I please God to bless us together
this evening as we meditate in his word. Let's turn to the book
of Psalms, Psalm 104 and we'll read verse 34. Psalm 104 and
verse 34. My meditation of him shall be
sweet. I will be glad in the Lord. So there are two statements here
that the psalmist makes. The first, that the meditation
of the Lord, his God, shall be sweet, And secondly, he will
be glad in the Lord. So in these two verses we have
a shell and we have a will, which are sure and certain statements
that the Lord will do. And therefore, as the psalmist
had that confidence in his God to come and to be able to make
such a statement as this, we realise that as he began this
psalm with those beautiful words, Bless the Lord, O my soul. And when he concludes the psalm,
he says, Bless thou the Lord, O my soul, praise ye the Lord. It is an indication of the position
and health of the psalmist. It gives an indication as to
where his mind was, what it was set on, and what was it set on
quite clearly the things of God. And what a blessing therefore
if in our lives we have a desire to be concerned about the things
of God. This statement, my meditation,
now it doesn't mean daydreaming. It doesn't mean just sitting
down and thinking about all those things that we want to happen
and let's get carried away in our imagination. It's nothing
like that at all. It's a wonderful statement and
it's something that you and I should desire. And that is meditation
on the Lord. How often do we meditate? We live in a world of rush and
tear, don't we? We don't really get much time
to sit down and to think. We don't seem to get much time
at least to meditate. Meditate really means to contemplate,
to consider. And what a great word we have,
what a great scene we have to meditate on none other than the
Lord God. God the Father, God the Son and
God the Holy Spirit. There is tremendous facility
to meditate, isn't there, upon the things of God. And yet you
see how little meditation there is today. We so easily are sidetracked. If we have a little time available
to us, we very quickly manage to find something else to do.
Something else which attracts our attention. It may not be
of any benefit to our soul at all. But yet, you see, we find
ourselves taken up with those things and we've missed an opportunity. The Word of God has a very suitable
phrase. Do you know what it is? Redeeming
the time. Redeeming the time. We wasted
a lot of time in our life, all of us, without any doubt. Wasted
a lot of time in our life. Time which we'll never be able
to get back. And yet there is this word, redeeming
the time, that means really to make the most of the time that
we do have. The available time we do have
to sit down and to Meditate because it will be as the Lord tells
us here the psalmist tells us here My meditation of him shall
be sweet It will not be a waste of time it will be a time of
profit and benefit if as we sit down to meditate and To consider
him. That's what the Apostle tells
us in the Hebrews consider him as It's a great blessing to do
that, to sit down prayerfully, desiring that God would lead
us into all truth as it is in Jesus, and as it is with regard
to our great God, the Lord God. My meditation of Him shall be
sweet. Now that's what the psalmist
was able to confirm. And if we are a believer, and
I hope we are a believer, And if we're not, may we be very
concerned that we are a believer, because if we're not a believer,
we shall perish in our sins and end up in hell. Whereas if we
are a believer, we shall end up in glory. And if we are a
believer, then surely our concern should be to be concerned about
the things of God and to benefit from meditation, so that by the
favor of God, we grow in grace. and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. Let us not be content with just,
as it were, the dregs. We spoke this morning, didn't
we, of that feasting and the partaking of that food and wine. And it was well-wine, well-refined,
it was good wine. And so is the wine of the kingdom.
It's good wine, as you and I may partake of it and meditate upon
the things of God and rejoice in them. Well, if we meditate
upon Him, perhaps to meditate upon the greatness of God. I always think it's a really
good thing to have a right view, or at least some view. It's not possible, I suppose,
to have a completely right view. Because God is so great. But
nonetheless, to sit down and meditate upon the greatness of
God, you see, it puts things there in a right perspective.
We see how almighty God is, and how small we are. And that, what
does that do? Does it not amaze us to think
that this God so great, so powerful, the Almighty God, it's a wonderful
word, isn't it? Almighty. The Almighty God condescends
to look upon us. So meditate upon the greatness
of God. How he created all things. How he planned all things. How he knows what's going to
happen in every position, even the hairs of our head are all
numbered. Doesn't that give some indication
of the greatness of God? And as you and I may therefore
be able to meditate of him and his greatness, may it bring us to a realisation
that we cannot afford to trifle, to not consider this great God. We cannot afford to just please
ourselves. We cannot afford just to go on
our own way, satisfying the lust of the flesh and the pride of
life. Because eternity stares us in
the face, doesn't it? Eternity stares all of us in
the face. And we all have to enter into
eternity when we finish with time, which we will when we die.
