This morning from the 100th psalm,
but before you go there, turn to Exodus chapter 15. And the
title of my message this morning is, A Psalm of Praise. You know,
singing is an integral part of the worship of the true and living
God. We're commanded by the Lord to sing unto the Lord. And we
have examples of singing in the Old Testament and in the New
Testament. In Exodus chapter 15, We see the children of Israel
engaging in singing after God had delivered them from the hand
of Pharaoh that Randy preached about a couple of weeks ago.
Look at verse 1 of chapter 15 in Exodus. Then sang Moses and
the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying,
I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously.
The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. And he's
talking about Pharaoh and his army there. Verse 2 says, The
Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will prepare Him in habitation, my Father's
God, and I will exalt Him. Now look down at verse 20. In
verse 21, And Miriam the prophetess, the
sister of Aaron and Moses, took a timbrel in her hand, and all
the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.
And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed
gloriously. The horse and his rider hath
he thrown into the sea. You notice what they're singing?
The same song. There's only one message, and
that is the message of Christ and his righteousness imputed.
And that's what we sing about. And Moses sang this song, and
Miriam and the women of the camp sang the same song. There's only
one song, Worthy is the Lamb. that was slain. 150 chapters in the Old Testament
are devoted to psalms and hymns of the church. There are 150
chapters in the book of Psalms. And in the New Testament we have
this commandment in Ephesians chapter 5, and I'll read it for
you. Paul says, writing to the church
at Ephesus, Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be
filled with the Spirit. Speaking to yourselves in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making melody in
your heart to the Lord. Giving thanks always for all
things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. Singing is an expression of the
mouth of the content that's in the heart. Jesus told his hearers
in Luke chapter 6, he says, A good man out of the good treasure
of his heart bringeth forth that which is good, and an evil man
out of the evil treasure of his heart bringing forth that which
is evil. And then he makes this statement, for of the abundance
of the heart the mouth speaketh. In other words, what's in the
heart comes forth from the mouth of every one of us. We've heard this accusation that
you can't tell what's in a man's heart. But we can by what he
speaks. And that's what Christ is saying
here. What a man believes in his heart is revealed by the
doctrine that he proclaims, he declares with his mouth. Jesus
is addressing the issue of doctrine here, but he's also talking about
our song, our singing. You know, we have a song book
that has two or three hundred songs in it, but we can't sing
most of them because they dishonor the God we worship. So we have
to be careful. in our singing the doctrine that
we sing as in our preaching, the doctrine that we preach.
Jesus said it this way in John chapter 3, John chapter 3, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, we speak that we do know, and testify
that we have seen. What I'm saying is this, it does
matter what we sing. We need to be as careful in the
words we sing as in the doctrine that we preach. Every psalm we
sing, think about this, every psalm we sing either honors God
or it honors man. And we want to honor God in our
singing. We need to be as careful as was the writer of the psalms,
God the Holy Spirit himself. Every word he wrote honors and
exalts the God we worship. And such is this 100th psalm
that we are going to look at this morning. It is a psalm of
rejoicing, so turn with me if you would to psalm 100. In verse 1, the writer of the
psalm, this psalm is attributed to David. The writer says, Make
a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye land. What is a joyful
noise? You know, there's a lot of noise
in the world today. We make a lot of noise. And there's
so much noise in the world, our hearing is being impaired. We
can't hear in America today because there's so much noise. But God
hears the joyful noise of a justified sinner. He hears it. Make a joyful
noise unto the Lord. Well, if we're commanded to make
a joyful noise, we ought to know what a joyful noise is, shouldn't
we? How can we worship God with a joyful noise if we don't know
what one is? The Hebrew word noise is the
word ruach, which means to shout in triumph over one's enemies.
That's what the word noise means in the Hebrew. It carries with
it the meaning of openly acknowledging God to be the victor over our
enemies. The verb tense here is imperative.
