I please God to bless us together
this morning as we consider his word. Let's turn to the book
of Psalms and Psalm 48 and we'll read the first verse. The first
verse in the 48th Psalm. Great is the Lord and greatly
to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his
holiness. How few people there are today
that appreciate and believe such a statement as this. Most people are very happy to
really either ignore God or to relegate God to a background
position which they bring forward when they have some natural need. But it's a great blessing if
you and I are found today acknowledging this word to be very true, very
true in our own lives and what need we have then to acknowledge
the truth of it. Great is the Lord and greatly
to be praised. It's not a small statement, is
it? It really is a very powerful one. And it directs us, or at
least it should direct us, to the Lord who is high and lifted
up. You know, remember the occasion
of Isaiah, when he had a view of the greatness of God in the
sixth chapter. We read in the year that King
Isaiah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and
lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the
seraphims. Each one had six wings. With
twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet,
and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of his glory. and the post of the door moved,
and the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke." Well, Isaiah was wonderfully blessed with that vision, but
you know the reaction he had. And he tells us of the reaction,
as he was having that view of the greatness of God, And my
friends, as we may have some view of the greatness of God,
it may not be, it probably will not be in the same way in a vision
like Isaiah had, but nonetheless, it'll be a blessing if you and
I can come and acknowledge our condition as Isaiah did when
he said, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips. Mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." Well,
there was the comparison, wasn't there? Isaiah had a view of the
greatness of the God, and he also had a view of himself. And so, my friends, that will
really put things in a right perspective, won't it? When the
Spirit of God gives us a view of ourselves, and then by comparison
a view of Almighty God. And the trouble is today, most
people do not acknowledge their true condition. They do not want
to know their true condition. They're not prepared to confess
like Isaiah did, that he was undone. He said, woe is me, woe
is me. And I wonder if we have come
to that situation when we've been, as it were, in the presence
of God, and we've had to confess that we're undone, that we're
unworthy of any favour, that we don't deserve any blessing.
And the benefit is, if we're like that, is then we have a
low view of ourselves. You know, when you and I have
a low view of ourselves, then it is that we have a right view
of God. We're able then to come and acknowledge
with the psalmist, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. Now, it would appear from these
words, which of course are figurative to us in the spiritual sense,
he was referring to the city of our God in the mountain of
his holiness. That was to natural Jerusalem, which was the place
where worship was truly held. And as we consider it, in a similar
manner today, not in a physical Jerusalem, but indeed amongst
the Church of God, the Living God, and not, of course, a building,
but the spiritual building of that Church. And to be able to
come this morning and to acknowledge, then great is the Lord and great
is to be praised in the Church of God. Well, what a favour for
you and me today, if we have a knowledge a small knowledge
of something of the greatness of God. It's good to have that. It's good to have a view of how
great God is. Especially if the Lord has shown
us how small we are. Sometimes it may work in an opposite
way because God shows us his greatness and then shows us our
insignificance and our utter smallness and our sinfulness. and our wretchedness, and how
ever will this great God condescend to look upon us? This great God
be gracious to us. Well, the truth is, you see the
Lord God came, the Saviour came into this world to save sinners. Isn't that a wonderful blessing?
