My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.
Sermon Transcript
Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors
Let us turn again to the Word
of God, to the psalm that we read together, Psalm 145. And really it's the message of the
whole psalm that has been on my mind to bring to you this
morning. But perhaps focusing really on
the conclusion of the psalm, in verse 21, where David speaks
in this way, My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord and let
all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever. My mouth shall
speak the praise of the Lord and let all flesh bless his holy
name forever and ever. As I say, really it's the whole
psalm that I wanted to bring before you today. And as you'll see from the title
of the psalm, this is David's psalm of praise. David's psalm
of praise. And we see from this psalm that
David knows something about God, doesn't he? He knows something
about God, the way that God works, who God is, what he is like. And what he knows about the Lord
moves him to worship. That's a good test. If you're
wondering whether you really have a true knowledge of the
Almighty God, it's one thing to know about Him. It's another
thing to know Him. And we see here from the example
of David that there is one thing that will inevitably follow where
God is known. God will be worshipped. Where
God is known, God will be worshipped. There is nobody who knows God
who doesn't worship Him. And there is nobody who worships
God who doesn't know Him. And so, here is a good test for
us as we come to this psalm this morning. Do you worship this
God in the same way as David does? If you do, then you must
know something of Him. I do like the little expression
that comes up so often in the psalms and it comes up six times
in this psalm. It's the expression, I will. If you look through the early
verses of this psalm, over and over again the psalmist
speaks of his determination when he says, I will extol thee. I
will bless thy name. Every day will I bless thee.
I will praise thy name forever and ever. I will speak of the
glorious honour of thy majesty. I will declare thy greatness. This is not just David's hope,
is it? But it's David's determination. And we know that this worship
is not always an easy thing. The psalmist or the hymn writer,
rather in the first hymn that we sang together, Isaac Watts. He has this desire, doesn't he, to fly up to the fields where
angels lie. He wants to, as it were, ascend
and see something of the majesty and glory of God. But he finds
it difficult. And why does he find it difficult?
Because he has this sin that he speaks of at the end of the
first verse of that hymn. He says, up to the fields where
angels lie and living waters gently roll, fain would my thoughts
leap out and fly. That's what he wants, his thoughts
to leap out and fly up to those fields. But he says, sin hangs
heavy on my soul. It reminds us, or reminds me
of the way that John Bunyan describes the Christian as he journeys
towards the celestial city and you remember the passage where
he's climbing the hill difficulty and at the top of that hill is
the cross and it's as if he's climbing to the cross but he
finds it so difficult because he has this heavy burden of sin
on his back, doesn't he? And there's this force that's
dragging him backwards and that really is what the hymn writer
is describing. He wants to mount up and see the glories of the
eternal skies. He wants to have a glance of
God, doesn't he? He says in the last verse of that hymn, great
all in all, eternal king, let me but view thy lovely face.
That's his desire, but he has this burden that's dragging him
back. And as we see again from the last verse of that hymn,
he knows that if he has a view of the face of God, all his powers
would bow and sing the endless grandeur and grace of that God. That's what the psalmist is experiencing
here, isn't it? He's seen something of God, and
that thing that he has seen is moving him to worship, and it's
giving him this desire to worship, this determination to worship.
What is it that he's seen? Well, there's a word that appears
a number of times again in this psalm. Six times again you will
find the little word great. It appears three times in the
third verse, doesn't it? The psalmist says, great is the
Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. In verse 6, he says, I will declare
thy greatness. In verse 8, he speaks of God's
great mercy. Over and over again, the psalmist
is describing something of the greatness of God, isn't he? It's
that greatness that he has seen that is moving him to worship.
