All right, brethren, Psalm 92.
Our subject is the good in glorifying
God. The good in glorifying God. Now, this is the week before
Thanksgiving and the next Psalm we come to. Psalm 92 begins with
these words. It is a good thing to give thanks
unto the Lord and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High, to
show forth thy lovingkindness in the morning and thy faithfulness
every night upon musical instruments with a solemn sound. For thou,
Lord, hast made me glad through thy work. I will triumph in the
works of thy hands. Why is it good to glorify God? It is a good thing, he says,
to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises unto the
name of the Most High. Why is it a good thing to glorify
God? Well, one, God's the only one
to be glorified. He's the only one to thank. He's
the only one worthy of praise because salvation's entirely
of the Lord, the Most High. It's entirely of Him. It's of
the Lord's choosing. He saves whom He will. It's of the Lord's purpose. Salvation's
entirely of the Lord's work of righteousness on the cross. It's
all of Him coming and giving life by the Spirit and applying
the good news to our hearts, giving us faith to believe. It's
of His preserving hand, keeping His people, protecting us, and
in the end, glorifying us. It's all of Him. He's the only
one to be glorified. Scripture says, what do we have
that we did not receive from the Lord? Everything came from
Him. And so Scripture says, let him
that glories glory in the Lord. It's a good thing to give thanks
unto the Lord, to sing the praises of the Most High. And secondly,
it's good to give thanks because God edifies us in the process. As you're going to thank God
and sing his praise, you think of things that he's done for
you. You think of his works. You think
of what he's done. And as you're thanking him for
those things and singing his praise for what he's done, He
edifies your own heart. He turns you from this world
to him and settles you on him. It's good to glorify God for
God's glory and for our good. Look at verse four. For thou,
Lord, here's why it's good, because thou, Lord, has made me glad
through thy work. I'm thinking about what you have
done. That's why I'm thanking you for all the work you've done
for me. For thou, has made me glad through
thy work, and then that's edified my heart to remember I will triumph
in the future in the work of thy hands. You see that, how
it's edifying? It glorifies God and it edifies
us to know what God shall do. Now, let's take this verse by
verse. Now, it's good to give thanks
unto the Lord because it keeps our hearts set on him. Keeps
our hearts set on Him. Makes us remember the works He's
already accomplished and the works He's promised to accomplish.
Notice here the words morning and evening. He said, it's a
good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and sing praises unto
Thy name, O Most High, to show forth Thy lovingkindness in the
morning and Thy faithfulness every night. Every morning and
every evening, God commanded Israel to offer a lamb to God,
every morning and every evening. That was to remind them every
day, beginning of the day, at the end of the day, they were
reminded they were sinners, and they could only come to God through
the blood of the lamb, that lamb's Christ. For he's elect, they
were reminded of Christ the lamb. Well, by giving thanks unto the
Lord and singing praise to Him when you start out the day, when
you end the day, all through the day as you think on Him.
It causes us to think about all His works. It causes us to think
about what He has accomplished in sending His Son and putting
away the sin of His people. and how He has made His people
the righteousness of God in Him. That's a good thing to think
on. And it makes you to remember that our Savior is the Lord Most
High. He's the Lord Most High. Everything
that comes to pass in this world is the Lord working it all together
for the salvation of His people. Everything. That's how high he
is. That's how powerful he is. High
in wisdom, high in power, high in ability. And everything He
does for His people is His loving kindness to us. It's His faithfulness
to us. That's what He's talking about
here. To show forth Thy loving kindness in the morning and Thy
faithfulness every night. To speak it forth. To be in our
heart and come out and speak it forth and show it forth and
speak it before the Lord. Reminding us of His loving kindness
and His faithfulness to us. The Psalmist said back in Psalm
89.33, the Lord said this of his people. He talked about how
he'll correct his people, he'll chasten his people, but because
he made a covenant with Christ, that covenant's sure, and he
makes that covenant in our heart, and he said, my loving kindness
will I not take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.
