Psalm 139. We'll be looking at
the first couple of verses in this Psalm this evening. Psalm
139. The title of the message this evening is
Personal and Public Praise. Personal and public praise. The psalmist, the psalm of David
here says, I will praise thee with my whole heart. Before the
gods will I sing praise unto thee. I will worship toward thy
holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for
thy truth. For thou hast magnified thy word
above thy name. There are here in these couple
of verses displayed for us by the psalmist two areas of praise. Two areas of praise, both personal
praise, and public praise. See this in verse 1. He says,
I will praise Thee with my whole heart. This speaks to us of personal
praise. Personal praise. He says, I will
praise Thee with my whole heart before the gods. I will sing
praise unto Thee. This is public praise. So personal
praise We know this, that no man can personally praise God
and be accepted of God but by Jesus Christ. This is the only
way our personal praise is to be accepted of God. Our personal praise is by faith
in Jesus Christ and it must be with the whole heart. The whole
heart. Jesus himself said this, I am
the way, the truth, and the life. Listen, no man comes to the Father
but by me. Therefore, if we are to praise
God, if we are to render praise unto God, which is truly are
due. We should praise God. We should
render an impersonal praise. It must be through Jesus Christ. And second of all, the psalmist
says he will praise Him before the gods. He will sing praises
unto thee. We who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, we praise Him personally with the whole heart, and we
will praise Him before All men. We will praise Him openly. Those who praise Christ inwardly
most definitely will manifest this praise outwardly. Outwardly. We who believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ are not ashamed of Christ. We gladly,
publicly profess faith in Jesus Christ by our worship, our worship
of Him. We are not ashamed of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, for we know this, the gospel is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it. I'm not ashamed
to come here and preach the gospel to you, and you're not ashamed
to come here and listen. You're not ashamed because you
know this is the means by which God uses to save His people through
the preaching of His gospel. And so we are not ashamed. And
the Lord Jesus tells us in Mark 8, He said, if you're ashamed
of me, I'll be ashamed of you. You see, there are no such thing
as secret Christians. There's no such thing. God's
people will praise Him inwardly. but they will also praise him
publicly. Now, we're going to be looking
at these two things. First of all, this matter of inward praise. The psalmist says, I will praise
thee. I will praise the Lord. Now,
this no doubt should be a determination of all men, should it not? This
should be the determination of all men. If you go over to if you go over to Psalm 107,
flip over there real fast, Psalm 107, look at these several places
here the psalmist mentions this, how men ought to praise God. He says in Psalm 107, And verse
8, he says this, Oh that men would praise the Lord for His
goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men. Verse 15, Oh that men would praise
the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the
children of men. And in verse 21, Oh, that men
would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful
works to the children of men. Again, in verse 31. Oh, that
men would praise the Lord for His goodness, for His wonderful
works to the children of men. Do you get the theme of this
psalm? The theme is, all men should
give praise for His wonderful works. Consider this, that the Lord
has made all this creation. That God has created all things. The Lord is the maker and sustainer
of all life. He gives to all men life and
breath and goodness. Every goodness that every man
has had comes by divine gift. It is by a divine gift. It is the Lord alone that supplies
all things that men need and enjoy in this world. Have you
considered the greatness of this creation? The greatness of the
earth that God made, that there's none like it? I was watching
a program, a scientific program. It really wasn't a Christian
program, but yet it was showing the earth It was called the privileged
planet. And it was how that men had been searching all of these
galaxies and all of the universe, and they can't find another planet
like ours. That this is the only one of
its kind. Consider the laws that keep this universe intact and
fashioned together and established of God. that if one thing, one
law of this universe was moved a little bit, if the gravity
of this earth was a little lighter or a little heavier, that this
planet couldn't exist. Who maintains these things? It
is the Lord that maintains these things. Over in Psalm 119. In 119, the psalmist Says in verse 90, Thy faithfulness
is unto all generations. Thou hast established the earth,
and it abideth. They continue this day according
to Thy ordinances, for they are Thy servants. You see, everything
that this world has and needs, God provides. And all men should
give thanks unto God for this. Consider this, the earth is placed
in a very specific location so that men may view the heavens.