Have you seen something of the greatness of God? Is it your desire to see something
of the greatness of God? It's only as we see that greatness
that we really worship. It's only as we see something
of that greatness that we have this determination, this desire
to worship that we see in the Samist here. And this greatness
is so great that the Samist describes it
as unsearchable. Great is the Lord and greatly
to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable. That word unsearchable
is a big word, isn't it? It doesn't just mean that it
hasn't been searched. It means that it can't be searched. There's a big difference, isn't
there, between a book that's unread and a book that's unreadable. There's a big difference between
a meal that's uneaten and a meal that's inedible. What the psalmist
is talking about here is not just that the greatness of God
hasn't been searched out, but he's saying it can't be, because
it just goes on. It just goes on. Unsearchable. You can think of searching a
building. If I said to you, well, I've
lost, I don't know, a pen, I'd like you to search the pulpit
for it, you would say, well, that's easy enough. If I said,
I want you to search the building for it, you would say, well,
I can manage that. But if I said, I want you to
search Portsmouth, or if I want you to search England for it,
or if I want you to search the world for it, you would say,
well, that's an impossibility. It's unsearchable. I can't do
that by myself. And as the psalmist thinks of
the greatness of God, he says his greatness is unsearchable. It's a lifetime's work. It's
eternity's work to search out the greatness of God. His greatness is unsearchable.
The psalmist speaks of his mighty acts, the glorious honour of
thy majesty, his wondrous works. He's struggling, isn't he, to
find the words to describe the greatness of God. And if you come to the Word of
God this morning and you say, well, explain to me the greatness
of God, I say, I can't do it. And the psalmist would say, I
can't do it. I can only tell you that he is great. Great is
the Lord, greatly to be praised. His greatness is unsearchable.
And as I say, it's this sight of God's greatness that moves
him to worship. You see exactly the same thing
in the Apostle Paul. You remember that passage in
the epistle to the Romans, where Paul spends a few chapters speaking
about the mystery of the way in which God is calling the Gentiles
into the church? in chapters, well really it's
almost the whole epistle, but especially chapters 9 to 11 of
his epistle to the Romans. And he speaks about the mystery
of how the Jews have been made blind in order that the Gentiles
might be gathered in. And he comes to this wonderful
conclusion, doesn't he, at the end of Romans chapter 11, of
the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God." It's typical
Paul language, isn't it? He doesn't just say, oh, the
knowledge of God. He doesn't just say, oh, the wisdom and
knowledge of God. He doesn't just say the riches of the wisdom
and knowledge of God. But he says, oh, the depth of
the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. And he
uses exactly the same word, how unsearchable are his judgments. and his ways past finding out.
How unsearchable, not just unsearched, but unsearchable. You see the
same in so many places in the Old Testament. Do you remember
the account of Abraham's servant who's sent to find a wife for
Isaac? And when he comes to the well
and he prays that prayer, that the Lord would make it clear
who that wife is to be and then Rebecca comes out and his prayer
is answered and when the man sees how God is working he bows
down his head and he worships. He sees something of the great
way in which God is working and he bows down his head and he
worships. And Moses has exactly the same experience, doesn't
he? When he sees the greatness of God, there in the book of
Exodus, in chapter 34, God shows him his greatness and proclaims before
him the Lord. The Lord God merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth. And what
do we read about Moses? Moses made haste and bowed his
head toward the ground. He can't stand in the sight of
this God. He made haste, he bowed his head
toward the earth and worshipped and worshipped. This is where worship comes from.
You find worship to be hard work sometimes. Do you find worship
to be a struggle sometimes? And you come like the hymn writer
came in that hymn and say, well, I want to worship. I want to
see something of the glory of God. I want to fall down before
him. I want my powers to bow and sing
the endless grandeur and grace of God, but sin hangs heavy on
my soul. Well, what's the answer? The wrong answer is to say, well,
I'll go and try and build up my worship, and then I'll come
back to the Lord once I feel a bit more like it. You know, that's a bit like a
man saying, I'm not really feeling the warmth of the sun today,
so I'll go somewhere colder until I feel warmer and then I'll come
back. If you want to worship, we see from the psalmist here,
look at his mighty acts. Look at the glorious honour of
his majesty. Look at his wondrous works. Look
at the might of his terrible acts. Look at the memory of his
great goodness. Look at his righteousness. Look at his greatness. Come closer,
in other words. Don't go further away. He is
great and greatly to be praised. That's the first thing that the
psalmist speaks of here in the psalm. This is the first thing
that moves the psalmist to worship. But there are other things. And
I want to mention two other things that the psalmist sees and tells
us about here in this psalm. The first is in verses eight
and nine. And if you look at verses 8 and
9, you'll see that the psalmist, he uses six descriptions to really
describe the same thing. He says, the Lord is gracious,
and full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy.
