Psalm 116. I'm taking the title
for the message from what is said in verse 5. Gracious is the Lord. Our God
is gracious. Gracious is the Lord. Not only
is our Lord gracious, our Lord is righteous. He's the righteous
God. He's the holy God. Yea, He said
our God, our God is in the heavens. He's done whatsoever He is pleased.
But our God is merciful. He delights to show mercy. God
is merciful. So that will be our title. God,
our God, the true and living God, our God is merciful. We
are not left in the dark about the God of Holy Scripture. This
whole book is given to us as a description of who our God
is. We're not left in the dark. The Word of God declares, declares
who He is. The Lord plainly describes Himself
unto us. We read in Psalm 99, God is holy.
God is holy. The children of Israel on the
other side of the Red Sea said, who is like unto thee, glorious
in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. Doing wonders. Our God is holy. Holy, holy,
holy Lord God Almighty. Our God is not only holy, but
our God is good. God is good. He's good to His
people. He's good to His children. Whatsoever
the Lord is pleased to do, that's what He does, and the Lord shall
do right. He is good. We read in Scripture
that God is love. He is love. He's not a God of
love. He is love. God is love. In Him is mercy, grace to help
in our time of need. We read in Scripture that God
is light. God is light, and in him is no
darkness at all. We read that God is true. He
is the true and living God. We read that God is the almighty
God. He's almighty. He said, I am
God, beside me there is no other. He's the almighty God. Remember,
look just across the page, it's Psalm 115 verse three. Our God
is in the heavens. He had done whatsoever He had
pleased. Whatsoever the Lord is pleased
to do, that's what He does. And then we read in Scripture
many times, our God is merciful. Our God is merciful. Look at
just across the page, Psalm 117 verse 2. for his merciful kindness is
great toward us. His merciful kindness is great
toward us. And then look at Psalm 118 verse
one. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord
for he is good because his mercy endures, it endures forever. I'm glad his mercy to us is not
temporary. His mercy toward us is forever
and ever. We read in the book of Micah
that God delights to show mercy. His greatest glory is to show
mercy. His greatest glory is my greatest
need. I need mercy. I need mercy. All of us do. We know that God
is sovereign in his mercy. He will have mercy on whom he
will, and whom he will he'll harden. God will have mercy. Why? Because he's merciful. He's described himself as merciful.
Remember we read recently from Exodus 34, the Lord descended
in the cloud He spoke, remember we saw Sunday morning that he
spoke out of that cloud. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. And then in Exodus 34, the Lord
declared to Moses in a cloud and proclaimed the name of the
Lord, the Lord God merciful, gracious, long suffering, and
abundant in goodness. Now this Psalm, it doesn't say
it's the Psalm of David, Doesn't say it's the psalm of Moses.
We have no person's name that penned these words, but we know
that all scripture is given of God. All scripture is God breathed. God gave us his word. We can be confident these recorded
words are given to us by God the Holy Spirit. We read it as
such. We treat this book, the words
of this book, We read it as such, the holy
word of God. We receive it as such as the
holy word of God, don't we? All scripture is God given, God
breathed. We believe it as such, don't
we? We believe his word. This is the word of God. He's
given this testimony unto us and we believe it. We receive
it and we believe it. The Apostle Paul writes this,
for this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because
when you receive the word of God, which you heard of us, you
received it not as a word of men, but as it is in truth the
word of God that effectually works in you that believe it. It works in us. The word of God
does. Now, there's two verses in this
psalm that are well known among God's people. We pointed them
out. Look at verse 10, I believed,
therefore have I spoken, and I was greatly afflicted. That
is a well-known verse. It's quoted in 2 Corinthians
4, verse 13. And then verse 15 is a very well-known
verse too. I've used this verse I don't
know how many times at a funeral. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of His saints. That's a precious thing to the
Lord when He calls His children home to His people. Now, at least four times we read in
this psalm about calling upon the name of the Lord. Therefore,
