May it please God to bless us
together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
first psalm that we read, Psalm 65, and we'll read the first
verse. Psalm 65, and reading the first
verse. Praise waiteth for thee, O God
in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed. Perhaps those of you who are
younger may perhaps wonder really what a vow is. Well a vow is
of course here a promise to God. And as an illustration or a picture,
what it means, we could just consider for a moment the case
of Hannah. You may remember Hannah was the
wife of Elkanah and she hadn't got any children. And she was
concerned that she would have children. It was very important
in those days that a woman had children and especially was blessed
with a son. And so in the first book of Samuel,
in the first chapter, we can read a little bit about this.
And it starts off perhaps in the ninth verse where Hannah
rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh and after they had
drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a
seat by the post of the temple of the Lord. And she, that means
Hannah, was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord
and wept sore. Well, we can imagine, can't we,
that there was a woman with a real problem and therefore she was
praying and weeping before God. And this is what she said. She
vowed a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou would indeed
look on the affliction of thine handmaid and remember me and
not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid
a man-child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days
of his life and there shall no razor come upon his head. So
there was a prayer to God it was a vow to God and a vow that
if God blessed her with a son that she would give him to the
Lord. Well of course it was a little
while ahead but that was brought about and she was indeed blessed
with a son and how wonderful it was her vow was therefore
to come and to return to Shiloh to give thanks and so we're told
towards the end of this chapter when she had weaned him that
means when she stopped feeding him herself She took him up with
him with three bullocks, and a leaf for a flower, and a bottle
of wine, and brought him unto the house of the Lord in Shiloh.
And the child was young, and they stole a bullock and brought
the child to Eli. She said, O my Lord, as thy soul
liveth, my Lord, I am the woman that stood by thee, praying unto
the Lord. For this child I prayed. and the Lord hath given me my
petition which I asked of him therefore also I have lent him
to the Lord as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord
and he worshipped the Lord there. Well there you have a little
picture of what it meant to vow and how when the vow was answered
they kept she kept the vow she didn't say well now I've got
to now give up my son I don't really want to no she was very
willing to keep the vow that she had made now vows are not
often made today sometimes they may be you may you may have made
vows to God I have no idea whether you have or not but whether you
have the great concern should be that if God does, answer that
prayer, answer that vow, that you honour God in keeping it. You see, we should not mock God,
we should not say one thing on one hand, and then when it comes
to pass, because it's a bit onerous upon us, we decide to neglect
it. and to forget about it and to
pass over it. Well we should be thankful to
know that we have a gracious God who knows all about us and
it's God who would have enabled us to pray that prayer and therefore
God would enable us to keep that vow and in doing so will bring
honour and glory to his great and holy name because it is God
who heard that vow and God who answered that vow. We were really
just impotent in that position. So we're thankful, therefore,
to have such a statement as Hannah. There are other instances in
the word of God, but we won't go over them this morning. So
then this psalm of David. And we're told here that praise
waiteth for thee, O God in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be
performed. Now, it was very clear of course
in Hannah's case that she did come up to Shiloh and she did
praise God for hearing and for answering her prayer. Now it's
a good thing for us to be concerned about praising God. We live in
a day really when there is not much praise. There may be in
charismatic circles A lot of so-called praise, some of it
may be true, a lot of it may be false and just hot air, but
we won't judge that. God knows the hearts of the people.
But nonetheless, it is a good thing to praise God. Praise waiteth for thee, O God. And so, may it be so. In our lives, may we all have
reason to praise God. Praise God for things in our
natural life. It may be to praise God with
regard to tests or exams that you've had at school or at college,
and to realize God has heard those prayers. It may be He's
given you jobs to do, reasons to praise God. It may be that
he's given husbands and wives, and perhaps he may not have done
so yet. It may be perhaps a concern that
the Lord will give those who are older, husbands and wives. And this word may be very appropriate. Praise waiteth for thee when
such an occasion comes to pass. Now, you see, It is God who provides
husbands and wives. You see, we can all think, of
course, well, I think that girl or that boy is a very nice girl
or boy and I really fancy having her as a boyfriend or a girlfriend
and they may therefore pursue that avenue. But it may not be
God's will. It is therefore to commend yourselves
to God. He will provide. husband or a
wife and if we come and we commit our way unto the Lord in all
honesty and with an open mind to believe that he will provide
and that we are willing to bow down to the provision that he
makes because the good news is that God doesn't make any mistakes
and so it may be that you'll be able to then praise God for
such an answer to prayer perhaps you may have made a vow about
such a situation well if you have then when it comes to pass
you are to perform that vow you're not to ignore it you're not to
think well I'm thankful that this has come to pass. No, there's
a debt to be paid. It's a debt to God, because he's
heard and answered your prayer and has heard your vow. Therefore,
there is something to be done. And that which is to be done
is to praise your God. Praise waiteth for thee, O God. There's a lot about praise in
the Word of God. A lot about praise in the Psalms. David had many occasions to praise
God. We have many occasions to praise
God. Don't think David was unusual.
