First Psalm, Psalm 1. Psalm 1. Verse 1 says, Blessed. That's the description that God
gives. It's not a description that has
been suggested to him. He might pass it on to us. But this description here is
of his own making. And the greatest I guess, that
can be said of a man or to be told of a man is that he's blessed. It's one thing to be blessed
in the eyes of men and to receive this high and holy description
by men, but to think that if God says this about a man, It's a wonderful thing, I think.
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. He's not influenced. He's not
influenced by the wicked. He doesn't stand in the way of
sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight
is in the law of the Lord. in the word of the Lord. Not
necessarily confining this to the Ten Commandments, but in
the word of the Lord. Every word of the Lord is pure.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth
he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water, and bringeth forth his fruit in due season. His leaf shall not wither, whatsoever
he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but they
are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the
ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the
congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way
of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. If you'll turn with me to Psalm
33. We'll make a few comments here
and go home. Psalm 33, verses 18 and 19. It says, Behold, the eye of the
Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy
to deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Now, it does not say here. that
the eye of the Lord is on those who are believing, and those
who are obedient, and on those who are faithful. But I believe His eye is on them. But it does not say that here. But it says that His eye is on
them that fear him, that give reverence to him. Not fear a slavish-like fear, but a fear
of reverence, a fear of appreciation and so
forth. deliver their soul from death. I don't know how much you know. I know I don't know much about
mourning over the feeling of spiritual death. The great apostle
said that he knew a little something about it because he said, I die
daily. I died daily, mourned over the feeling of spiritual
death. In another place he said, The
sentence of death is in ourselves. But the point that I want to
make is that the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him. His
eye is on those, and upon those that hope. in His mercy. They fear Him and they hope in
His mercy that their soul might be delivered from death, the
second death. And He might keep them alive
in famine. And we're in a time of famine
now. That is, famine of the Word. There's not much of the Word
that is being taught in our day, everything contrary to the Word. And there is a famine of the
Word. I trust that there'll never be a famine in this place, that
we'll always have the Word as our rule and practice and so forth. But there's another precious
verse here in this 34th Psalm that I'll read and call your
attention to. I think it's in verse 15. It says that the eyes of the Lord. Down here it says, Behold, the
eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him. Over here it says,
The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous. And his ears are
open to their cry, the eyes of the Lord. Then it says, The face
of the Lord, verse 16, is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of
them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the Lord
heareth. and delivereth them out of all
their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that
are of broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. That's precious, those scriptures
are. Who are the righteous? That's
His own people. That's those that are eternally
loved by God Himself. They are eternal, beloved members
of His church. of his body, whom he has seen
righteous in his righteousness. That's who the righteous are,
the eyes of the Lord upon the righteous, who are the righteous. They are those that his eyes
see righteous in his righteousness. Now, we understand that, but
not many people do. We're righteous in His righteousness. His eyes behold us. His eyes are upon us. He sees
us righteous in His own righteousness. He sees us perfect in His own
perfection. He sees us complete in Him. That's the way He views us. Sees
us, as we said as we prayed. He sees us in Him, and as He
is in this world, so are we. And we rejoice that the Lord
sees us this way. Over in the book of Matthew chapter
9, of the book of Matthew. There
is something here that is very precious about what the Lord
sees. Chapter 9, verse 2 there. Verse 1 says that our Lord entered
into a ship and passed over and came into his own city. And behold, they brought to him
a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed. Remember, I talked to you this
morning about coming to Jesus, coming to Jesus. What did I say? I said, All ye that labor under heavy
laden, come unto me. and I will give you rest." Here's
a man that he came unto Jesus. And, behold, they brought to
him a man sick of the palsy lying on a bed. And it's talking about the eyes
of Jesus. Jesus, seeing their faith, said
unto the sick of the palsy, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven
thee." Now, that man that came to Jesus lying
on a bed, how did that man come to Jesus? Now, he did not come
running, he didn't come walking, or he didn't come crawling. Listen to me, "...of himself."