The Lord is good to all. and his tender mercies are over
all his works. What is the psalmist saying by
these six expressions? Well, he says to us this, God
is not only great, but he is gracious. He is not only glorious, but
he is full of compassion. Yes, he speaks of the might of
his terrible acts. Yes, he speaks of the glorious
honour of his majesty, of his wondrous works. He sets God up,
doesn't he, as one who is so high and so holy and unsearchably
great, but then it's as if he comes down to our level. And
he says, you know, this God is not only great, but he is gracious.
He is gracious, full of compassion, slow to anger. Wonderful descriptions,
aren't they? He's not what we might call a
hard God. You've probably had teachers
or perhaps managers at work and there's something hard about
them. And they're there to, and they
seem to delight in pointing out your mistakes and telling you
where you've got it wrong and constantly picking you up and
saying, well, you should have done it like that. What have
you done it like that for? We don't like that, do we? We wouldn't choose teachers or
managers like that. We would want to get away from
them. The Sami says the Lord is not like that. He's not harsh, but he's gracious. He's full of compassion, not
just that he is compassionate, but he is full of compassion.
He's slow to anger, he's not like us. Sometimes we're quick
to anger, aren't we? when we're irritated, when we're
tired perhaps, when we're under pressure and someone does something
and, you know, in other circumstances it would be a tiny thing. But
we're quick to anger. The Lord is not like that, says
the psalmist. He's slow to anger. He's of great
mercy. He's good to all. His tender
mercies are over all his works. Now, I know that the world is
full of suffering. and you might read these kinds
of words and say, well, is that true, that God is good to all?
Is it true to say that his tender mercies are over all his works?
Well, do you know David's life was not an easy one, was it?
This was a man who suffered the rebellion of his closest friends
and even his children. You remember how he suffered
at the hand of Absalom and he has to flee and you remember
his sorrow at the death of Absalom? his sin with Bathsheba and the
death of the child that is conceived there. Maybe it has these great
times of sorrow and grief, but he comes back to this, doesn't
he? The Lord is good to all. The Lord is good to all. He is
a good God. He is a gracious God. He's not just great, but
he is gracious. You know the, you remember the words of Jacob, Jacob the deceiver, who has to
flee from his brother Esau. And when he returns, he finds
that Esau is coming to meet him with 400 men, and he's greatly
afraid. He doesn't know what's going
to happen. When he left Esau, Esau was thirsting for his blood,
wasn't he? Esau, he says, back there in
chapter 27, He says, the days of mourning
for my father are at hand. He knows that Isaac is going
to die soon. And he says, well, I'll wait
till he's dead, then I'll get Jacob. Then will I slay my brother Jacob.
And Jacob hears of this, and he has to flee. And when he returns,
he finds Esau coming to meet him with 400 men, and he's greatly
afraid and distressed. And he prays, doesn't he? And
look at what he says in that prayer. O God of my father Abraham
and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which said unto me, return
unto thy country, unto thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee.
I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies. I am not
worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth
which thou hast showed unto thyself. He doesn't say, well, I'm worthy
of that mercy. That little one, I'm worthy of
that, I'm not worthy of that big one, but those little ones,
I'm worthy of those. But he says, I'm not worthy of
the least of them. The Lord is gracious, full of
compassion, good to all. His tender mercies are over all
his works. A wonderful thing to recognize
and to see what Micah saw. You remember how Micah speaks
of God? towards the end of his prophecy, who is a god like unto
thee? That pardoneth iniquity, and
passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage,
he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in
mercy. That's just the kind of God that
he is. Gracious, full of compassion,
slow to anger, of great mercy, He's great, yet he is gracious.
And the psalmist speaks of his grace. And then there's a third
thing that the psalmist sees. In verses 17 and 18, well, verse
17 really, he says, the Lord is not only great, he's not only
gracious, but he is righteous. You see how this man has a rounded
view of God, doesn't he? He doesn't just think of him
as one of these three things, not only great, not only gracious,
not only righteous, but he says he's all three of these. And
you know, these things are not in tension with each other. We
sometimes think about the holiness and the righteousness of God,
and we think that this means he can't be merciful. But holiness
and righteousness are not the opposites to merciful. The opposite
of holy is unholy. The opposite of righteous is
unrighteous. The opposite of holy is not unmerciful. These things are not opposite.