If the earth was somewhat moved, or our solar system were moved
over inside the Milky Way, we may not be able to see because
of all the cosmic dust. But now then, the Lord has shown
us that this earth is placed in such a place that men may
look through the atmosphere into the heavens, and they may see
the glory of God's creation. They can study it. They can see
His handiwork. The Lord has placed us in such
a place so that men are without excuse. You can't look into the
heavens and see that God does not exist. You can see in creation
plainly that there is a God. God has put us there so that
all men can see it. How can men be so smart as to
study the creation and see what is only to be described
as God's handiwork, and yet deny His very existence. How can men
do this? The Word of God is clear, that men know there is a God,
but they will not and cannot worship Him as God, even because
they are depraved. You see, all men should praise
God. All men should praise God, but they do not praise Him because
of their own depraved nature. Friends, there are, listen to
me, there are no true atheists. There are no true atheists. If
a man claims to be an atheist, listen, you call him a liar because
he is. Now, He may yell and He may scream
and He may have a fit. He may throw a temper tantrum
right there in the middle of that place, wherever you are.
But He knows there is a God. He can't look at His universe
and not see it clearly. There are no such things as an
atheist. God has plainly revealed to all
men His eternal power and Godhead in the creation that is seen.
And there are no atheists because the law of God is written on
the hearts of men. All men know there's a God and
they know He will judge all things. They know this. They know this
because that law is written on their hearts and they themselves
judge things. What man doesn't judge between
good and evil in this world? All men make judgments. even
because they know in their heart that God is judge. And yet no matter what men do
or how much they deny God, they can't escape this truth that
God will judge all men without respect of persons. That God
is a righteous judge and their own conscience bears
them witness to this truth And yet men hate God and despise
His being. They despise His Word and they
will not praise Him even though they should. Even though men
should praise Him. This sinful nature is the reason
why men will not praise Him. Men will not praise Him or acknowledge
Him or desire to praise Him in their heart because of this sinful
nature that is passed down to all men. This is why men will
not praise Him, even because they cannot praise Him. I'll
read this to you. Francis Scott Key, the one who
wrote the National Anthem, wrote this. He said, Lord, with glowing
heart, I'd praise Thee. For the bliss thy love bestows,
For thy pardoning grace that saves me, And the peace that
from it flows, Help, O God, my weak endeavor, This dull soul
to rapture rise. Listen, Thou must light the flame,
or never Can my heart be warm to praise. You see, we cannot
praise God by nature. No man can, even though they
should. Praise God by nature. And unless
God himself comes and quickens that man, he cannot praise. He cannot praise God. The light of God's law comes
into our hearts. And what does the law do? It
exposes the guilt of our sin that all we are and all we do is displeasing to God. Men love darkness rather than
light because their deeds are evil. And when the law of the
God that is written in the heart is enlightened, what do men desire
to do? Men desire to run. They desire
to hide in darkness. They cannot stand the light because
the light exposes them for what they are. That all we are is
sin and all we deserve is hell. How then does the psalmist praise
God? He said, I will praise thee with
my whole heart. How is the psalmist's heart turned
to praise God? How did he, who was a hater of
God, depraved by nature, turn to one who would praise God with
his whole heart? You see, this determination to
praise is not natural, but supernatural. Do you have a determination like
the psalmist to praise God? Do you desire to praise Him?
Do you desire to worship God? This is not a natural inclination. This is a supernatural inclination. This is nothing less than the
work of God alone upon the heart of the sinner to praise Him,
to desire to praise Him. So where then is there hope to
be found for fallen sinners? Notice verse 2. Here's where
the hope is found. I will worship toward thy holy
temple. Thy holy temple. This here is a picture. The temple
is a picture of none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. How is
it that the psalmist is turned from a heart of depravity to
a heart of praise? It is in this, the temple. It's manifest in this. When God
revealed Himself to Israel on Mount Sinai, how did He come? How did God come when He revealed
Himself? Well, the Scriptures are very plain. He came in fire
and vengeance. He came in fire and darkness.