Eternity, tremendous sound and it is. So to be able then to
meditate upon the greatness of God and as we think of his greatness
to realise that he holds our life, he holds our breath in
his hand. It's only through his permission
we still live. He could take our breath away
in a moment. We see many illustrations of
that, don't we? Every day the Lord takes the
breath of one and another, some very suddenly. And to therefore
meditate upon the greatness of God in this respect, and to realise
he has a perfect right to do whatever he deems fit. He has a perfect right to govern
and organize your life and my life. Now it's a good thing when
we have a view of this God, when we meditate upon this God as
a God who has a perfect right to do this. And it will bring
it into perspective if you and I realize that we have offended
this great God, we've sinned against this great God, And this
great God hasn't cut us off, hasn't taken away our breath. It is because God is a God of
mercy. Meditate upon God's mercy. His mercy to you, His mercy to
me. You think of it, look back in your life. Do you still deserve
to be living on the earth? We don't, do we? Because we've
turned our back upon God. We've disobeyed God's word. And yet God's mercy is still
upon us here tonight. We're still here, aren't we?
We're still on the earth. We're still upon what we use
the phrase, we're still upon praying ground. That means we're
still able to pray. God hasn't dealt with us as our
sins deserve. meditate upon the mercy of God. That's a very humbling meditation,
to think that this great God, yes, we're just a little, very
minute speck in the universe, and yet to think that God has
watched over us. And God, we pray and desire that
God is dealing with us, dealing with our souls, bringing us into
concern about the condition of our soul. It is of his mercy,
says the psalmist, that we are not consumed. His mercy. Well, do you and I know something
of his mercy? Oh, it's good if we do because
we need it. We understand what the parable
spoke of when the Lord gave the example of Pharisee and the publican.
And the publican came with that right prayer, that prayer which
we're aware with he was justified, God be merciful to me a sinner. The mercy of God. How wonderful
it is when you and I stand before a holy God, guilty, deserving
eternal damnation, and to realize the Lord is merciful to us. And why is he merciful? We need
to understand that, don't we? Why is he merciful? It's because
of what his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, has done in order to
redeem and to save our souls. That's why God is merciful to
us, because of what his son has done. My meditation of him shall be
sweet. It's good news, isn't it? And
it's sweet to our consideration to think of this great God like
this. My meditation of him shall be
sweet. So perhaps we ought to stop and
say, well, do we meditate? Have we ever meditated? Perhaps
you never have. Perhaps you've never sat down.
and meditated upon the Lord, but you just carried on in your
little life, trying to organise everything, trying to satisfy
what you want to do. Never really thought about meditating
on the Lord, and yet here is this true statement My meditation,
says the psalmist of him, shall be sweet." So, think of that
with regard to God's mercy. And then, think of this great
God. Again, don't lose sight of the
greatness of this God. This great God, merciful, and
this great God who grants His grace. His grace. Well, you young people, do you
know what grace is? What grace is, it's a word which
is used a lot in the Word of God, and it's a very familiar
word, but what is grace actually? If I asked you to define it,
could you tell me what it was? If I said, what is grace? Well, grace is the unmerited
favour of God. That means that we never deserved
any favour. We can't. Because we're sinners
of the earth. Everything that we do is mixed
with sin. And therefore we cannot please
God in and of ourselves. Grace, the free, unmerited favour
of God. And the Apostle Paul, when he
wrote to the Ephesians, gives us a very beautiful statement
about grace. And he tells us this in the eighth
verse, for by grace are ye saved. We are saved through the free
unmerited favor of God. And he goes on to explain it,
through faith. God gives us faith to believe
the word of God. You won't believe the truth of
God unless he gives faith. You'll think it's just a historical
account of things which occurred a long time ago, but when the
Holy Spirit, and bless God for the work of the Holy Spirit,
when the Holy Spirit comes and gives faith, then you see, we
realise that it is His grace, because faith to believe. For
by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
It is the gift of God. God gives grace. Isn't it wonderful? What a present,
isn't it? We like gifts, probably. My friends, this is a great gift,
isn't it? And God gives this gift of faith to believe. And then the Lord gives the reason
why, why he does that. not of works, lest any man should
boast. Because if we were able to give
ourselves grace, give ourselves spiritual life, we would claim
some of the benefit ourselves. And if that were so, what would
we do? We would demote God from his
throne, from his high office. As the great God, we would demote
him. and we would bring ourselves