Not the righteous, by that of course righteous in their own
eyes, but sinners. Call sinners to repentance. What a blessing, my friends,
if God has come and called you and me to repentance. Repentance because of our sins. Realising that it's our sins
which separate between us and our God. And we are unholy and
we have a holy God that we stand before and have some recognition
of how great is the Lord. Great is the Lord. Now then, we can think of this,
can we not, right back from the time of creation when the great
God created all things. And surely that should give us
a view of the greatness of God when we think that the Lord God
spoke the world into being. Simply spoke the world into being. And it all came and took shape
was all formed, an utter impossibility for our minds to really be able
to comprehend. But nonetheless, this is the
greatness of our God. You know, some people, many people
disbelieve such a truth. They're happy to accept parts
of the Word of God, but they're unhappy to accept the greatness
of God in this respect. Well, as you and I need faith
to believe, in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour, so we
need faith to believe in the greatness of God. And it is the
same Spirit that gives us that faith to believe that great is
the Lord. And may you and I have right
views of the greatness of this God. Great is the Lord, and I
think that He not only created all things, He made all things,
But he's kept everything then in that right state, the world
continuing, the universe continuing, in all its majestic beauty, and
the wonder of it, everything hanging as it were in space. Surely this shows The greatness
of the Lord is in man, cannot understand it. Man tries, doesn't
he? Investigates, tries to go deeper and deeper into space,
hoping that somehow or other he'll find out the origin and
find out how things began. And yet, you see, the truth is
it's described so very beautifully and simply in the Word of God
when He created all things. And remember those simple words,
He made the stars also. And that's the greatness of our
God. As it were, the stars are such a small thing in the eyes
of Almighty God, and yet they're so wonderful and so numerous. Great is the Lord. And then we
think of that God as He's kept everything perfectly in place. And man was created, of course,
in the image of God. Great is the Lord. And then,
so sad, man sinned. Man sinned. Man ignored God. Man listened to the devil. The
same today. My friend, how easy it is to
ignore God. How easy it is to listen to the
insinuations of the devil. How easy it is to do those things
the devil wants us to do, and in fact to turn our back upon
this great God. It would be a wonderful blessing
if we have the greatness of God before our eyes continually. Yes, it will be, as the hymn
writer says, an unctuous light to all that's right, and a bar
to all that's wrong. We have a conscience, don't we?
And that conscience often tells us what is right and what is
wrong. But you see, our old nature so
often goes after that which is wrong. But what a blessing it
is if we know the greatness of God in our own hearts. And that
is a view that directs us and keeps us in the right way. Great is the Lord. And of course,
this great God has directed his people down through the ages,
right from Adam, right up to the present moment of time. And
just think, this great God, he knows what everyone on this earth
is doing this morning. He knows what everyone in this
earth is thinking this morning. Does that not give us some little
appreciation of the greatness of God? Great is the Lord. Well, what a wonder, what a blessing
if we therefore have a view of that. And to have a right view
is a great blessing, because it will elevate God. Elevate
God to the greatness. And He is great, my friends,
but we are left to ourselves, we put God in a small place,
and we really act as though He's not a great God, we act as though
He's a little God. And we act as though we're the great God,
and God's a little God. Well, what a blessing if you
and I are given that wonderful grace to submit ourselves unto
the Lord. They're simple words, aren't
they? To submit ourselves unto the Lord. But so often, we do
not do that. We do not do that. And it's good,
perhaps, if we have a realisation of how great this God is, great
is the Lord, to actually just ponder very carefully whether
you and I are submitting ourselves unto the Lord. And that doesn't
mean in 50% of our life. It doesn't mean to say in 75%
of our life. It doesn't mean in 90% of our life. It doesn't
mean in 99% of our life. It means 100% of our life. Now
then if we have a truly right view, great is the Lord. May it truly affect us in this
way that we are made willing in the day of his power to come
to that position and to truly submit ourselves unto our God. What a blessing it is if the
Lord gives us grace to therefore humble ourselves under the mighty
hand of this great God, to submit ourselves totally to him and
be able to come and say with an honest heart, nevertheless
not my will but thine be done. That the Lord's will might be
done in our lives in every detail. Now let's just pause for a moment
and ponder and think and examine ourselves and to be honest before
God. And I say, well, is the Lord
truly great to me? Is he great in my life? And if so, am I truthfully submitting
myself to this great God? Am I acknowledging that he is
my God? Am I acknowledging that he is
my Lord and that he is my master? Or am I just acting in a different
way? Well, my friends, what a blessing
if the Spirit of God comes alongside us and convinces us that this
God is so great that we should pray earnestly for that ability
to humble ourselves and to submit ourselves to His will and to
His purpose in our life. You see, we are in this world. just for a very short time. And
how quickly we pass through it. My friends, how quickly the days
pass by, don't they? How quickly our life is speeding
away. And to realise, yes, the Lord is great. Great is the Lord. You know all these Islamic people,
they speak so highly of their false god Allah, don't they?
