We'll be looking at Psalm 118
today. Let's go to the Lord in prayer
and ask His blessing upon the services. Heavenly Father, again
we approach Thy throne, not in our own strength and not in our
own name, but in the precious name of our wonderful, merciful
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we have access to Thee. And only through Him do we have
access to Thee. And we bow before Thy throne
of majesty. Thou art a great king. Thou art
the king of glory. We bow before Thee and pray that
the Lord Jesus Christ would be magnified, would be glorified
today in the preaching of the word. O Lord, give us a fresh
glimpse of Thee, we pray. Fill our hearts with joy as we
toil through this world. Fill our hearts with joy and
give us the song which only You can give us and which You gave
us at our salvation when we sing praises to Thee. We love you
and praise you and give you all the glory and honor. In Jesus
name we pray. Amen. Psalm 118. Psalm 118. The name of the message
is Christ is our song. Christ is our song. We'll be
reading the first 17 verses. And this is a psalm of how God's
steadfast love endures forever. O give thanks unto the Lord,
for He is good, because His mercy endureth forever. Let Israel
now say that His mercy endureth forever. Let the house of Aaron
now say that His mercy endureth forever. Let them now that fear
the Lord say that His mercy endureth forever. I called upon the Lord
in distress. The Lord answered me and set
me in a large place. The Lord is on my side. I will
not fear what man can do unto me. The Lord taketh my part with
them that help me. Therefore shall I see my desire
upon them that hate me. It is better to trust in the
Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in
the Lord than to put confidence in princes. All nations can pass
me about, but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them. They can pass me about, they
can pass me about, but in the name of the Lord I will destroy
them. They can pass me about like bees, they are quenched
as the fire of thorns, for in the name of the Lord I will destroy
them. Thou hast thrust sore at me that
I might fall, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and
my song and has become my salvation." That's our text. And it goes
on, the voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles
of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord doeth
valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is
exalted. The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. I shall
not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. Now as Christians we look at
the scriptures And we see what our brothers and sisters in Christ
have went through. We see in the Psalms what David
went through, various situations, times of great joy, times of
great trouble, times of great sorrow, times of great affliction. But one thing is constant that
we see through all those, and that we see through all the Scriptures,
when our brothers and sisters are going through trials and
tribulations, be it false false teachers coming up, we see the
Lord sustaining them all the time. We see the Lord giving
them strength. And we see them always giving
God the glory for what He's done. Always. And experience is always
one of the best teachers. And it's not what we see others
go through in the Scriptures, but we also Experience wise,
we experience we can look at the scriptures and say, wow,
I've experienced that, too. And the Lord took that believer
through, you're going to take me through, too, so we can get
great strength from that, can't we? And great joy knowing. knowing that our brothers and
sisters in the Lord have went through the same thing. And what
do we see them do? We see them continuously come
before the Lord and lay whatever the affliction is. We always
see David laying the afflictions or the trial or the trouble or
whatever he's going through. We always see him laying at the
feet of the Lord, don't we? Always, continuously, continuously
laying whatever trial is, whatever situation at the feet of our
well beloved. because he cares for us and he's
concerned for us. And what comfort the believer
has in knowing that it is the Lord who helps us. It's the Lord
who helps us. Look at verse five. I called
upon the Lord in distress. The Lord answered me and set
me in a large place. Now, tribulations and patience
comes our way as believers, but our hope and our trust is the
Lord who keeps us as we battle. Not only do we battle the enemies
of the Lord, but we battle our own sin, don't we? Like Spurgeon
said, we're our own worst enemy. We battle our own sin. But the
Lord keeps us and he helps us. Though a thousand snares are
laid in your path, Only He who made you a Christian can cover
your head. Only He who is the Captain of our salvation can
protect us. And only He can carry us safely
through the bombardment which awaits us as we journey through
this life. And it's a bombardment. It's
a bombardment of our own sin. It's a bombardment of trials.
It's a bombardment of tribulation. All from all sides. It compasses
us, doesn't it? But remember what we looked at
last week? The Lord's our shield, isn't
he? And he's an all-encompassing shield, isn't he? Remember the
devil came up and said, just drop that hedge about Joe. And the Lord said, you can touch
his substance, but you can't touch him. He's a shield around us. He protects
us. So I'd like us to consider verse
14. And I'd like us to take note
of a little little sentence in verse 13. Now look at this. Thou
hast sore. Thou hast thrust sore at me that
I might fall. But look at look at this little
statement here in verse 13. But the Lord helped me. Every believer says. The Lord
helped me. He helped me when I couldn't
help myself. And he continues to help me all through my life.
