Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 145 and verse 9. Psalm
145 and verse 9. The Lord is good to all and his
tender mercies are over all his works. David's psalm of praise, Psalm
145 and verse 9. Right the way through this psalm,
David is extolling the Lord for his goodness and blessing him. And he's good for us to Remember
this, especially in times of adversity and times of affliction
and trial, that our God is a good God and a merciful God. David, in Psalm 34, he says,
I will bless the Lord at all times His praise shall continually
be in my mouth." And he penned that psalm when he was in fear
of his life before Abimelech of the Philistines when they
recognised him as David who had killed Goliath. And at that time
he did escape with his life. But here we have David in praise,
the first seven verses of this psalm. He speaks of how he, and
not only he, but other generations would serve and would praise
and bless the Lord. He says, I will extol thee, my
God, O King, and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. And
he professes in verse two, that you do so every day, and his
praise shall be of the Lord's name for ever and ever. The language that he uses truly
extols the Lord. Great is the Lord, greatly to
be praised. His greatness is unsearchable
and we need to ask ourselves when here is David, King of Israel,
David from whose loins came our Lord both through his son Solomon
to the Lion through to Joseph and Nathan through to Mary, do
we view this God in the same way as what David did or must
we say that The Lord's greatness is hidden from us, that we do
not see it, do not understand it, and cannot take this language
upon our lips as what David does. He says, not only for his generation,
but one generation shall praise thy works to another. Do we? Do we praise the Lord's works
to our children? Do our children in turn to their
children? Do we, as grandparents, praise
the works of God to our grandchildren? Do we really declare His mighty
acts? I fear very much that we do not
walk in this way and do not glorify the Lord. Very often we are silent
and like we are sung, we let His Mercy's lie, forgotten in
unthankfulness, without praises die. We do not want to do that,
we shouldn't do that. And David, he says in verse 5,
I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty and of
thy wondrous works. And he speaks of that men shall
do this as well and abundantly utter the memory of thy great
goodness and sing of thy righteousness. So the first seven verses he
is speaking of not what only he but also every generation
and men in general shall do. This doesn't just belong to David,
it's very evident here. There shall be from one generation
to another those that shall truly see the greatness of the Lord
and worship him and serve him and not be silent about it, but
tell it to others as well. And may our desire really be
that we be amongst that number, that we also see this greatness
and see the blessings of the Lord and are able to speak it
to others as well. Well then later on in this psalm,
and including the verse of our text, there is a setting forth
of those attributes of the Lord, His goodness and mercy, and in
a way that David is not just speaking in a general way, but
able to speak of specific things that he praised and blessed the
Lord for. So we have in verse 8 that the
Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and
of great mercy." The very character of the Lord is set forth here.
This is not speaking, in this case, of His works, but of His
actual character. Instead of saying, if it was
put in the opposite way, that someone is unkind, has no compassion,
is an angry and a very hard man, that will never ever show mercy
and it is so unfeeling towards men, that would be the opposite
way. But this is not how the Lord
is set forth. And right through the scriptures,
and especially in times like the pandemic, times of affliction
and weakness, and times when there's troubles in our families,
in ourselves, in the earth, We are to remember this as to what
the Lord is. I'm not saying that we will always
understand it, always be able to enter into it, and in our
troubles and in our sorrows may really struggle with the idea
that the God that is completely in control, that he is gracious,
full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy. You know,
this is set forth by Jeremiah. In his lamentations, he has seen
the temple that was destroyed. He's seen all the desolations
of Israel and all that God had done to that nation for all of
their sins, bringing them into captivity. But he is very clear
of the Lord and of the goodness and mercies of the Lord. He says in Lamentations 3, He
doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men, to
crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, to turn
aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High, to
subvert a man in his cause the Lord approveth not. And then just in case we be thought
that, well, there's another power that is over the Lord. No, who is he that saith, and
it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not, out of the
mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good. The Lord is
good, and if those things are brought that we would class to
be as evil, and certainly when we think of the crucifixion of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, ye have taken by wicked hands,
crucified and slain. And yet through that the Lord
has brought the redemption of his people, eternal blessings
and forgiveness of sins. If there is that which is classed
as evil, the Lord magnifies his goodness even through that and
overturns it for good. And so we have the character
of our Lord, which should be, as it were, fixed and firm in
our mind and in the sacred scriptures of truth, that whatever comes,
that we know that. You know, a child, if they know
their parent well and know their parent, would fit this description,
that he is good and kind and of compassion. then whatever
troubles and whatever things happen to that child is a great
comfort that they know the character of their parent. And so David,
he sets this forth first, and then he speaks in the words of
our text as to how the Lord acts. We might say, well, maybe the
Lord only acts towards believers in a kind way, or maybe he only
acts towards some of men or maybe just to the ancient Israel, but
the Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all
his works. And then we read, all thy works
shall praise thee, O Lord, and thy saints shall bless thee.
