Okay, this evening we're going
to look at Psalm 147. Psalm 147. I'm taking the title
from what is said in verse 15. The Word of the Lord runs swiftly. His Word. His Word. Now, it's not our Word. It's
His Word. His Word runs swiftly. swiftly. He commands and it's done. He
speaks and he brings it to pass. The Word of the Lord runs swiftly. This word swiftly can also be
translated quickly. The Word of the Lord is living
and most powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. The Word
of the Lord runs swiftly. It ran that way to your heart
in God's time and purpose, and called you out of darkness into
God's marvelous light. And when we talk about the Word
of the Lord, I think of the spoken Word, the written Word, and the
incarnate Word. God manifests in the flesh. His Word, the Word of the Lord,
is living, alive, sharp, two-edged sword. God operates upon our
heart with the word by God the Holy Spirit and his operation
upon our heart is always successful. He takes out that stony heart,
cuts it out, and puts a new heart and makes us new creatures in
Christ. Again, this psalm is like Psalm 146. It begins and
ends with a familiar phrase, Praise ye the Lord. Notice verse 1, Praise ye the
Lord. And then again in verse 7, sing
praises upon the harp unto God. Again in verse 12, Praise ye
the Lord, Jehovah. O Jerusalem, praise thy God,
O Zion. And then the last sentence in
verse 20, Praise ye the Lord. The book of Psalms is all full
of that praising the Lord. Hallelujah unto Jehovah, who
is God our Savior, who is the eternal God from everlasting
to everlasting. Thou art God. Look at Psalm 148. Verse 1, Praise
ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens.
Praise Him in the heights. Praise Him all His angels. Praise
Him all you hosts. Praise you Him sun, moon, and
praise Him all you stars of the light. Praise Him you heavens,
of heavens and you waters. be above the heavens, that be
above the heavens. So, all creation, all creation. You ever think about that when
you hear in the morning, you hear those birds singing? Always
think about their singing praise to the Lord for providing for
them, for taking care of them. How much more should we? That's
what it says in verse 1, praise you. Now you praise the Lord. You praise the Lord, for it is
good. That's the right thing to do.
Believers delight to praise the Lord. Sing praises unto our God, for it is pleasant, it's pleasant
to worship the Lord and praise the Lord is proper and it's comely. To honor and to exalt and worship
the Lord our God is a delightful thing. To you who believe He
is precious, it is right. And that word comely means beautiful
and suitable. It's beautiful and suitable.
It's always good, suitable, and delightful to give all the glory
to God alone for the salvation of our souls. For salvation,
we know, is of the Lord, it's not of man. To all those who
believe, we owe everything to the free favor of God, His grace. All we are, all we have, all
we know, all we ever will be is because He loved us and washed
us from our sin in His own blood. We can say with the Apostle Paul,
By the grace of God, I am what I am. We praise Him now, but
we'll do that forever. It begins now, but we'll praise
Him forever and ever and sing unto Him who is worthy to receive
all honor, glory, blessing. Those 10,000 times 10,000 and
10,000, what were they doing? Singing praises unto our God.
Worthy to receive all honor, glory, power, blessing, both
now and forever. Look at verse 2. The Lord doth
build up Jerusalem. The Lord doth gather. He gathereth
together the outcasts. Now, two things there. Who builds
up Jerusalem? Now, he's not talking about a
natural city, Jerusalem, over there right now. This is emblematic
of that heavenly Jerusalem. The spiritual Jerusalem, the
spiritual Israel. He does build them up. He does build up His city. You
remember what the Lord said to Peter in Matthew 16? He said,
upon this rock I will build my church. Remember? And the gates
of hell The gates of hell shall not prevail against my church.
