Beginning with verse 42 this
evening, we'll look at chunks of it at a time and then every
once in a while a single verse at a time, but we'll try to get
through it to the end of Psalm 78. Let's look at verse 42 and
read a few verses here. They remembered not his hand,
nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy, how he had
wrought his signs in Egypt and his wonders in the field of Zoan. and had turned their rivers into
blood and their floods that they could not drink. He sent diverse
sorts of flies among them which devoured them and frogs which
destroyed them. He gave also their increase unto
the caterpillar and their labor unto the locust. He destroyed
their vines with hail and their sycamore trees with frost. He
gave up their cattle also to the hail and their flocks to
hot thunderbolts. He cast upon them the fierceness
of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble by sending evil angels
among them. He made a way to his anger. He
spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the
pestilence, and smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief
of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham, but made his own people
to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness. like
a flock. He led them on safely so that
they feared not, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies." Now
this of course is regarding the plagues of Egypt and how the
Lord delivered his people by means of those plagues upon the
people of Egypt and through of course ultimately the Passover,
the killing of the firstborn. And so this is a little more
detail regarding what he talked about in verses 12 through 29,
he said that though the people did not keep God's covenant,
though they were sinners, they had forfeited his blessing, just
like every man by nature, God nevertheless had done marvelous
things among them. And he listed there, among those
marvelous things, briefly in verses 12 through 29, the deliverance
from Egypt that we just read about. the water from the rock
that the Lord supplied. And do you remember Paul said
that rock was Christ? And then the manna from heaven,
which the Lord himself said, I am that bread which came down
from heaven. And so all of these things magnify
the Lord Jesus Christ as the one by whom and through whom
God has mercy on these who had broken his covenant. This is
the gospel. God has mercy on sinners who
deserve his wrath. That's the message of all the
gospel of all of the book of God. We are by nature, the children
of wrath, even as others, Ephesians 2, 3 and 4. But God is rich in
mercy. That's what we see in right here.
In Christ Jesus, the Passover lamb. The rock. The manna from heaven. God is
merciful to sinners. And then we pick up the narrative
in verse 42 as we read and we see ourselves That though God
has done marvelous things for us, we still forget Him. See
that? They forgot His hand. Isn't that
an interesting way to put it? They forgot the hand of God.
When you think of the hand of God, you think of some specific
things. His power. The right hand of God is His
power. They forgot His hand. His providence, His power, His
hand that saved us from the storm like the Apostle Peter. He stretched
forth His hand and took hold of Peter. His hand that feeds
us every day. God openeth his hand and satisfies
the desire of every living thing, the scripture says. His hand
that guides our every step. His hand that keeps us from falling.
We still forget his hand. The mighty, merciful hand of
God. And then the detail regarding
their deliverance from Egypt. He mentions this, as I said before,
but here he gives the detail concerning the plagues upon the
Egyptians. And there are many lessons in
that. And we'll just see, I guess, the primary one here tonight.
If you remember, none of these things affected the Israelites
at all. These plagues were upon the people
of Israel. Only on Passover night were the
homes of the Jews affected at all. When on that night, there
was a death in every house. The other plagues didn't touch
the homes of the Jews. But of course, No sinner died
in the Jews' houses on Passover night because a lamb died in
their place. You see the rich gospel teaching
all through this. People read the Old Testament
scripture like that and they're like, oh, well, that was thousands
of years ago and doesn't have anything. This is the gospel.
The whole book of God is the gospel. It's plain as a nose
on your face. God saves his people by a lamb,
by a rock, by a bread from heaven. He has mercy on lawbreakers,
on sinners, on those deserving of His wrath. And that mercy
and love is in Christ Jesus. This is God's peculiar grace
upon His sheep. That there was a death in their
homes too, the Jews' homes too, shows that they were sinners
just like the Egyptians. Somebody got to die in the Jew
house just like they do in the Gentile house. That shows that
they're sinners. that it was a lamb that died
instead of a sinner shows that they were God's elect. God's
mercy was on his sheep. Verse 54, and he brought them
to the border of his sanctuary even to this mountain which his
right hand had purchased. Now let's look at this verse
for a little while by itself. Think about everything that happened
and we don't have a record of Fraction of it of what happened
to the Jews between the time they walked out of Egypt with
their staffs in their hand and Went through the Red Sea all
the steps all of the journey all of the trials all of the
difficulty all of the Experiences that no doubt they went through
between Egypt and Mount Moriah. That's the mountain talked of
in verse 54 Mount Moriah All that they had gone through experience,
said, done, heard, suffered, every step, all of that is summed
up in three words. He brought them. Does that sound like your life?