You may think, well, how can God be holy and yet gracious? How can he be so holy and yet
forgive sin? But these things are not opposite.
If you think that God cannot be holy and gracious. Well, what
do you say about the Lord Jesus then? That one who is described
as that holy thing, and yet he went about doing good.
His holiness did not prevent him being gracious. His grace
did not prevent him being holy. These two things, they come together
We sang about it in that 17th hymn. What did the hymn writer say
about the divine perfections of God? Well, he says the divine
perfections of God, they come together in this vast, stupendous
plan that God has planned from before the foundation of the
world. to reconcile rebellious man. He says, I look at that
plan, I see the wisdom of God, I see the justice of God, I see
the mercy of God. And as I look at the Lord Jesus,
all these things, they meet in him. It's in Christ that ultimately
we see these things, the greatness of God, the grace of God, the
righteousness of God. And the wonderful thing is that
all of these things are on the side of the believer. All of these things are on the
side of the believer. When you think of the promises of God, and we're familiar with so many
of those promises, aren't we? That promise that Paul quotes,
As he writes to the Romans, he speaks of the importance of faith,
doesn't he? And he comes back to that promise. Whosoever believeth
on him shall not be ashamed. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. These are God's promises, and
he's faithful, and he's righteous. It would be unrighteous, wouldn't
it, for a person to say, whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord, and then when someone calls on the name of the Lord not save
him. If you come across a company
and they say, 50% off everything today if you put this code in,
and you put the code in and they don't take the 50% off, you say,
well, that's unrighteous. That's unfair. But God is not
unrighteous. He's not unjust. But he keeps his promises. And
those who call upon him, they do know that salvation. and the
justice of God for those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
is on their side. You know, there's a hymn which
speaks about this. Hymn 151 speaks of the justice of God. And if you read through that
hymn, the hymn writer comes to this wonderful realisation in
verse 8. Here's an amazing change indeed,
he says. Justice is now for me, not against
me, but for me. Because of the promises of God,
justice is on the believer's side. He is not unrighteous,
he's not one of those who makes promises and doesn't keep them.
He speaks about the righteous man, doesn't he, in Psalm 15.
And one of the characteristics of the righteous man is that
he swears to his own hurt and changeth not. What does that
mean? Well, he's talking about a man who makes a promise. And
then later on he discovers that if he keeps that promise, it's
going to hurt him in some way. He makes a promise to help someone,
perhaps. He says to them, I'll do whatever you need me to do.
And then later on, this person comes to him and says, well,
I need a million pounds. And that man who's made the promise,
he doesn't say, well, I didn't mean that much. I didn't realise
it was going to cost me that much. I'm going to back out of
my promise. I'm not going to keep it. God says, no, the righteous
man is he that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not. And
surely if that's true of the righteous man, how much more
is it true of the righteous God? because He is righteous in all
His ways, and holy in all His works, and He keeps His promises.
And as He sets those promises before us in His Gospel, all
fulfilled in the Lord Jesus, there are promises aren't there
to those who come, and He will keep them. He will keep These three things, of course,
there are many others that the Sami sees, but he sees the greatness
of God. He sees the grace of God. And
he sees the righteousness and holiness of God. And all of these
things move him to worship. And all of these things are on
the side of the people of God. The people of God. How are they
described? That's really what I wanted to
finish with. We've seen something of the way
in which David describes the Lord. But, you know, David also
in this psalm describes the people of God, doesn't he? And there
are three ways in which he describes the people of God. What are they
like, the people of God? Do you want to know if you're
amongst the people of God? Do you want to know if the greatness
of God and the grace of God and the righteousness of God are
on your side? Well, the psalmist gives us three
descriptions of God's people. And the first one is here in
verse 18. They're described as those that
call upon Him. The Lord is nigh, He's near,
He's close to them that call upon Him. To all that call upon
Him in truth. To all that call upon Him in
truth, not to some of them. but to all of them, because He's
promised, hasn't He? Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. He is nigh unto all them that
call upon Him. This is one of the marks of the
Christian. They call upon Him, and they
call upon Him really. He says they call upon Him in
truth. In truth. You know, there's two
places in the book of Psalms where the psalmist speaks of
calling upon God. He says, back in Psalm 18, I
called upon the Lord. And he says in Psalm 118, I called
upon the Lord. And it's interesting when you
look at those two places, that in both places, the psalmist
is calling out of the same place. In Psalm 18, he says, in my distress,
I called upon the Lord. And in Psalm 118 he says, I called
upon the Lord in distress. You know that word distress,
it has the idea of being squeezed, of being under pressure. You
think again of that pilgrim that John Bunyan describes in The
Pilgrim's Progress. When you see him at the beginning
of the book and he has this burden on his back, what's he doing? Well, John Bunyan says he cried
with a lamentable cry, saying, what must I do to be saved? He's
calling, isn't he? Out of this place of pressure,
under this burden of sin, do you pray when under a burden
of sin? What does your burden of sin
do to you? What do the burdens of life Do
they bring you to this same place as they brought the psalmist?