Yes, there is a difference. God's saints, those that believe
in his name, bless him. in a very different way, because
they really see his goodness, not only in temporal things,
but for the good of their souls as well. And then we have in
verse 13, his kingdom is mentioned, his everlasting kingdom. We have in verse 14, that the
Lord upholdeth all those that fall, raiseth up all those that
are bowed down. Maybe you feel very bowed down
this morning. very cast down, very discouraged. It is the Lord that raiseth up
those that are cast down and bowed down. And verse 15, the
eyes of all wait upon thee. There is the Lord that gives
and opens his hand, satisfies the desire of every living thing.
And what about the Lord's ways? Some of those of which we cannot
understand or fathom The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and holy in all his works. Now this is the wholly inspired,
infallible word of God and is penned by a man, a sinner, a
sinner in whom God greatly blessed but also greatly chastised for
his sin and for his own wickedness in murder and adultery. The sword
did not depart from his house and He had those of his sons
that were murdered, those that were slain in battle, those that
were not saved and that he mourned greatly over, and yet still he
pens and he writes these things, these beautiful things. The Lord
is nigh, near unto all them that call upon him, to them that call
upon him in truth. May we be a praying people, a
people that call upon the name of the Lord. You have the assurance,
the promise in verse 19, he will fulfil the desire of them that
fear him. He also will hear their cry and
will save them. What an encouragement to fear
the Lord and to cry unto him in our need. Then in verse 20,
the Lord preserveth all them that love him. And then there's
the difference here, but all the wicked will He destroy. There is those special blessings
that the Lord has blessed for His people that put their trust
in Him, that serve Him, that love Him and obey Him. And David says, he closes a psalm,
my mouth, he's not silent in it, my mouth shall speak the
praise of the Lord and let all flesh bless His holy name forever
and ever. So in this psalm, David praises
the Lord and extols him. And in our text, the Lord is
good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works. And we might ask, when did that
goodness begin? When was his tender mercies over
all his works first set forth? How was it known as it is first
revealed in the word of God? And this is why we've read together
in Genesis, Genesis chapter two, because we have in that chapter
a list of the goodness of the Lord, what he provided for man
and gave to mankind right at the creation. The goodness of
the Lord before the fall, what happened in the fall, and then
we have the goodness of the Lord after the fall as well. And that goodness and blessing
before the fall really is a provision that is not taken away. Though
man rebelled against God, those blessings are still in place
and yet man, man has sought in many of them to overturn them
and to go contrary to the Lord. His mercy is that he sees what
the Lord in goodness provided right at the beginning, in man's
innocency, and seek to keep in that way, in that which is good,
and then to know what the Lord's provision is to fallen man as
well, that is, in his spiritual blessings, to recover him and
to bless him. On to look, with the Lord's help,
firstly then at God's goodness to mankind at the beginning,
that is, in His innocency and as created, and in this point,
specifically what is set before us, and there are seven points
in chapter 2 of Genesis. Then secondly, I'd want to just
briefly consider the fall of man, man's rebellion against
God. And then thirdly, God's goodness
to mankind after the fall. But firstly, God's goodness to
mankind at the beginning, before the fall. As we said, there's
seven things I desire to bring before you. The first is this,
and that it is a day of rest that is provided. We read that
God rested on the seventh day, in verse two, from all his work
which he had made. God blessed the seventh day and
sanctified it, set it apart, because that in it he had wrested
from all his work which God created and made. Now we said that this
provision or these blessings at the creation, they still continue
and we find that when God gave the law to Moses, to his ancient
people and to us, to all mankind, law of Moses belongs. The law was given that sin might
abound and that still is applying to all mankind. It is the law
of God. And we read concerning that Sabbath
day, the seventh day in Exodus 20, And verse 8, remember the
Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour and
do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord
thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work,
thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant,
nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gains. For
in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that
in them is, and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed
the sabbath day and hallowed it. And we have this rehearsed
in several parts of the scripture that God has seen fit to give
us a day that our bodies might rest and be refreshed that man
was not designed to work non-stop. Yes, we have been given the night
seasons that man might sleep and renew his strength in that
way, but also we are given the one day in seven as well as a
day of rest. And though some would say to