Everything he's doing for his people is God's loving kindness. loving kindness, and faithfulness. It will not fail. And it's that
loving kindness of God, his loving kindness in Christ, making you
see you're accepted in the beloved, and his faithfulness in sending
his son and working salvation, it's his loving kindness and
his faithfulness that makes his child put all our trust in him. This is what he said in Psalm
36.7, how excellent is thy loving kindness, O God. Therefore, the
children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.
This is why we trust God, because he's so loving and kind to us,
and he's so faithful to us. And so, as we think on these
things, and we're remembering these things, He edifies it.
He actually works. We're thinking on the works of
His hands, and He actually works a work for us as we're praising
Him. Everything God calls us to do
is for our benefit, is for our edification. Even thanking Him,
even singing praises to Him. Thou Lord, verse four, has made
me glad through thy works. That's the only way we'll thank
God and sing praise to him, if he's really made us glad by his
works, by what he's done. And that makes you remember,
I will triumph in the works of thy hands. Oh Lord, how great
are thy works. Thy thoughts are very deep. When
he works this, he gladdens your heart, He gladdens your heart,
He assures you in heart, and He just leaves you amazed. He
leaves you amazed at how deep God's thoughts are, His wisdom,
and His works toward His people. How great are God's works toward
His people? Believer, how deep are the thoughts
of God toward you? This is what we're talking about
here. When God created the world, for
everyone that He chose, for you who He's called and given faith
to believe, when God created this world, He created it for
you. He created it for you, for you
particularly. You want to talk about being
at the center of God's focus in His Son. Now, He did it, number
one, to glorify His name, to glorify His Son and show His
righteousness in saving His people, but He did that Purpose to save his people and
thinking on you where everything he did and not only that From
the beginning of the world Christ thought upon you who are his
Saying I will go forth and I'll lay down my life. I I'll lay
down my life for him, for her, and I'll redeem them. And I'll
bring them to you perfectly righteous, without spot and without blemish
by what I've done for them." And not only that, he foreordained
and he predestinated. God had you on his heart. He had his people. Christ had,
our high priest had his people on his breastplate from the beginning. saying, I have foreordained,
I have predestinated on such and such a date, Ben Moyer's
gonna be born. And on such and such a date,
I'm gonna send the gospel to him and I'm gonna make him be
born again. And he did that for you, believer. And now get this,
this is what he's talking about. He says, your works, Lord, all
your works, I think about them and I'm amazed at how great they
are. And I'm amazed at how deep your
thoughts are toward your people, how wise you are. From the very
first thing God did, right up until this moment right now,
to the end of time, I want you to think of how much is going
on in this world right now at one time. How much is going on
right now in this world, just in this community, and in this
state, and in this nation, but all over the world throughout
all time. From first to last, they don't just work. They don't
just happen. God works them all together. And he's working them all together.
to save those He loved and those He determined to have with Him
for eternity. Everything. Everything. Turn
over to Romans 11. This is where you're left when
you start thinking on God, and you start really considering
what He, who He is, and all His work, and you start diving off
into this ocean. These are, these are, men like
to, they like to Think that we think deep and we have some real
deep thoughts. We're talking about some deep
thoughts. We're talking about what God's able to do. Look here, Romans
11, verse 33. All the depths of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
His judgments and His ways past finding out. For who hath known
the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counselor?