It simply means it's a command. It's not an option. He says,
sing unto the Lord. Make a joyful noise unto the
Lord. Jesus said it this way in Matthew chapter 5. Ye are
the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill
cannot me hidden, neither do men light a candle, and put it
under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all
that are in the world. And then he says, Let your light
so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and
glorify your Father which is in heaven. God's people are not
ashamed of the gospel. Paul said this in Romans 1, I'm
not ashamed of the gospel, and I say it, I'm not ashamed of
it, and I know you're not either. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. We make a joyful noise
unto the Lord when we declare God's righteousness imputed as
the sinner's whole and only salvation. That's what it is to make a joyful
noise unto the Lord. Well, there are a lot of people
in the world, especially religious people today, making a noise.
But it's not a joyful noise unto the Lord. It's not unto the true
and living God, but unto a God of their imagination. A sinner,
think about this, a sinner who knows not the true and living
God, a just God and a Savior, cannot make a joyful noise unto
the Lord. The praise of an unregenerate
sinner is made to his idol. Therefore, what he thinks is
glorifying to God dishonors God and in reality is hated by God. Jesus told the woman at the well
this, he said, God is spirit. and they that worship him must
worship him in spirit and in truth. If we are ignorant of
the true and living God, the God of our imagination is nothing
more than an idol, and our worship is nothing but idolatry. What
I'm saying is that only God's people can make a joyful noise
unto the Lord, and that noise is simply this, the acclamation
that God in Christ Jesus has saved his people by a righteousness
imputed to them at the cross. The psalmist said it this way
in Psalm 95. Look back a few pages in Psalm
95, in verse 1. The psalmist says, O come, let
us sing unto the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the rock
of our salvation. And we know that rock to be Christ
and Him crucified. God's people make a joyful noise. It is this joyful noise that
lost sinners cannot make. And even the elect of God before
regeneration and conversion can't make this joyful noise. Because
we're attributing our worship to an idol ourselves. Men by
nature actually hate and oppose this song of rejoicing. But God
receives it from His people. So, the commandment? Make a joyful
noise unto the Lord, all ye nations, all ye lands. Look at verse 2.
Serve the Lord with gladness. come before His presence with
singing. Again, the question, how does
a sinner serve God? Serve the Lord with gladness.
If I'm going to serve Him, I need to know how to serve Him. How can a sinner with nothing
to give, who would not give it if he had anything to give, serve
one who wants nothing and needs nothing? In other words, how
can we do for or give to a God we don't know by nature anything
when He owns everything in this world and the world to come and
needs nothing from us? How are we going to serve a God
like this? That's a good question. In false religion, we are taught
and believe that God is at the mercy of sinners. We were taught
that, that God's at the mercy of sinners. We've made statements
like this, God can't save you unless you let Him. We made a
statement like this, God has no hands but your hands. If you
don't do it, it won't get done. And we know the truth to be today
that God doesn't need us to do anything. He does what he wants
to, when he wants to, with whom he wants to, how he wants to.
He doesn't need us to do anything. And he does it in spite of our
opposition to him. By nature, we're opposed to him.
And he does it in spite of our opposition. Such thinking is
the product of a depraved mind. And that's what we all have by
nature, a depraved mind. Under such thinking, our service
is not to the true and living God. I thought I was worshiping
the true and living God and false religion. But I was worshiping
an idol. And I wasn't doing it in gladness. I was doing it out of legal fear.
fear of punishment or a promise of reward. But God commands us
to serve him with gladness. So how are we going to do that?
I think we'll find answers to that in Matthew chapter 25 if
you would turn there and let's look at a few verses of scripture
here. In Matthew chapter 25, look at verse 40. How do sinners
serve the Lord with gladness? In verse 40 Jesus says this.
And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto
you, inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these
my brethren, you have done it unto me." The question for us
is, how do you serve God? Well, by serving his brethren.
So the question becomes, who are Christ's brethren? Well,
he answers that for us in this passage of Scripture. So let's
look here in verse 31 and read a few verses. of Matthew chapter
25 and verse 31. Jesus is speaking here. He says,
When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy
angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.