verse two, he said, I will call upon the name of the Lord. Again, he repeats it in verse
four. Then called I upon the name of
the Lord. Again, down in verse 13, he said,
I'll take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the
Lord. Again, in verse 17, he said, I'll offer to thee the
sacrifice of thanksgiving and I'll call upon the name of the
Lord. His name, which is above every name, that at that name
every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord. He's given us the great privilege
to call upon His name, to call upon His name for mercy, for
grace to help in time of need. The Apostle Paul writes this
in Romans 10, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. I'm a whosoever that's gonna
call upon the Lord for mercy. And whoever does call upon the
Lord for mercy, for salvation, God said they'll be saved. Now
let's take a look at this Psalm, Psalm 116. Look at verse one
and verse two. Verse one and verse two. I love the Lord. I love the Lord because he has
heard my voice and my supplication. He's heard my prayer. I love
the Lord. And one of the reasons that we
love the Lord is because he's heard our prayer. We called upon
the Lord for mercy and he gave us mercy. Verse two, because
he has inclined his ear unto me, therefore, I'll keep calling
upon the Lord as long as I live, as long as I have any breath,
I'll call upon the Lord. Now, notice how this Psalm begins. David, if he's a writer, or whoever
the believer might be, he says, I love the Lord. I love the Lord. Now, that doesn't just happen
naturally, does it? We only love him because he first
loved us. He first loved us. Remember the
Lord asked Peter, Peter do you love me? Yes, yes
Lord I do love you. He asked him three times, and
finally Peter said, Lord, you know all things, you know that
I love you. You know, you know that I love
you. And we only love him, as the scripture says in 1 John
4, we only love him because he first loved us. When did the
Lord start loving us? In that everlasting covenant
of grace. He loved us with an everlasting love. Now by nature,
we love darkness, Not the light. By nature we love darkness, not
Christ. It's only by the grace of God
that we love the Lord. And we do as believers. We love
the Lord. Not like we should. Not like
we ought to. Not like we will love Him one
day. We'll sing unto Him who loved
us and washed us from our sin in His own blood. We do love
the Lord, not like we should, not like we ought to, not like
we will one day, but we can say by the grace of God, Lord, you
know all things. You know. You know that I love
you. I love you. And because we love
him, we love all those that are begotten of him. We love him
and we love the family of believers. We're one in Christ. So we love
the Lord. He hath heard the cry of my heart,
therefore I will call upon him. Now turn over to Psalm 146. I'll call upon him as long as
I live. Look at Psalm 146. Psalm 146,
verse one and two. Praise you, the Lord. Verse one,
Psalm 146. Praise you, the Lord. While I
live, Well, I praise the Lord. I will
sing praises unto the Lord, unto my God, while I have any being. I'm going to praise His name
and call upon the Lord as long as I have breath. As long as I have breath, I'm
going to call upon the name of the Lord. Will I live? And if
the Lord is pleased to take me in the instant, or take me with
a long drawn out sickness, we'll still call upon the name of the
Lord and be thankful, be thankful unto the Lord. Look at verse
three. We know something about sorrows,
don't we? The sorrows of death. Death is
all around us, is it not? The hills of Kentucky are full
of graveyards, aren't they? Full of graveyards. The sorrows of death compass
me, the pains of hell, and the word there is grave. got hold
upon me, I found trouble and I found sorrow. Now that's true
of every believer, but you know what else? This is true of the
Lord Jesus Christ too. The Lord Jesus Christ, he can
say these words too, can't he? The sorrows of death compass
me about. When he was made sin for us,
who knew no sin, the sorrows of death encompassed me. About
the pains of the grave got hold upon me. What did the Lord find
in this life? Trouble. Man of sorrows acquainted
with grief. Sorrow and trouble. Being a believer, David was a
man after God's own heart, but David had much heartache. David
had much trouble. Being a believer, Resting in
the Lord Jesus Christ does not exempt us from the reality of
trials in this flesh. We all know something about that,
don't we? The Lord Jesus Christ and all
of the apostles, the Lord Jesus Christ was hated. Among all men, he was hated.