My friends, what a shame it is for the most part, the Lord's
people do not really acknowledge this. They do not really follow
the Lord closely. They are aware of many truths
in God's Word. But you see, they ignore many
of those great truths and they follow their own way. Well, bless
God. If the Spirit of God, my friends,
is a great blessing, if the Spirit of God comes into our heart and
directs us in this way to acknowledge the Lord is great, and if we
truly acknowledge that, the reaction should be then our lives will
follow such a pattern in that desire to submit ourselves to
the will of God. Because, you see, if that is
not so, how can the Lord truly greatly be praised, and greatly
to be praised? How can we truly praise God from
our heart if our lives are not following the true pattern of
acknowledging the greatness of God, and if we acknowledge it
as such, to a simple pattern of following the commands the
path, the way, the direction the Lord sets before us. Great
is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. Now, we can think of
that then in a general term. But it's good, you know, if we're
able to analyse it a little more carefully. And as we think of
that, great is the Lord in his mercy toward us. Does that touch our hearts? Does
that affect us when we think how great is the Lord toward
us in not dealing with us as our sins deserve? How great is
the mercy of the Lord? Well, have you bowed down before
God, recognising the truth of that the greatness of the Lord
in his mercy toward us. We read together that 77th Psalm,
and in that 77th Psalm the psalmist confessed and acknowledged the
Lord's goodness to him when he said, I cried unto the Lord,
unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice, and he
gave ear unto me. In the day of my trouble I sought
the Lord, my soul ran in the night, and ceased not, my soul
refused to be comforted." What was the position there? The position
very clearly was he was under the influence of the work of
the Holy Spirit, and his sin was a great sore to him, and
it was so in the night, and he refused to be comforted. And
we are told, I remembered God and was troubled. I complained
and my spirit was overwhelmed. But don't forget what he said.
He cried unto the Lord and the Lord gave ear unto him. What was it? It was the mercy
of the Lord toward him. The mercy of the Lord toward
him. And as he comes down, he says, is his mercy clean gone
forever? Doth his promise fail forevermore? Well, we may feel it perhaps.
Clearly, Asaph felt like it, didn't he? He was able to recall
the path the Lord had led him in. And it's good if you and
I can recall the path that God has led us in, to be able to
come then And ask God, hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath
he in anger shut up his tender mercies? And what does he say? He tells us, this is my infirmity. This is his infirmity. Yes, because
he only realised this side of things as it were. But then he
says, I will remember. I will remember the years of
the right hand of the Most High. the mercies of the Lord. Well,
this morning, can we remember the mercies of the Lord? Has
the Lord had mercy upon you? I mean, if so, my friend, surely
we have to come and say, great is the Lord, and greatly to be
praised. Isn't that right? Isn't that
true? If God has had compassion on
us, and we're able to understand the truth of these words, And
Asaph says, I will meditate also of all thy work and talk of thy
doings. Yes, what was he saying there
really? Great is the Lord and greatly
to be praised. Yes, he desired to talk of God's
doings, God's doings in his mercy, God's doings in his favour. And
so he says, thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary. Who is so great? a God as our God. Well, God is a great God, isn't
he? My friends, if God has shown
us our need of mercy, and then has shown us his mercy, surely
we have to say, yes, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. And he comes and he says, thou
art the God that doest wonders. Thou hast declared thy strength
among the people. And my friends, the wonder of
it is that God should have looked upon us, isn't it? Isn't it a
wonder if Almighty God should look down upon you and me as
individuals in this vast world of billions of people. Almighty
God should have singled us out to show us His mercy. To show us His mercy. Well, great
is the Lord and greatly to be praised. It's true, isn't it? Wonderful blessing, isn't it?
To be able to acknowledge the Lord has had mercy upon us. You know, mercy is very attractive,
isn't it? See, when you and I are under
the conviction of the Holy Spirit of God, that means we are convicted
of our sins. And that means you and I stand
a guilty sinner before a holy God. And that means in that condition
we must have God's mercy or be lost forever. And you see in
that situation our religion takes on a very different perspective. It's not just something which
we can put on on a Sunday morning when we come to chapel take off
on a sunny evening and then carry on with our life as though, well,
that was nothing of really importance. But when the Spirit of God works
in our hearts, my friends, you won't be able to shake it off.
And interestingly enough, you won't want to shake it off really,
because you would have the evidence of the work of the Spirit of
God in your heart. convincing you of your sins and
causing you to cry for mercy unto Almighty God. Now it's only
those who truly know themselves as sinners and only those who
know themselves as sinners by and through the work of the Holy
Spirit of God who will truly cry for mercy. And then you see
when that mercy comes Great is the Lord, when the Lord shines
into your heart, shines into your heart. And what does He
shine into your heart with? He shines into your heart with
His love, with His love. You may not feel very much of
it, but you know a little, a little touch, A little favour to realise
that this great God, remember this almighty God, who rules
and reigns, has looked down to touch your heart, to cause you
to consider your ways. Why? Because of his love to your
soul. What a mercy, isn't it? What
a blessing. If almighty God should have looked upon us and caused
us to consider our ways, and it is because of His love. You know, as you think of the
love then, the great greatness of the Lord and His love, you
think of how great His love was. Greater love hath no man than
this. And a man laid down his life for his friends. My friends,
Christ laid down his life for his enemies, those who opposed
him. What love, what love there was.