me that probably I am Guilty of this as much as many, that
instead of resting we may keep going, but we are given a time
that we should rest. And this is God's kindness, this
is God's mercy. He knew man, man that was and
yet had not sinned, yet he was given a day of rest and may we,
in thinking of the words of our text, the Lord is good to all,
his tender mercies are over all his works, his mercy is to provide
a time that they should rest. But then we have secondly, a
time for the Lord. And really this is an inseparable
to the day of rest. It was sanctified, that is, it
is set apart. And in the law that we have read,
it was to be a holy day. It was to be a day in which the
Lord should be worshipped. Wherefore the Lord blessed this
Sabbath day and hallowed end, made it a day that instead of
going about our secular calling, instead of going about our own
pleasure, that we should serve the Lord and have that day to
be for the Lord. In Isaiah chapter 58, we read
this, in the end of that chapter. If
thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure
on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of
the Lord, honourable, and shalt honour him, not doing thine own
ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words,
then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, And I will cause
thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with
the heritage of Jacob thy father. For in the mouth, for the mouth
of the Lord hath spoken it. And so the Lord pronounces that
blessing on that day. He has given us six days for
ourselves, but he has given the seventh as to be a day when we
may meet with our Maker, our Creator, we may enjoy Him, and
serve Him, and worship Him, and come before Him, and gather with
His people. This is the provision of God,
the law of God. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, and with all thy
soul, and thy neighbour as thyself. In the law of God, the first
table of the law is towards God. The second is towards our fellow
creatures. Our first, our first duty and
obligation is to our creator and maker. And God has made that
provision. He hasn't said, look, You've
got six days in which you can work. I want you to use those
days to serve me and worship me. Know is that I'm giving you
six days, but I will just have one. And that day shall be for
your spiritual good and blessing and communion and fellowship
with your creator. God wants to hear from his people
and In a true spiritual sense, his people want to hear from
their God. We know, of course, that though
we have a whole day for the Lord, the Lord's people desire to serve
him as David did morning, noon, and night. They begin the day
with God in his word and in prayer, and they continue it through
the day, giving thanks, and especially at mealtimes, and meeting with
him before retiring for sleep as well. But this provision then
is a provision by God for his people to keep them close unto
him. And what a solemn thing, a sad
thing, how far we have departed, whether personally or as a nation,
from a day of rest or a day of worship, that God's day is desecrated. Our Lord said that he was Lord
also of the Sabbath to the Jews, and in the creation here, it
was the seventh day that was the day of rest. But our Lord
rose from the dead on the first day of the week, and from that
time, the day that the churches met, And the day that the Lord
met with them on that first day of the week and eight days later
was on that first day. And so the Lord himself has changed. It still is one day in seven.
That still remains, but is changed from the seventh day to the first
day. Now, not to recognise the day
of creation, but the greater work of redemption when our Lord
rose from the dead. Then we have the third provision,
which was a place prepared for man. In verse eight, the Lord
God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the
man whom he had formed. God provided for man. He gave him a place and put him
in that place. We ought to always remember this.
And when we have our homes, when we have this world that is so
suited to us, the air that we breathe, the things that we eat,
how we live, this world is made for us. And we are made to dwell
upon this earth. The Lord provided. We know with
the children of Israel he provided Canaan, They went into it, they
didn't need to build houses or plant vineyards, everything was
provided. And we have a beautiful type,
too, of heaven that is, I go to prepare a place for you. And
if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again and receive
you unto myself. May we look upon the creation
that we have as a place provided by God. This is God's provision
for us. With Adam it was the Garden of
Eden, a most blessed provision. Then we have in the fourth place,
in verse 9, that God provided food and water. Out of the ground
made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the
sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst
of the garden, a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then
in verse 10, a river went out of Eden to water the garden.
Man has provided, had provided by God what he should eat and
what he should drink. Again, with the children of Israel
going through the wilderness, what were they to eat? What were
they to drink in that wilderness? The two specific things God miraculously
provided was food, the manna from heaven for those 40 years,
And then he brought water out of the rock, the smitten rock.