Who counseled the Lord from the beginning? Who knew what He was
going to do? Who knows what He's doing? Watch
this. or who hath first given to him,
and it shall be recompensed unto him again." If you can find one
person, he's saying, who was first in giving God anything,
God said, I'll give it back to him. Men always boast about what
they gave to God. You never gave God anything God
didn't give you first. Look, verse 36, for of him and
through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever
and ever. That's where you're going to
end up when you start thinking about what you have to be thankful
for with God. And you start thinking about
what he's done and all his great works and all the wisdom in God's
thoughts towards you. You're going to just end up amazed
at God. And this is why, brethren, two
different times in the book of Philippians, the Spirit of God
tells us we're so easily distracted, we're so easily to focus on the
negative and focus on carnal things. And if you just want
to be cast down, do that, because it'll keep you cast down. But
if you want to be strengthened by the Lord, and trust Him, look
to Him, and think on these things. That's what God tells us, and
thank Him, and as you're thanking Him and praising Him, You'll
be the benefit. You'll be the one who's benefited
by it. In everything, my prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which
passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. Whatever he's worked for his
people, all the things he's worked, think on those things. Whatever
he's worked in his people, If there's anything that he's worked,
think on those things. If you see, you know anything,
think on those things. That's what he's going to use
to lead you into a fuller understanding of more that he's done and keep
you in peace looking to him. Now, secondly, back in our text, He renews us to do this. He renews
you with the Spirit of God to do this. And as you're praying
to Him and thanking Him and singing His praises, He renews you, keeps
you looking to Him to trust Him. And He does this while having
you totally surrounded with enemies in which you have no power over.
And he does that on purpose. That's on purpose. Now look at
this. Verse 6. This, all these things
he's talking about here, this a brutish man knoweth not, neither
doth the fool understand this. These are things of the Spirit
and they're not known, they're not understood by an unregenerate
man. That's who a brutish man is and
a fool is. He doesn't have the Spirit of
God and he does not understand these things. To paraphrase Spurgeon,
he said, such a man may run through a prayer and run through a song,
but the prayer and the song doesn't run through the man. It's the
difference between saying prayers and just singing a song, and
really praying, and really singing unto the Lord. The carnal man
focuses only on the carnal. only on the carnal, he minds
only the things of the flesh. And so the world lives and dies
by the sword. Lives and dies by the sword.
Now, this is interesting, I came across this. Some say this psalm
was written when Israel was in Babylonian captivity. And whether
that's so or not, they say the Levites wrote it. The Lord gave
the Levites these words, and they wrote it. I don't know.
But this illustrates the point of what the whole psalm is saying.
You picture Israel down there in Babylonian captivity. They
came, they took them down to Babylon. The ones that could
benefit them, they took them to Babylon. So there you've got
some true elect children among Israel that are down there in
Babylon. And they're surrounded by enemies. that don't know God,
that have no idea who God is. Surrounded by them. And here
they are, afflicted, cast down, taken captive, and there's enemies
flourishing all around them. They've been victorious over
them, and have taken them captive. These enemies are spreading out
and flourishing like a green bay tree. And here's the Lord's
people, afflicted, But God was doing that for His
people. He wasn't doing that for the
Babylonians. He was doing it for His people. He was chastening
them and turning them to Him. Turning them to Him. You see,
God has chosen to save a people and leave us here in the midst
of an unregenerate world that doesn't know God. They're doing
everything they can to stop you from trusting God. And to eliminate
the Word of God from the whole, from the planet. They just would
be happy if there was no word preached at all, much less the
truth. But in the midst of this, God
has chose to save a people to manifest His sovereign power
and His sovereign ability to save us and keep us saved and
bring us all the way to Him. He chose to do it. Since the
fall of Adam, God's been manifesting the diamond of his power and
his wisdom and his grace against the black backdrop of our sin
and our rebellion. That's what he's doing. That's
what he's doing. And we need him to keep us. It reminds me of that Illustration
I've given several times that Arthur Pink gave. It's like carrying
a candle that's lit and carrying it across that bay up there in
New York City in the midst of Hurricane Katrina and keeping
that candle lit. That's what God's doing, carrying
his people through this world surrounded by enemies. And he
has kept us and he's going to keep his children because he
gives you spiritual discernment. He makes you remember, thy God
reigneth. Thy God reigneth. Look at verse
7. The wicked don't know these things. They don't know spiritual
things. And so when the wicked spring as the grass, when all
the workers of iniquity do flourish, it's that they shall be destroyed
forever. But thy Lord are most high forevermore. All flesh is grass. This is what
he's taught me and you about ourselves. Our flesh is grass.