Think of all the things you've been through, all the things
you've suffered and enjoyed, said, done, seen, God has brought you right here.
That's what happened. It's that simple. It's that simple. God brought you here. That describes
all of our lives. And Mount Moriah is where the
temple was built, where all of the thousands of blood sacrifices
were offered over the years unto God for sins, to make atonement
for sins. Mount Moriah is where God told
Abraham, offer thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest,
unto me. on Mount Moriah. But God provided
a lamb in his place. Abraham said, my son, God will
provide himself a lamb. And he did. That's Mount Moriah.
That's where God has brought us. God brought them to Christ. He brought them to the place
of atonement, the place of redemption, the place of forgiveness of sins
by the precious blood of Christ. That's what distinguishes Mount
Moriah from every other mountain. The temple was there. The sacrifice
was there, and I've read many commentators who say that Mount
Moriah of old was Mount Calvary, where our Lord Jesus Christ himself
shed his precious blood for sinners. And that may very well be true,
but he brings all of his elect to Mount Moriah in a spiritual
sense, the place where God is atoned for sin. You see that?
Gospel. Gospel. Sooner or later, he's
going to bring you through many steps, through many disappointments,
through many happinesses, through many tears and much laughter
and a long journey. Sooner or later, if you're his,
you come into Mount Moriah where God provides a land. Thank God
for that. He brought us here. And this is a place which God's
right hand had purchased. Did you see that? It cost God
something for there to be a Mount Moriah. This is the hand that
they forgot. This is the hand. You see that? His right hand
purchased that mountain. That's the hand that they had
forgotten. That's the hand that we forget when we get bogged
down in the foolishness of this world. And we forget that God
is bringing us somewhere. He's bringing us from bondage,
from Egypt, from slavery to sin and certain death and destruction
to the place of redemption. Many steps, many experiences.
God's just bringing us from point A to point B. It's that simple
and that glorious. Thank God for taking me from
Egypt and bringing me to Mount Moriah. His own right hand purchased
it. It cost him something for that
place. to be there. It wasn't bought with corruptible
things such as silver and gold. May we never forget his hand
that purchased that mountain and that brought us out and that
guided us every step of the way and held us up every time we
fell and will do until we're home. Verse 55, He cast out the
heathen also before them and divided them in inheritance by
line and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. And
you think about this, this is the land of Canaan. He cast out
the people that lived there and said, this is my people's land
now. That's what this whole earth is. He's going to destroy from
this world all those who hate God, all those who are reprobate,
all those who are his enemies. The meek will inherit God's earth.
It's not going to be like this. It's going to be a new earth
where in dwells righteousness. But this is a picture of that
he cast out all the heathen before them, divided them, his people
and inheritance by line and made the tribes of Israel to dwell
in their tents, tents that they didn't pay for, tents that they
didn't provide. Yet they tempted and provoked
the most high God and kept not his testimonies. but turned back
and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers and like their children
would, like all people do. Thank God salvation is not our
faithfulness to him. They were turned aside like a
deceitful bow. Verse 58, for they provoked him
to anger with their high places and moved him to jealousy with
their graven images. When God heard this, he was wroth
and greatly abhorred Israel. so that he forsook the tabernacle
of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men and delivered
his strength into captivity and his glory into the enemy's hand.
He gave his people over also unto the sword and was wroth
with his inheritance. The fire consumed their young
men and their maidens were not given to marriage. Their priests
fell by the sword and their widows made no lamentation." Now what
is this teaching us? Just like when God provided a
paradise for Adam, before he was even created, before God
ever made man from the dust of the ground, there was a beautiful
paradise prepared for him. Everything he would need right
there, including communion and fellowship with his God. He was
not going to live by bread alone, but by every word that came out
of God's mouth. Just like that, he established
Canaan for his people. And his people drank from wells
that they never dug. They enjoyed the fruits of a
land that they never worked nor planted anything in. But just
like Adam did, they forsook God yet. In spite of all of his goodness,
they forsook him. You see that in the text? They
still didn't obey him. They still rebelled against him.
