Psalm 150. I'm always surprised at what
I find in the word of God. I read these psalms just like
you. Tonight you may not have heard
that psalm in a while and when I read them First time I'm getting
ready to study it. It may have been a while since
I've read them and I think what in the world am I going to say
about that? We've been talking about praising the Lord since
Psalm 1. You know, what are we going to say more about that?
And that's pretty much all this psalm is about is praising the
Lord. It's always a surprise. I think there's a few hidden
gems in this psalm tonight and I pray that the Lord would be
gracious to us to benefit from them. Praise
you the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary.
Praise him in the firmament of his power. To praise God is to worship him. You can't do one without the
other. Praise him. We've talked about
worship before. Specifically, it means worth-ship
or to attribute worthiness unto God. And that's what praising,
you can't do that without praising. speak highly of him, you say
good things about him. And that's worship and praise.
We saw before in our studies in the Psalms how that the word
praise means literally to shine. And of course, that reminds us
of what our Lord said in Matthew 5, 14, you are the light of the
world. That's what light does. That's
pretty much what light does and it shines. to shine. That's praise. He said,
a city that's set on a hill can't be hid. Neither do men light
a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candlestick. And it
giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light
so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify
your Father which is in heaven. God made us lights and gives
us grace, the ability to shine to one purpose, the glory of
his name. If you think you're shining and
people are bragging on you, you're not shining. If you're shining, by God's definition,
He gets the glory. Praise Him in His sanctuary.
That word sanctuary means in His holiness, in His apartness.
It means holy place, but As it's applied here, but the word strictly
means in his apartness And so that gives us a couple of different
thoughts here several different lessons turn to psalm 137 It's
back a few pages here to psalm 137 His praise should be something
separate That's what this word means There is a separateness
a sacredness and apartness to his praise, and we'll see that
here. Psalm 137, by the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down,
yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. You've heard of the Babylonian
captivity. The children of Israel were captives
of the Babylonians. And this is what he said, we
sat down in Babylon and we remembered our home, Israel. We wept. It was sad. We hanged our harps
upon the willows in the midst thereof. We hung up our instruments. We didn't play them. We put them
away. For there, they that carried
us away captive required of us a song. And they that wasted
us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. They thought, you know, just
for entertainment's sake, you know, we'll just, we'll sing
one of the Lord's songs. You know, we want to be entertained.
And he asked this, how shall we sing the Lord's song in a
strange land? You see how that applies to our
text? His praise is apart. It has nothing to do with this
world. His worship is apart from the things of this world. You
can't mix it. It's not for entertainment. It's
not for the mirth, for just this world to bandy about the things
of God. That's a special thing that we
do here. This is not a sanctuary, this
building, but when we gather together in His name, that's
a sanctuary. That's a part. That's separate. That's precious. That's sacred
because of Him. When God said, take off your
shoes, Moses, this is holy ground, there wasn't any difference in
that dirt there than there was in that dirt over there. But
it was holy ground because He said it was holy ground. Because
of His presence. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember
thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. If I prefer
not Jerusalem above my chief joy, the things of God are precious
and special and above everything else to be kept sacred. Remember, O Lord, the children
of Edom in the day of Jerusalem who said, Raise it, raise it,
even to the foundation thereof. O daughter of Babylon, who art
to be destroyed, happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as
thou hast served us. Happy shall he be that taketh
and dasheth thy little one. Remember when we studied that?
Right now the Babylonians are in charge. Not going to be that
way long. Can we take that home? The Babylonians
are kind of in charge now, aren't they? In this world. Not for
long. Not for long. Also, to give praise unto God. Let's think about this. When
we come to the worship, we don't come primarily to get, to receive,
although we do. We come for a blessing, to ask,
to pray, and to ask God, but we also come to thank Him, to
praise Him, to give, to give praise to Him. We don't have
anything to give but what we've received. We understand that.
But we have received. We've received grace. We've received
an understanding. He's given us an understanding.