Paul says they drank of that spiritual rock that followed
them, and that rock was Christ. But in a literal way, they did
have water, they did have food. Our Lord emphasised in Matthew
chapter six that our Heavenly Father knows that we have need
of food and of clothing. Those things are a given that
he will provide, and that we are to seek first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness, and not be over-anxiously troubled
with those things for the body. But the emphasis is still, the
Lord is good, and he provides for the fowls of the air, the
birds of the air, he gives them their meat, and he will provide
for man as well. He did at the beginning. Having
food and raiment, let us therewith be content. Godliness with contentment
is great gain. And we are to look to the Lord
for this provision and bless him for it. And we see right
at the beginning that he is provided in this way. Then we have in
the fifth place, a provision of work to do. In verse 15 we
have, and the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden
of Eden to dress it and to keep it. This was in a time of innocency. Work is not a punishment. And many may be finding at this
time of lockdown, when they're in their homes, that they're
at a loss as to what they can do. Some of us, depending on
what our work is, and our calling is, we are just as busy or more
busy now than what we've ever been. But others are finding
it very, very difficult to know what to do, how to fill up their
time. They're at a loss. And it is
the provision of God that man should go to his labour, that
he should have something to do, and that he should be diligent
in that. And we find this right at the
very beginning, a provision. May we remember that and bless
the Lord where he has given us something to do. And even in
the lockdown times, instead of, you might say, wasting the time,
think, the Lord knows my change of circumstances. He knows what
now I cannot do. What is it that I can do? And what means can I use still
to be working, a work to do, whether it is a charitable work
or paid work, irrespective, it is man has been made to be useful
and to do a work. Then we have in the sixth place,
in verse 16, that God gave to man good laws. And the Lord God
commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. The Lord gave to man laws,
good laws. We should remember this. What
would our society be without laws, if it was lawless? If it was like in the days of
the judges, there was no king in those days. Every man did
that which was right in his own eyes. If that was with our society
today, we have laws that are made now for lockdown, what we
can do, what we can't do. We may find some of these very,
very hard to obey. Or to reason as to know why perhaps
some people may think more laws should be made and stronger,
some less, very different things. But what would we be if there
was no laws? And there was just complete anarchy,
complete lawlessness. Man needs laws. God saw to it
and he gave man laws. And he's given us the powers
that be that are ordained of God to make laws. And it is for
our good that we obey them, but primarily that we should obey
the law of God, the commandments of God, the law of God. This
was given us for our good. And when David then blesses the
Lord, and says the Lord is good to all, his tender mercies are
over all his works. His tender mercy was not only
to give them a day of rest, a time to worship the Lord, a place
to live and food and drink and a labour to go to, but laws that
should be to shepherd him and to show him the right and the
good way. And that is for our good. Man, when he dispenses with God's
law and rejects it and seeks that he will go away of his own
way, is going away from the laws and guidance and teaching of
a good and gracious and a kind God. And lastly in this provision
was to provide for man, and remember at this point it is Adam, It
is to provide for him, a helpmate for him. In verse 18, the Lord
God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I'll
make a helpmate for him. Of course, at this time, many
are feeling loneliness. Many have not those that they
can meet with. Man is a community person. He needs one another. He needs to be. one with another,
and we find these times hard. But here is right at the beginning,
a provision is provision for man and it is a help that is
made for him. And here we have the institution
of marriage, the man and the woman. What would society be? What would the world have been
if God had not made a provision of procreation, a provision so
suitable that there should be then children born and brought
up with a father and a mother, and that provision so suitable
to a man in every way. And how most solemnly we've turned
aside in our society today as to abuse marriage, to completely
disregard it in some respects by living together outside of
a marriage covenant. Those that will abuse it instead
of with a man and a woman to be with man and man or woman
to woman. Those that will divorce instead
of marriage being for life, then it is separated from, the Lord
said, what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. The very first miracle the Lord
did was at a marriage in Cana of Galilee. And this provision
really, we might say, is the bedrock of society. Without there
being the ability to bring up children and to nurture them,
then the whole of society finishes. And so all of this is set forth
from a good God. And man, when he unpicks it,
when he rebels against it and changes it, it is no wonder that
there's trouble in society, there's trouble in the earth, and all
of the afflictions that come. And God, who is a good God, has
provided this. and is a mercy when we've turned
away from it as we have as a nation, that he calls us again to himself
and calls us again to his word and to hear his voice and to
hear his provision and set us on a right course again and set
us in a right way. Where did we go wrong? What happened
that really turned away from all of that? goodness. And I
want to just then briefly consider the fall, which you'll find in
chapter 3, where we read then that the very laws that God had
given, that man rebelled against those laws, listening to Satan
coming in the form of a serpent and coming instead of to Adam,
who was the head over the woman, that God had provided for him.