I cried unto the Lord in distress. You know, there's that wonderful
hymn, which I think I quoted in prayer. I bring my sins to
thee, the sins I cannot count, that all may cleansed be in thy
once open fount. I bring them, Saviour, all to
thee, the burden is too great for me and the hymn writer evidently
he or she feels the burden of those sins and there's no thought
of trying to manage that burden, is there? The hymn writer doesn't
say, well, the burden is too great for me but I'm working
on it and I'm hoping to whittle it down and get rid of those
sins one by one until I've got a small enough amount that I'm
comfortable to bring to the Lord. No, the hymn writer says, I bring
them all to thee. And it's a wonderful promise,
isn't it, that God gives to Moses there at the beginning of Deuteronomy.
The cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me and I will
hear it. The sins that are too heavy for
you, bring them unto me. The Lord is nigh unto all them
that call upon Him. That's the first thing that we're
told. And then, secondly, we're told something else in verse
19. They fear Him. He will fulfil
the desire of them that fear Him. These are the people that
He blesses. They are people that call upon
Him. They are people that fear Him. What kind of fear is it? Well, you know, the psalmist,
he has a healthy fear of God here, but he doesn't have the
kind of fear that makes him want to get away from God, does he?
He doesn't have the kind of fear that we see in Adam and Eve when
God comes to them after their sin in the garden and they hide
themselves and they say, we don't want him to see us now. We don't
want him to be near us now. That's not the kind of fear that
the psalmist has. No, this is a fear which has
love in it. It's a fear which has attraction
in it. It's a fear which longs to be near to this God. It's
the kind of fear that we're told about in the book of Proverbs.
Proverbs, the fear of the Lord, is the beginning of wisdom. It's
not the kind of fear that John describes when he says in his
first epistle, there is no fear in love. But perfect love casteth
out fear because fear hath torment. This is not a kind of fear that
has torment in it. It's not the kind of fear that
you might have of a lion or a fire. It's the kind of fear that we
look for in children towards their parents. You know, we want
our children to have a kind of reverence, don't we? We want
them to have a kind of respect for us. But we don't want them
to be afraid of us. We don't want them, when we go
into a room, to want to get out of the room. You would think
that's an unhealthy relationship, wouldn't you? But this is the
kind of fear that has love in it. It's a loving kind of fear. And the children of God, they
know God as their father. Yes, they say, our father which
art in heaven, he's a heavenly father. But he's a father and
he's a good father. They fear Him. And then the third
thing is that they love Him. That's here in verse 20. They
call upon Him, verse 18. They fear Him, in verse 19. They love Him, in verse 20. The Lord preserveth all them
that love Him. Do you love Him? You know, that
was Jesus' question to Peter, wasn't it? Right at the end of
John's Gospel. As Peter has denied three times
that he knows the Lord Jesus, and three times Jesus asks him,
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? Simon, son
of Jonas, lovest thou me? Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me? And eventually Peter has to come
to this, doesn't he? Lord, thou knowest all things,
thou knowest that I love thee. Thou knowest that I love thee.