David did have many occasions, but we have many occasions. Many
things perhaps you prayed for, and God has answered, and you
just accepted them. Have you praised God? Well, it's
never too late to praise God. Do then desire to honor God for
what he's done. Praise waited for thee, O God,
in Zion. And this in Zion really means
in the church of God, because the people of God will really
appreciate and understand that praise which you are able to
give to God for the answer to your prayers. It won't then be
a waste of breath, it won't be hot air, it will be appreciated. And in acknowledging that which
God has done and praising Him for it, it will bring honour
and glory to His great and holy name. And as I often say, our
life is for the honour and glory of God. It's not for our own
pleasure. God gives us many things to enjoy,
many blessings, but it should be that in all that we do and
say, it should be with an eye and a concern for the honour
and glory of God. And that is, of course, a very
testing element in our life, to see whether we are living
our life for the honour and glory of God, or if we're living our
life just to please ourselves and to go and enjoy all the things
of this vain world. Well, David comes and tells us
here, praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion, in the church
of God. And it's a good thing, therefore,
if we are able to come and to praise him. We read these three
Psalms, in actual fact the fourth Psalm, 68, really follows on
as well, but we didn't read that, it's quite long. But these first
three Psalms, 65, 66, and 67, do actually flow together. And in the 66th Psalm, towards
the end, in verse 13, we read, I will go into thy house, remember
he is speaking, praying to God, He says, I will go into thy house,
the house of God, with burnt offerings, burnt offerings, offerings
of praise, offerings of thanksgiving, and I will pay thee my vows. See, the psalmist, we're not
absolutely told who it was, but I think we can make a reasonable
assessment that it's David that actually wrote this psalm. I
will offer unto thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings with the incense
of rams. I will offer bullocks with goats. And then he says, come and hear
all ye that fear God. And I will declare what he has
done for my soul. Here was a spiritual desire and
a spiritual testimony. that he wanted to tell the people
of God in the church of God what God had done for his soul. And he says, I cried unto thee
with my mouth and he was extolled with my tongue. These words are
encouraging for us, aren't they? We live in a day, of course,
when we have the devil who always wants to shut our mouth. He always
pretends that's not worth speaking about. He always desires that
we may never give glory to God, that we may never speak about
the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants us to never mention
his name. But here we have a wonderful
statement, an encouragement, and it's good for all of us to
bear this in mind come and hear all ye that fear God and I will
declare what he hath done for my soul it's not passing the
buck to someone else it's personal and it's individual and what
a good thing it is if you and I today are able to look into
our heart into our very soul and observe that God has done
things for us and remember the words are spoken here come and
hear only that fear God because we can be sure if it's addressed
to those who fear God it will have a good reception yes it
won't be something that people won't want to hear If you go
into the world and speak about these things, they're not really
very interested. Sometimes it is good to speak
amongst the heathen and testify what God's done, but they may
not understand. Whereas those who are blessed
with faith in God, those who know something of the preciousness
and the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ will understand. And the
effect will be that they will rejoice, rejoice together. So what a mercy it is to consider
the word of God, not as a verse in isolation, but recognise that
the word of God does indeed flow together. And so praise, acknowledgement
of what God's done is praise, praise, waited for the God in
Zion. And unto these shall the vow
be performed. And he just goes on and he says,
Oh, now that here is prayer. Now, it's very clear then that
David came believing that he was coming to his God, who wasn't
a God of stone and wood. He was the living God and he
was a God that hears prayer. Now, it's a blessing for us today
to come in that same way with a humble, and holy confidence
that we do come to a God who hears prayer. O thou that hearest
prayer, unto thee should all flesh come. And then he's honest
and it's good to have honesty. If you read the word of God,
you will find that the record of the saints of God are an honest
record. there are true record and they
don't speak about the things which are not true and so David
here comes and tells us and clearly he was a believer clearly God
had worked in his heart but he says iniquities prevailed against
me as for our transgressions you see knew what it was to be
a under the curse of sin he knew what it was to endure the opposition
of satan he knew what it was to fight day by day the iniquities