And so we see this gospel story played out over and over in history
in the scriptures. Man has never changed. And thank
God, His mercy endures forever. This is a dark passage right
here, but the psalm doesn't end this way. Remember now, when
it says that God abhorred Israel, He abhorred them. That means
what it says. But this doesn't mean that He
hated His spiritual Israel, His true elect. And I can make good
on that now. This is not speculation. We never
speculate with regard to the Word of God. This is a reminder
here that there was always but a remnant among the nation of
Israel that God loved and chose. If you want to look into that
more, read chapters 10 and 11 of the book of Romans. Paul speaks
there in Romans 10 and 11 how that Israel as a nation were
a bunch of reprobate rebels. They never obtained what they
sought for, favor with God, the blessing of God. They never understood
the truth and they perished in their sins. The nation of Israel,
that's true of them. But there was a remnant according
to the election of God's grace then, and Paul said right now
there still is. And right now there still is
a remnant according to the election of God's grace. And that's what
we see here. The nation of Israel as a whole,
God despised them and rejected them. At times, and think about
this, now what does that mean? At times, the reprobate among
the nation of Israel greatly benefited temporally from God's
love for his elect. Right? His blessing was upon
the whole nation for the sake of his elect. And they enjoyed
many privileges and many blessings because of that. Even the reprobate
did. That still happens now. You know
why God has a world? And you know why it prospers
as it does? And there's so much, plenty for
a... People say, oh, we're destroying
the world. God made this world and it's not going to be destroyed
until he destroys it. And he's provided everything
we need here. And the reprobate are benefiting just like his
elect are. But he made it for his elect.
It's his garden and he planted some plants in it. He planted
some trees in it. And he said every tree that my
heavenly father hath not planted will be rooted up. But right
now he makes the rain fall on the just and the unjust. So they
benefit. Same there. The nation of Israel
as a whole benefited, but it was for the sake of God's elect
when they did. But also at times, God's remnant
greatly suffered temporally from God's hatred of the reprobate.
That's what we see here. God abhorred Israel and they
went through some great trials because of the reprobate and
their great sin against God. And his elect suffered with them
in many ways, did they not? That still happens now too. Do we not suffer some things
because of the idiocy and the foolishness and the godlessness
of this present world? Yes, but it's just for a time,
just for a time. And God will use the evil that
we suffer for our good. All things work together for
good to them that love God, to those who are the called according
to his purpose. So we see these temporal things
play out, but never make any mistakes. Never, never misunderstand
that if God loves you and has chosen you in Christ Jesus and
done these marvelous things for you, provided a lamb for you,
provided a rock in the wilderness for you, provided manna from
heaven, if you've eaten angel's food by his grace, no matter
how you suffer temporarily, the sufferings of this present life
are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us. And of course, that works the
other way also. If you despise God and his son, no matter how
you enjoy the benefits that God bestows for the sake of his elect
in this world, and you may very well. Your feet, as the author
of Psalm 73 said, though you prosper, and he was confused
by that for a time. The prosperity of the wicked.
Look how they're enjoying the good things of God. Well, they
do for the sake of his elect. God blesses this world and the
wicked enjoy them for a time. But as the psalmist said in Psalm
73, their feet are in slippery places. And you have to understand
their end, as he did when he went to the sanctuary of God. Outside of Christ, your destruction
is imminent. And here's the lesson. The difference
between true life and true death, true blessing and true wrath
is Christ alone and only Christ. God's blessings, the marvelous
things that he did amongst them were Christ, Christ, Christ.