The Lord does build up His church. You know what He does? He lays
a foundation. And that foundation is the Lord
Jesus Christ. Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation
of stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone. He's the rock of
ages. So the Lord does build us up
upon that foundation, that rock that He has laid. And then, what
does He do? Because we're lost sheep. gone
astray, He gathers them together. He gathers us. We were lost,
going astray, and He came and sought us out. He gathered us
together with Himself. I think of that scripture over
in 1 Peter 3, verse 18, where it says, that He suffered once for our
sins, the just for the unjust, that He might, do what? Bring
us unto Him. He brings us. He said, My sheep
hear My voice. I know them. They hear my voice,
and I do what? I give them eternal life, and
they do follow me. So, He gathers us, He builds
us up on that foundation, and He gathers us to rest upon Christ. And we are the outcasts, are
we not? We are the outcasts that the
outcasts cast out. Without God, without hope, and
without Christ. You remember Ephesians 2, verse
12. And yet, That does not, our sin, our guilt does not hinder
God from gathering us together, bringing us out of darkness into
his marvelous kingdom, translating us out of the kingdom of darkness.
He gathers us together upon that foundation that he has laid for
us, and he gathers us together under that shepherd who is the
good shepherd, the chief shepherd, The Great Shepherd of the Sheep
through the blood of everlasting covenant. And then look what
it says in verse 3, He heals us. Now who needs healing? Sick people need healing. He
is our great, wise, and good physician who never has lost
a patient. He heals everyone that is brokenhearted,
and then he binds up their wounds. He heals the brokenhearted. That's
good news. He gathers us to heal us. He's
a great physician. Remember, He's called those seven
names of Jehovah, and one of those names is Jehovah Rapha.
He said, I'm the Lord that healeth thee. I'm the Lord that healeth
thee. With His stripes, Isaiah writes,
we are healed. Isaiah 61, let me read this to
you. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, because He anointed me to preach good tidings unto the
meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim
liberty to the captives, and the opening of prison to them
that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all them that
mourn, to point unto them that mourn in Zion, to give them beauty
for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise
for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be
glorified. He heals the brokenhearted. He's
nigh them of a broken heart. Save us such as be of a contrite
spirit. The Lord binds up his wounds,
our wounds, because he was wounded for our transgression, and with
his stripes we're healed. Look at verse four, tells us
something about the greatness of our God. He telleth the number of the
stars. Now that word teleth means he
counts the number of the stars. And he calls them all by their
names. Now, astronomers in our day and
down through the centuries, they have named certain stars, certain
constellations. They've given them names, but
the Lord created all those stars, the billions and trillions and
trillions of the stars. He created all of them by the
word of his power and he knows each one intimately by what he
named them. Now think about that. How infinite
is space and yet God who created all things inhabits eternity. He is the infinite, everlasting
God. The Lord has a perfect, distinct
knowledge of all that He has created, all the starry heavens. He knows and owns them because
He created them. Likewise, the believer in Christ,
though there are how many believers? 10,000 times and thousands and
thousands of the elect redeemed by His grace, yet the Lord is
intimately acquainted with all of His sheep, and He calls them,
remember John chapter 10, He says, I know My sheep and I call
them by their name. of God stand assure having this
seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His. How long has the Lord
known your name? He said to Jeremiah, before I
formed thee in the belly, I knew you and I called you and I ordained
you to be a prophet. God has intimate knowledge of
all the universe. but much more of His people.
He knows us through and through. This is a God with whom we have
to do. Nothing is hid from Him. All things are naked and open.
We're an open book before our God. He knows all things. He
knows our heart. Now look at verse 5. Great is
our Lord. and he is of great power. His understanding, there's no understanding. Of His understanding there is
no number. His understanding is infinite. His wisdom is infinite
wisdom. His power is infinite power. Great is the Lord and greatly
to be praised. Everything about our God is great.
You remember from our study in Psalm 145, turn back over there. Psalm 145 verse 3, Great is the
Lord and greatly to be praised. of His greatness, it is unsearchable. You remember Romans 11.33, O
the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of
God, how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding
out how great is our God. He's great. He's great in every
way. He's great in His person. He's
a great God, our Savior. He's great in His work. All of
His work is great work. His power is great. His power
is great. It says there, His power is great. He must have great power to save
great sinners, because that's what it takes to save sinners.