which prevailed against him which came into his heart and he wasn't
able to get rid of them but he says thou shalt purge them away
that means the Lord will take them away those sins which perhaps
so easily beset us to realise that if we confess our sin He
is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and indeed to purge
our sins away to take them away let us not think therefore that
because of the iniquities which come into our minds and hearts
but we're therefore out of the secret no we're not out of the
secret but we're walking in that path that proves the reality
of our religion it proves to us that the devil was constantly
striving to persuade us to turn away from the things of God If
we were not a believer, if we not received something from the
Holy Spirit, the devil would leave us alone. He'd be happy
to let us carry on in all the iniquities which prevail in our
minds, perhaps in our words, perhaps in our actions. But then
he comes down, David, and having said, remember, praise wages
for thee, O God, And in the fourth verse, he says, Blessed is the
man. Whom now chooses and how true
that is, man or woman, how blessed we are if God has chosen us. Chosen us, however bad we are,
however weak we are, however sinful we are. It doesn't alter
the fact when God chooses, that work is done. And God doesn't
go back on that. He doesn't think, well, now I
don't think you're really a proper person, therefore I'm gonna cast
you away. No, the Word of God says, blessed
is the man whom thou choosest. And what occurs to those whom
He has chosen? He causes them to approach unto
Him. He causes us to pray unto Him. He causes us. We don't just do
it ourselves. There's many prayers today put
up which are vain prayers, which are just prayers from our mind. But when the Holy Spirit works,
it's a prayer from our very heart. It's true prayer. It's reality. It's a cry unto God that He would
have mercy upon us. And it's a cry unto God that
He will give us reason therefore to come and to praise Him. Blessed is the man well today. Let us look into our hearts.
Let us find there the evidence of the blessed work of God and
therefore to realize that we are amongst those whom God has
chosen The Lord said when he spoke to his disciples in the
upper room, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. You should go and ordained you
and you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should
remain. The blessed work of the Holy
Spirit in convincing us of our sin, you may say, well why should
I praise God for that? if God has convinced you of your
sin it will cause you to pray unto Him for forgiveness it will
cause you to seek unto the Saviour that you might be under the blessed
power of the Spirit of God and to know that your sins are forgiven
and they can only be forgiven through what the Lord Jesus Christ
has done and what will occur then. The change will be the
Lord Jesus Christ won't then be just an historical name. He will be a real saviour. He will be a precious saviour. He will be a glorious saviour.
He will be the one that you desire to praise for what he has done. to redeem your soul. Oh, then you and I may be amongst
those who are enumerated here. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causes to approach unto thee that he may dwell in
thy courts. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. Well, that's
a reason But to praise, isn't it? To realise that we have received
the goodness of the Lord in the house of the Lord. That means
that you and I have received spiritual food for our souls. We received the water of life
and the blessed food for our souls. And it is received indeed
in the house of the Lord. Some people do, of course, turn
against coming to chapel and worshipping God. Well, it is
the ordained way of blessing through the preaching of the
word. Let us never underestimate that
great and blessed way of favour and way of blessing. And don't
think, therefore, that preaching the word is irrelevant it's not
it is the ordained way of God to bless souls and so here we
have we shall be satisfied it's a good thing isn't it when God
comes and blesses our souls so that when we leave the chapel
we can be satisfied with what God has done in speaking to our
hearts I wonder how many satisfied times we've had, when we've been
blessed and we've had cause to praise God, praise, waiteth of
thee, O God. Perhaps you're waiting, perhaps
you're waiting for the blessing of God. Well, if you are truly
waiting, you won't be waiting without prayer. The psalmist
in an earlier psalm, and it's David again in Psalm 40, he tells
us, I waited patiently for the Lord. He didn't wait in vain. It won't be something that you
will be unconcerned about. You'll be concerned that God
has and does hear your prayer. Perhaps Hear your vow. I waited patiently for the Lord
and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. You and I will want God
to incline unto us. We won't want to find that we
pray and we can't make any entry. It may be like that. You may
pray and your prayers seem to hit the wall and come back. You may pray, and they seem not
to get any higher than the ceiling. They seem to just stop there. And you won't be happy with that.