And my friends, you and I will indeed concur with this statement.
Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. If we have a little
hope of his mercy toward us, which means his great love toward
us. And that love was so great that
he came into this world to take our sins, your sins, and my sins,
every sin, and to pay the price for our redemption. And all those
sins might be washed away eternally. And the price, the enormous price
the love of God brought about was his death, his shed blood. Now great is the Lord and greatly
to be praised. I'm sure these two statements
go together. If you and I have a view of the
greatness of the Lord, of his mercy and love toward us, surely
then there will be this reaction, yes this great God, is greatly
to be praised. Greatly to be praised, not something
that you and I just pass over. Our concern will be that his
name may be lifted up, that his name may be honoured and glorified. You know, we read towards the
end of this 48th Psalm, these great words, we have thought
of our loving kindness Oh God, in the midst of thy temple. Well,
the Psalmist was able to declare that, the loving kindness of
God in the midst of the temple. In the midst of the church, my
friends, to think of that, he says, we have thought, if you
and I are able to declare this morning, great is the Lord and
great is to be praised, it will be because we have thought of
thy loving-kindness." The loving-kindness of the Lord. Oh, my friends,
it's so great, isn't it? And he says, according to thy
name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth. Thy
right hand is full of righteousness. And he goes on. to exclaim and
to indicate to us the privilege and blessing of the Church of
God. He says, let Mount Zion rejoice. Let the daughters of Judah be
glad because of thy judgments. Then he says, walk about Zion. Go round about her, tell the
towers thereof. Mark ye when her bulwarks consider
her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our God for ever
and ever. He will be our guide even unto death.' There was then
in the psalmist's heart that real desire to declare the greatness
of God and how he desired to praise this God. Well, my friends,
this morning, you know, we may say, well, praise waiteth for
thee in Zion. Unto thee shall the vow be performed. There may be some who has a vow
to perform and to praise God. Well, my friends, may it be so. May the Lord's name be honored
and glorified. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. And so may we know the wonderful
favour of this. You know, it was exactly the
same in David's life. David's life, and he tells us
in the record we have in the Book of the Chronicles, and he
speaks to us in the 16th chapter. And he tells us these words as
he proclaims the blessing of God when the ark was brought
into the midst of the tent and David had pitched it there. And
then he, in that day, he delivered this psalm to thank the Lord
into the hand of Asaph and his brethren. And he comes down in
this psalm and he says, sing unto the Lord, all the earth,
show forth from day to day his salvation, declare his glory
among the heathen, his marvellous works among all nations. For
great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, he also is to
be feared above all gods. This was a time of favour, a
time of blessing. The Lord had granted that the
ark should be brought And what was the reaction? Thanksgiving
to God. Praise to God. And what a blessing
it is, my friend, and what a true sign it is of God's gracious
love toward us, when our desire is to display, to recall, to
testify of his great mercy and of his great love to unworthy
sinners. You see, when these occasions
occurred, in the Old Testament, what was the outcome? Praise to God. And my friends
today, we have the same blessed obligation to praise our God. That God from whom all blessings
flow, great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. Now then, mercy, love, and then
we have grace. His grace. His grace. What is grace? It's the free,
unmerited favour of God. And as the Spirit of God may
convince us of our true condition before God, needing His mercy,
showing us His wonderful love toward us, and then reverting
to us, it is because of His grace. And as we think of that, nothing
in ourselves. Totally unworthy. Totally unworthy
that the Lord should look down upon us. Is that how you feel
this morning? Do you think Oh what a mercy,
oh what love, that this great God should have come to me. And it's all of his grace. Surely the result must be to
praise him. For his grace, you think of those
words, he saw me ruined. ruined and afforded, yet love
me notwithstanding all." Oh my friends, His grace. His graciousness,
rich and free, we don't deserve it, do we? We never did. But as we see this grace toward
us, does it not move our heart in thanksgiving? Does it not
move our heart in praise to our God? So we do come and say, Grace
is the Lord in His grace toward me. Let's not forget, you see,
religion is always very personal. The Lord speaks to you and me
individually. And it causes us to know His
mercy individually, His love individually, His grace individually,
to be able to trace it out and to thank God for it. And what's the effect? And greatly
to be praised. God is worthy to be praised,
isn't he? One of the things I'm sure we fall so far short in
today, praising God. You know the devil wants you
and me to shut our mouth. The devil doesn't want any praise
to come to God, does he? He doesn't want God to be thought
or considered as great. My friends, he wants us to ignore
God. He wants us to pass over these things. That's why we have
so many wonderful encouragements in the Word of God for us today.