He helped me. And as we believers live here,
we know that we could never help ourselves, right? Think of this, in light of our
salvation, could we help ourselves out of the pit that we were in?
Absolutely not. But the Lord helped me, didn't
He? Trials come up in our lives, various situations come up, things
that seem impossible to us, things that seem like mountains to us.
And the Lord levels them plain. Why? Because the Lord helped
me. And that's when we can look back, as I said, experience builds
that in us, doesn't it? Because we can look back and
go, wow. Norm and I were talking about a situation that came up
for Norm. And Vicki and I have a saying, and Norm brought it
up. He says, well, that didn't catch the Lord by surprise. And
any time something comes up and Vicki and I say, we were surprised
by, we always say, well, I didn't catch the Lord by surprise. He
already knew it was going to happen. You see, but what great comfort
we can find in that as believers. What great comfort we can glean.
And then we can look back and say, the Lord's helped me. He
helped me through that situation I was in there that seemed impossible.
And yet he leveled it like a plane. He makes mountains disappear.
Mountains of trouble to us. And remember, like one old grace
preacher said, we always blow things up more than what they
usually are. We can do that. as we stew about something or
we get anxious about something, we can blow the situation up
far bigger than it really is, than it really is. But oh, every
believer says, the Lord helped me. He helps me in time of trouble. He helps me in times of sickness.
He helps me when times are good. He helps me when times are bad.
When I think times are bad, you know, because all things work
out for the good. for those who love Christ Jesus,
right? But to us, sometimes the situation, we look at the situation
and go, what in the world? But it's working out for good. It's
working out for good. And we know the Lord's helping
us. Remember this, beloved, no matter what comes our way, he
is an ever present help. Even the stuff we see going on
in the world today, right? We see some stuff that's pretty
wild right now, don't we? I remember Grace Preacher tell
me years ago, he says, Wayne, I've lived through six presidents
and my life's never changed. Lord's always taken care of me. He takes care of his people,
beloved. Let us always keep our eyes upon
him and not upon the circumstances, knowing that all these things
are working out according to his plan and purpose. And what
peace that can bring us as believers, what wonderful peace that can
bring us. He is an ever-present help. And He has helped us with
the most serious problems. Problems that we could never
help ourselves with. And what's the most serious problem?
Our sin. Our sin. And He's helped us,
hasn't He, Lord? He's helped us. He's helped us
with our sin issue. He's helped us with the penalty
of our sin. He's helped us with the guilt of our sin. Because
He took it all. And He bore it all. And he paid
for all the sins for all his people. And they cry out with
David because of what he's done, especially for what he's done
for us, for our sins. The believer cries out with David.
The next verse, verse 14. The Lord is my strength and song
and has become my salvation. Is that true for you? This is
true for me. The Lord is my strength and song
and has become my salvation. Our Lord Jesus is the true treasure
hid in the field of the Old Testament, and particularly in the book
of Psalms. Who else but He is the stone
refused by the builders? It's made the head of the corner.
We see that in verse 22. The stone which the builders
refused has become the headstone of the corner. That's Christ. That's Christ. Who else but he
has spoken of here in verse 14 for the believer, the Lord is
my strength. And song. It has become my salvation. All true believers may truly
say is David, he is my strength. And it's personal. He is my strength. And He's become my salvation.
Is it so with you? Rejoice. See, it's personal. Oh my. Now in what sense is Christ
our song? Because it says He is my strength
and song and has become my salvation. Christ is our song because He
is the main object. of our hope and trust. He is
the main object of our hope and trust. Isaiah 12 to if you want
to turn there. Isaiah 12 to the scriptures proclaim
this. Behold, God is my salvation.
God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid
for the Lord Jehovah. All capitals is my strength and
my song. This speaks of Christ. The Lord
Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also is become my salvation. Very similar to what David's
saying here. The Lord is my strength and song
and has become my salvation. The Lord himself, Jehovah himself
is my strength. Is my song. My song goes up to
him. And he's my salvation. He did
it all. He did it all. Now think of this,
Christ is our Psalm because He's the object of our praise and
thanksgiving. 2 Corinthians 9.15 says this,
thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift. Thanks be to God for His
unspeakable gift. Christ Himself is the unspeakable
gift of God. We are freely given salvation
in Him. How? By the grace of God. We don't deserve it, do we? Not
at all. And the believer can proclaim
that this grace given to us in Christ is absolutely unmerited,
absolutely undeserved, absolutely unlooked for. Were you looking
for Christ when He found you? I wasn't. That's amazing grace, beloved.