The apostles, they were persecuted and hated, weren't they? They
all died martyrs. Our Lord spoke to those apostles
before he went to Calvary Street. He said, these words have I spoken
unto you that in me you might have peace. In this world, you
shall have tribulation. But be a good cheer, I have overcome. So he was warning them, wasn't
he? What did we read just a moment
ago? Paul said, we're troubled on every side. yet not distressed,
were perplexed but not in despair, were persecuted but not forsaken,
were cast down but not destroyed. And then he says these afflictions
here were light afflictions. Which is but for a moment, it
worketh for us a far more an exceeding and eternal weight
of glory. These things don't work against
us, they work for us. Toward that end, sorrows of death
compassed me about, the pains of death, the grave got hold
upon me and I found I found trouble, trouble and sorrow. What does
that bring us to? Look at verse four. Then, then
when I found trouble, heartache and sorrow, then I called, I
called upon the name of the Lord. David called upon the one who
could help him, the Lord. Jehovah, God my Savior, O Lord,
he says, verse 4, I beseech thee, I beg thee, O Lord, deliver my
soul. Deliver my soul. That reminds
me of what Job said, or it's written in the book of Job, deliver
them from going down to the pit I found a ransom. The Lord Jesus
Christ is our deliverer. Deliver my soul. It's only when
the Lord teaches us the frailty and sinfulness of our flesh,
the weakness of our flesh, and not to trust the deeds of the
flesh, then when we are stripped and broken, then we call upon
the Lord for salvation. And he has delivered us. He has
delivered us from the curse of the law. He has delivered us
from the penalty of sin. The publican cried when he was
brought down. He smote upon his breast in sorrow
and trouble, and he said, Lord, God, be merciful to me, thee
sinner. Those seven words, you ever find
yourself Thinking, Lord, what should I pray? God, be merciful
to me, the sinner. Or we can reduce it down to three
words, remember? Lord, help me. Lord, save me. Then called I upon the name of
the Lord. Oh Lord, I beseech thee, deliver
my soul. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
the deliverer. in whom we have redemption through
his blood. Redemption is deliverance. He
is our deliverer. Call his name Jesus, he shall
save or deliver his people from their sins. Now look at verse
five. Gracious. Gracious. The Lord is gracious. We are
saved. How are sinners saved? For by grace are ye saved through
faith. That in and of itself is a gift
of God. The Lord, gracious is the Lord, or the Lord is gracious. The Lord is not only gracious,
but he's righteous too. The Lord is gracious, but not
at the expense of his righteousness. That's the glory and mysteries
of the gospel. How God can be just and justify
the ungodly only through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is
gracious, and he's gracious in such a way and His righteousness
established in such a way that He is honored in all things.
Grace reigns, you remember that scripture in Romans 5, grace
reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. Grace does reign through righteousness
being established by Christ Jesus. That's why Paul said, I count
everything else lost, dung, and ruined, that I may win Christ
and be found in him who is the Lord our righteousness. I not only need my sin removed,
and that's what Christ has done for us, but I also need righteousness
imputed, reckoned, counted unto us. Blessed is the man whom the
Lord imputes righteousness without works. Look at verse five again. Gracious is the Lord. Our Lord
is gracious. Beyond measure, beyond measure,
we believe that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall
be saved. And our God is righteous. He's
made us righteous. He has called the Lord our righteousness. You think about that. Our righteousness
before God is Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our righteousness.
And then we know that our God is merciful. Grace is God giving
us what we do not deserve. Mercy is God not giving us what
we do deserve. Not giving us what we do deserve.
What do we deserve? The wages of sin is death. The
gift of God is eternal life. through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Our God is merciful. It is the
Lord's mercies that were not consumed, because His compassion,
they do not fail. Look at verse six now. The Lord
preserves, the Lord preserveth. He preserveth. We're kept by
the power of God. He saves us with an everlasting
salvation. The Lord, because He is gracious,
the Lord, because He is righteous, the Lord, because He is merciful,
He preserves us, but notice the word here. He says, the Lord
preserves all the good folks. He says here, the Lord preserves
the simple, the simple. What does that word simple sound
like? Simple sinner. The Lord preserves the sinner,
the simple. Now look that word simple up,
and it means silly. It means foolish. The Lord came to save sinners. He came to save silly, foolish
sinners. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. I'm a simple man. I'm a sinful
man. The Lord Jesus Christ, when we
were yet without strength and due time, Christ died for the
ungodly. I was brought low. He brought
me low. And then what did He do? He lifted
me up. He helped me. You see the last
part of verse 6? The Lord helped me. Look just
across the page. Psalm 115 verse 11. Ye that fear the Lord, trust
in the Lord. He is their help and He is their
shield. Now if you want to turn to this
when you can, but you remember Psalm 46, Psalm 46 verse 1. This verse has a special meaning
to me because I experienced this verse in a time of great trouble,
in a time of great distress. Psalm 46 verse 1, God is our
refuge and strength A very present help in trouble. In the 2010
flood, when the water got up very high
into the second floor of the house, and I faced the very real
present of being carried away by the flood water, and as I
sat at the top of my stair washing up water Come up, come up, come
up, come up. This verse came to my mind, so
strong and so real. God is our refuge and strength
of every present help in trouble. He's our help. He's our help
in trouble. Every time I read that verse,
I think of that night. The power was out, darkness everywhere. in the house by myself. Thank
God my wife got caught over in town and she couldn't get home.