Satan, he undermined that authority and then undermined God's authority,
implying that there was an ulterior motive and reason why God had
forbidden the eating of the tree, the fruit of the tree, the knowledge
of good and of evil. And so when man then had broken
that law. It was a rebellion against God. Remember, they were not sinners
as we are. They are not, the apostle Paul
speaks of those who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's
sin. Man cannot sin the same way as
Adam in that sense because he was sinless. He went into it
with his eyes open. And he rebelled against a good
and gracious God. And now the whole of the human
race has fallen. We are under that sentence of
death. In the day that thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die. And man did die. Man died spiritually,
immediately. And in dying, he shall die. And ever since then, men will
die. You and I, everyone that is brought
into this world, one day will be laid in the grave. The body
shall return to the dust and the spirit shall return to God
that made it. Man became, was made a living
soul. He has a body and he has a soul. He's not like a beast that just
has a body and his spirit perishes when he dies. Man is made in
the image of God and he is eternal and his spirit shall return to
God and live or die eternally death forever. We must give an
account to God. The fall of man brought man into
conflict with God, rebellion against him and God justly carried
out the sentence that he said he would and man was then banished
from the garden and from that fellowship with him. And I want
to look then, after the fall, at God's goodness to mankind. After man had rebelled, after
he'd gone against God in that way, how do we view again, right
at the very beginning, that God dealt with this and the Lord's
goodness in it. Well, there's three points I
bring before you just briefly on this last point, God's goodness
to mankind after the fall. And for these, we look at chapter
three in Genesis, verse nine, God called Adam to account. And the Lord God called unto
Adam and said unto him, where art thou? He called Adam to account. He called Eve to account. He
called Satan to account. What would be the alternative?
If God wasn't a good God, why he would just said, man is just
rebellious. I would just leave him. I would
just blot him out. I'll finish his human race. I
will completely kill him and that shall be the end of his
existence." But instead of this, he called him to account. And that is a blessing. You know,
there would be those in our society, if they were accused of doing
something wrong, that would find it to be such an injustice that
they weren't able to give their side of it or to speak or to
be asked to give an account if they weren't wanted to be heard
at all. God gave Eve opportunity to speak, Adam opportunity to
speak, Satan, he brought them to account. And you know it is
our mercy is the goodness of God. that God should bring us
in this time-state to account, that brings us to his word, that
searches us out, that tries our ways before the great solemn
Judgment Day, before we have departed this life, and there's
no hope then of grace and of mercy. The Apostle Paul, he went
on as a righteous and upright man, as he thought in his own
eyes, but walking contrary to God. But God brought him to the
law of God and brought him to account. He said, when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died. He was brought to account and
brought in as a transgressor. Adam and Eve were brought in
as transgressors. The apostle says the law is a
schoolmaster unto Christ. The law of God shows that we
are sinners. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. And if we are to be saved from
our sins, and the Lord Jesus Christ is to save his people
from their sins, the first thing is to be brought to account.
And every one of the Lord's dear children will bless the time
that God brought them to account, brought them to be guilty, brought
them to be under sentence of death, and brought them to need
a Saviour and to seek the Saviour. So that is the Lord's first goodness
that was shown here after the fall. The second goodness is
the promise of redemption. That is in verse 15. And I will
put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and
her seed. It shall bruise thy head, Thou
shalt bruise his heel. It might seem a very obscure
promise. In fact, it is spoken to Satan. A man looks on and he listens
on. But it is a promise of the coming
Messiah. God and man in one person in
the Lord Jesus Christ that he should come. And in the gospel
according to Luke chapter three, you will read the genealogy from
Mary, the mother of our Lord, right back down to Adam and to
God. The Lord Jesus Christ is this
fulfilment of this promise of the Saviour that should, in dying
upon Calvary's tree, that he should destroy the works of Satan,
that he should overcome death, and that he should rise again
from the dead. and that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but should have eternal life. The
Lord gave in his goodness and mercy a ray of hope, a promise
to fallen man. We read in Hebrews 11 of the
first evidences of faith, true saving faith, is to view the
promises afar off and embrace them. And may we see right here
the goodness of the Lord. This is what David extols the
Lord in our text. The Lord is good to all, his
tender mercies are over all his works. When the Lord came and
the angels proclaimed from heaven, it was on earth peace, goodwill
toward man. When the Lord sent forth his
servants to preach the gospel, It wasn't just go to this part
and go to that. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. This is the goodness of the Lord.