See, religion says, oh, you got to find him. No, he's got to
find us. We were lost. People say, I found
Jesus. Well, he wasn't lost. We were
lost. We were dead in trespasses and
sins. He sought us out like that lost sheep, remember? He sought
the lost sheep out. That's us. That's us. So this salvation is unmerited,
undeserved, and unlooked for. Believers not looking for Christ
until God starts to make us willing. But it's all the work of the
Holy Spirit of God drawn us to Christ. Drawn us to Christ. And He is all our hope. And think
of this, he is all suitableness for our sin, isn't he? Because
he's the perfect spotless lamb of God. And he is the only sacrifice
that God will accept. So he's an absolute suitable
savior. And he's so precious to the believer. And I want us to really I want
us to really think upon this. We are complete in him. That means there's nothing for
us to do. Now, that's good news for sinners. That's wonderful news for sinners. The believer is complete in Christ,
and that's where we rest, beloved. No wonder David cried out, the
Lord is my strength and song and my salvation, because he
was taught just like you and I are that salvation is all of
the Lord. And that we can't save ourselves. So the believer lives in the
enjoyment of Christ. We live in the enjoyment of Christ
and in his fullness. What a complete savior he is. Think of the fullness, he's full
of grace and truth. And he's our all-sufficient Savior. We just looked at that through
the book of Colossians. He's the all-sufficient Savior. That
means there's nothing to be added. And so what joy the believer
has in their heart. He cries with David, or he or
she cries with David, the Lord is my strength and my song and
has become my salvation. Now the Hebrew word for song
here is translated a song of praise. A song of praise, music,
a melody. Think of this. Was Christ your
song before you were saved? Absolutely not. But now we sing
praises to Him. He's the object of our faith.
He's the object of our love. And we sing praises to our great
God and Savior. He's the object. Is He not the
object of your joy? When you're down and distressed
about things, when you look to Christ, does it not fill you
with joy? And then we rejoice. We're filled with a song for
our great God and King. Psalm 43, verse 4 says this,
Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding
joy. He's not just our joy, He's our
exceeding joy. Yea, upon the harp will I praise
Thee. I'll sing a song to Thee, Lord.
How many times have we just been doing something and we start
singing a hymn? No one else is around. We just
start singing a praise to our King. My! Or even in our hearts
we're singing something. And no, we don't do it to show,
well I'm, we're not, no, we do it because of the joy that flows
in our hearts, beloved. Or we'll be listening to the
scripture, no one else around, and we start weeping. Or we're
filled with joy, unspeakable. My, what a savior we are. He
fills us with great joy. And think of this, Christ is
our altar. And He's not just our altar, but He's our sacrifice. And He's not just our altar and
sacrifice, but He's our priest. He covers it all. This fills
us with exceeding joy. And we join in praise with the
saints of old. Remember, who are the saints
of old praised? Christ. The Messiah. They were looking
for the Messiah. They were looking to Him. And
they were filled with joy. And they praised our great God
and King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn if you would to Psalm 71.
Psalm 71, and then put your finger in Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter
1, Psalm 71, and then Luke chapter 1. Christ is our song, beloved.
He's the object of our song, and we sing praises to Him alone.
Look at Psalm 71, verse 23. My lips shall greatly rejoice
when I sing unto thee, and my soul which thou hast redeemed. We sing praises unto our God
because He's redeemed our souls. He's redeemed our eternal souls.
Now turn, if you would, to Luke, chapter 1. And our souls, like
Mary, magnify the Lord. We magnify the Lord. We rejoice
in Him. Look at Luke 1, verses 46 and
47. And Mary said, My soul doth magnify
the Lord. Magnify. You can't praise Him
enough. And my spirit now hath rejoiced
in God my Savior. So the believer rejoices in God
who is our Savior, and we see that in our text. The Lord is
my strength and song and has become my salvation. And only those who know Him,
only those who are born again of the Spirit of God can say
that Christ is our song. And only He can reveal Himself
to us. As I said, He's unlooked for
until He reveals Himself and then we run, don't we? Because
we're made willing in the day of His power. And think of this. What makes Christ especially
the believer's song? Well, true believers sing and
have Christ as our song when we consider who and what Jesus
Christ is in Himself. He's the God-man. When we consider, stop and ponder sometime during
the day of how our Lord was, we know He's the Word, who was
with God and was God. Ponder that fact. Just ponder. There's an article called The
Eternity of God. Take a look at that. And the
writer brings out Millions and millions and millions and millions.