I'm thankful that she was spared that. But the Lord did deliver
us. The Lord did deliver us. Water
started going down, going down, going down. And He delivered
us and we were safe that night. The Lord is gracious. The Lord
has preserved His people. Remember, He's able to keep us
from falling and to present us faultless before the presence
of God's glory with exceeding joy? With exceeding joy. I've got written down here another
verse. Let me look at it real quick. Yeah. Psalm 19. Let me just read
this to you. The law of the Lord, or the word
of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. The testimony of the
Lord is sure making wise the simple. He makes us wise. The fool has said in his heart
there is no God, but the Lord has made us wise unto salvation. You remember what Paul wrote
to young Timothy? Thou hast known the holy scriptures which are
able to make thee wise unto salvation. Now look at verse seven. The
Lord preserveth the simple. I was brought low, he denied
them of a broken heart. And the Lord helped me. The Lord
saved me. Now return unto thy rest, O my
soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. Return
unto thy rest. Now, when you see that word rest,
what do you think of? I know at night time we lay down
and we try to rest this body, don't we? But this is not talking
about that type of rest. This is talking about our rest
in Christ. He said, come unto me, all you
who are laboring and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Rest. Rest from the burden of sin.
Rest from the condemnation of the law. He is our rest. He is our salvation. Return unto
thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with
thee. God's been so good to us, so
gracious to us. You remember we had this last
week? Turn back to Psalm 103. Psalm 103. The Lord had dealt so bountifully
with us. Psalm 103, look at verse eight.
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, verse eight, Psalm
103. Plenteous in mercy, he will not
always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. He hath
not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above
the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As
far as the East is from the West, so far hath He removed our transgression
from us. The Lord has dealt with us bountifully. He dealt with our sin in our
substitute, didn't He? In the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
back to Psalm 116, look at verse 8. Thou hast delivered... Thou hast delivered my soul.
He repeats what He says in verse 4. deliver my soul. And then he
said, thou hast delivered my soul. Thou hast delivered my
soul from death. And he has. The Lord Jesus Christ
took the sting of death away. Death to the believer is not
punishment, it's promotion. Thou hast delivered my soul from
death. He took our death. He said, I am he that liveth
and was dead. Behold, I'm alive forevermore. He said, because
I live, you shall live. He delivered us from death, hasn't
he? Eternal death. He delivered us from that. This
body's going to die back to the dust from which it came. But
that's not me. That's my body. That's my tabernacle. I live
in this body. but I'm a soul redeemed by the
blood of Christ. And when we die, we go to be
with the Lord. We're gonna see that in verse
15. Thou hast delivered my soul from
death because the Lord Jesus Christ took our death. He took
the sting of death away. He delivered my eyes from tears.
One day, remember we read in Revelation 21, there'll be no
more sorrow, no more death, no more tears. He's gonna wipe away
our tears. and my feet from falling. We
would surely fall every day. But the Lord keeps us by His
grace. And He keeps us all the way to eternal glory. He keeps
us. We're kept by the power of God.
He gives us eternal life and we shall never perish. Now look
at verse 9. I will walk. before the Lord in the
land of the living. We live in this world. We walk
in this world. We work in this world, don't
we? But it's always with the Lord. I will walk before the
Lord in the land of the living. You see, our steps, our steps
are ordered of the Lord. You remember Psalm 37, the steps
of a good man are ordered of the Lord. Seeing our feet have
been delivered from falling and established upon the solid rock
the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore he's given us a desire to walk
and live unto the Lord. We walk by faith, not by sight. The apostle writes this, as you
therefore receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. run with patience the race it
set before, looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Now notice
verse 10, Psalm 116 verse 10. I believed. Now that's a miracle
right there. Faith is a gift of God. Faith
comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. I believe.
We only believe the gospel according to the working of his mighty
power. He works faith in us. He makes
his people willing in the name of his power. I have believed. Therefore, because we believe
God, We believe the message of God, the salvation of the Lord.
We believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, it's the power of God and the salvation.