The preaching of the gospel is preaching the fulfilment of this
promise given in the goodness of God right in the Garden of
Eden, right at the very beginning. The Lord's goodness then, is
expressed in the promises of a saviour, the promise of redemption
and saving from our sins. The third goodness is a sentence
that is suspended. In verse 19 we read, In the sweat
of thy face thou shalt eat bread, till thou return unto the ground,
For out of it was thou taken, for thus thou art none to thus
shalt thou return." What is that for here? God did not literally
kill Adam straight away. Adam was to yet live many hundreds
of years before he was to die, but he did die. And we read in
Genesis 5 of that long list of those that died. The book of
the generations of Adam is how chapter 5 begins. And the days of Adam after he
had begotten Seth were 800 years. All the days that Adam lived
were 930 years and he died. And right away through that chapter,
Genesis 5, We read, and he died, and he died, except for Enoch
that walked with God, and God took him. He was not, is like
Elijah, taken up into heaven, like those when the Lord comes
at the last day, shall be changed instead of dying, and translated. But for mankind, for predominantly,
he shall die, but not immediately. In the time from our birth, To
the time of our death is the day of grace. It's a time where
there is that possibility of being saved. Once we've died,
there's no possibility of being saved. Now is the appointed time. Now is the day of grace. And
it was in the lengthening out of that man's days that there
was the mercy given. We see this in the case of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was told that he should
die. But at that time, and he was
in the line to Christ, there was no seed, he hadn't got a
son. And he cried unto the Lord and
the Lord gave him 15 years, added 15 years to his life. In that
time Manasseh was born. And the blessing then was continued. So in the lengthening of his
days was a blessing. And we are to look upon every
day the Lord gives us While there is life, there is hope. May we
never despair of life and that. May we never be of those that
would cut short, by our own deeds and by our own hand, our life
that God has given. God always holds man's life very
precious. He says in Genesis 9 that, whosoever
sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. For in the
image of God, made he man. Man is special, his life is precious,
because it is while his life is lengthened out, he may find
the Saviour and be blessed in his soul. Many of the Lord's
people, many of those who have been brought to be converted
later on in their lives can look back, as I can, to so-called
accidents that we've had when we were ignorant of God, when
we were far off from God, and the Lord preserved our lives.
Yes, we woke up unconscious in hospital. We could have woken
up in eternity and before God's judgment throne, but he lengthened
out our lives. And in that lengthening of time,
he brought us to be called by his grace, to know the Saviour,
and to be saved. This is the Lord's goodness to
man, a sentence suspended, a lengthening of lives. And dear friend, if
you know not the Lord, the Lord has blessed you with life and
in the day of grace. And may you seek him while he
is able to be found and call upon him while he is near. And
whatever things we may think of the troubles and trials that
are around us, to know that the Lord is a good and a gracious
God, and yes, he brings his discipline, he brings his rod, and we are
all under the sentence of death, and yet he has not dealt with
us as our sins have deserved. We deserve eternal death, but
he's given a promise of the Saviour, he's been given a promise that
all things shall work together for good to them that love God,
to them that are the called, according to his purpose. And we have this beautiful psalm,
this word that one of the Lord's dear people, David, would praise
the Lord because he sees this goodness and may we see it every
day of our lives. The Lord is good to all. His
tender mercies are over all his works. And yes, we read in another
place how that he is good, he opens his hand, satisfies the
desire of every living thing, in verse 16, he causeth his sun
to shine upon the just and unjust, the rain upon him that serveth
him and him that serveth him not. These things the Lord does
to his creation, whether they serve him or not, the Lord is
a good God, he's a merciful God, but he's a God of salvation.
May we seek him for eternal blessings and for those blessings of his
grace, that we be saved from our sin and that we be saved
to be with him forever and forever in glory. The Lord is good and
his tender mercies are over all his works. May the Lord then
add his blessing. Amen.