It takes great power. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation? Aren't you glad He's a great
God who has all power? He's able to save them to the
uttermost that come to God by Him. Why? Father has given Him
power, the Lord Jesus Christ, in His mediatorial office. He's
given Him power over all flesh. that he should give eternal life
to as many as the Father has given to him. He has all power.
Remember what Pilate said to him? I have power to crucify
you or I have power to let you go. And the Lord corrected him,
didn't he? He said, you don't have any power
over me except that which I give you. that no man takes my life. I have power to lay it down.
I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my Father. His understanding, His wisdom,
His power is infinite beyond our comprehending. We're so finite. We are so finite. He is the infinite,
great, and glorious God Almighty. The only place a sinner will
really worship Now this is so. The only place a sinner will
really worship is at the throne of the absolute sovereign. That's
the only place. For the throne of the absolute
sovereign God. Now, look what he says. Because
He is our great Lord, because He has great power, because He
has infinite wisdom, the Lord lifteth up the meek. But He casts the wicked down
to the ground. Now who are these whom the Lord
lifts up? He lifts the beggar from a dunghill
to make them sit among princes to inherit the throne of glory.
When the meek, those who are humbled by His grace, convicted
by the Holy Spirit, are laid in the dust, He lifts them up. When the wicked are exalted in
their pride, He hurls them down to the ground. The Lord does
all these things. If you want to turn with me,
you can. Look at Psalm 138. Psalm 138, Though the Lord be
high. Verse 6, Yet He hath respect
unto the lowly, but the proud He knoweth afar off. Though I
walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me. Thou wilt
stretch forth thy hand against the wrath of my enemies. Thy
right hand shall save me. The Lord will perfect that which
concerns me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever.
Forsake not the work of thine own hands." And we know that
he said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. So we
may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. You see, the way up is
not up. The way up is down. The way to
be filled is to be emptied. The way to be clothed is to be
stripped. God resists the deprived, but He gives grace to the humble.
And He humbles us and empties us, and then He fills us, and
then He blesses us. We call that Holy Spirit conviction.
God convicts us and shows us that we're sinners. And then
He teaches us that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Savior. Verse
7, verse 12, verse 1, and verse 20, they're all the core to this
psalm. Sing with thanksgiving and pray
to our God. We cannot give Him too much glory,
nor think too highly of Him, or think too lowly of ourselves. You know, our problem is we think
too highly of ourselves. And man by nature thinks too
low of God. Our Lord said, you thought that
I was altogether such a one as you. You remember Psalm 50? Oh
no, He's not like us. He is a great, infinite God. We should think of ourselves
as the scriptures describe us. Man is best dated altogether
to vanity. None righteous, no, not one.
Chief of sinners, O wretched man that I am." That's thinking
right thoughts of who we are. Look at verse 8 and 9. He describes
the great power of our God who covers the heaven. He creates
it. And then He creates all the elements.
He covers the heaven with clouds. Let's see man try that one. Those
thunderstorm clouds, they are absolutely amazing, aren't they? The weather people just study
those clouds and they're at awe. How does that happen? He covers
the heavens with the clouds. The Lord creates the rain, the
thunder, the lightnings. One place in Scripture said,
He says to the lightnings, go, and they go, and then come, and
they come. The clouds are called the dust
of His feet. I'm amazed at the clouds. I just
love to sometimes on those days when in big white puffy clouds
and just look at the clouds and think about how God creates all
things by the word of his power, how he upholds all things. He
prepares the rain. Who brings the rain? He rains
on the just and the unjust. He brings the rain. He makes
the grass to grow upon the mountains. We put our little gardens out.
We do all we can to make the seeds grow. We plow up the ground
and we buy the seed and stick it in the ground and we scatter
a little bit of fertilizer and then we can't do a thing about
making it grow. But somehow, magically, That
little dried up, dead, looks like a dead little piece of corn
or bean or whatever. It's just like dead and shriveled
up. And we put it in the ground and the Lord makes it alive.