And before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate
them one from another, as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats.
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats
on the left. Then shall the king say unto
them on his right hand, Come ye, blessed of my Father. Inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was unhungered, and you gave me meat. I was thirsty,
and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took
me in naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited
me. I was in prison, and you came
unto me. How do we serve God? When you
do it under the least of one of these, my brethren, you've
done it unto me, Christ said. So, who are his brethren? Look at verse 35. Again, I was
hungry. The hungry are his brethren.
Now, we should be compassionate toward those who are hungry,
with physical hunger. But Jesus is talking about more
than physical hunger here. He's talking about those that
are hungry for spiritual meat. There are a lot of hungry people
in the world today that are not his brethren, that are not his
elect. He's talking about those that
are hungry for a certain kind of meat. And of course, he's
talking about those that are hungry for Christ and says, look
at John chapter 6. Turn over to John chapter 6,
just a moment. John chapter 6 and verse 27.
Jesus speaking here, he says, labor not for the meat which
perisheth. But for that meat which endureth
unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto
you, for him hath God the Father sealed. That word sealed means
set apart to give unto you and provide that meat that we need,
that spiritual meat. And look on over a few verses
to John 6, verse 55. Jesus speaking here says, For
my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He
that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and
I in him. So how do we feed the hungry?
This meat. We give the brethren meat when
we preach Christ crucified and exalted by finished work that
justified his people at the cross. The hungry, the hunger, hungry
for this meat are his brethren. And then in verse 35, he says,
I was go back to Matthew 25. In verse 35, he says, I was thirsty
and you gave me drink. This too is more than physical
water. Jesus said of himself, I am the water of life. We give
water to the brethren when we persuade them to look to Christ
for all of salvation, based on satisfaction to the Lord and
justice to establish and impute righteousness to all for whom
Christ died. Jesus said in Revelation chapter
21, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will
give unto him that is a thirst. of the fountains of the water
of life freely. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus
said this to those who are hungry and thirsty, Blessed are they
which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall
be filled. These are his brethren, these
who are thirsty. And then in verse 35, he says,
I was a stranger, and you took me in. Who are the strangers?
The Hebrew word for stranger is zinos, which means without
the knowledge and without a share in. That's what that word stranger
means. It is one who in this case is
an heir of Christ but he's unaware of it. He's unaware of his standing
before a holy God. He's ignorant of God's righteousness
and therefore outside the fellowship of true believers. Paul said
it this way in Ephesians chapter 2 that at that time you were
out without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,
strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope, and
without God in the world. And you know, all God's sheep,
by nature, are strangers to the gospel. And it's the gospel that
calls strangers into its fellowship. The gospel embraces sinners from
all walks of life. The gospel turns no stranger
away who desires fellowship with a true and living God. It only
excludes those who exclude themselves by rejecting Christ. So the brethren
are the strangers. And you and I were such at one
time. And then verse 36, he says, I was naked and you clothed me. Who are the naked? Those who
are ignorant of and not submitted to Christ's righteousness are
those who are uncovered. They are ignorant of the righteous
robe God has provided for them in Christ Jesus. Their robe of
self-righteousness only exposes their shame and reproach of Christ
and his finished work. The servant of the Lord tells
him about a righteous robe that's been provided by the Lord Jesus
Christ by his suffering and death for all the brethren who are
sons by election, adoption, regeneration, and imputation. So the brethren
are those who are naked and are clothed with the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in verse 36, he said,
I was sick. I was sick and you visited me.