He could not come at all, yet he did come. Yet he did come. They brought
him. And it does not say here that
the Lord saw the fate of the man who was sick of the palsy,
but it says, that he saw the faith he saw. His eyes are upon the righteous. His eyes saw them that brought
him. He saw their faith of those that
brought him. And what was the result? Well,
our Lord owned him as a son. and gave him such sweet encouragement,
he gave him the assurance of sins forgiven, and he restored
his health to his body. The eyes of the Lord saw their
faith, their faith. Well, he said, Son, be of good
cheer, thy sins are forgiven. And they said, certain of the scribes,
said within themselves, this man blasphemeth. That's what
they said about the Lord. Jesus, knowing their thoughts,
wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? He knows, the book of
Hebrews, the fourth chapter says, He knows the thoughts and the
intents of every man's heart. The thoughts and the intents
of every man's heart. So he said, Which is easier to
say, Thy sins forgiven thee, or say, Rise and walk? This man, he arose and departed
into his house, went away happy. The Lord owned him and blessed
him. Then there's another. Passage
here I want to call your attention to in the book of Mark, or the
book of Luke. Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22. Verse 61, 62. It says, And the Lord turned,
and he looked on Peter. His eyes fixed on Peter. The
Lord turned, and he looked on Peter. And Peter remembered the word
of the Lord, how he had said unto him before the cock crow,
Thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. Well, you remember now that Peter,
after many promises and protests to the contrary, fails in his
discipleship to the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead of standing with
him like he said he would do, I'll stand with you. I'll die
with you. I'll defend you unto death. He failed in his discipleship. One lesson we need to learn here
is this. Don't be in a hurry. Don't get
in a hurry to make promises what you will do for him or what you'll
do for his people or what you'll do for his cause. Don't be in
such a big hurry to make promises concerning these things because
it may be before your promises is realized that he may come
along and blank our hopes and wither our expectations about
fulfilling that promise. If you feel that you have something
to do by way of promise, Do it now and do it as quick as you
can. Fear promised to stand by. Instead
of standing by, he followed afar off. And the Lord turned and
looked on Peter down there. The Lord turned and his eyes
was fixed upon Peter. Now, the Lord's look to Peter,
the Lord's eyes fixed on Peter was one of loving remembrance. Now, you can depend on this. His looks, when he looks upon
the righteous, looks upon his own, those that he owns, those
that own him, When he looks upon us in our weakness and in our
wanderings, his looks are always looks of love. Now, that ought
to help you. Weak and wandering as we are,
when the eyes of the Lord look upon us, and they're always fixed
upon the righteous, he looks always upon us in love. like he did old Peter. And he
restored old Peter, didn't he? Didn't he restore him? And old
Peter became a mighty, a mighty man in the army of God. And everybody knows about Peter. Anybody that knows anything at
all about the Bible, if you'll ask them, tell me. In the name of one of the apostles.
They'll always say, Peter was an apostle. Peter was an apostle. Oh, listen. And one more thing
over here. I think it's Song of Solomon. Something there that kind of
took my eye. I was thinking about it when
I came up here this afternoon. I always come in through that
building and come through here. And most all of the time, sometimes
I forget, but not too often. I haven't forgot too many times.
You remember now, I come up here sometimes during the week, but
I come up here twice every Sunday. I come in the morning around
7.15, 7.30, and I come in the afternoon, sometimes around 3.30
or quarter to 4. And I've been doing that for
I don't know how many years. Sometimes I forget to go out
there and unlock that door. Sometimes, not very many times,
but the first thing I do, I have a cup of coffee, I set that down,
and I walk right back there and open that door. First thing,
turn the lights on, open the door. And I always look out to
see if there's a dove sitting on that big plank up
there. And he always sits there. Do
you ever look at that dove out there? I want to take a good
look at that dove, especially at that dove's eyes. His eyes are like a pure circle. His eyes are like a wedding band,
that round. An emblem, no end, no end to
this round circle. It just goes around, there's
no end to it. And you look up there at that
little old dove, and that dove never flies away, never gets
scared of you. Every ten of you can go out through
there, and the kids will be hollering and all that, and that old dove
will just be sitting right there. And the thing about that dove,
he's got that big black eye looking on this side, and he never blinks
that eye. He never bats his eye. Just looks at you, never moves.