He came down on the mount, Sinai, in holy justice, so that no man
could approach unto Him. You remember how he told Moses
in Exodus 19, he said, you take borders, you take these boundaries,
and you set up boundaries. And when I come to visit, when
I come down, he said, don't even let a beast touch the mountain
unless it perish. Let me ask you, does that sound
inviting? Does that sound like you would just... That is a sight that causes men
to tremble. It should. It's not very inviting. If any sinner were to come to
God on his own merits, he would find nothing but wrath. If you would try to praise God
based on your own merits, listen, you will find nothing but his
vengeance. Nothing but his vengeance. God is absolutely holy and man
is absolutely wicked. So then, how can men approach
unto God? How shall sinners' praise be
accepted? Well, we know this, it's not
by law. For all men are without righteousness
and goodness and merit before God, and the law of God was never
given to man to earn God's favor. Matter of fact, in Romans 3 it
tells us, now we know that whatsoever things the law sayeth, it sayeth
to them that are under the law, that every mouth should be stopped,
and the whole world become guilty. before God. What was the purpose
of the law? The law was not to bring us near. It was to show the division between
us and God. It was to show the great separation
between a holy God and sinful man. He says, "...and therefore
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his
sight, for the law is the knowledge of sin." Well, where then again
is the hope? The hope of being reconciled.
How is it that God and man could come together? How is it that
man could be reconciled to God and His praise be accepted? You see, it was man that sinned. It was your father that sinned.
It was my father that sinned. And what have we done? Sinned. We have sinned against God. I'll tell you, false religion
has it backwards. They believe man is the offended
party and that God has to somehow somehow appease them. No. God is the offended party. God
is the offended party, and God alone has made the determination
for reconciliation. What does it require that God
accept our praise? What does it require for us to
be accepted of God? God has already determined the
payment for sin. Blood. Death. the soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die." What does it take for you and I to be reconciled
to God? It takes death. Death. The only way a man can enjoy
fellowship with God is that sin must be paid. And he must have
perfect righteousness. Over in Psalm chapter 24 it says,
Who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart. He that is both actively and
passively righteous. That's the only way you can ascend
unto God. So if you are here and you desire
to praise God, know this, you can't do it by your merits. We
cannot praise God by our merits. We must be actively and passively
righteous and sin must be paid. And these two things, none of
these things we could ever provide. These truths should cause men
to do one thing. You should cry out to God for
mercy. That's what that truth should tell us, that we should
cry out to God for mercy. I'll ask you, do you need mercy? Do you need mercy? Then you should cry out for mercy.
You should cry out like Israel did. You know, when God came
down on the mount, what did they cry for? Israel cried, we need
someone to go up for us. We can't go up ourselves lest
we die. How is it that you could be accepted
of God? You need someone to go up for
you. You need someone to go up in your stead. And that someone
we know is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who Moses pictured. Remember
Israel? God came down on that mount.