You'll want to have prayer. You'll want to know that you
have prayed to God, and that those prayers have been received
by your Father in heaven. And the only way that they will
be received is through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ so therefore
if you're waiting patiently for the Lord you'll want Him to incline
unto you and you'll want the evidence that He has heard your
cry this proves the reality of religion
it's not a false religion it's not just vain words it's not
just words which don't emanate from the heart which just creep
out from the mind There are many prayers today which go just with
the mind. Many people today pray as indeed
the Athenians did, to the unknown God. It's a blessing today if
you and I pray to the God who we know. And then David tells
us, he heard his cry and then he brought me up also out of
a horrible pit, out of the Mary clay. and sat my feet upon a
rock and established my goings." Now we may have got ourselves
into a horrible pit. We may have got ourselves into
the place where it's Maori claim. We may have followed the wrong
way. We may have followed the way
of our own inclination. Now the Lord has brought us into
a horrible pit. and out of and into the Marikle
and there we are stuck in that place we can't get ourselves
out well David tells us that God brought him up out of it
and today God brings his people up out of those positions but
he brings them out of those positions for a specific reason. Praise waited for thee, O God,
in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed. And he
brought David up out of the horrible pit and out of the mire clay
and put his feet upon a rock. We may recognize that that illustration
means put his feet upon the Lord Jesus Christ as that wonderful
and glorious foundation. My friends, what a blessing if
Christ to you and me today is a rock and a solid rock that
will not move. And so he brought David up and
established, my goodness, established him in the things of God. Praise waiteth for thee. We may
have wandered away, what a blessing if God has brought us up and
established us in the things of God so we realise we are worshipping
the true God and we're worshipping the way that we are instructed
to do in the Word of God and we're not pleasing ourselves
and then he tells us this is the result and he hath put a
new song in my mouth and what's that? here it is Praise unto
our God. Perhaps you don't know what praise
is. Perhaps you've never praised God, I don't know. Perhaps you've
never really thanked God for what He's done for you. Remember
here, this is a spiritual experience. We're very thankful that God
when He blesses us with many things in our natural life, but
the things in our spiritual life are so much more important so
much more important David tells us here he put a new song in
my mouth even praise unto our God many shall see it yes and
fear and shall trust in the Lord yes he was brought up this new
song in his mouth praise unto his God and many shall say it
was because he'd been brought up in that spiritual way out
of this horrible pit and out of this Maori clay and to then
be blessed to put our trust in the Lord you see when the Lord
has touched our hearts when the Lord has blessed us then it gives
us a humble confidence in our God. And that's a very blessed
and a very wonderful position to be in. To have a confidence,
a humble confidence in our God. Blessed is that man that maketh
the Lord his trust and respecteth not the proud nor such as turn
aside to lies. Many, O LORD my God, are thy
wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which
are to us for, they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee. I would declare and speak of
them, they are more than can be numbered. So let us not forget
this, even praise unto our God, says David in this psalm. The same as he says here, praise
waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion. Well, perhaps praise has been
waiting for a long time. And perhaps you have now the
opportunity to praise God. Now let us not be backward in
praising God, especially when he's been gracious and heard
our prayers. We never deserve God to hear
our prayers, do we? There's nothing good in ourselves.