Who are the sick? God uses the foolishness of preaching
to save the sick. The sin sick are those who are
bored of a righteousness, ignorant of it, going about to establish
their own, and are ignorant of that balm of Gilead that we talked
about in Jeremiah 8.22, which is Christ's blood and righteousness
imputed, which when applied to the sinner at Calvary, remove
forever the guilt and defilement of his sin. So these are those
that are sick. And then in verse 36 he says,
I was in prison and you came unto me. All by nature are in
bondage to sin, even the elect of God before regeneration and
conversion. We who are justified today were
at one time in prison ourselves. We were at enmity with God, ignorant
of His righteousness imputed and going about to establish
our own. And we remained in this prison of darkness until God
the Holy Spirit, under the preaching of the gospel, revealed our standing
before God to be perfect based on that righteousness Christ
imputed to us at the cross. And it was here that the prison
doors of our mind were opened and we were liberated from the
bondage of sin. It is here that our labor to
keep the law as a means of salvation ended. is when we bow to Christ's
command, to come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I'll give you rest. Well, the question becomes this,
and are you a servant of the Lord? Do you serve the Lord with
gladness? Well, do you feed the hungry?
Do you give drink to the thirsty? Do you welcome the stranger?
Do you clothe the naked? Do you visit the prisoner? Look
at verse 37 again of Matthew chapter 35. Then shall the righteous
answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee in hunger, and fed
thee, or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger,
and took thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we
thee sick, or imprisoned, and came unto thee? And the king
shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch
as ye have done it unto the least of one of these my brethren,
ye have done it unto me. Serve the Lord with gladness.
That's the commandment of the Lord. And now go back to Psalm
100 now. That's how we serve the Lord,
by serving His brethren. And then he says, come before
His presence in verse 2. Come before His presence with
singing. Why do we come? Why do we sing? Turn back a few
pages to Psalm 65. Why do we come? Why do we sing? Look at Psalm 65 in verse 4. This is Christ speaking to the
Father. And read it in that context and
it makes the correct sense. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. God has chosen a people. Christ
is speaking to the Father. He says, blessed is the man whom
thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee. It's God that causes
us to approach unto him. We don't seek him out by nature. He seeks us out. That he may
dwell in thy courts, we, Christ and his church, together shall
be satisfied with the goodness of God's house, even of God's
holy temple. Blessed is the man whom God chooses
and causes to approach unto thee. Why do we come? Why do we sing? Look back at the 100th Psalm.
Here we're provided a guideline for the way we are to worship.
And three things I'd like for us to look at in the few moments
that we have left. First of all, we sing of His
glory in redeeming His people. Secondly, we sing of His grace
in reconciling His people. And thirdly, we sing of His goodness
in remembering His people. So let's look at the first one.
We sing of His glory in redeeming His people. Look at verse 3.
Know ye that the Lord, He is God. It is He that hath made
us, and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep
of His pasture. God says, Know ye the Lord. Know
ye that the Lord, He is God. Do you know the Lord God? You
can ask anybody that question today, and they'll answer in
their affirmative, yes, I know it. But when you ask them to
describe Him, they begin to struggle for adjectives to describe the
God that they worship. Because most people don't know
Him. In John chapter 17, Jesus defines salvation this way, as
knowing God. He says this, and this is life
eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true and living
God. and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast saved. What he's saying
is here to know God is to be saved. Well, how do we know God? God has revealed himself in creation. We have but to look around us
to see the evidence of a supernatural being in the creation and the
handiwork before us. He has revealed himself in providence.
You and I are here today because of the providence of God. Nothing
happens outside the providence of God himself. You and I are
here because he brought it to be today. But his greatest glory,
his highest glory, is his redemptive glory, how he saves sinners and
remains just in so doing. In this act of salvation, every
attribute of his character is actively engaged in our salvation. This is the question the whole
of Scripture seeks to answer. How can this holy God remain
just and still be a justifier of ungodly sinners such as we?
Jesus said this in John 3, we speak that we know and testify
that we have seen. Sinners sing of his glory and
redemption because we know him. Well, how do we know him? What
is different about our God from the other gods that the Bible
speaks of? Let's read Isaiah chapter 45.
This is a description of the true and living God, the God
we worship. Isaiah chapter 45. describes
him as a just God and a Savior. Look at verse 21 of chapter 45. God is speaking to you. He says,
Tell ye, and bring them near, yea, let them take counsel together.