not up to the same position, but perhaps a little way up the
ladder as it were. Well, God keeps us at the bottom
of the ladder, not at works, lest any man should boast. And so, this is a great statement,
for by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God. God gives these gifts, this gift
of grace and other things which he gives and just one. Mentioned
and that's in the epistle of Paul to Romans in the sixth chapter
the last verse the Apostle speaks to us about what we deserve and
he tells us this for the wages of Sin and we've all sinned haven't
we? And what's the payment for that if we were asked when I've
done these things I need paying what's the payment? death the
wages of sin is death, but I Some wonderful buts in the Word of
God and here's one, but the gift of God, what's this? The gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. My friends, meditate upon the
gifts of God, the gift of grace, the gift of faith, the gift of
eternal life. Surely that will make you and
me stand amazed. Yes, as we realise the wonder
and the goodness and the favour and the blessing of Almighty
God, none less to give us these great and glorious gifts. My meditation of him shall be
sweet. When are we beginning to understand
why the psalmist spoke in this way? why he was able to conclude
this statement that as he meditated then it would be a sweet meditation,
meditating upon the Lord. And then also of course we mention
his mercy and his grace. Let's come on to the next point,
his love. Why should God love you and me? Why should Almighty God love
you and me? Just you think, just you ponder,
there are billions of people in the world at the present time.
Many people at this very moment going about their own business,
unconcerned about the things of God. No concern about God
at all. What has caused you and me to
differ? What has caused you and me to
change? What's been the cause? The love
of God. God's love. You see, it's beyond
what you and I can comprehend. Because in this time of meditation,
my meditation of him may be sweet, As we meditate upon the greatness
of God and his wonderful mercy and grace and love, to think
that how unworthy we are of any notice from this God. We don't deserve any notice. Again, meditate on that. Think
of your life and my life. Just think about it. Has our life been pleasing to
God? And we lived a perfect life? We've done everything in accordance
with the Word of God? The complete opposite, isn't
it? We disobeyed God's Word from the time we were born. The Word
of God tells us, born in sin and shaped in iniquity. That's
how we were born. And to think then that God, without
any action on our behalf, looked upon us and loved us. As Jeremiah tells us, he's loved
us with an everlasting love, an everlasting love. It's not
something that disappears because we will continue to sin because
of our evil nature, but God's love does not change. But you might think, surely God
will now turn his back upon me. Surely he'll not love me anymore. Remember his word. Loved with
an everlasting love. And that means what it says.
It cannot change and therefore do rejoice and do thank God for
it. Meditate upon it. It's a good
theme to meditate upon. Thus saith the Lord in the 31st
of Jeremiah. The people which were left to
the sword found grace in the wilderness, even Israel, when
I went to cause him to rest. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, yea, I have loved thee. God's love, wonderful,
is personal. Personal to you, personal to
me. Yes, his love, this is what we read, I have loved thee. Bless
God for that. Love thee with an everlasting
love, and therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Well, again, we need to perhaps
ask ourselves the question whether the Lord has drawn us to him. And by that I mean this, whether
there's been something special, something attractive in God,
that we desire to know more about. And we desire to taste of his
goodness and his mercy toward us. And if that is so, what has
occurred? The blessed spirit has drawn
us to God. You won't draw yourself. You
won't want to give up the things of this life. You won't want
to forsake all the so-called pleasures of this life which
the world at large is engaged in. But when God grants us a
view of his love and what that love means, because what that
love means is the Lord Jesus Christ didn't just come and say,
well I've loved you and that's enough. There was a price to
pay so that you and I might be forgiven of our sins. We are sinners, and unforgiven
sinners can never enter into glory. Be clear about that. And therefore, there was a debt
to pay. To pay for our sin, and how could
we pay it? We could not pay it. That's why
the Lord Jesus Christ came in love to our souls. He came in
this sinful world to redeem us. Meditate upon the redemption
of the Lord Jesus Christ in saving our souls because of his wonderful
love. Our redemption, redeemed. There
we were, lost and ruined. with no hope in ourselves. We
could not deliver ourselves. Hell was our destination. Think of this great God. Loved
us so much. All meditate upon it. Loved us so much that he came into this world. and did all that his father required
so that we might be delivered from the wrath to come. And there
was a great requirement. There was a great requirement.