And so we come here to praise Him, to worship Him in truth
and in spirit. We're to give that freely. God's
sanctuary is His holy place. And that's Christ. That's not
this building. You know that. You can't praise Him if you don't
know Him and you can't know Him apart from His Son. You can't
worship Him. He that honoreth not the Son,
honoreth not the Father. So we're here to honor His Son
and through Him all of the Godhead, all of the whole Godhead dwells
in Him and in the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, all things are
delivered unto me of my father, and no man knoweth the son but
the father, neither knoweth any man the father save the son,
and he, is this you? To whomsoever the son will reveal
him. You can't praise who you don't
know, and you don't know him unless God's son revealed him. That's worshiping him, praising
him in the sanctuary, in his holy place in Christ. And our
Lord said, no man cometh unto the father but by me. We can't
pray except we pray in his name. What business have you got coming
to God? Well, I come in the name of your son. We're only accepted
in the beloved, Paul said. We can't worship God except in
his sanctuary, and that's Christ. This has to do with praising
him for who he is. He is holy. He is apart. He is
sacred. He is perfect, righteous, sinless,
precious. And we praise him in the firmament
of his power. The word firmament means expanse. And that's used in the scripture
to refer to the heavens that we see, the sky, the heavens
that are visible to man. because of the vastness of them.
But here it refers to the power of God. You can see the simple
and beautiful and clear analogy. His power is immense. It's limitless. It's over all. He is holy. He is almighty. Now, verse 2, praise Him for
what He does. We praise Him for who He is.
but also for what he has done because what he is makes what he does
what it is. You know that. Somebody dying
on a cross is no big deal, but a lot of people died on crosses
when that was the thing. But if the Holy One, if the Prince
of Life died on a cross, now we're going to meet every week
and sing his praises and think on that and worship him, attribute
worthiness to the lamb that was slain. And we're going to do
that from now on because of who it is that died. A man's death, however he dies,
is the wages of sin, but Christ's death is a mighty act. His mighty
acts, his death, they spoke of the death he should accomplish
on the Mount of Transfiguration. That's the mightiest of his acts.
He led captivity. Captive. He redeemed all of God's
people. My one sacrifice. Now in the
end of the world. With his one sacrifice for sin,
he perfected forever. All those who he sanctified with
his precious blood. This is what he came to do. The
work that the Father sent him to do. His death is the accomplishment
of all accomplishments because of who he is. That's why Paul
worded it the way he did in Romans 8.34. Who is he that condemneth?
It is Christ that died. He didn't just say who is he
that condemneth the Lord Jesus died. It is Christ that died. That's why I'm sinless. That's why I'm free. That's why I'm saved. yea rather
that is risen again and is seated at the right hand of God who
also maketh intercession for us. Praise him for what he's
done past, present, think of it two different ways, past,
present, and future. He chose me, he redeemed me,
he birthed me again by his Holy Spirit. Right now he keeps me,
he sustains me, he comforts me. He preserves me. He feeds my soul spiritually.
He loves me right now. I wouldn't want to live without
his love. How about you? He will come back for me. He
will glorify me. He will forever be my heaven.
So past, present, future. What he, who he is, what he's
done. And then think of it this way, what he's done for me and
what he's done in me. He covenanted for me before there
ever was a me. He agreed to be my surety. He
agreed knowing, people talk about cosigning on a bank note as being
surety. And that's a pretty good analogy
because you're responsible for that debt. You signed on. And if it's not paid, they're
coming for you. But the thing about it is, our
Lord Jesus Christ co-signed for us for inestimable debt, knowing
that we were gonna forfeit it. Knowing he would have to pay
it. If I co-sign, I hope I don't
have to. But he did so willingly. And
he didn't owe silver and gold. But his own soul has made an offering for my sin.
And he did that for me. I wasn't in on that, except in
that he did it for me. He worked and does work all things
for me, all providences for me. I don't have anything to do with
that. That's done for me. He arranges everything for me.
He overrules everything in my favor. He died for me. I don't contribute
to that. He paid the full price of my
redemption, and if he didn't, I'd be lost. But he did, and
so I'm forever free. He rose for me. He intercedes
for me, as we just read. But he also works in me. Christ
in me is the hope of glory. I have no hope Unless he is in
me. He worked faith in me It's by
grace through faith that I'm saved. And so without faith,
there's no salvation He did that in me He gave peace within he
made peace for me by his blood and he put his peace in me by
showing me His precious blood by giving me faith in his blood
He works in me both to will and to do of His good pleasure. I
wouldn't be preaching the gospel tonight if He wasn't working
in me. No telling where I'd be. No telling. Philippians 2.13 It is He that
worketh in you. And then praise Him according
to His excellent greatness. Praise Him for His excellent
greatness. Praise Him for who He is and
what He does. He does, He doeth all things
well. He doeth all things well. Praise
Him for the way that He does things. Look who He's done them
for. That has something to do with
the greatness of it, doesn't it? His mercy is great. But also
according to or appropriate to His excellent greatness. Now
let me read you something. Deuteronomy 26, turn over there
with me. Deuteronomy 26, verse 7. I wanted
to read you a little different passage of scripture than we've
probably looked at before on this subject. 26-7 of Deuteronomy. And when we cried unto the Lord
God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice. He talked about
when they were in Egypt in affliction and bondage for 400 years. And
he looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression
and the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand
and with an outstretched arm and with great terribleness and
with signs and with wonders. And he hath brought us into this
place and he hath given us this land. Can we think about that
for a minute? You may have lived in the same house you live in
now before you knew the Lord. But it's a whole new place now.
He's brought us into this land now spiritually. He's given us this land, even
a land that floweth with milk and honey. Spiritually speaking,
there wasn't any milk and honey flowing at your house before
you knew him. But now we're beautiful for situation
in Christ. And now, behold, I have brought
the firstfruits of the land which thou, O Lord, hast given me.
And thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God, and shalt worship
before the Lord thy God. And thou shalt rejoice in every
good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee and
unto thy house, to your children, to your grandchildren, to everybody
in your house. Is that what part of what we
do here tonight? The first fruits are his. And we talked about that before.
The significance of that is he gets the best of everything.
It's offered unto him. He gave it to us to begin with.
And it's also an act of faith because there may not be any
second fruit. We offer unto Him the firstfruits. He may send
a drought. There may not be any more fruit that year. That's
all right. It's His anyway. We're not going to regret giving
it to Him, are we? We're not going to regret it. Not in spirit. Not if we're thinking right. We rejoice in every good thing
as something that He, the Lord thy God, hath given unto thee
and unto thine house. And I want to try to say something
again tonight that I've tried to say several times and no doubt
not said very well. I want to impress this upon us
tonight more than anything. Whatever you do for Him. And as I said Sunday, I don't
know if selling something at work or filling out a report
or doing some paperwork, I don't know if that is for the Lord
or not. I don't know. I know in some
sense everything that a believer does should be worship unto him,
but I know this, to meet in his name. He's the one that said
do that. He directly tells us to come
before him with praises and with singing. When there's an opportunity
to sing his praises, don't miss it. It don't matter what it sounds
like on the outside. The Lord doesn't hear the way
we do. He don't look on the outside
and He don't hear the same way we do. But whatever we do for
Him must be done with all the heart, with all the skill that
He's given to us. Usually what we do for ourselves,
we do with a lot more fervency and motivation and care and energy
than what we do for the Lord. And that can't be that way. It
can't be like that. That's got to change. I'm saying
that to me and to you. That's got to change. Listen
to Psalm 8410. For a day in thy courts is better
than a thousand. Is that not the truth? A day
with Him, a day if He meets with us, a day in His love and in
His grace and in His presence is better than a thousand. And
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God and to
dwell in the tents of wickedness. I would rather just stand there
at that door and let people in and make sure you know that the
hot air or the cold air don't get out. Just be a doorkeeper
in His house than everything else I do in this world. Is that
what that's saying? Or did I make that up? One of these days, we're not
going to do anything but serve Him and worship Him and praise
Him. And that's going to be way better than this. Isn't that
right? For the Lord God is a sun and
shield. The Lord will give grace and
glory. No good thing will he withhold from them. They woke
up rightly, O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth
in thee. And I'm telling you now, if you
give him the firstfruits, you're going to have to trust him. You're
going to have to trust Him to do that now. If you're committed
to His ministry, you're going to have to trust Him. You're
going to have to trust Him that other things are not going to
suffer. He's not going to allow it. No one's ever been the loser
for honoring Him with all their heart. Nobody. That's not my
God. If something needs to be done
in the service of our Lord, in the maintenance of His place
of worship, in aid to one of His sheep in any way, Former
fashion, I always remind us if you do it to one of the least
of these my brethren you've done it to me, he said. Do you realize
the magnitude of that? The opportunity of that? To do something to better propagate
his gospel perhaps. We must whatever in any of that
we must do it earlier. We must do it better. We must
do it more often We must do it more heartedly more thoroughly
more cheerfully than anything else. We do can I say it, right? And can I hear it as well as
say it? Look at the next few verses and
listen listen to the verses 3 through 5 Psalm 150 Gotta get back over there. The
final psalm, y'all. This is the final one. What a
blessing. What a blessing this study's
been to my heart. Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet.
Praise Him with the psaltery and harp. Praise Him with the
timbrel and dance. Praise Him with stringed instruments
and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals.
Praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. Is that just repetitive?
Is that just, you know, mundane? Those three verses now, listen,
they go along with the first part of verse six. Let everything
that hath breath praise the Lord. You can praise him somehow now. You can praise him somehow. Quite
a few of us can't play the piano. Just probably a couple of people
in this room can play the piano. If you can, play it for him. Quite a few of us now can't sing. Some of us can. Some of us can
sing. Many can sing here. Some can't
play the guitar. That's one thing I can kind of
halfway do. Everybody has a gift. You see
what this is saying? You can't play the harp. You
might say, oh I could never play the harp. All those strings on
there. What? How in the world does anybody ever? Can you play
a cymbal? Can you just keep time with a
cymbal maybe? You work on it hard enough. Everybody has gifts. If all you can do is play the
cymbal, praise him with that. Do it with all your heart. Get
good at it. Get better at it every time you play it. We've
talked about this before. You're not going to play a harp
without working at it. That's what this is talking about.
His praise is not about convenience. Aren't we guilty of that? Let's
make it as convenient as we possibly can. That's fine. But we've got
to get beyond convenience somehow when it comes to worshiping our
God. We've got to go beyond that. And this same principle applies
to all kinds of other gifts. Think about this. I thought about the various gifts
that people in our church have. And you may think of certain
people when I mention these things. That's fine. It's just us. We'd
be honest about it, can't we? Some people, I thought about
this, have just a friendly and vibrant personality. I've been
told straight up I don't have that and I agree. I don't. Some
people do have that. They just get along, they're
friendly, they can talk to anybody, anytime, anywhere. That's a gift
from God. That's something that can be
helpful in the ministry. Did you know that? Some have
the ability to witness of the Lord Jesus Christ verbally better
than other people do. Some people just ain't gonna
do that. They're just not going to open their mouth and start
talking about the Lord. Some people can. If you can't
do that, I'm not going to say just give up on that. Try to
do that when you can. Can you talk to your children
about the Lord? Everybody's responsible to do that now. Some are okay to read scripture
and pray publicly. to represent all of us before
God in prayer. Some people prefer not to do
that, and I say up front, that's perfectly fine. Don't do that
because you feel like you're required to do that. Some people
can. Some people would rather not. That's fine. Some are more
gifted than others to pray publicly. Well, I ought not to say this.
Some people have money that I'll never have. Uh-oh, Chris, you
ought not to talk about money. Why? Why are people offended
by that? It's just another gift from the
Lord, isn't it? Just another gift from the Lord.
Some of us have some. Some of us don't have very much.
That's just another gift. Praise Him for whatever you have. Do you see how that applies here?
Some can play the harp. Some can just maybe play a cymbal.
They may have to work at that. They may get out of time on that.
Work at it harder. Do it until you can do it right. Some of us are skilled to labor
in different ways. Some of us have abilities. There's
always something that needs to be done, isn't there, if you're
going to maintain a place of worship. Some of us can go into
the crawl space and work on the plumbing. I can't do that. I'm
not going to do that. There are two kinds of people
in the world, people that go into crawl spaces and people
like me. But another very important lesson
from these three verses here, praising the Lord is not just
something you say, it's something you do. When you play an instrument,
when you work on something, when you drive a nail, when you keep
the door, when you just are just friendly and encouraging to people,
you have that gift, that's praising the Lord. You do that for Him.
Do it for Him. The love of Christ constrains
us. Does it not? Can you get away from that? Are
we ever going to get away from that? He constrains us with His
love. Because we just can't. I know
the flesh lusts against the Spirit. We can't do anything like we
ought to. But the Spirit lusts against the flesh too. And I
just can't. I can't completely get away in
anything that I do from the fact. Look what He did for me. If he died for all, then they
which live should not henceforth live under themselves, but under
him which died for them. And rose again. Remember what David said in 1
Chronicles 29.14, who am I and what is my people that we should
be able to offer so willingly after this sort, whatever it
is. It takes some time and effort
to to be the treasurer for this church. David Scott can attribute
to that, can testify to that, and so can Ken Melton. Things
like that, to do this, to tape the messages and get them online
and things like that, takes some dedication. It's thankless and
it's time consuming. Who am I? And what is my people
that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort?
For all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given
thee. And David closed this psalm by
saying this, don't miss this, you praise him. You may agree
with everything I've said tonight, Oh, everything that I agree,
everything that hath praise, ought to praise the Lord. Great,
I agree. Fine, wonderful. Now you praise Him. You see what
He does? He brings it right here. You praise the Lord. That's how
He closes it. May God bring that home to our
hearts. How are we going to praise Him tonight? How are we going
to praise Him tomorrow? Praise ye the Lord. May God give
us grace. We're not going to be here long. Whatever we're going to do, let's
get to do it. You reckon? For His glory. Let's pray together.