna bring them, and I'm gonna receive their sacrifices on my altar. That's Christ.

And he said this, in Isaiah 56, eight, the Lord God, which gathereth the outcasts of Israel, saith, yet will I gather others to him, besides those that are gathered to him. Wherever his elect are, he's gathering us to Christ. So that's why we praise him. He called us, he gathered us, and he built us up, and he made us his city and his house. Perfect on Christ the foundation.

Secondly, look back here now at Psalm 147. We praise him for gathering us and building us on Christ. And then we praise God for his grace in healing us. He healed us. Look here, verse three. He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds.

Now before the great physician comes and works this work and does this operation on us, our condition is not that we're just slightly injured. We are bruised and ruined and just repulsive. Isaiah 1 6 said, from the sole of the foot even to the head. In other words, entirely. There is no soundness in it. Wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, they've not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

And none of us is a physician. None of us, no man, is a spiritual physician. Every man is in that need right there, having that need right there, is in that shape right there. But notice this tenderness right here. You know, when we get offended at somebody, we'll turn our back on them, we will say bad things, and we will shun them. There is nothing anybody has ever done to you or me as bad as what you and me did to our Savior. Nothing.

And our Lord did not turn his back on us. He did not shun us. He came to where we are, brethren, and he didn't despise us in our sin and our brokenness, but he came to where we are and he healed us. He bound up our wounds. He mollified us with ointment. He's the great physician. This involves some, you know, it's more than just waving your hand and it's magically done. It's coming to you and working an operation in you that requires the skill of a physician. That's what Christ did.

He does it by sending us the good news of who he is and what he accomplished. That's what we saw Sunday. He said, the Lord has anointed me to preach the gospel, to heal the broken hearted. That's what Christ was sent to do. To bind them up, he said, bind up the broken hearted.

Jeremiah, there was all this woe in Israel, you know. And they were just, you know, the rulers were, they weren't governing correctly and all the, the governors under the governor, they were corrupt and people were just sitting in every day and talking to one another and saying how corrupt the government was and how bad the foreign nations were treating them and just everything just, whoa, whoa, whoa, nothing's right. Everybody complaining and murmuring about the rulers and ruling and what men were doing and all that. Don't we believe that there's no salvation in man? Then why would we do that? Why would we look at the rulers and start complaining and worrying and murmuring? They're not the ones saving, the Lord is. And Jeremiah, he said, is there no balm in Gilead? He said, is there no physician there? In other words, it would be like me standing here saying to you, have you not heard the gospel? Has the physician not come to you? Why worry and fret over providence and worry and fret over the president and the rulers of foreign nations and everything? Why worry and fret over those things? There's no balm in Gilead, no healing balm. No physician? There is. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood is the balm, brethren, that cleanses us of all our sin. And the means by which he administers this medicine to our soul is the preaching of this word. And Christ the great physician comes, and he whispers to you in that still, small voice, and he comes in spirit, and he comes in power, And he says, he's the Lord who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. He makes us know he healed us with his stripes. The method of healing is substitution. That's the only way sinners can be healed, substitution. See, the fact of the matter is, we were so terminally ill, so dead already, that there was nothing that could be done with us. We had to die under the justice of God, and then everything about our flesh has to just be discarded. We have to be entirely made new. And so the Lord Jesus Christ came down, the holy man, and he took our disease. He took the very disease that was causing us to die, just like Moses made that serpent lifted up. A serpent is what was biting them and making them die. And he made that very thing and lifted it up on a pole. And our Lord said, just like Moses lifted up that serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. He was made the sin that caused our death, and stood there before the righteous judge of all the earth, and the judge poured out the penalty on him instead of on his people. And so we died in our Savior, under the justice of God. And then we arose in him, a new man. And then he comes to you through this gospel, and he makes you know, He comes and says to you personally, I was wounded for your transgression. I was bruised for your iniquities. The chastening that it took to give you peace fell on me, Christ says. And with my stripes, you're healed. He makes you know that. That's so of all God's elect. That's the only ones Christ died for was the elect. And he, by him bearing that wounding of divine justice, he healed his people. but he comes to you in person and makes you know it personally. I wore your wounds, I wore your stripes, and now you're healed. The law of God can never again charge you with sin. God won't charge you. Not you that are healed, not you that's been saved. And when he does this, listen, he don't take you out of your flesh. He's worked in you now, created a new man that's holy. He's made you to seek. He sanctified you by His one offering. He made you perfect and righteous in Him by His one offering. And then He comes and reveals it to you. He doesn't take you out of this fashion. Here's why. I saw a good illustration of this this week. Tuesday, I believe it was. I have this, it's just a plastic water pitcher. And I set it out on the cabinet. I went to do something and I accidentally knocked it off the cabinet and it broke my water pitcher. So I was online looking for looking for a water pitcher. And somehow I stumbled upon this. It's a Japanese art form. It's an art form. And when they've broken something, it's called, let me see if I can pronounce this, kintsugi, K-I-N-T-S-U-G-I, K-I-N-T-S-U-G-I. When they've broken something, they put it back together and they take lacquer and they take real gold and powdered gold and they have it mixed in that lacquer or they take silver, real silver, and mix it in that lacquer and they put the piece of pottery back together and they put that lacquer on it. And so when they're done with it, you can use it now and The gold is in where the cracks were so that it's more beautiful than it was when it was just in its natural state. And I thought, what a good illustration. You know how Don used to give that illustration of the dark black backdrop of our sin making the diamond shine more brightly? That's the point I'm making. When he heals you, He shows the glory of His grace and the glory of His name and mercy and forgiveness and His long-suffering and forbearance and all that He did for us. He makes it just shine and be so beautiful in the gold of His grace and the preciousness of His blood that put you together and made you whole. That's what he does he showed the riches of his grace to the praise of his name and and and In the way he heals you listen to this This is what the scripture says Isaiah 60 if you want to look at it. This is what this scripture saying He everything he doesn't saving us. He does it he doesn't cover up the fact. We're sinners and He didn't cover up the cracks and the brokenness. He shows how he's able to overcome it by the blood of Christ and the spirit and the gospel. Look here, Isaiah 60 in verse two. Behold, for behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people, but the Lord shall arise upon thee and his glory shall be seen upon thee. Christ had the glory upon Him, of God, and then He comes and when He creates you anew, through what He did for you, He makes His glory to be known, that it's all of grace, it's all of His righteousness, all of His doing.