We cannot say to God, well I deserve my prayers to be answered. We
don't deserve any prayers to be answered. And yet if God has
heard our prayers and answered them, it is reason to therefore
praise God. And may we know the wonderful
blessing of a a new song a song we haven't perhaps sung before
perhaps you haven't sung this song of praise before what a
mercy though if you're now brought into that position where the
Lord has revealed yourself as you really are before a holy
God utterly unworthy of receiving any blessing And yet the Lord
has graciously condescended to hear and to answer your prayer. Praise, waited for thee, O God,
in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed. It really
means, if you and I have made a promise to God, let's not go
back on it. See, we may sometimes, we might
even say, foolishly make a vow or promise perhaps with good
intentions of carrying it out you see when it comes to pass
we recognize that to acknowledge what God has done to acknowledge
His mercy in hearing and answering prayer may bring with it more
than we bargained for perhaps we then turn back well the word
of God tells us no man having set his hand to
the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of heaven
my friends if God has given you grace to set your hand to the
plow then my friends don't look back Go forward. Press on. What a mercy it is
to have a God then who is gracious and deals with us. We have a
wonderful Master, you know. A wonderful Master. In Solomon's
account in Ecclesiastes, we read about vowing there. And
in the fifth chapter and the fourth verse, Solomon tells us,
Solomon, of course, was a very wise man, we know. He says this,
when thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it. For he hath
no pleasure in fools pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest
not vow than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause
thy flesh to sin. Neither say thou before the angel
that it was an error. Wherefore should God be angry
at thy voice and destroy the work of thine hands? Well, we
know that Solomon was a man blessed with wonderful wisdom, and here
we have the words of Solomon as he's influenced by the blessed
Spirit of God and the words are very clear aren't they? when
thou vowest a vow unto God and of course it's only you and God
that knows whether that has occurred when thou vowest a vow unto God
defer not to pay don't stop don't go backwards like that position,
any man having set his hands on a plough and looketh back
looketh back, going back looking back you might think is a very
small thing but the Lord says it's not worthy for he hath no
pleasure in fools that means, well we are fools of course but
we don't want to be classified more than we need to be pay that
which thou vowest. Better is it that thou shouldest
not vow, than thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy
mouth, because I fleshed a sin. You see, by turning our back
upon God, we're not honoring God, we're not praising God,
we're adding sin, which is a very tragic and sad situation. Neither say thou before the angel,
that it was an error. Wherefore should God be angry
at thy voice and destroy the work of thy hands? You know,
we should be so, so thankful that Lord Jesus Christ never
went back. He never turned back. He never
looked back. He set his face steadfastly to
Jerusalem in order that he would fulfil. That was the Lord God,
His Father, had given Him to do. He fulfilled that wonderful
work that was before Him. The cost was great. The cost
was tremendous. But my friends, He did His Father's
will. What a wonderful example we have
before us. Let us therefore never go backward.
Let us follow our blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Again, in another psalm, we're
encouraged by the truth that is recorded. And it's a Song
of Degrees, Psalm 130. And it starts off like this.
Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Out of the
depths means we're in a very low place. but what does David
do? or what does the psalmist do?
he cries to God Lord hear my voice let thine ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplication he had a real prayer didn't he?
if thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand? you see
it follows on that which we already mentioned about iniquities We
wouldn't stand before God. The Lord was to mark every thought
and word and deed. But there is forgiveness with
thee that thou mayest be feared. I wait for the Lord. My soul
doth wait, and in his word do I hope. Praise waiteth for thee,
O God in Zion. And here we have They say, I
wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait. And in his word do I hope. But it wasn't a vain hope. My
soul waiteth for the Lord. And this is an important consideration.
More than they that watch for the morning. I say, more than
they that watch for the morning. There's no question in this kind
of pretending that you're waiting for God, when you're not really. You see, here is the true waiting. It's good to testify such a statement
and test our waiting, whether it aligns with the Word of God. I wait for the Lord, my soul
doth wait, and in His Word do I hope, you see, we're relying
on the promises of God. My soul waited for the Lord more
than they that watch for the morning. I say more than they
that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope in the Lord. For with the Lord there is mercy,
and with him there is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem
Israel from all his iniquities. Praise waiteth for thee, O God,
in Zion. And unto thee shall the vow be
performed. May we have much cause to praise
God if we've waited for God to reveal Himself unto us as He
does not unto the world. If He's touched our hearts, if
we've been brought from darkness into light, if we've had the
Saviour revealed to us as our sin-atoning Saviour, if the Lord
has revealed Himself to us, that here it is, who shed his blood
upon that cross at Calvary to redeem our souls. My friends,
if God has revealed these things to us, then without any doubt,
we have great cause and reason to praise God. Praise waiteth
for thee, O God, in Zion, and to thee shall the vow be performed. You see, praise is acknowledging
what God has done let us remember that bow down before God and
desire truly to acknowledge His mercy His love His grace oh there's
so many things we have cause to praise God for my friends
let these things not lie forgotten in unthankfulness and with Our
praise is dying. Amen.