To realize the devil is a liar, still today, as he always was. A deceiver. And my friends, maybe
not listen to that deceiver. But may the Lord give us grace
to trace out before Him, our spiritual life, in those three
situations, mercy and love and grace. And to be able to therefore
come to a humble conclusion, and it will be a humble conclusion,
but it's good if it's a true conclusion, and if it will be,
then we shall desire to greatly praise our God. This great God,
who looked upon unworthy me, And give me that grace then to
come and tell it to the generation following. Tell it to the church
of God. Tell it to the young of the flock
you know, those of us who are older. What a blessing it is
to be able to tell the young, the generation to come, of what
God's done for us. Not to kind of hide it, well
perhaps nothing to say. But you know if there is something
to say, You know, we should bring it forth so that the generation
following might be encouraged to realize that those who are
older are not just wandering on aimlessly in this dark world,
but they're being directed, they're being blessed, their souls are
being moved by the Holy Spirit of God. So there is then cause
therefore to greatly praise God in the church of God, in the
city of our God, in the mountains of his holiness. Yes, my friends,
that's where we are to declare the truth of God, declare the
favour of God and the mercy of God. Great is the Lord. You know,
this great God, just you think, not only will he have granted
us these great blessings, but also to his people, he's prepared
a place in glory. Well, what a consideration. Just
think, this great God, he tells us, I go to repair a place for
you. If I go to repair a place for
you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I
am, there you may be also. My friends, great is the Lord
to do this. It's not any haphazard procedure. Oh no, my friends, it's all ordained. It's a place reserved in heaven
for every child of God. A place reserved in heaven! How
humble it is! How humbling it is to think of
that, isn't it? Do we not come and say as we
think of that, Oh, how great is this God, who's done all this
preparation. He's come to me and He's preparing
me for what? My time in eternity. He's preparing
me. day by day, as I get nearer to
that day when I shall leave this earth, to realise His hand is
upon me for good. He's dealing with me, with sons
and daughters of the Most High God. Great is the Lord for His
wonderful favour towards me, and to think that He has gone.
And there is a place in heaven for me, that when I die, I shall
go and to be with Christ, which is far better. The Apostle Paul
had that knowledge, didn't he? He had that assurance. And he
was able to look forward to that great day when he would be with
Christ. And as he says, which is far better. Well, my friends,
that is true. There is a place prepared for
God's people. We're told it's an inheritance,
incorruptible and undefiled, reserved in heaven for you, who
are kept by the power of God through grace, unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time. Great is the Lord, and
greatly to be praised. Well, this morning, do we not
have reason to agree and confirm this truth? I hope we all do.
I hope before God this morning, and remember it's before God
that you and I stand. It's not what people think of
us, it's what God thinks of us. To be able to come and say, yes,
I can confirm from my heart, great is the Lord, and he is
greatly to be praised. I have reason to praise God. My friends, all of you saints,
have reason to praise God. And may all of us this morning
be able to say, yes, I have reason to praise God. Praise God for
his goodness. Praise God for all he's done
for me. Well, my friends, has he done
anything for us? Can we look back in our lives
and say, yes, the Lord did that. The Lord's done that. The Lord's
provided for me. The Lord's made all his goodness
to pass before me in the way. We may have difficult paths to
live. We may have trying paths to live, but nevertheless, to
be able to come and say, yes, he makes all his goodness to
pass before me in the way. And the path that he's leading
me in is that right way. that leads to that blessed habitation
of glory with his saints forever and Christ shall be the song. Well, my friends this morning,
I hope that every one of us may be able to say from our heart,
this great truth, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. Amen.