What it meant was the Lord Jesus Christ had to take all of our
sins upon himself. He had to stand in our place. he had to bear the punishment
instead, in order that you and I might be redeemed from all
our sins. Meditate upon the glorious redemption
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps we understand a little
then, now, of what the psalmist says when he says, my meditation
of him shall be sweet, sweet to think of what this great and
glorious God has done. Remember the love of the Father. Remember the love of the Son. Remember the love of the Holy
Spirit. You may say, well, just explain
that. All right. We read in John 3.16, for God
so loved the world. God the Father, that he sent
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. And we believe on him through
the work of the Holy Spirit. So we see there in that great
and glorious verse, well known, worth meditating upon, because
it points out to us the amazing love of our God. my meditation
of him shall be sweet. So, when we think of the redemption
that leads us to the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, as he
took upon himself our sin and bore the punishment instead.
My friends, it's good when the Holy Spirit enables us to meditate
and leads us to consider the blessed life of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It was a life from beginning to end of opposition. The Lord
Jesus Christ never had an easy life on this earth. And therefore
don't expect you to have an easy life either. Because if we are
a true follower of the Lamb, true follower of the Lord Jesus
Christ, never expect to have a cushy number on this earth. No. We are to expect tribulation,
but glory at the end of the road. Through Christ, remember what
he's done. The cost of our salvation. Meditate
upon salvation. Meditate upon it often. Often
desire to sit and go to Calvary, to go to Gethsemane, to go to
the Judgment Hall and see the cost of your salvation. When
you're tempted perhaps to do something, when you're trying
to justify some sinful thing that you think you might be able
to get away with, just sit down for a moment and meditate upon
the cost of your salvation. Let it regulate your mind. Let
it regulate whether you are able to proceed with doing things
that perhaps you'd wanted to try and justify, and you will
see There was no justification in them at all. But the great
blessing is that you and I are bought with a price. The price
of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. No greater price could
be paid. Meditate on that, my friends.
The blood of Christ. Oh, what a glorious theme it
is. From beginning in the Word of
God to the end of Revelation, there is blood throughout it.
Sacrifices given. the blood shed, the life taken,
and of course fulfilled gloriously in the life of the Lord Jesus
Christ. How willing was Jesus to die
that we fellow sinners might live. Oh, what a blessing it
is to have a Saviour so great, never weary, in meditating on
Him and believe the truth of God's Word here, which tells
us, my meditation on Him shall be sweet. And as the Holy Spirit
comes and enables you so to do, so it will be. It will be. And I'll tell you else what it
will do. It will bring peace to your soul. You may be tossed up and down,
all around, You might find really no peace at all, and you might
wonder where the scene will end. Well, you need to sit down. You need to meditate. You need
to consider Him. You need to rejoice in the great
and glorious work of salvation, and to realize that the blood
of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. All sin. Never forget that. Nothing left. God's work is complete. God's work is glorious. And my
friends, there is no mistake. It is a perfect work. And the
Lord Jesus Christ died that perfect sinatonic death. My meditation
of him shall be sweet. So never forget to go to Calvary. We need to consider all the life
of the Saviour. Go to Bethlehem. See the Saviour
born there. Recognise the condescension of
the great God. Come back to the great God and
think that he was willing to come down to be born and to be
laid in that manger Because there was no room in the inn, there
couldn't have been a lower form of birth really, was there? And
this was the King of Kings, the Lord of Life and Glory condescending
to come down to take our flesh upon him in order that he might
satisfy the holy law and the demands of God's law and to save
our souls. Well, it's a wonderful thing
to think of our God like this and to think then today, where
is he? In glory. What is he doing? Interceding for his people. I'm sure you're aware of the
Old Testament situation where in order for anybody to venture
into the presence of God, that blood had to be shed. And the
high priest, of course, wondrously on that great day of atonement,
only once a year, how Israel would look forward to it, to
see the high priest there entering into the holy place, not without
blood, every year. But then, as we know, the Lord