Again, it's the psalmist's determination Another one of those I will statements,
back in Psalm 80, I will love thee, O Lord my strength. Whatever
happens, I will love thee, O Lord my strength. And you know it's
often been the case, as it was with John Newton, and I know
some people despise the hymn that he wrote, Hymn 283, and
they say it shouldn't be in the book, but some of us have had
to give thanks for John Newton's honesty, haven't we, in the words
of this hymn? When he says, it is a point I
long to know, often it causes anxious thought. Do I love the
Lord or no? Am I his or am I not? And as
John Newton looks within himself and he sees his dull and lifeless
frame, his hard heart, the way in which prayer is a task and
worship seems a burden, and he says, well, is it possible that
someone who looks like that could really be a Christian? Do I love
the Lord or no? Am I his or am I not? And he
longs to love, doesn't he? Let me love thee more and more,
he says at the end of that hymn. Do you know where there is that
desire to love him more? It is the greatest evidence of
love. The kind of love that is complacent. The kind of love
that says, well, I think I love God enough. That's not love at
all. If you find a Christian and you say, how is your love
to God? And they say, well, it's satisfactory. It's at its right
level. It's not reasonable for me to
love him anymore. That's not true love. I always
love. I often come to the words of
Jonathan Edwards. I remember reading that book
of his on the religious affections a number of years ago. And this
passage has always stuck with me. And I think he's absolutely
right in what he says here. But Jonathan Edwards said, the
more a person loves God with a gracious love, the more he
desires to love Him. And the more uneasy he is at
his lack of love to Him, just like John Newton says. The more
he hates sin, the more he desires to hate it, and laments that
he has so much remaining love to it. The more he mourns for
sin, the more he longs to mourn for sin. The more his heart is
broke, The more he desires it should be broken. The more he
thirsts and longs after God, the more he longs to long. The more he longs after God,
the more he longs to long. Is that the characteristic of
your love? He will fulfil the desire of
them that fear him. He will preserve all them that
love Him. He is nigh unto all them that
call upon Him. These are those He is near to,
those He hears, those He upholds, those He blesses. And His blessings
are worth something, aren't they? He's a great God, a gracious
God, a holy God. His blessings are worth something.
His blessings are real blessing. And where He blesses, This will
inevitably be the outcome, this worship that we see in the psalmist,
that calling upon him, that fearing of him, that loving of him. You
know, he doesn't love those who love him. It's not that he looks
down and says, well, who's loving me well enough for me to love
in return? No, it's precisely the opposite,
isn't it? Here in his love, says John,
not that we loved God, but that he loved us, that he loved us
first. and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. We love Him because He first
loved us. We seek Him because He first
sought us. I sought the Lord, says another
hymn writer, and afterward I knew He moved my soul to seek Him,
seeking me. And this is the psalmist's experience. And this is what draws him to
worship, a terrible thing to live and to die without this.
What are you doing if you're not doing this? Who are you worshipping
if you're not worshipping like this? How will you find it if you ever
come to heaven, if you don't love to worship this God? Because
that's what they do in heaven, isn't it? When John has his vision
of the glorified church in the book of Revelation, what does
he see them doing? Well, over and over again he
sees them worshipping. And they cry with a loud voice,
this great multitude that John sees, all nations, kindreds,
people, tongues. They cried with a loud voice
saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne
and unto the Lamb. Amen. Blessing and glory and
wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be unto our
God for ever and ever. Amen. They are before the throne
of God and serve him day and night in his temple, and they
serve him in worship. Are you, do you account him worthy
of your worship? Have you seen enough of him to
bring you to worship? He only has the words of eternal
life. He is great, he is gracious, he is righteous. We're going
to sing about it again in our closing hymn. Look at what the hymn writer
says here in hymn 956. He says, though his majesty be
great. Yes, says the hymn writer, he is great in majesty. He is
high. He is holy. He is above all. Though his majesty be great,
yet his mercy is no less, is no less. These things are not
opposites. These things are not intention. He is majestic. He is merciful. And so he comes to that wonderful
word of invitation. He says, doesn't he, at the end
of that hymn, Yield not then to unbelief. Courage, so. There
yet is room. Though of sinners thou art chief.
Come, thou burdened sinner. Come. My mouth shall speak the
praise of the Lord. Again, this is the psalmist's
determination. Is it yours? Not only for himself,
but he comes to this, doesn't he? Let all flesh bless his holy
name forever and ever, because great is the Lord, and greatly
to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. Amen.