It's dying every day and it's going to fade and go back to
the dust. A man starts out in life, he grows up, he gets stronger,
he reaches a certain point where he's reached the height of his
career, he gathers up a bunch of things and puts a little money
in the bank, and then he starts declining. And he declines until
he goes back to the dust. And everything he has from the
first breath to the last breath, God gave him everything he had.
But he never sought God. Never sought God. So he went
through this whole life and he leaves this life without the
one thing he needed. But for God's people, he gives
you the one thing he never will take away. It's just one thing
God gives that he'll never take away. That's Christ. and all
blessings in Him. If you have Him, you have one
thing that will never be taken from you, ever. And He reminds
you in the midst of all this, you see people flourishing, you
see the world flourishing, you see people prospering. And you see God's people poor
in comparison. Now we, as a nation, are rich
in comparison to other nations. We're not poor at all. But in
comparison to the world, God keeps His people lowly. But as
He's doing this, He makes you remember, the Lord Most High
reigns forevermore. He's the Lord Most High forevermore.
This is the comfort God gives, tells His preacher, to comfort
His people with. He said in Isaiah 40 verse 6,
Isaiah 40 verse 6, look there with me, Isaiah 40 verse 6, The voice said, cry. He said,
what shall I cry? This is the message. All flesh
is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the
field. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. The
grass withereth, the flower fadeth, The word of our God shall stand
forever. That's what the psalmist is saying.
I see the wicked flourish, he said, but the Lord most high
reigns forevermore. This is what he's going to comfort
his children with so that you don't envy the wicked and so
you're not anxious thinking the Lord's purpose is frustrated
when you see something bad happen to God's people. He brings us
to sing, hallelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. This
is what he showed them while they were captive in Babylon.
Now if God let China come over here and take you and take you
back to China and put you in a prison, but God worked in your
heart to see him, that he's reigning and he's saving you through all
of that, you'd do just what the Psalmist did right here. Now
if He didn't do that, you would think the world was coming to
an end. But if He did that for you, you would say, hallelujah,
God's reigning. His word abides forever. He's
reigning and He's our strength and He's done this. He's surrounded
us by enemies to show us these two things right here. Here's
the first thing. The Lord shall protect His people
from all our enemies. Look at verse 9. For lo, thine
enemies, O Lord, for lo, thine enemies shall perish, all the
workers of iniquity shall be scattered. That's God's sure
promise. That's the work of God's hand
to his people, particularly, to his particular people. And
here's the second thing he's teaching us constantly. The Lord's
our strength, and he's strengthening us by giving you a new renewing
in your heart. Look here in verse 10. My horn,
that's my strength, shalt thou exalt, shalt thou increase like
the horn of a unicorn, that's the horn of a wild ox. I shall
be anointed with fresh oil. Enemies flourish, they rise against
you, and as that's going on, the Holy Spirit anoints us afresh. He makes us look by faith to
our sovereign Redeemer, reigning on His throne, protecting us
by His hand, who has saved us, who is saving us, who shall save
us. And that was the whole purpose
of it, to keep you looking to Him away from things below. Whenever we're chasing of the
Lord, you can be sure of this, we've started looking at things
below and we've become proud of them in some way. And we're
not looking to Him. And it's always to remind this
child. that God is saving His people
from the enemy in our flesh, from the enemies all around us,
and He does it by giving you fresh, renewing, and keeping
you looking to Him. Go to 2 Corinthians 4 and let's
hear Paul say this. Paul says, The Spirit of God
shined in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of our Lord Jesus. He revealed
Christ to you. Now watch this, verse seven.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us. That's so of everything
in this thing of salvation, everything about it. It's not by might nor
by power, saith the Lord, but by my spirit. Now watch this,
we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed,
but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken.