Jesus Christ came And he died that perfect death, that perfect
sacrifice. There was no need for any more
sacrifices. And we have the glorious evidence
of that in the Word of God, where we can read that when the Lord
was crucified upon that cross, and he spoke those wonderful
words, it is finished. What happened? The vire of the
temple, that which separated the holy place from the holy
of holies, There it was rent in twain from the top to the
bottom. The way of access was achieved by the death, the shed
blood of the Saviour. No more there was a requirement
for an earthly high priest. We have now a heavenly high priest. And what a blessing for you and
me today that we can come to God. through this glorious High
Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. He sits on the Father's throne
in glory, there to intercede for us, so that when we pray,
our prayers are accepted by the Father through the Lord Jesus
Christ, through his shed blood. That's the glory of the Gospel,
my friends. Meditate on it. My meditation
of him shall be sweet. So when we pray, let's pray in
faith, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our
faith. Oh, we have a great God. And
my friends, although we're sinners of the earth, There is that new
and living way set before us with our great and wonderful
high priest. And we are encouraged to come
to our God, to come boldly under the throne of grace only through
his merits, not because of what you and I have done. We're unworthy
of anything, but we can come pleading the merits of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Never forget when you pray to
come and say, for Jesus Christ's sake. See our prayers are accepted
in the beloved. What a wonderful thing it is
then to meditate upon the Saviour and all that he has done and
all that he is doing. And we should meditate upon what
he has promised. What has he promised? He told
the disciples what he promised when he addressed them on that
glorious sermon in the upper room after the Lord's Supper
had been instituted, the Passover being partaken, and then the
Lord's Supper, and he commenced really that glorious sermon recorded
in the Gospel of John, and this is what he tells us. Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. He tells us, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that
where I am there ye may be also. So here we have a glorious truth
to thank God for and to meditate upon that our risen saviour,
our risen saviour is in glory and he's gone to prepare a place
for us. And the apostle tells us there
is a place reserved in heaven. No one else can take it. It's
reserved for such unworthy sinners as you and me. My meditation
of him shall be sweet." Well, there's many things, you can
go home and think, there are many things, I've only touched
on a few, that you can meditate upon, but just come to this last
point. As the psalmist says, I will be glad in the Lord. Are we glad tonight in the glorious
work of the Lord Jesus Christ? Are we glad tonight of the great
plan of salvation. Are we glad tonight that we have
a risen saviour? Are we glad tonight that that
risen saviour will one day come again? In all his glory, and
every eye shall see him, you and me, we shall all see the
Lord coming in the clouds. No one is exempt. And what a mercy then, when that
occurs, Like it was when the avenging angel came into Egypt,
when Israel were delivered, they were only delivered because they
were under the blood. And my friends, on that great
day, that great day of the judgment of all things, we should only
be safe if we're under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. By
that I mean that he has died to take away our sins and that
we are complete in him. And so may we then be glad in
the Lord. The church of God have much reason
to be glad in the Lord. People are glad
about many things. But my friends, if you and I
are glad in the Lord, it's an eternal gladness because it's
that which God gives. And we can be so thankful for
the grace of God that has brought us to this situation, so that
we are glad in the Lord. Glad in the work of God. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. Glad in the Trinity. Bless God
for it. Go in your way rejoicing that
we today do not worship like the Athenians, the unknown God,
but we worship the true God. We worship the God that his people
do know. The people who do have dealings
with and to think then, that just finally, as the bride of
Christ said in the Sodom and Solomon, when she was describing
what the Lord Jesus meant to her, she finally came and said,
this is my friend. What a friend we have in Jesus. Meditate on that, my friends.
Glorious, isn't it? The thing the great God, the
great God, you and I, can come and believe and come to him as
a friend. And that friend has died to redeem
our souls. Well, tonight, go home and meditate. Go home and meditate. Don't daydream, meditate on this
great truth. My meditation of him shall be
sweet. I will be glad in the Lord. Amen.