He's still God. He's always been God. He's dwelt
in eternity. Just ponder that. Just ponder
that sometime. And then think, He became a man
to redeem my soul. My. It'll fill your heart with
joy. It's amazing. It's truly amazing. No wonder Mary said, my soul
doth magnify the Lord. When we start to meditate and
consider who Christ is, what he's done, it's stunning. It's absolutely stunning, and
he's the believer's song. So when we consider his excellencies,
how he's perfect, perfect in holiness, perfect in righteousness,
the perfect man when he became in his incarnation, the perfect
sacrifice, the perfect mediator right now. When we consider the
excellencies and perfections of His person, it leads us to
praise and worship Him. We'll lift our hearts up in praise
to Him. Oh my. Think upon His perfections
as God, infinite, eternal, unchangeable in His being. Unchangeable in
His wisdom. Unchangeable in all His thoughts. And think of this, His power
is infinite. There's no restraining His power. That's the one who
saved us. When we start to ponder that
and consider that, no wonder David said, the Lord is my strength
and song and has become my salvation. Oh, my. We ought to sing of these
wonderful truths. Because who is like the Lord?
No one. No one. We ought to sing of him as our
savior. Because he's my salvation. Psalm
8, 1 says this, O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in
all the earth, who has set thy glory above the heavens. And
in Psalm 36, 7 says this, how excellent is thy loving kindness,
O God. Therefore, the children of man put their trust under
the shadow of thy wings. Our trust is in Jehovah. The
self-existent one. Turn, if you would, to Psalm
150. This is an absolute beautiful psalm. I absolutely love this
psalm. A friend of mine used to sing
this back in Canada. It's just a beautiful psalm. So when we consider these truths
about Christ, it should lead us to sing like David did in
Psalm 150. Look at this in Psalm 150. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary.
Praise Him in the firmament of His power. Praise Him for His
mighty acts. Praise Him according to His excellent
greatness. Excellent greatness, beloved.
Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise Him with
the psalter and harp. Praise Him with the timbrel and
dance. Praise Him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise
Him upon the loud cymbals. Praise Him upon the high sounding
cymbals. And then He finishes it off with
this. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise
ye the Lord. Isn't that wonderful? He's got a song in His heart.
My, and Christ is our song when we consider what He is to us. what He is to us. He's our foundation. He's our food. He's our root.
We're the branches. His righteousness is our remnant.
Should this not cause us to praise Him? Praise Him for all He's
done. In Christ is our song, praise,
which means praise, when we consider what He has done, and what He
is doing, and what He will yet do for His people. He has redeemed
us from all our sins, right? On Calvary's cross. We're borne
again by the Holy Spirit of God, whom He sends. Whom He sent. We're forgiven all our trespasses
and sins. We're justified before God. We're
sanctified before God. We're made fit for heaven. All
because of what Christ has done. And one day, beloved, He will
glorify us. You see, from beginning, he's
the Alpha to the end, he's the Omega. And he's all in between
in our salvation. It's all him. It's all him. And we will spend eternity in
his presence. And what will we be doing? Praise
in his name. Praise in his name. Praise in
his name for the great things he had done for us. We need to
praise Him for becoming flesh and for suffering and dying in
our place. We need to praise Him for washing
us clean by His own precious blood. We need to praise Him
for calling us with a holy calling, an effectual calling by the power
of the Holy Spirit. It's all His work. We need to
praise Him for what He's done, for what He's doing with us.
And He is to be greatly praised, greatly praised. Does He not
live right now to make intercession for us? Praise His name. Praise
His name. Is He not guiding and guarding
us, enlightening us as we hear the Gospel preached, comforting
us through His Word every day? Praise His name. Give Him all
the glory. Give Him all the glory. Let us
praise His name, knowing that He will perform the good work
that He has begun in us. He'll finish it. He'll finish
it. and He will receive us into glory,
that where He is, there we may be also. And the believer says,
praise your name, Lord. Thank you, because I know I could
never save myself. Oh, my. You know, he's the theme
of the song the angels sung in Job 38, 7. It says, When the
morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted
for joy. And you know that at His incarnation,
They praised his name. And suddenly there was an angel,
a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, glory
to God in the highest and on earth peace and goodwill toward
men. He's the object of their prayers.