He causes it to grow. We have the fruit. The Lord has
so arranged everything in His creation. The bees, how they
pollinate and all that. God created all these things
to sustain us and to bless us. who covers the heavens with clouds,
who prepares the rain for the earth, who makes the grass to
grow, the flowers to bloom, the birds to sing, the stars to twinkle,
the moon to shine, the sun. Who sustains the power of the
sun? It just shines and shines and
shines and shines. It never changes. The Lord sustains
all these things. And then it says, verse 9, He
giveth. He opens His hand. Remember that
one psalm? He opens His hand and satisfies
the desire of every living thing. He's not tight-fisted. He's open-handed. He feeds the birds and the beasts,
the fish in the sea. He takes care of the young ravens
which cry, the little birds in the nest. Mama bird comes and
feeds them. All this is the creation of God.
All this is the work of God. Not mother nature. Not lady luck. Not misfortune. All God controls
all these things. Our great God of providence provides
for His creation, sustains it, and upholds it by the Word of
His power. Verse 10 and 11. He delighteth
not. He delighteth not in the strength
of horse. We're quite amazed by horses.
I grew up as a young boy out in the cowboy country, and we
used horses for everything. My grandfather had 80 acres. of sagebrush and volcano rock. And he cleared all that land
back in the early 1900s, 1911. He cleared all that land with
a team of horses and planted potatoes. And that's where my
dad was born and that's where I was born. And God provides
that, but He doesn't delight in the strength of a horse. We
do. We glory in those things, but
not God. He taketh not pleasure in the
legs of a man. Now in our day, people are all
taken up with athletes, aren't they? I mean, they put them on
a pedestal. Athletes, the strength of a man. Basketball player, football player,
hockey player, whatever it may be. The Lord doesn't take pleasure
in the legs of a man, in the strength of a man. The Lord takes
pleasure in them that fear Him. You see that? The Lord takes
pleasure in those that fear Him, and the Lord takes pleasure in
those that hope in His mercy. That's where He takes pleasure.
Men glory in the ability of a horse to run a race, to win the Kentucky
Derby, That's a big deal, isn't it? That's a big deal among men. God's not impressed. He's not
impressed with the way a horse runs. Men also glory in the strength
of men. Great athletes are worshipped
by fallen, sinful creatures, but none of these things impress
the Lord. Michael Jordan didn't do anything for the Lord. Them
great basketball players. God's glory's not in the Cavalry
of horses know the infantry of men. God only glories in the
Lord Jesus Christ alone, alone. The Lord takes pleasure in his
covenant people who fear him, who reverence, who have a reverence
and godly fear, those that hope in his mercy, not in a generic,
in general way, but rather God's mercy revealed in Christ. You
remember our message Sunday? Ephesians 2 verse 4, But God,
who is rich in mercy for His great love, wherewith He loved
us, even when we were dead in sin, not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. God
takes pleasure in those that fear Him. Those who fear Him
believe Him. Those who fear Him, believe Him,
trust Him. Those that hope in His mercy. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed. Of His mercies that we are not
consumed. We hope. Christ is our hope. We have hope of salvation because
God delights to show mercy. We hope in that. We transcribed a TV sermon this
week Brother Henry's TV ministry from 2 Thessalonians 2.16 where
it says, God has given us an everlasting consolation and a
good hope. A good hope through grace. A
good hope through grace. So we hope, God takes pleasure.
This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. God is well
pleased with His Son and those who are in His Son. Those who
are in His Son fear Him and they hope. Our hope is not a hope,
a hope, a hope and a hope. Our hope is a person. Christ
in you is the hope of glory. Now, praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, verse 12. O
Jerusalem, praise thy God, O Zion, and Jerusalem and Zion. God said,
I've set my king upon my holy hill, Zion, for he hath strengthened
the bars of thy gates, He hath blessed thy children within thee.
All spiritual blessings are found where? In Christ. He has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenlies in Christ. The
Lord has strengthened the bars of our gates. How secure are
God's people? You go around a lot of these
big mansions and big houses What do they have around them? They
have gates. And they get behind those gates
and they lock the gate and they feel pretty secure, don't they?
