May God be pleased to bless us
together this morning as we turn to his words to consider it.
Let us turn to Psalm 65. Psalm 65 and we'll read the first
verse. The first verse in Psalm 65. Praise waiteth for thee O God
in Zion and unto thee shall the vow be performed. I think it would be true to say
that one of the things in the Church of God, which is not as
it should be in the day and age in which we live, and by that
I'm referring to the true Church, the Living God, and that is the
praise which is really due unto His great and holy name. I'm sure that we fail very much
in recognising what the Lord does for us. And if we do recognise what God
does for us, it should result in praise to Him for His favour
and for His goodness toward us. We would then be not so much
perhaps looking around and concerned about this and that and perhaps
cast out and disappointed about many things. It is a good thing
to have cause and find reason to bring praise unto our God."
I do quote sometimes that whole line, count your many blessings,
name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has
done. And it is a good thing if we
do sit down, we often are the opposite way, we seem to have
a want list and we come to God and we want this and we want
that how good it would be if we commenced in the other way
and truly gave thanks to God for the very many blessings that
we do have and receive. And it's very broad in aspect. We can think of that in our natural
lives. We can think of it in our health
and our strength, in the homes that God has given us, in the
provision of food and friends and so many other things. And
it's good. to recognise that everything
that you and I haven't possessed comes from the good hand of our
God. And I do want people to understand
that. Because we only have our own
acumen, our own ability, that God has given us. God has given
us everything. And so we have a debt to our
God. But beyond that, to then move
on. to that which is so much more
important, and that relates to our spiritual state before God. And the relevance is that you
and I have cause and reason, and may it be so, to praise God
for His work in our soul. Now, that is vital. There are
many things in our lives that we want and we think we need.
But do remember, one thing is needful, and that is the knowledge
of Christ, the saving knowledge of Christ to our souls. That is the vital and the needful
thing. And may we never lose sight of
the great significance of that state and that condition that
we will be in when we've finished our life on this earth. None
of us know how long our life will continue. We never know
whether we shall see another day. And if we didn't, would
it be well with our souls? Would we be in glory with Christ? Or would we be in hell with the
devil? There's only the two alternatives. And you and I will, without any
doubt, be found in one place or the other. And so, as we think
of these things, how important it is that we have cause and
reason to praise our God. Well, David had cause to praise
his God. David had been wonderfully blessed. David had been wonderfully provided
for. David had received wonderful
mercy from his God, which he didn't deserve to receive. Well,
let us look into our lives and to be able to observe that we
have received wonderful mercy from our God, which we did not
receive. It is so important for you and
I to recognise the importance of such a situation and have
a concern that we come and are able to draw near to God and
to praise Him for His wonderful blessings to our souls. And so this morning, we need
to be honest before God. We must not assume anything.
You know, people go on in life sometimes, assuming that it will
work out alright in the end. And sometimes people are very
satisfied with their attendance at services and they think that
by so doing, they will merit some position with God. My friends,
we have to realise that all that we do, sin is mixed with it and
therefore we have to confirm those words. All our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. And we need therefore then to
know that we possess the life of God in our soul and that life
which God has placed there and God has put there. Because then
we have real cause to praise God. And my friends, may it be
a great concern and may we have the evidence that we do know
that we are part of God's blessed and eternal family. And that
we do possess the life of God in our soul. And therefore, we
do have real cause to praise and bless God today. Well, you
must answer before God. And you must answer before God,
and may you be able to answer before God in the affirmative,
that you do have the life of God in your soul. And if you
do, then you do have reason to come in and enter in with the
desire of David here, as he comes and says, Praise, waited for
thee, O God, in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed. Now it is of interest that this
praise waited for thee also has the indication in the Hebrew
of silence, praise in silence. You may say well I don't understand
that. Well we may not perhaps understand it but I believe it
really means this When God comes and speaks to our soul, when
the Lord comes and touches our heart, when we have the evidence
of that work of God within us, what does it do? It produces praise in our heart. And at that time, that praise
will be as it were silent between our souls and our God. And it will be real and we will
have reason to praise God for his goodness to us, for his wonderful
mercy. And I believe if the Spirit of
God has come and touched our hearts so we do have the evidence
of it, you will understand what I am saying. Because there will
be that thankfulness within, to know that we possess the life
of God in our soul, and that life which will never go out,
because it is eternal life, and it's that life which God has
given to us. And in that sense, therefore,
there will be, as it were, that silence. But that silence will
not remain silent. Because there will be an evidence
of that life of God in our soul that will be declared to the
Church of God, which will bring honour and glory to His great