Over here in the Song of Solomon, it says, Our Lord Jesus Christ,
Song of Solomon chapter 5, it describes the Beloved here and says, My Beloved is white. It has to do with purity, ruddy,
the cheapest among ten thousand. His head is as most fine gold. His locks are bushy. and as black
as a raven. And here's the thing that got
me. His eyes are the eyes of doves by the rivers of the water,
washed with milk and fitly set. You look at that dove when you
go out, you'll see the right side of that dove's head. You'll
see that eye, that round circle, that black eye. And it's set. It's fitly set. Now, His eyes
are as the eyes of a dove. And this is what they call in
the Bible a metaphor. And this metaphor is to direct
our attention to the true nature of the Lord's love to His own. says that he has, his eyes are
like the eyes of a dove. Now the thing that is remarkable
about the dove, it's remarkable for its gentleness. The dove
never flies away. If it was a sparrow or a robin
or a cardinal or a wren or a crow, they'd fly away. But the dove is not like that. The dove is known for its gentleness
and for its consistency, and it's known for its faithfulness. When the dove takes up a mate,
he takes that mate forever. And when that mate dies, he remains
chaste, the living bird. And our Lord Jesus Christ is
like that dove. His eyes are the eyes of doves by the
rivers of water, washed with milk and dipped in sin. That's our dear Savior, faithful
to us. He said, I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. I'll never give you up. He said,
I'll never deny you. All that my Father gives to me
shall come to me, and him that comes to me, our Lord says, him
that comes to me, I will in no wise cast him out. I will under
no circumstance under no difficulty, whatever transpires, wayward,
wandering, whatever the situation, my beloved is mine, and I'll
never cast him out. Oh, the eyes of a devil. Our Lord Jesus loves us. Never going to let us go, Father.
never going to let us go. I look for the time when He calls
me. I really do. Of course, some
of you are older than me, but most of you are not. Man, you just... Someone said, well, it's kind
of selfish for a man to want to leave this world. Well, I
don't know about that, but I'd be glad to get rid of it, Won't
you? I'd be glad. I've seen about all that I want
to see, haven't I? I don't know if there's anything
I haven't seen that I want to see. I want to be with Him. Trials and troubles, no more.
No tears. No wanderings. We'll be taken
up with Him completely. We'll know him. We'll know him
as he's known. Paul, you know, over there in
the book of Philippians, he said, Oh, that I might know him. Oh,
that I... He knew him. He knew him. But he said, Oh, that I might
know him. Well, I think all of us have
that desire to a degree anyhow. Now, we prize. I prize. God's sovereignty that chose
me in eternity past, I prize that. That's great blessing to
my poor heart to think that God would choose me and that He would
send the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem me by His own blood. I
prize those things. And I prize the fact that I'm
clothed in His righteousness. and am looked upon by God as
though I had never sinned, that's a high prize for me. Being accepted in the Beloved
and having all of my sins forgiven, yesterday, today and forever,
all of them is gone. There will not be a sin, that's
not one sin, that will rise up in judgment and point its finger
at the believer. All God's faithful, Oh, no, I
prize all those things, but I too, in a sense like Paul, I like
to know him better. I like to know him himself. I prize his righteousness that's
imputed to me, but I like to know himself. Him, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the person, him. That's what Paul's talking about. I yearned, he said, I pressed
toward that mark that I might know Him. Let's stand, we'll
go our way.