Who hath declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that
time? Have not I the Lord? And there
is no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior? There is none
beside me. So look unto me, and be ye saved. all the ends of the earth for
I am God and there is none else. He describes himself first of
all as a just God. What does that mean? It means
that he's a God that shall do right. He can't do wrong. He
must do justice. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? The question is answered yes, he will. God is right to
punish the wicked and he's right to bless the righteous. The soul
that sinneth it shall surely die. God's holy character demands
it. No sinner will escape the sure
judgment of a holy God. The wages of sin is death, eternal
death. Every sinner must suffer eternal
death, either in his person or in the person of the only substitute
of God's provision, the Lord Jesus Christ. Sin cannot be overlooked. God is a just God. That's what
he says in Isaiah 45. I am a just God, but he says
I'm also a Savior. He saves sinners and remains
just in his salvation. How so? He punished the sins
of his people in the person of Jesus Christ. Paul said it this
way in 2 Corinthians 5.21. He, that is God the Father, made
him, that is God the Son, to be sin for us who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The scripture
says here, back to Psalm 100, For the Lord, it is He that hath
made us, and not we ourselves. God made us and not ourselves.
He made Christ's sin by imputation, and He made sinners righteous
by imputation. He charged my sin to Christ,
who bore that sin in His body on a tree, and charged me with
that righteousness He established in His obedience, suffering unto
death, which demands my eternal blessing and life. He made me,
He made Him to be sin for me who knew no sin. And here in
Psalm 100 in verse 3, it is He that has made us and
not we ourselves. He made us to be one with Christ
in the view of God's law and justice. He made us accepted
in the beloved, Ephesians chapter 1 says. He made us willing in
the day of His power, Psalm 110 says. He made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light, Colossians chapter
1. All this we were made by representation, substitution, satisfaction, and
imputation. Now look at Psalm 100 verse 3
again. We are His people and the sheep
of His pasture. Read Ezekiel chapter 24. Turn
with me if you would to Ezekiel chapter 34. We are his people
and the sheep of his pasture. Ezekiel chapter 34 verse 30. This is God speaking to his people.
We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Verse 30 says,
Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them.
And that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith
the Lord God. He's talking about spiritual
Israel here. And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are
men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God. We come before
his presence with singing because we see his glory in redeeming
his people. Secondly, we come before his
presence with singing because we see his grace in reconciling
his people. Look at verse 4. of Psalm 100.
He says, Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his
courts with praise. Here we see the blessed work
of the Holy Spirit in us to reveal the completed work of Christ
for us on the cross. We've seen in these last few
moments how God was reconciled to sinners by the death of Christ
on the cross to satisfy law and justice for them. Here the Holy
Spirit brings these truths to bear upon our minds affections
and will and causes us to be reconciled to God and rest in
Christ's righteousness imputed for all our salvation. And this
reconciliation is not the cause of our salvation, but it's the
cause of our salvation. It is the evidence that we were
reconciled to God by the blood of Christ at the cross. When
we see Christ's obedience, suffering and death on the cross based
on sins imputed to satisfy law and justice against us, we enter
into His gates. with Thanksgiving when we see
that. The word gates is the Hebrew
word shaar and it's from the root word shaar which means to
reckon or to reason. God's people enter the gates
of reason. The gates are plural here. There's
more than one gate. And it's the gates of reason.
That word means to reckon, to reason out. And God says, come
let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. God reasons this way. If Christ
paid the sin debt for all he represented, a just God cannot
charge the sinner with his sin. That's God's reasoning. And we're
to reason on that basis. He reasons this way, that every
sinner for whom Christ died must be justified before Holy God. He reasons that if Christ didn't
finish the work He came to do, that sinners are without hope.