Remember they cry, holy, holy, they cover themselves. Holy,
holy, holy Lord. He is the most ancient song of
belief. He's the most ancient song of
believers. He is the song of the ancients.
Those who believed in him, those who were looking to him, they
sang of him as one to come. For they saw him. Though it was
but through the lattices, the song of Solomon says. And though
it was but through a glass darkly, as Paul said. But they still
looked to Him, didn't they? They looked to Him. He is the
theme of the new song. Whenever you read of a new song
in Scripture, it points to Him. Psalm 33, verse 3. And turn, if you would, to Psalm
98. I'll read Psalm 33.3 which says,
Sing unto him a new song, play skillfully with a loud music. John Gill brings forth about
this new song. The mercies of God are new every
morning. There ought to be a daily song
of praise to him. And so a new song is a continual
song as Christ is called the new and living way. Because he
is the ever living way or the constant and only one. which
always was, is, and will be. Or it may denote some famous
and excellent song as a new name is an excellent name, an unknown
and unspeakable one. He's a new song. Look at Psalm
98 verses one to four. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new
song. I ask you who believe. Do you not have a new song in
your heart that wasn't there before? A song of praise to our
Savior? I do. And I know some of you
from talking with that you have a new song in your heart that
wasn't there before the Lord saved you. But now we sing praises
to Him. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new
song, for He hath done what? Marvelous things. Has He not
done marvelous things for us? His right hand and His holy arm
hath gotten Him the victory. That's Christ. The Lord hath
made known His salvation, and He makes it known to His people.
He reveals it. His righteousness hath He openly
showed in the sight of the heathen. Christ is the righteousness of
God. He is the righteousness of His people. He hath remembered
His mercy and His truth toward the house of Israel. All the
ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a
joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth. Make a loud noise
and rejoice and sing praise. Beloved, He is the theme of the
New Testament song. Turn, if you would, to Revelation
14. Revelation 14. Ever since His coming in the
flesh, all the saints have been singing of Him. as one already
come, rejoicing in Him, and showing forth His praises. And when we
are regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God, and when we are made
new creatures in Christ, we learn this psalm. We learn this psalm. Revelation 14, verses 1-3, And
I looked, and lo, a lamb stood in the mountain, on the Mount
Zion, and with Him 144,000, having His Father's name written in
their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice
of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder, and I heard
the voice of harpers harping with their harps. And they sang
as it were a new psalm before the throne, and before the four
beasts and the elders. No man could learn that psalm
but the 144,000." This picture is God's elect, beloved. which
were redeemed from the earth. These are the elect of God, a
multitude that no man can number, marked out from eternity, marked
out from eternity with the Father's name written upon their heads,
sealed by the Holy Spirit of God. And this song they sing
is a song born of experience, inspired by gratitude, and intended
solely for the praise of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a song sung by many from
many places, which is many waters from every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation." Oh my! It's a song of majestic wonder
indicated by great thunders. Great thunders. It's a song of
great joy inspired by electing grace. It's a song of particular,
special, accomplished redemption. And the ones singing are those
who were redeemed from the earth. Not redeemed With all the people,
no, but those particular people who were redeemed, who were given
to Christ by the Father, redeemed by His precious blood. Christ
only redeemed His people upon the cross. He didn't die for
everyone. He died for His people. And He redeemed them. He purchased
them. And it's called a new psalm because
it's about blessing and privileges of the new covenant and a new
experience of grace, the resurrection of the body. And we sing praises
to our God in the night season when troubles come and trials
happen, the believer can still find joy in our Savior, can't
we? We find joy in Him. Think of this, Paul and Silas
saying, well, they were in prison. And He is the one who we gather
here today to worship and praise and adore. So the question comes
before us all. What is Christ Jesus to us? What
think we of Christ? Do you have this new song? Has
He given you this new song? Do you rejoice in Him? Oh, may
God grant you faith and repentance to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, if He is not your song. And may He become your strength,
and your song, and your salvation. And God's people, He is everything
to us, isn't He? He's all that. And we thank Him.
We thank Him for His goodness. Heavenly Father, we thank Thee
for this beautiful psalm, psalm of how it shows that the Lord
Jesus Christ, our great God and King, is our song, our strength,
our song, and our salvation. Oh, Lord, may we glorify Thee
today. May our hearts be lifted up in
praise when we sing, and may our minds be drawn to Thee, the
wondrous things You've done for us. In Jesus' name, amen.