and holy name. David says here, praise, waited
for thee, O God, in Zion, in the church, in the church of
God. That's really what this refers
to. Zion, of course, referred to Jerusalem and that place where
the people went up to sacrifice and to praise the Lord for those
things which he had done. And what a blessing it was in
those days to see those Israelites travelling up to Jerusalem, to
Zion, to bring their sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise, to
acknowledge the Lord's goodness and mercy to them. There was
a very clear outward performance of what God had done for them,
a declaration of His favour to them. And so there was his praise
waiting for thee, O God, in Zion, in the Church of God. Now, let
me just move on. I want to come back to that,
but let me just move on for a moment. Because David then says, he's
made that statement, and he says, O thou that hearest prayer, unto
thee shall all flesh come. David came to that God who heard
and answered prayer. He didn't come and pray to the
unknown God like the Athenians did, that Paul discovered when
he was in Athens. He saw that monument to the unknown
God. No, the Apostle prayed to the God he knew and David prayed
to the God he knew. And therefore he comes and says,
O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come. We
do have, bless God, we do have a God who hears our prayers. Now the evidence of that will
be in the answer to our prayers. The answer to our prayers. So we might think this morning,
we might consider in our lives Have we prayed to God? We may
have prayed. We may have prayed, but my friends,
have we prayed to God? It's a difference. You may think perhaps that we
pray to God. In actual fact, there may have
been that praying to the unknown God. But it would be a blessing if
you prayed to the God that you know, because He's the God who
hears prayer, and the God who then answers prayer. Now, answers may not always come
in the prescribed way that you and I expect. God doesn't always
answer our prayers in the way that we anticipate. But nonetheless,
if we have pray to God, he will answer our prayer in one way
or another. And so, here comes David with
the statement, praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion. And
he comes to this God and says, O thou that hearest prayer, unto
thee shall all flesh come. And he says, iniquities prevail
against me. As for our transgressions, thou
shalt purge them away." Now David recognised his position before
a holy heart-searching God, and he recognised the power of sin. Let us never underestimate the
power of the devil and the power of sin, because David says, iniquities
prevail against me. And that's a very solemn and
a very sad statement, but it is true. And now, it's not a
position that God's people are satisfied with. It makes them
pray to God because of the sins which prevail in their heart. Sometimes they are sins which
only you and God knows about. There are sins which prevail
in the heart. And the heart is treacherous. And the heart is evil. And the
heart goes after sinful things. So there is a truth in this statement. Iniquities prevail against me.
And as for all transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. Now, if anything is purged, it's
taken away. And how will our sins be purged? And how will our sins and iniquities
be taken away? There's only one way. And that's through the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that will give us cause
to praise God. if the Lord has convinced us
of our position as a sinner before a holy God, and has pointed us
to observe that which is prevailing within us, and to know that we
need to be purged, and the only way we can is through the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then you'll understand what
David goes on to say. Bless it is the man whom thou
choosest, and cause us 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. Now this will be a very humbling
experience and a very desirable experience. and a very blessed
experience and such an evidence of the work of God in our souls
will cause us thence to praise the Lord. Praise waiteth for
thee because to know that we are amongst those who are blessed
indeed. We are blessed indeed if we are
amongst those who the Lord has chosen. Blessed is the man whom
thou choosest." Yes, you know, the Lord Jesus
spoke when he was on the earth and he said, ye have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you. You see, naturally we wouldn't
choose God. Naturally we choose the ways of the world because
of our fallen, sinful nature. But if God has come and blessed
us with the wonderful favour of spiritual life within, the
evidence is then that we have been chosen by God. And this
word is true. We are blessed indeed. We're eternally blessed. It's not something which is transient,
or the things that this world can bring to us are fading and
transient. the things which God gives into
our spiritual life, our eternal blessings. And what a favour
it is to come into this category. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causes to approach unto thee. It is the blessed
work of the Spirit of God which causes us to come and to pray
unto him in a time when he may be found. It's God's work, and
it's all God's work. And why is it all God's work?
Because God demands honour and glory to His name and to His
name alone. And if you and I were able to
claim a part in our salvation, it would detract from the glory
of God. and therefore as we are not able
to produce any evidence of our hand in our salvation, we come
and confess and willingly and desire to bless and to praise
God for His work and for the glory of His salvation and the
wonder of His work in this way, blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. and causes to approach unto thee. The Lord God draws us to pray
unto Him. We find ourselves with a need,
a desperate need, a need to pray to Almighty God. No one else can only come and
pray to that God who hears our prayer. And how do we come? God-given faith. become believing
in this God. So we have a wonderful statement.