Israel was afraid. They heard the voice of God and
they said, We can't go up lest we die. And God said, They said
right. They said right. They can't come
up here unless they die. And Moses said what? Moses said,
I stood between the Lord and you. Moses was a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. A mediator is what we need if
we are to praise God tonight. You and I must have a mediator. We must have someone to stand
between us and God. And it is the Lord Jesus Christ
alone that stands between us and God. Sinner behold that there is only
one mediator. Between God and men, the man,
Christ Jesus. The man, Christ Jesus. Well,
preacher, that's pretty narrow. You bet it is. You bet it is. There's only one of him. There's
only one like it. The Lord Jesus Christ. Man cannot
commune with God because of sin, yet God had purposed in His own
grace to reconcile man to Himself. Isn't this the message of the
Gospel? That God purposed reconciliation? Man rebelled, and yet even before
man rebelled, God purposed reconciliation. To make reconciliation through
a mediator. Someone to stand between us and
God. This was not because of anything
worthy in us. God purposed reconciliation only
according to His sovereign grace. If you want to look for some
reason to God except your praise, and you can't find it anywhere
outside of Jesus Christ, There was nothing in us that
caused God to do this. But of His own free grace, He
purposed, even before there was sin, He purposed to save some
of Adam's race. And it was always God's sovereign
purpose to save them through His Son. This was not a plan
B. This was always His plan A. God
has nothing past plan A. He's only got one plan. He's
only got one plan. Because He doesn't fail in His
plan. He has always purposed to save
us by Jesus Christ. Go to Proverbs. Proverbs chapter
8. We know that this wisdom that
is speaking in Proverbs 8 is the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ here
is speaking in verse Begin in verse 22. The Lord possessed
me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. This is speaking of the union
of the Lord Jesus Christ with the Father and the Spirit. God
is one God, yet manifest in three distinct persons, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. And he said, I was possessed
me in the beginning of His way. When was the beginning of God's
way? Can you find a point in time when God began to do something? God always was. So was the Lord
Jesus Christ. And yet, look at this in verse
23. He says, I was set up. Set up from everlasting from
the beginning, or ever the earth was. Set up to do what? Set up
to be the mediator. He was set up to be the Christ. He was set up to be the Savior
ever before the earth was. And go over to verse 30, he said,
Then I was by Him. as one brought up with Him. And
I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing
in the habitable part of His earth. And my delights were with
the sons of men." The Lord Jesus Christ here tells us where His
delight was. His delight was in saving His
people, saving sinners, saving men. Is that not a blessing? That's a blessing that this was
always His purpose. The eternal Son of God was set
up to be the Savior from before the foundation of the world.
And in this office of mediator, it is clearly seen by the picture
in our text of the temple. The temple. This tent as it was
in David's day. was set up, it was built by Moses
for the meeting place where God would meet with Israel. In Exodus
25, when God describes that tabernacle, that temple to where He would
meet, and the Ark of the Covenant was to be in that inner room,
the Holy of Holies, God says this in Exodus 25, 22, He says,
There will I meet with thee. And I will commune with thee
above the mercy seat. Do you know there was no other
place in all the world where God would meet with sinners?
No other place. And yet this was only a picture
of God's salvation. Sinner, where will God meet with
thee and accept thy praise? above the mercy seat, which is
Jesus Christ. That is the only place God will
meet with sinners. That is the only place He will
accept our worship. And I tell you, none at this
temple, in this tabernacle, none was allowed but the high priest
to go in. And he was not allowed to go
in without blood. Hebrews 9 and verse 7 says, In
this second room went the high priest only once a year, not
without blood, which he offered for himself and for the heirs
of the people. Now this temple was only a picture.
A picture of how sinners may be reconciled to God only by
blood, only by an offering of an innocent, spotless lamb, which
is Jesus Christ. See, Jesus Christ is the great
High Priest. He is the High Priest in things
pertaining to God. And he did not come into the
presence of God with the blood of bulls and goats, but he came
into the presence of God with his own blood. With his own blood. That he might be a faithful high
priest, and by offering his blood, he would make reconciliation
for the sins of his people. Therefore, the only, holy, righteous
Son of God offered himself to God without spot, And God, in order to save us
and reconcile us, imputed our sins to Him. This is the gospel,
that He took our sins from us, imputed them to His Son. And
I told you, you can't be accepted unless sin be dealt with. And
I'm showing you where it's dealt with. It's dealt with in the
Son of God, when God made Him to be sin for us. who knew no
sin. For what purpose? That you might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. How can your praise
be accepted? How can your worship be accepted?