Such are the gates of reason that sinners enter into when
they agree by the grace of God with Him in these truths. That's what it means to enter
into His gates. It's to agree with God, to reason with Him
from the Scriptures. as His Scriptures teach us. And
that's how we enter into His gates with thanksgiving that
all our salvation is conditioned upon Him, purchased for us by
Him, and given us in Him. Paul said it this way in Romans
6, Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So we enter
into His gates with thanksgiving and then he says enter into His
courts with praise The writer here is alluding to the temple.
There were four courts in the temple. The outer court where
the people gathered. The inner court where the brazen
altar with the sacrifice was offered, which typified Christ
and his spotless offering to God. And then the holy place
where the altar of incense was located, which typified Christ,
our intercessor. And then the fourth is the Holy
of Holies, where the blood was sprinkled on the Ark of the Covenant. These all pictured in types the
person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And where access to these
last three courts were prohibited for the people in Israel's day,
today we have access even into the Holy of Holies by the blood
of Christ. And we are commanded to come
boldly unto the throne of grace. The writer here, the psalmist
looking forward, to Christ's finished work on the cross, entered
by faith the courts of the temple. And by faith we look back at
the cross and we enter the courts of this temple also, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. In these courts
we see justice satisfied, we see righteousness established
and imputed, we see sin atoned for and eternal life given. The word courts is the Hebrew
word which means a settled abode. It's where we take up residence.
We enter His courts. When we take God at His word
and stand dogmatically in that righteousness He provided for
us and imputed to us. And we're as settled in our mind
as David was when he spoke these words in 2 Samuel 23. Although my house be not so with
God, yet hath He made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
and all things ensured, for this is all my salvation. Why? Because
it's all conditioned on Christ and not on the sinner. And he
said, and this is all my desire, although we make it not to grow.
In God's courts, the praise of his glory and redemption is the
song of our hearts. In his courts, the justice of
God reigns. He's a just God and a Savior. And like the Apostle Paul, we
are not ashamed of this gospel, and we sound forth his gospel
daily as he is reconciled to us by the blood of Christ. So
we are reconciled to Him through that same blood in regeneration
and conversion. So we see His glory in reconciling
His people. And thirdly, we see His goodness
in remembering His people. Look at verse 5 of Psalm 100. He says, Be thankful, in verse
4, the latter part, Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.
For the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting, and His truth
endureth to all generations. Be thankful unto him, and bless
his name, for the Lord is good. Who is good? Christ's response
to the question, Good Master, what good thing shall I do that
I might have eternal life, was this, Why callest thou me good?
There is none good, but one, and that is God. Of sinners it
can only be said, There is none good, no, not one, there is none,
that seeketh after God. The Scriptures declare God alone
to be good. And the Scripture says here,
for the Lord is good. Look at Romans chapter 2. It
talks about the goodness of God, which leads to repentance in
Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter 2 and verse 4. And think about this. If God
wasn't good to give us this faith and repentance, we'd never believe.
We'd never repent. It's His. Spirit working in us
that gives us this repentance and that's what he's talking
about here verse 4 of chapter 2 of Romans or despises out of
the riches of his goodness and Forbearance and long-suffering
not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance
God is good and that he brings us and gives us faith and repentance
And then he says in the last verse of Psalm 100 his mercy
is everlasting He seeks us out because his love for us is everlasting. If he loves us now, he always
has and always will. He remembers his oath that he
made to Christ to save his people. And his people have always been
in the bosom of his mercy and always will be. And then he says
in the latter part of verse five, his truth endureth through all
generations. God must have all for whom Christ
died. He can't lose a one, and nothing
shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.
Each of his elect shall hear the truth of the gospel in time
and be made willing in the day of God's power. Every elect sinner
is the object of God's love and his truth, which sets men free,
and every sinner from whom Christ died must be set free. God's
goodness will accomplish this. In goodness, he remembers his
people. So the commandment is make a
joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands. Why? Because we see
his glory in redeeming us. We see his grace in reconciling
us. And we see his goodness in remembering
us. And I'll close with this verse
from the psalmist. I will sing unto the Lord as
long as I live. I will sing praise to my God
while I have any being.