And he's the one that distinguishes between blessing and curse. He's
the judge. Verse 65, then the Lord awaked
After forsaking his people for a time, abhorring them, judging
them for their evil, then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep
and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine. And this,
of course, is figurative language. God doesn't sleep or drink. OK,
that's obvious. But it seemed as though he slept
as the enemies of Israel prevailed against them for a time. This
was God's temporal judgment upon them because of their sin. But
God was awake. He was controlling every aspect
of it. He turns the hearts of the king
still every minute. He never sleeps. And this here,
this shout is not a shout of drunkenness, but this shout of
one by reason of wine is a bold shout by one who's heartened
by a drink of wine. He awakes and he's ready. and
bold and strong. So verse 66, and he smote his
enemies. He was in judgment toward his
own people, his own, the nation of Israel for a time. But now
he's smiting his enemies in the hand of parts. He put them to
a perpetual reproach. These were also the enemies of
his people. Thank God, if you're his, All
of your enemies are his enemies that's kind of that's kind of
nice, isn't it? They were and ultimately and finally they'll
all be destroyed one day the last enemy he'll destroy his
death An enemy that has caused me much suffering And you too,
I'm sure God's gonna put him put him under put him out of
business and with all of our enemies Verse 67 Moreover, he
refused the tabernacle of Joseph and chose not the tribe of Ephraim,
but chose the tribe of Judah. He destroyed all their enemies
and then he made some choices. He made a choice. The Mount Zion,
why did he choose Judah? Which he loved. And he built
his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath
established. forever. Because of his remnant,
his elect among the people of the nation of Israel, God chose
from among them where to establish his city, his church, that's
what there's a picture of, his sanctuary. You think about this. He established it there having
chosen them and their speculation as to why God chose Judah over
Ephraim. I read in a commentary that perhaps
the Ephraimites were more idolatrous than the other tribes and things
like that. I sincerely doubt that. The lesson here is that
God's choice is based upon his love. That's the lesson there. He chose Ephraim because of his
love. Did you see that? Why did he
choose you over your family perhaps? Why did he choose you and not
other members who would seem more worthy? Why would he choose
me? I know from the Word of God why.
There's only one answer, because he loved us. He loved us. And that's the basis of his choice
here. Where his love is, there he builds his sanctuary. His holy place, that's what that
is. A place of refuge. This is Christ
among his people. Whom he loves, he sends Christ
their way. He loved old blind Bartimaeus
who was out there by the wayside begging. And that's why old Bartimaeus
one day heard a ruckus. He said, what's going on? And
somebody said, Jesus of Nazareth. Before they got out of their
mouth good. He was yelling. Oh Jesus the son of David have
mercy on me Christ came where he was because
God establishes his sanctuary Among those that he loves And then look at this last part
verse 70 he chose David also his servant And took him from
the sheepfolds Remember that God has a chosen people now.
A church that's made up of members all over this world throughout
all time. A number that John said was 10,000
times 10,000 and thousands of thousands singing the praises
of the Lamb. A number which no man can number, but God knows
exactly how many. But I'll tell you this too, what
this verse reminds us. He doesn't choose us as a group. We make up a group, a universal
church, if you will, if you want to call it that, a family of
God, body of Christ. Again, not only throughout the
world, but throughout all time and future. But God chooses individuals.
He chose us one at a time, didn't he? He picked us out. He knows
all of his sheep personally and calls them by name. Listen to
this John 10 too, but he that entereth in by the door is the
shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth and
the sheep hear his voice and he calleth his own sheep by name. He doesn't say Israel come out. He says David come out. Chris
come out. Brian come out. Come on Brian.
Come on Jason. Come on Linda. Come on Christy.
He calls them all by name and leadeth them out. And David is
a picture here of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ is God's elect. We are all chosen in him. He is the elect of God. God's elect man in whom all of
his people are chosen. He chose him from following the
Jews, verse 71, great with young. He brought him to feed Jacob,
his people, and Israel, his inheritance. And again, now this is Christ. He sent him to feed us. He is
that bread that came down from heaven. Why did God send Mattah
in the wilderness to feed his people? Why did he send that
bread which came down from heaven? That the Lord said, if you eat
of this bread, you'll never hunger again. to feed His people, that's
what. To give us life, to refresh us.
His flesh is our meat indeed and His blood is our drink indeed.
And by faith we feed upon Him and He sustains us, He energizes
us, He gives us life. And notice this, He brought Him
to feed Jacob, His people, and Israel. These last two words,
verse 71, His inheritance. This is an interesting word.
If you remember the rich young ruler that came to our Lord Jesus
Christ and said, what must I do? And the Lord said, you know the
law, you know what's required to please God. And he mentioned
some of them, some of the aspects of the law. And the man said,
I've kept all these from my youth up. And the Lord said, there's
a problem. You lack one thing. Go sell all
you have, give it to the poor, come follow me. One thing is
needful. Do you remember what that rich
young ruler asked when he first approached the Lord Jesus Christ?