Now, let's go to the last thing, Psalm 147. We praise God for his grace in gathering us and building us, for his grace in healing us, making us every whit hole. And we praise him lastly because he preserves his people. He's sovereign to preserve his people.

Now the camera's going to zoom out. We've been looking at how he works in real close up to you and on you and me. Now we're going to zoom out. We go from the hospital room with our savior healing the brokenhearted, now we go to him ruling the universe. It says, verse four, he telleth the number of the stars, he calleth them all by their names, great is our Lord.

Think of how great God is, how big God is. And of great power, his understanding is infinite. This is what got me. The God who this is, who is great and just is, created all creation including galaxies and the universe and the stars. He comes and he's gentle and deals with you so up close and in person. He has infinite knowledge. His understanding is infinite.

Scientists say there's billions and billions of stars. Our Lord created every one of them. and he calls them, he keeps them in being, that everything's upheld by the word of his power, and he names all of them. Now if he does that for billions and billions of stars, he says he knows you by name, he says he knows his people by name.

And you see how sovereign he is. Go to Isaiah 40, look here, Isaiah 40. I'm gonna be very brief here, we may come back to this. Isaiah 40, verse 26. Look what he says, this puts it together. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold, who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number? He calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, not one faileth.

Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest thou Israel, my ways hid from the Lord, my judgments passed over from my God." Now that's a positive. They're saying that God stopped paying attention. He's not looking at me. He's not helping me. Why say He's not helping you? Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There's no searching of his understanding.

He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might, he increases strength. Now, is that you? You know, we'll get to pining away, and we'll just talk about how I just, I don't have any strength to do anything. I don't know what, well, that's a good place to be. When you're really brought there, that's who he helps. He gives power to the faint. But you see, he's not slumbering. He's got infinite knowledge. He knows you. He knows where you are. He knows what you need. You believe that? That's so. That's how this same one who knows every star by name, he knows every elect, redeemed, Child by name, before you knew him, he knew you. The psalmist said, behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord is the shade upon thy right hand. His eyes are upon the righteous. His ears are open to their cry. This is why he's telling us this, brethren. He's infinite in power, just like He's infinite in knowledge. He says in verse five, great is our Lord and of great power. He's moving the hearts of kings, brethren. He's steering history every day in the things He's working in this earth, just like you steer your car. He's steering the hearts of kings and bringing His purpose to pass. And here's the good part, He's doing it for us, brethren. He's doing it for us. Everything he's doing in this world, he's doing it for us.

In whom also we've obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. And he's holy. Look there in verse six. The Lord lifteth up the meek and he casteth the wicked down to the ground. He inverts the order that man does things. Man does it just the opposite. Man casts down the meek and lifts up the wicked. But our Lord is holy. Everything he does is right and just. And since Christ has justified his people, he's going to work what's right for you and keep you. And nobody's going to lay charge to you. Nobody's going to separate you from him. What he's going to do is he's going to lift up his meek people in his hand and keep you safe. And he's going to cast down the wicked, those that rely upon themselves. That's what he's gonna do.

Now let me give you, let me give you a few things here. Just look at the difference. You know the difference in a telescope. They're looking at all the stars, and a microscope that's looking at cells. Well, God is both. He knows the vast expanse of the universe and all the stars, and then he comes to you like a microscope and knows your every need. The things you can't even quite put into words, just grown, he knows it. And he knows exactly what's best for you. He knows the number of hairs on your head, just what you need. I'm persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor powers, nor principalities, nothing, height, depth, width, nothing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, nothing.

So, here's the three things to take away. Prioritize praising Him. Make it a priority. Whether you feel like it or not, whether the times are good or bad, give Him praise. It'll do you good. It'll remind you He's the King and He's the Savior and He's your God and He's your Father and He's protecting you and leading you and keeping you and He'll bring you to His feet. When you start recounting to Him all the things you thank Him for and praise Him for, it'll remind you I'm safe in his hand."

Isn't that what Habakkuk said? He said, he said, though the fig tree's not bosping, there's no fruit in the vines, he said, the labor of the olive is failed, the field yields no meat, the flock's cut off from the fold, there's no herd in the stalls. That's, the economy has just sank, sank to nothing. Yet, I'll rejoice in the Lord, I'll joy in the God of my salvation. Praise him.

And secondly, Bring him your brokenness. Whatever it is that you're troubled with, you bring it to him. If you're hurting today, if you're hurting, if you're weary and wounded and hurting and cast down over anything, you have a God who specializes in binding up wounds and healing his people. You come to him.

And then thirdly, rest in his power. He's gonna vindicate you. He'll do what's best for you. He said, seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you. Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night to him, though he bear long with them? I tell you, he will avenge them speedily. So you take whatever your need is to him, and you trust him, and don't look anywhere else. Nowhere else.

All right, Brother Adam.