Yes, blessed is the man whom thou choosest. Praise wages of
thee, O God, in Zion, in the Church of God. And the truth
is that the Church of God understand and appreciate the reason for
praise. the reason for thankfulness,
the reason for desiring to come and to testify of God's goodness. The world would not appreciate,
they would not understand, but blessed be God, there is a living
Church of God who rejoice to hear of God's work They love
to observe it and to see it. And the result is honour and
glory to God. Yes, praise waiteth for thee,
O God in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed. Well, we have this statement
in here of David, he says, we shall be satisfied with the goodness
of thy house, even of thy holy temple. He was hungry and thirsty
for spiritual blessings." Yes, David loved to worship. It would
be a blessing if you and I loved to worship the Lord. It's a wonderful
thing when we find the best day of the week is the Lord's Day.
that we love to meet with the people of God. We love to share
in the things of God. We love to hear about the things
of God. We love to hear about the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's the joy and rejoicing of
our soul. We look forward to the Lord's
Day and we're sad when the Lord's Day comes to the end. And again,
that's an evidence really of God's work in our hearts. Perhaps We remember, perhaps
we're still there, when we were looking forward to Monday. We
were hoping that Sunday would soon finish and we could get
back to the things of the world. We could get back to enjoying
the things of time. Well, there's the evidence of
God's work. The evidence of God's favour
to us when there's been that wonderful change in our lives. And it's because we've been made
spiritually alive, and instead of finding the services boring,
instead of finding, well, we wish the man would shut up and
sit down, now we love to hear the truth of God's Word, and
we rejoice in it. It's the evidence of life, and
it's the cause then to praise God, that He's given us that
new heart, that new life, has been that change within. And
so we see, then, satisfaction. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. And it's good
when you and I come to the end of the Lord's Day, and we're
able to honestly say, well, it's been a good day for my soul.
My soul has fed. My soul has fed. upon Christ. He's been my food and drink. This is the reality of the truth
of God. This is not something which is
just superficial, which is passing and fading. This is true and
real and wonderful. And so may it be so. We shall
be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy
temple. But of course in these days,
when this was written, there was the temple, or at least rather
when David wrote it, there was of course the tabernacle. The
temple hadn't actually been built in those days, but nevertheless
there was that place of worship which signified, let us be clear,
in all the elements of the tabernacle and of the temple, all those
elements which it contained directed the believer to the Lord Jesus
Christ. What a blessing then, to think
of that. We have not time this morning
to enter into the wonderful blessings that the Tabernacle and the Temple
set before the Living Church of God, but it did set before
us Christ. And what a wonderful favour.
Perhaps that's really why, as we read together further on in
these chapters, we read about that, going up to sacrifice,
and the psalmist says, I will go into thy house with burnt
offerings. I will pay thee my vows. You see, this was the way that
was ordained. Christ did not physically come.
All these things prefigured Christ, but we see the position here
when the Psalmist says, I will go into thy house with burnt
offerings, I will pay thee my vows. And let us not forget that
when they brought these offerings, these sacrifices, they weren't
something they'd been given They were something which they possessed
and they brought willingly as an offering to God. There was
a sacrifice in so doing. And by that I mean this. There
was a cost. And they weren't allowed to bring
the scruffy animals. They weren't allowed to bring
those that were diseased. They had to bring the best. And as far as they were able,
that was perfect. Now, this really refers then
to the current age in which we live in, this gospel age. We
are to bring before God, in praise, our best offerings. To bring
to our God, not that which is spotted, and that which is damaged,
and that which is not good. And so here we see this position
here, of which the psalmist says, I will go into the house with
burnt offerings. And the statement really is here,
I will, in Zion and unto thee shall the vow be performed. It's
going to the Church of God, we see the element here. And so
he says, I will offer unto thee burnt offerings of fatlings with
the incense of rams, I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah. And then he comes and
he makes this statement which is very wonderful and it's appropriate
not only of course to the day and age in which it was written,
but to our age today. And he says this, come and hear
all you that fear God. Why does he say that? Because
those who fear God will understand what he's going to declare. They
will understand the truth of God. and understand the work
of God, and they will rejoice and bless God for it. And he
comes and says, come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will
declare what he hath done for my soul. Note the relevance. He doesn't come and say, come
and see this beautiful new car I've just bought, or come and
see this wonderful thing that I've just done. He comes and says, come and hear
what he has done for my soul. Done for my soul. This is the
relevant statement. And this is relevant to you and
me today. It's good, isn't it? I wonder whether we can say,
whether we could enter in to this statement this morning. praise waiteth of thee, O God,
in Zion, and to come in these terms, come and hear all ye that
fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul."