It's in Luke 18, 18, and I'll just read it to you. It says,
and a certain ruler asked him saying, good master, what shall
I do to inherit eternal life? Same word, the Greek version
of the word in our text. For Israel, his inheritance,
he sent his son. For Israel, his inheritance,
he sent the Lord Jesus Christ to feed them, to give them life
and strength and health spiritually. But there's something wrong with
this young man's question. What must I do to inherit? It
reveals the problem with this question, reveals why the man
ultimately went away sorrowful. not having received what he came
for. Do you see the problem with it? What must I do to inherit? You don't receive an inheritance
by doing something. An inheritance is given based
upon two things, relationship and choice. And for these two reasons, we
are heirs of God and joint heirs of Jesus Christ. And there's
no other way to be, to inherit eternal life. Number one, we
inherit because we are his sons and daughters. 1 John 3, 1, Behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we,
that such as we should be called the sons of God. We inherit because of relationship.
Whether that's, and that's, we see that in everyday life, don't
we? Whether you're a family member
or a friend, someone close, because that person has a relationship
to you, you put them in your will. The second reason is found
in Luke 12, 32. It's by choice, too, isn't it? By choice. You choose who inherits.
So does God. And he said, our Lord Jesus said,
fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure
to give you his kingdom. You see what an inheritance is?
Our inheritance from God is based on relationship and choice. It
pleased Him to give it to us. Thank God. That's the only way
you can receive the inheritance of God. By relationship and by
choice, not by doing something. Oh, but to His inheritance, He
sends His Son, the life of the world, the light of the world,
the breath of life, the water of life. Verse 72, so he fed
them according to the integrity of his heart. Not according to what they deserved,
not according to, you know, if my children, they upset me, they
disobey me, well I'm not going to feed them. I'm not going to
provide any food for them. I'm glad it's not that way, don't
you? Why do I feed them? and have
for lo these twenty-something years because of what's in my
heart. That's why. Not because of them. Not because of their behavior.
Because I love them. I love them. He fed them according
to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skillfulness
of his hands. Now think about this. His heart
and his hands. You think about the heart of
God in the hand of God, that hand that they forgot, that hand
that purchased Mount Moriah, that hand that led them every
step, that hand that guided them and pulled them out of Egypt,
out of bondage into freedom and life. Two great reasons for our blessedness
are given right here. We, and when I say we, I'm talking
about God's sheep, God's spiritual Israel, God's elect, We're in
real good shape. You realize that? We're in real
good shape. And here's why. Christ loves
us. And he's real good at what he
does. The skillfulness of his hand. When he does something,
he does it well. That's why we're blessed. The
word integrity is in completeness, the completeness of his heart.
With all of his heart, he saved me. Would you say God was all
in in the matter of saving sinners like us? You think he gave his
complete heart? He put his heart into it. When
he sent his only begotten son to be the propitiation for our
sins, he loves us with his whole heart, his complete heart. His
heart is whole. That is innocent, honest, and
sincere. We're saved and blessed because
of the heart of God and because of his hand. He is skillful and
the word includes intelligence. He's wise in all that he does
and he's able to get the job done. This is the difference
between the true God and who passes for a God in these so-called
churches of our age. He gets the job done. If he died to save you, you're
saved, whether you know it or not. Isn't that right? Whether you know it or not, if
he died to save you, you're saved. And one of these days, you're
going to find out about it, if you hadn't already. That's who
we're talking about now. His hand is skillful. Whatever he does, he says about
to do, he does it. He said, I purposed it, Sean,
not do it. Who's going to stop him? When he redeemed my soul from
sin on Calvary, he did a good job of it. He did it well. It was and is a perfect salvation. As a result of him bearing my
sins and being punished for my sins, God is fully satisfied. And I am made the very righteousness
of God in Christ. So you see, we are who we are,
what we are, where we are, everything we are, because of the heart
of God and the hand of God, which is our Lord Jesus Christ, his
power to save. He saves us because of what's
in his heart, not because of what we do or don't do. And He's
able to save us because His hand is a mighty hand. That's a God worth worshiping
right there. And I hope that He gives me grace to worship
Him till the day that I die. And on that day, to really worship
Him. From then on. Let's pray.