How much more are believers secure in the Lord Jesus Christ? Behind
His gate? He has blessed thy children within
thee. We are blessed in that city of
refuge that He's provided for us. We're safe. The high priest
watches over us. Our great high priest. Verse
14, He maketh peace. He maketh peace within thy borders. We have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Being justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He maketh
peace. That's not something we do. We
hear people say in religious circles, well, I'm trying to
make peace with God. Forget it. You can't do that.
A sinner can't satisfy a holy God. The Lord Jesus Christ made
peace for us. And then He fills, He filleth
thee with the finest, the finest wheat. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the bread of heaven. He said, I am the bread of life.
He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on
me shall never thirst. That's the finest of wheat. The
bread that's come down from heaven, our Lord said in John chapter
6. The finest, the finest. He gives us the best. God so
loved that He gave His Son. The finest wheat. The bread of
life. Verse 15. He sent us forth His
commandment. He's commanded us to go and preach
the gospel to every creature. He will bless what He has commanded. He's promised to bless His Word. He sendeth forth His commandment
upon the earth. Go and preach the Gospel. He
said, My Word runs swiftly. He said in Isaiah 55, It will
not return to me void, but it will prosper whereunto I send
it as I please. He commands and it stands fast.
He speaks and it's done. His Word runs very well. It runs well. It runs swiftly. It runs right to the heart of
God's people. The sheep hear His voice. He give us snow like wool. He
scatters the hoar frost like ashes. He casteth forth His ice
like morsels. Who can stand before His cold?
It just withers you down, doesn't it? The wind that cold north
wind blows. He brings forth the ice who can
stand before His cold. And then He sends out His Word. And He melts them. He causes
His wind to blow and the waters flow. He showeth His Word unto
Jacob, His statutes and judgments. unto Israel. Now, let me make
a gospel application on this. He gives snow like wool. He scatters
the hoar frost. He casts forth His ice like morsels. Who can stand? By nature we are
cold, dead, and hard-hearted. Just like that cold ice. And
then what does He do? He sends forth His word. He sends
forth the Word into our hearts. He breaks our hard heart. He
gives us ears to hear Him, eyes to see Him. And He melts that
hard heart. The wind blows. What's the wind? The emblem of, a type of, the
Holy Spirit. He said the wind. You remember
John 3? The wind blows where it wills. God sends it to the
hearts of His people. And the waters flow. He's the
water of life. The waters flow. You see, all
that can be spiritualized in the way of conversion and salvation
in our heart. He causes that water to flow.
Remember, he told that woman, oh, you drink of that water,
you'll thirst again. If you drink of that water that I give you,
you'll be a well of water springing up, bubbling up into everlasting
life. Remember what she said? Lord,
give me that water. I want that water, don't you?
Oh, everyone that is thirsty. He said, come to the waters and
drink. Come to the waters and drink. He showeth His Word unto
Jacob. He says, I'm the Lord, I change
not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. He shows us
His Word. He reveals His Word unto us.
He hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed
them unto Baal. Jacob hath I loved his statutes
and judgments to his people. He shows us that our sins have
been judged in our substitute to the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse
20. He hath not dealt so with any
other people. God deals with His covenant people
in a special way. An intimate way. He has not dealt
so with any other people. I thought of this scripture here. Turn back to Psalm 103 for just
a minute. Psalm 103, look at verse 8. The
Lord is merciful and gracious. Psalm 103, verse 8. Slow to anger,
plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither
will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after
our sin, nor rewarded us according to our iniquity. 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. He
has not dealt so with any other people as He dealt with His people. For His judgments, they have
not known them. The judgment of our sin has been
laid upon our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, there is there now
no condemnation to those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, verse 20 says, What are
you going to do? Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. God's chosen us by His electing
grace, redeemed us, By the blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ,
His precious blood, He sent the Lord Jesus Christ to represent
us as the Great High Priest, and He's revealed Himself unto
us now. Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. That's right,
as we started out. It's pleasant. It's calmly. It's right. It's proper to praise
the Lord. And that's what his people delight
in.