Only when you worship toward the Holy Temple, which is Jesus
Christ. It is by faith in Jesus Christ
Behold the Son of God on the cursed tree, and behold the fire
of Mount Sinai as it fell on him. I imagine that burning fire on
top of that mountain was huge. I've never seen the mountain. I've seen mountains before. Have
you? Huge mountains. They said this mountain was all
aflame. And all that vengeance came on
the Son of God and He quenched it. He put it out. There's no
more wrath. It's all gone. Sin has been forever
dealt with. God's justice has been extinguished
by the blood of Jesus Christ. For He has finished the transgressions,
made an end of sin, and brought in everlasting righteousness
by His death. Therefore God has set Him on
the throne of heaven, raised Him from the dead, set Him on
the throne of heaven for this purpose, that He should call
His people, that He should save them from their sins. What is Christ doing? I tell
you what He is doing. He is working all things together
for our good and especially the salvation of the elect. When
you don't know what's going on, you can bear that in mind. God
is doing exactly what He purposed to do, and that is to save His
people from their sins. He is moving all things for that
purpose. Therefore, you who believe on
Christ, let us, like the psalmist, determined to praise Him. David said, I will praise thee
with my whole heart. Do you desire to praise God?
Then you should praise him with all your heart. Is he not worthy
of such praise? Is he not worthy of all your
affection? Is he not worthy of all your
love and all your service? Let us, like David, praise him
with all our hearts. And second of all, let us praise
him before the gods. Look at this. He said, I will
praise him with the whole heart. Before the gods, I will sing
praises unto thee. David lived in a place surrounded
by false gods. Every nation that surrounded
that tiny nation of Israel in David's reign was heathen. And I tell you, the same is true
of us. We are surrounded by false religion. That should never affect our
praise. That should never affect our
praise. Believer in Jesus Christ, we should praise the Lord no
matter what this world does. Suppose that you're it. Should
that cause you to cease to praise Him? If no more come, If no more
in this generation believe on Christ, should that cause you
or I to stop praising God? No! It should cause us to be
more fervent in our praise. It should cause us to be more
in love with Christ for what grace He has shown to us to call
us. Who are we? Who are we and what
is my house that you have been mindful of me? We should praise God in spite
of what the world says or does. I tell you, sometimes we get
discouraged. I know I do. I know I do. I get discouraged. And when men,
when I preach the gospel and men have no love for the gospel,
it's discouraging. To my heart, it becomes discouraging. But I remember what the Lord
said to his prophet, Ezekiel. He said, you preach the gospel
whether they hear or not. Whether they hear or forbear,
that's not your business. Your business is to praise me.
You want to know what your business is? Your business is to praise
God. I read this this week and it
was good. The business of the church in
this world is not to change the culture. That's not your business. Our
business is to preach the gospel. That's what our business is. Our business is to hear the gospel
and to declare the gospel. That's it. It's good that God's
only given us one thing to do, isn't it? Well, you don't have
many things to do. Don't get wrapped up in all these
other things. You've got one thing to do. Preach
the gospel. That's it. Therefore, let us take encouragement
from the psalmist and let us determine to praise the Lord
with our whole heart Spend time with Him. Don't neglect
your prayer closet. Don't neglect communion with
Him privately. Don't neglect the worship of
God when He comes here with us even now. He is here with us
in a very special way. But friends, also, don't neglect to praise Him even when others
will not. Let us worship toward His holy
temple. Let us praise His name for His
loving kindness and for His truth. For He has magnified His word
above His name." If we are to praise God, how are we to praise
Him? How do you know how to praise
Him? His word. God's not left us to
guess. I'm so glad I'm not a good guesser.
I always lost when you try to guess the jelly beans in the
jar. I miss that every time. I'm not a good guesser. So God
doesn't leave it up to my guessing skills. His Word He has exalted
above His own name. God is only as good as His Word. And what does He promise you
who praise Him? He said, I give unto my sheep
eternal life, and no man shall pluck them out of my hands. Is that not, that word he is
exalted above his name. Is there anything that would
remove us from Christ? Nothing and no one. God has exalted
his word above his name. I truly believe we should praise
him. I truly believe we should praise
him with our whole hearts. And I truly believe we should
praise him in spite of what other men do. In spite of our circumstances,
praise him. May God bless this to your hearts.
Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer.