Psalm 95 started a lot like this
one does, about singing unto the Lord. Sing unto the Lord. Let us make
a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation, it said there.
And because of the language of that psalm, we emphasize there,
in talking about the singing, we emphasize the skill and preparation
and commitment that it takes, that does go into and should
go into singing. and accompanying the singing.
These songs were written, the lyrics were written, the music
was written, and somebody learned to play an instrument. And I
read you that passage of scripture where the whole congregation
of those who were gifted to play different instruments and singers,
they all sang as one and played as one. It takes a lot of skill
to do that. It takes a lot of dedication
to do that, and the Lord's worth it. He's worthy of it. Here it talks about singing a
new song. Well, why can't we just sing the old song? That's
what we do. We sing a lot of old songs, don't we? Well, we
do. We do that. And of course you can do that.
That's it's not saying don't sing anything that's not new,
but we do grow in understanding and we grow in appreciation of
the Lord and his mercies are always new to us. And so it's
good if we can write new songs. There are some of us that we
know and that we fellowship with that are gifted to do that. And
also, though, it's not just about singing different lyrics. The
Song of Heaven is not necessarily different lyrics, but it's always
new. The subject of it is new. His
mercies are always new. It has to do the word means fresh
let it be fresh in other words. Don't just sing Like here we
go again. This is familiar and we're just
kind of on autopilot Oh, it must be fresh And if you're singing
of him and you love him It will be fresh it's always for
you know, they sing worthy is the lamb Thou art worthy. They sing a new song. It says
in revelation five and nine But listen to the subject of it.
It's not a new subject matter. They said you're worthy to take
the book and open the seals there for thou was slain and has redeemed
us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and
people and nation has made us kings and priests unto our God
and we shall reign on the earth. It's the old story. It's the
old truth of his redeeming love and his precious blood. And we
still sing about that. We don't necessarily, we don't
sing the same song every time. And we don't sing necessarily
new words every time, but it must be fresh in our hearts. And I want to emphasize again
that we sing to him. It says that in both of these
songs, let's sing unto the Lord, Psalm 95 one, Psalm 96 one, let's
sing unto the Lord a new song. My wife gave me a tape when,
I think it was for my birthday a long time ago. I have to get her to do it again
because I've lost that one in all of our various moves. But it was of her singing just
for me. She was singing a beautiful song.
I'm not going to tell them what song it was. But it's a beautiful, romantic,
It was very special. It was a wonderful thing to me
to get that. And what made it special, it
was for me. I like to hear her sing anytime,
but that was just for me. And you know, it's a real blessing
to me that my Lord would even want to hear me sing to him. It's because he loves me. It doesn't have to always be
only congregational or public singing. We all sing here. I pray that we will or do. But
sometimes just sit down somewhere quiet by yourself and just sing
to him. You know, it's really not asking
a lot, is it? And I know I understand the sense
in which the Lord doesn't really ask anything. Everything God
says do has an element of command to it because he's the king.
I know that. But I think you see what I'm
saying. He doesn't ask that much of us
here. He doesn't ask us to build big buildings for him or save
the world. Just sing me a song. Just sing
me a song. What's the Lord's work? People
say, oh, well, we've got to go save, you know. We've got to
go to the ends of the earth. We've got to raise a bunch of
money. I don't see that in God's word. I just don't. Of course, we're to spread the
gospel and be witnesses for him. But don't forget what we might
take for granted or just overlook. The Lord wants to be sung to.
Is that too much to ask? He wants to be worshipped. He
wants us to tell people about who he is. That's in here, too.
We'll see that. But isn't that just a... You
want to do something for God? Just find a quiet spot somewhere,
sit down and sing him a song. And you know, we sometimes do
that while we're working in the yard. But don't always do it
when you're multitasking, because that just seems too much like
an afterthought, doesn't it? It needs to be more special than
that. Sometimes at least it's fine to do that other two if
you're driving or whatever. That's fine, too And it says all the earth here
because here's the thing about that Vicki had reason to sing
to me Just for me. She considered it worth the time
and the trouble To go and record a song Very professionally, very
nicely done, and she worked on it. Because I meant enough to
her, she wanted me to know how she felt about me. I got the
message. If our next door neighbor's wife
would have sung a song just for me, that would have been weird,
wouldn't it? That would be weird, and she wouldn't have been happy
about it. You see what I'm saying? She
sang it just for me. But where God is concerned, everybody
has reason to sing to Him. Everybody. He's blessed every
last one of us. His tender mercies. He makes
His Son to shine on the just and the unjust. We all have ample
reason. He made you. He breathed breath
into your bones and the dust that you're made out of. Let me stress something And especially
now this is for all who love him because you're not gonna
be able to sing a love song unless you love him But he's worthy
to be sung to about all who know him And all who he loves if he
loves you that's something worth singing about The way that he
loves Lots of beautiful songs already
written about that and The love of God, how rich, how
pure, how measureless and strong. And let me stress something else
that I often say when we're talking about singing, but I want to
say it a little differently this time. I think I got a little
bit of light maybe on this. Not everybody is a great singer
by the standards of this world. Or let's face it. By any standard,
some of us aren't great singers. You may very well say, well,
Chris can't sing a lick. But here's the thing, I'm not
singing to you. I'm not singing to you. On the way home, you know, from
church, you might say, well, he or she was off on that song.
Boy, oh, you know. But the only thing that matters
is what did the Lord think of it? That's who they're singing
to. What do you think about it? We're singing to him, and I don't
know exactly how he hears, but I know this about that. The way
that he hears has a whole lot less to do with tone and pitch,
and a whole lot more to do with the condition of your heart. If you're pouring your heart
out to him, that's beautiful to hear. And vice versa, you may be a
flawless singer, You may be just operatic, just
a beautiful sound, but Vicki and I heard singing at Nancy
Reagan's funeral the other day. We were watching that on TV,
and the voice was operatic, and technically speaking, I'm sure
by some measure, it was a great voice. But they were singing
about Mary. What do you think the Lord felt
about that? And it was all very cold and formal. May we sing
to the Lord with understanding, and with heart, with heart. That's how it's fresh right there. You know, in our, in the arcade,
old songs, you know, that we love to sing and love to hear,
you know, it makes them fresh. Not that somebody just wrote
it yesterday. What makes it fresh is It means something to me,
because to me, it's about her. That's what makes his songs fresh,
too. Not that they were written recently, but because you can
sing it from your heart like you've never sung it before,
like you've never heard it before, like you never even knew him
before. I hear the gospel sometimes, it's like it's the first time
I ever heard it. That's fresh. Verse 2 sing unto the Lord comma
bless his name now. We're talking about the subject
matter of our songs Bless his name when you sing now show forth
his salvation from day to day This is the subject of our singing
don't sing unto the Lord about Mary. I Don't recommend that
You know what Mary sang about She blessed his name didn't she
You read Mary's song, she blessed the most high God and thanked
him for saving her. And you're gonna sing about her?
Bless his name and it says, show forth, tell forth his salvation. From day to day, not every once
in a while, from day to day. Sing about how he shed his precious
blood to redeem us. Show forth his salvation. That's
what we sing about. The same gospel we preach, we
sing. Sing about the free grace and
the infinite love of God, that he would have mercy on a wretch
like me. Could we with ink the oceans
fill, and were the scav parchment made, and every stalk on earth
a quill, And every man, a scribe by trade, to write the love of
God would drain the oceans dry. Nor could the scroll contain
the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. That's a pretty good
song. That's the things that we sing.
We sing of his love, of his salvation, of his grace, of his mercy, of
his power. Verse three, declare his glory
among the heathen, his wonders among the people. The gospel
is what sets forth his glory. First Timothy 111 says this,
according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was
committed to my trust. If you have a margin, it probably
corrects the language there. The original language is this,
according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. which he committed to my trust.
He entrusted me to tell it. When Cornelius prayed, Lord,
send us your word. Send us the gospel. Send us your
truth. Teach us. God didn't send an angel. He
said to Cornelius, go get Peter. Go get the apostle Peter. He's
my preacher. He entrusted it to us, to wretches
like us, and said, declare it. If not us, then who? Never was God's glory put on
display anywhere like at Calvary. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory, save in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ. Declare among the heathen the
glories of Christ crucified. That's what he's saying here.
People that don't know, people that have never heard. I wish we could have sung at
Nancy Reagan's funeral. Don't you? I'd love to have been
there and sang. Nobody would have left there saying what great
singers they are, but I tell you this, you know what we would
have sang? I thought about that. What would we sing if we were there? Man of Sorrows, what a name.
For the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah,
what a Savior. Guilty, vile, and wretched we. Spotless Lamb of God was He.
Full atonement, can it be? Hallelujah, what a Savior bearing
shame and scoffing rude in my place condemned He stood sealed
my pardon with his blood Hallelujah What a Savior Declared among
the heathen. Maybe one day we'll get to sing
a president's funeral Nobody can declare the glory
of God, but those who have seen his glory And you know where
his glory is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. Christ is all in our singing,
all in our declaring, all in our hearts. And that's what this
is about. And he just asked, don't build
a family life center, sing to me, sing me a song. Verse four for the Lord is great.
And greatly to be praised. He is to be feared of all gods. Why do we sing to the Lord? Because
we're supposed to. Is that what I'm saying? I'm
not saying to you, look, you're supposed to sing. That's not
it. Because God gave us a talent.
You know, it's a shame not to use that talent. It doesn't say
sing because you're great. It says sing because he's great. That's just the way it ought
to be. It's not that we're supposed to sing. That's not really singing
if that's why you sing, because you're supposed to sing. We sing
because he's great. How can we not sing? Seeing who
he is and what he's done for us. How can we not? He is greatly to be praised.
He's to be praised in accordance with his own greatness. He's great. So he's to be praised
greatly. Do you know why God saved you? You see what this says, the last
couple of verses here, declare among the heathen his glory.
Sing of his mercy, sing of his greatness, because he's great. You know why he saved you? A
lot of reasons, several reasons why God saved you, because he
loves you. That's a good answer, isn't it? But you know, it wasn't
all about you. It says 1 Peter 2, 9, that you
are a chosen generation, picked out by God, selected by God,
a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people, especially
his. That's what peculiar means, bought
by him. Especially his. That you should show forth the
praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous
light. That's pretty good reasoning.
He chose you to do what our psalm says to do. He's to be feared
above all gods, it says. Feared above all gods. Are we
to sing then about how austere and strict and inflexible and
vengeful God is that his people might fear him? Well, he is inflexible
in his justice. He is vengeful. He said vengeance
is mine. But you listen to Psalm 130 verse
three. If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who
shall stand? He is inflexible, isn't he? If
he counts one of my sins to be mine, I'm a goner. But there
is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. It doesn't
say, Lord, nobody can stand before your strict justice that you
might be feared. It does acknowledge that. If
you mark one iniquity, we can't stand in your presence. But the
reason we fear you is because there's forgiveness with you. The right kind of fear. Remember
this now. The right kind of fear, reverence
for God, awe of God, allegiance and adoring of God, the right
way, comes with an understanding of his love, grace, mercy, and
forgiveness in Christ Jesus. If you know the strict, just,
vengeful God, you may sing to him and you may be afraid of
him, but you're not going to be able to sing the song we're
talking about tonight, till you know his son, Jesus Christ, and
the forgiveness of sins through his precious blood. You see what
I'm talking about? It comes with an understanding
of how God can be just and justify a sinner like you. David said,
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. That's always
what I'm going to sing about. Let's look at verses five through
10 in our psalm now. For all the gods of the nations
are idols now. He's to be feared alone. You
see that above all God, only he is to be feared because every
other so-called God is an idol. And I don't care if it's made
out of wood, if it's a little statue on your dashboard, if
it's an image hanging around your neck, or just in your imagination,
it's a false God. It's an idol. And look at the contrast drawn
in this passage now. Look at the contrast. They're
all idols. And first of all, let's look
at what an idol is. Look at Psalm 115, just a few
pages over here. Psalm 115, verse one. Psalm 115,
one, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us. But unto thy name give
glory. We can be an idol, too. You see
that? Not unto us. Don't let us get
any glory. Don't let any of us get any glory.
Don't let my family. I don't glorify anybody. Now,
we're to give honor to whom honor is due, acknowledging that God
gives honor unto men and to respect his authority when it's given
to men. No question about that. But we don't glorify anybody. John's bowed down to that angel
in Revelation. He said, no, no, no. See thou
do it not. Worship God. There's only one. Not unto us. For thy, see that? Mercy. And for thy truth's sake. And
you know, when we talk about, I say, you know, we don't sing
of his strict justice. We sing of his mercy. You can't
sing of his mercy without singing of his strict justice. None of
his attributes exist at the cost of another. It's not he's merciful
but he's just. He's merciful and he's just.
God has to be just in order to be merciful to you. Do you know
that? The Lord Jesus Christ is not going to bear the punishment,
the wrath of God against sin unless God is just. And if he
doesn't, you can't be saved. You see that it's all he's he's
one God and all of his attributes are one character. And we have
to separate them out to understand them. I understand that. But
don't don't think that one kind of limits the other. He's just
and merciful and sovereign and gracious and he is love. All of those things. But our God, look at, give glory
for thy mercy and thy truth's sake. Verse two, wherefore should
the heathen say, where is now their God? Where do you think
he is? He's on high. He's on his throne. He's in the heavens. He hath
done whatsoever he hath pleased. He's sovereign. He does as he
as he wills in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth. That's where he is. Whenever something happens,
it was him. Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of men's hands. They have mouths too, but they
don't say anything. What are you going to get from
a God that can't even speak to you? You know, unless God speaks
to us, where does that leave us? We have his word. He opened his mouth as a man.
He sat down on a rock and said, blessed are the peacemakers.
Blessed, blessed. He spoke the Beatitudes. He began
to talk about his mercy and grace towards sinners. Idols can't
do that. Whenever people get up and preach
a false Christ and say, he said this and he said that. No, he
didn't. He's an idol. He ain't never said anything. They have eyes, but they don't
see. They have ears, but they hear not. They can't hear your
cry. I can't hear your prayer. Noses have they, but they smell
not. They have hands, but they handle not. Feet have they, but
they walk not. Neither speak they through their
throat. They that make them are just like them, blind and deaf
and dumb. And so is everyone that trusteth
in them. Oh Israel, trust in the Lord. You trust in the Lord. But look at, Considered the God
of heaven and earth. I wanted to read that about idols.
That's what we said. They're all idols, but but look at this
verse 5 They're all idols, but the Lord made the heavens he
has hands And not only do they do and handle But they do and
handle everything There's nothing that he doesn't have his hand
in and his hand ain't short and he can't save you if he wants
to do that And look at it. Honor and majesty are before
him. He's to be revered. He's the only one to be feared,
to be reverenced and worshiped. Strength and beauty are in his
sanctuary. Where's that Christ? He's the
rock. Where was the sanctuary when
Moses said, show me your glory? He said, I'm going to hide you.
That's what sanctuary is. It's a hiding place. Where? In
the cleft of the rock. Put your feet on the rock. I'm
going to cover you there with my hand. Who is the hand of God? God don't have a hand. Yes, he
does. The Lord Jesus does. Strength. And beauty. In Christ, I'm safe. And I'm
in awe of his beauty. David said, oh, that I might
behold the beauty of the Lord. And inquire in his temple. That's
the one thing I've desired. Verse seven, give unto the Lord. Give. Give unto the Lord glory and
strength. Give unto the Lord the glory
that He's worthy of. It's due unto His name. Seeing
that His name is Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. If that's His name, we're going
to have to give Him honor and glory because it's due unto Him
because of who He is. Bring an offering and come into
his courts. Look at all that he's done and all that he is
as revealed in these verses here. And we're told here to give it
up for him, give unto him. We're told to sing, to declare,
and to give in this song. Give, give. It's not talking
about giving an offering, although it says that here, but we'll
talk about that in a second. It's talking about giving the
glory that's due unto him. Give it up. And when you give
Him glory, you're not actually adding anything to His glory.