Cast down, but not destroyed. There's those enemies flourishing
like the grass. Always bearing about in our body
the dying of the Lord Jesus. Persecuted, slandered, oppressed,
just like the Lord was. by enemies. But here's why. That
the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. That Christ might manifest to
us that the Most High lives forevermore and my strength shalt thou increase
like the horn of the wild ox. That's why he does it. He says
it again. For we which live are always delivered unto death for
Jesus' sake. Who did that? Our Psalms said
God delivered us to death. God brought you, surrounded by
your enemy. He's the most high, why? That
the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal
flesh. Now look at verse 16, he says
it very plainly. For which cause we faint not.
Why do we not faint? He said in our text, I shall
be anointed with fresh oil. That means renewed anew. He says,
but though our outward man perish, if God left you alone, that's
what would happen. Because that's what we do in
our flesh right there. Yet the inward man is renewed
day by day. And by using affliction, by strengthening
us, by setting our hearts on Christ above to see who it is
that is our strength, that's the far weightier good that God
works in anything we suffer. Look, for our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. While he turns us from looking
at things which are seen, to things which are not seen, to
Christ above, to the Lord most high that reigns. For the things
that are seen, they're carnal, they're temporal, they're perishing.
But the things which are not seen are eternal." We get to
looking at the enemies and all the prosperity and all the things
that others have while we're suffering. And God put us there for a purpose. As He renews you inwardly, turns
you to Him, He reminds you, I have redeemed you, I am your life,
I am keeping you, and I'm working all this. And everything you're
looking at with your carnal eyes is going to vanish like a soap
bubble. And what I've done for you, Christ
is the life, He is the resurrection. What He has done, He's created
for eternity and it'll never perish. And He does this by giving
you fresh oil, making you see Him. Here's the thing, He didn't
regenerate us one time and then just let us go to finish our
faith. No, He don't even let us live
on yesterday's renewing. He don't let us live on yesterday's
bread. When we start thinking, we know something, and we start
thinking we're strong. We're trying to live on past
glory. We're trying to feed on stale
bread. And so God's going to take all that away from us. He's going to strip you. He's
going to give you fresh oil to look to Christ and see your life
and see. If I'd have left you alone, your
flesh would have just perished. But I turned you to me. I'm your
life. And that's when you start thanking
God for all the works He's done. And He renews you to keep thanking
Him. And when we're not thanking Him,
He does this kind of work to make you thank Him again. And
it's all is to give Him the glory and edify us in our heart to
keep us focused on Him. Well, I've got a mind just to stop
right there. I think I will. I've got another message at least
here to preach, so I'll just stop right there. He's going
to do this to the end, though. He's going to do this to the
end. And he's going to keep you flourishing by his grace. It's a whole different kind of
flourishing than what you see with carnal men. It's a totally
different kind of flourishing. It's a flourishing whereby you
put no confidence in you or anything here. He's already confident. He's already confident. This
body is going to get weaker and weaker, and it's going to perish
and perish and perish and perish, until one day we're going to
realize, I can't trust it anymore. But the new man's going to get
stronger and stronger and stronger to one day we're just going to
be with him. That's how it is right now. Everything
he's doing for us is grace. He saves us purely by grace.
It's all grace. And he gives more grace. And
he keeps giving you more grace. And You'll make us know it's
all of grace. All of grace. Father, we thank
You for this Word. Ask, Lord, that You would continue
to reveal these things to us. Oh, how we thank You, Lord. Your
works, the works of Your hands, renewing us anew by Your Holy
Spirit, keeping us looking to You, keeping us walking after
You. Lord, we don't deserve to be
kept. We don't deserve your loving kindness. We don't deserve your
faithfulness toward us. Lord, thank you for grace. Thank you for putting us in places
where we have to truly trust you. We truly trust You. Thank You for proving Your faithfulness
to us. Lord, help us to see this. Help
each of Your brethren to rejoice in these sure mercies, Your faithfulness. Lord, be with our brethren as
they prepare to preach this weekend here. We pray that You bless
their word and bless it to the hearts of Your people. And Lord,
we pray for Your blessings wherever Your word goes forth. Thank you,
Lord. We pray it in Christ's name.
Amen.