I have believed, therefore have I spoken. What do we speak? We speak the word of God. What
did Paul write to young Timothy? Preach the word. Preach the word,
be it an in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, with all longsuffering
and doctrine. I believe. Therefore, that's
what I speak. I was greatly afflicted for what
I preached. You go through the early church
history in the book of Acts, and every time they went publicly
preaching the word of the Lord, they were arrested, they were
beaten, they were commanded not to teach or preach anymore, and
even to mention the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, And they went
right out preaching, went right out teaching, and they were greatly
afflicted for their message, but they didn't stop, did they?
I believed, therefore, that's what I speak. We speak that we
do know. What do we know? Salvation of
the Lord. Salvation is all of the Lord.
We believe his word with boldness of faith and speak what our God
has revealed to us and taught us regardless of the consequences
of what someone may think or regardless of the afflictions
that may come. Paul said, if I preach to please
men, I'm not his servant. We preach the gospel because
God has given us his word. You remember we studied in Hebrews
chapter 13, because he has said, therefore we boldly say, the
Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man can
do unto us. He has said, therefore we can
boldly say, I have believed, therefore have I spoken. God's servants preach what they
believe. They preach it publicly too. God chose sinners unto salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ secured
their everlasting salvation, and they cannot miss it. He said,
all that the Father has given to me, they'll come to me, and
those that come to me, I'll never cast them out. I believe, therefore
have I spoken. We speak about the truth of who
God is. We preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord, we read a moment ago. We preach the truth
of who God is. God is gracious, righteous, and
merciful. And we preach the truth of who
men are. Look at verse 11. Here's our description. God is
righteous, merciful, and gracious. I said, because I believe this
is what the Word of God teaches, I said quickly, all men are liars. All men are sinners. All have
sinned and come short of the glory. All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. All men are liars. Include this
sinner and every sinner I'm looking at. We're liars. We're born, what we read in Psalm
58, we come forth from the womb speaking lies. A baby learns how to lie before
he even can speak. He cries. He cries. He cries
a lie, doesn't he? All men are sinners. That's what
we believe, therefore that's what we speak. A preacher that
might offend somebody. I'd much rather offend them by
telling the truth than to tell a lie and offend God. I don't
want to offend God. All men are liars. All men are
liars. Let God be true. You remember
Romans? I believe it's chapter 2. Let
God be true and every man a liar. Man, his best aid is altogether
vanity. Turn back to Psalm 62 for just
a minute. Psalm 62. This verse, I was thinking
of this verse when I read that statement. Psalm 62, look at
verse 9. Surely men of low degree are
vanity, men of high degree are a lie. Psalm 62, 9. To be laid in the balance, they're
altogether lighter than vanity. Vanity, that's zero. Man in his
best state is altogether vain. Aren't you glad that salvation's
up, Lord? Aren't you glad that he saves
sinners? He saves liars. He does. Therefore, look what
he says, what shall I render unto the Lord for all of his
benefits toward me? Bless the Lord, do you remember?
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless
his holy name, who has forgiven all thy iniquities. What shall
I render unto the Lord for all of His benefits toward me? Blessings
and praise and honor and worship. Look at verse 13. I'll take the
cup of salvation. I'll take the cup of salvation
and I'll call upon the name of the Lord. The cup of salvation
is blessings of salvation. I'll pay my vows unto the Lord
now in the presence of mine enemies. Well, I've got to wind this up
and let's quit with verse 15. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of His saints. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of His saints. When the Lord calls a dear believer
home to glory, that's precious in the sight of God. That's precious
in the sight of God. Our Lord prayed in John 17, Father,
I will that they also whom thou has given me be with me where
I am that they may behold my glory which thou has given me
for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. In Revelation
14, 13, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Paul writes,
for me to live is Christ, to die is gain. Well, I'm a straight between
two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, which is
far, far better. We're confident, I say, willing
rather to be absent from the body, to be present with the
Lord. Death to the believer is not punishment, it's promotion.
It's gain. Now, notice, Blessed are those
who die in the Lord. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of His saints. It's not precious to everyone,
but to His people it is. To His people. The death of a
believer is precious to the Father. But just think about the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ for our sin. How precious was His
death unto the Father. How precious that must be to
the Father, knowing all that Christ has accomplished for us,
making full atonement for our sin, the just dying for the unjust. The blood atonement of Christ,
the sacrifice of Christ, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ
is still precious in the sight of God right now. The blood atonement
of Christ, His precious death, shedding His precious blood for
His people, Well, that's still precious in his sight, isn't
it? Still precious in his sight. May the Lord bless his word to
our hearts.