You're not making Him more glorious. When we talk about giving something,
we usually think of, well, I had it, and now I give it to you,
and now you have it. To give unto the Lord glory is
to attribute it unto Him, to acknowledge that He's glorious.
And honor and worship. And it does say here, bring an
offering. The word offering here is gift, sacrifice, tribute. Tribute. What is the offering
that we give? Well, we offer Christ, don't
we? In a sense. We know the blood
of lambs and goats can't take away sin, but the blood of Christ
did take away sin. And so he's our offering before
God. And in a sense, we offer him as our sin offering. That's
what that old, that old publican was doing. God be propitious
to me on the mercy seat. Be merciful to me. That word
is propitious. It means receive the sin offering
at my hand. Receive the sin offering from
me. And that's Christ. And so that's what this is talking
about, an offering like that, but also the Lord has already
offered, and there's a sense there too, but we still give
him, listen to Hebrews 13, 15. By him, by Christ, therefore,
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. Sing
me a song, he said. Praise my name. That's a sacrifice,
that's a gift, that's a tribute to him. And that's what that
word is. That is the fruit of our lips,
giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate,
forget not, for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. Supporting
his ministry is included in that, to communicate, that's what that
always means, I believe in the scripture. forget not, but also
praise His name, the sacrifice of praise, the sacrifice of thanksgiving.
That's a tribute and offering unto God. An offering to God,
again, is not giving Him something that He needs. Even the sin offering,
it's a tribute unto Him for what He has done for us. It's an acknowledgement
of what He has done for us. It's not us doing something for
Him. When they offered lambs and bullets unto God, a sin offering,
he didn't need those things. He said, the cattle on a thousand
hills are mine. We just looked at that verse,
I think Sunday night. The cattle on a thousand hills
is mine. If I needed anything, he said,
I wouldn't ask you. It's not us giving him, offering
him something in the sense that we're giving him anything. It's
a picture of what he did for us. It's just the other way around,
you see. And then let's look at verses,
close with verses 11 through 13 in our text. You know what,
let's go back and we didn't read all of it. I wanna look at every
verse. We didn't look at every word of it. Give unto the Lord,
verse eight, the glory that's due unto his name, bring an offering
and come into his courts. It's always, there's always,
you remember that convocation, a holy convocation when we talked
about the Passover. That's a gathering of his people.
Come into his courts. with praise, thanksgiving, worship
with a gift. It doesn't even have to be a
physical gift of any kind. It can be as we just read. I'm
thankful. The sacrifice of thanksgiving
and praise unto him, just singing him a song. But it's coming into his courts.
There's always been. And, you know, we've looked at
this in the scripture before. There's always been a designated
place and time to publicly worship God all through the Word of God.
It still is now. Come into his courts. And, of
course, the true in the truest sense, let's come into the presence
of the Lord where two or three gathered in his name. It's his
courts because he's there in the midst of them. Oh, worship
the Lord in the beauty. Of holiness. Isn't it beautiful
to behold? His holiness. Fear before him. All the Earth. Come with fear
with with with the proper respect and remember that's not a slavish
trembling fear of justice from God. It's it's a it's a on all
in reverence of the fact Of his sovereign love and mercy, he
has mercy on whom he will have mercy. There's forgiveness with
him that he might be feared to know that everything we need
is in his hand. That's how we come before him
in reverence and all independence. And supplication. Will give us
what we need and you know what we need. It's not things it's
Christ. Verse 10, say among the heathen,
just like David did a while ago, we read, didn't he? Where's your
God? Well, he's in the heavens. He does everything he wants to
do. You know what David just did?
He just said among the heathen, the Lord reigneth. The Lord reigneth. Say that to them. You make sure
everybody knows, that knows you at all, that your God is on the
throne. Can we do that? The world also shall be established
that it shall not be moved. What he does is doesn't get undone.
He opens and no man shuts, and he shuts and no man opens. And
when he establishes something, global warming ain't gonna be
the end of it. He's gonna be the one to wrap
it up. He may use something like that, I don't know. But I'm not
so worried about us destroying the earth. That's gonna be the
Lord. He said he was gonna do it, didn't
he? It didn't sound, the way he described
it in his word, didn't sound like global warming to me. Sounded
like he's gonna destroy it with fire. And he shall judge the people
righteously. This is why we, or in awe and
reverence of Him. He does everything right and
well and good. He's holy. And then verses 11
through 13, let's look at these together. And let the heavens
rejoice in that. Don't run, you know, like Adam
and Eve in the garden, hiding from God because He reigned and
because He was holy and because He judges in righteousness. No,
rejoice in the fact that He does. How can you do that? That's what
we're going to talk about here. let the earth be glad are you
glad he reigns that he's on the throne not many people are if
they have a true understanding of him being on the throne you
remember when he said hereafter you shall see the son of man
sitting on the right hand of the majesty on that you remember
they gnashed their teeth and they spit on him when he said
that most people aren't glad to hear that he's on the throne
that he he's running things but let him be Let the earth
be glad. Let the sea roar in the fullness
thereof. Everything that he's made glorifies
him. The birds are singing him a song.
In the morning when the sun comes up, if you're out there, you'll
hear him singing it. You know who they're singing
to? Let the field be joyful and all
that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the
wood rejoice. Before the Lord. For he cometh
and will read that last part in a minute here. Can you honestly
rejoice in this God that's being described here in this passage
of Scripture? Reigning on the throne in righteousness and hold
in the beauty of his holiness. The one that's worthy of all
honor and glory because of his name. Have you seen the glory
of God in the face of his son, his lamb, Jesus Christ? And are you glad about that? The only ones that can rejoice
in his sovereignty are the ones that have bowed to him. Isn't
that right? If you're still a rebel against
him, you're not going to rejoice that he's the king. You've got
a problem with that. And I know some people that have
a problem with that. The only ones that can rejoice in his
righteous judgment are those who are in Christ. You're not
going to be able to rejoice in the flood unless you're in the
ark. If you're not in the ark, you're
not happy about the flood. Because God in Christ alone is
able to justify Sinners the righteous judgment of God In his righteous
judgment. He's got to justify you And the
only way that happens is in Christ if you're washed in the blood
and sinless Then you can say with Paul who is he that condemneth
it is Christ that died. I'm happy that God's just But
you can't be unless you're in him see unless he died for you. I And you must be in this place
now. You must come to the place where you can rejoice and be
glad. Let the heavens rejoice. Let the earth be glad. Let everybody
in the earth rejoice in Him. And you can't, you've got to
be in this place. You can't be, you can't rejoice
in His sovereignty unless you've bowed to the Son of God, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one to whom all authority
is committed. All judgment is committed to
the Son. You can't rejoice in God's righteous judgment unless
you're in Christ. You can't rejoice in the love of God. Don't even
know what it is. Unless you've seen Christ as
he is. In his sovereign electing love for sinners in Christ. And you must be in this place
because verse 13, for he's coming. You better get glad about it.
You better get glad he's on the throne if you're not now, because
he's coming. You see that he coming, whether you glad or mad,
he's coming and he's coming to judge. And he shall judge the world
with righteousness and the people with his truth. And that would
be an absolutely terrifying. And when people realize, you
know, the language of scripture about this, when they realize
what that is right now, they're going, oh, the Lord's coming
to judge. Okay. But when they realize what this
is, they're gonna say unto the rocks, cover us. Unto the mountains,
hide us from the face of him who is where? On the throne.
The God we're talking about right now, the Christ we're talking
about right now, hide us. Hide our faces from him. But his people are able to rejoice
that he's coming to judge in righteousness. Because we know
the result of that for his sheep. In Christ, we're safe. We want
this world judged and over with, don't we? Let's wrap this thing
up. Even so, come quickly. That doesn't
just mean, Lord, come and take us up to heaven so we can be
in bliss forever. If he's coming, he's coming to
judge. And John said, come quickly.
Is that all right with us? He is going to take us to be
with him, to enjoy him forever. But He's also coming to judge,
and that's okay, because He judges righteously. And we're in the ark. So let the flood come, because
it must. It must. And we rejoice in Him who sends
it, and who put us in the ark. Let's pray.