You know, it's an enormous favour and wonderful blessing if you
and I are able to be here and say yes. God has done something
for my soul. It's God's work. It's God's work. It's not your work. It's God's
work. And you have something to tell. You have something to declare.
And what will this declaration be? The declaration will be this, to confess how unworthy we are
of any blessing, and to confess that God has looked upon us,
and remembered us, and chosen us, and spoken to us, and directed
us to our need of a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And whereas There was a time
in our life, and it may be so today, when the Lord Jesus means nothing
to us. Words and lamentation, is it
nothing to you? Or you that pass by, is it nothing
to you? But what a blessing if it is
something to you. if the Lord Jesus Christ does
mean something to you. And he means such that you've
been blessed with those occasions in your spiritual life when silently
you've praised God for hearing your prayer, directing you to
the Saviour. Bless God, you have the life
of God in your soul. And now the situation has developed
And now, you've been moved by the Holy Spirit of God, and you
say, come and hear! All ye that fear God, and I will
declare what he hath done for my soul. I cried unto him with
my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue. Blessed be God,
if you and I have prayed unto the Lord, and he has heard, and
he has answered our prayers. the psalmist here gives this
very clear illustration. And wonderful it was that there
was this bringing the sacrifices to God, to offer up as an acceptable
offering. And you know, with those offerings,
God was well pleased. The Church of God, the people
of God, those who are called by God, they have a debt which
they will never be able to actually repay. And that was the debt that the
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, paid in order to redeem their
souls. What a debt that was. You and
I could never redeem our souls. We can never save ourselves from
the wrath to come. We needed a Saviour. Blessed
be God if the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world in order
to save your soul and to save my soul. how wonderful, if that is so,
how amazing and it is amazing to think that God shall look
upon us and have chosen us and have called us we were no better
than anyone else indeed I believe the true Church of God will look
on themselves and they will agree with the Apostle Paul the worst
of sinners You won't throw stones at other people. You won't say,
well, look at that person. Well, you may, but if you do,
you'll learn a lesson. You have to come and find that
you are the worst sinner. And that makes the Gospel so
glorious and so precious and so wonderful that the Lord Jesus
Christ should have looked upon such a terrible, wicked, vile
sinner as you and me, and should have caused His grace, His unmerited
favour to rest upon us, which gives us great cause to praise
God. Praise waiteth for thee, O God,
in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed. This is
really, the vowel really means a promise. A promise. Perhaps there may
have been, in your prayer, a promise to God. You may have been in a very desperate
condition. You may have prayed to God. You
may have prayed that if the Lord would hear and answer prayer
then, You will acknowledge and you will testify of his goodness
and mercy to you. You may be in that position now. Well, then there is an obligation. An obligation is to acknowledge
and to perform that vow and is to come and declare what God
has done for you so that You may do that which you promised
to do and you are able then to pay
that vow. Unto thee shall a vow be performed. You see here was the psalmist
speaking unto God. See the promise is to be paid
to God. The vow is to be paid to God.
It's that, if you like, that debt that you owe for what God
has done. in hearing and answering prayer.
Well, has God heard and answered prayer in your life? With regard to your spiritual
life? Has he heard and answered prayer?
What's the answer to that? What do you say to that? Do you
confirm? Well, yes he has and my friends,
never pretend that God hasn't when he has. There is sometimes
a position of people acting in a dishonest way and it's really
acting with mock humility and it's very God dishonoring. It's very God dishonoring. Never
pretend that you have not heard the voice of God. Never pretend
that God hasn't heard and answered your prayer when he has. But do acknowledge and do thank
and praise his name for being so gracious, for being so merciful,
for declaring to you his great love to your soul. That love so great So great,
think of it, so great that he was willing to die so that you
might live and to die that awful death of
suffering in order to purge, take away your sin. Do we not have real cause to praise the Lord for His love, for His grace,
for His mercy to such unworthy sinners. Well, if that is true,
and it will be so, if you and I are true believers, to be able
to come and say, yes, truly this is so, praise waiteth for thee. It has been that though silent
praise is in my heart, and now this is true praise waiteth for
thee, O God, in Zion and unto thee shall the vow be performed,
that you and I may speak forth His praise, so that His name
may be honoured and glorified. And I tell you this, you and
I walking this way, we have an answer of a good conscience before
God. And we are thankful to be able
to honour the name of our God. And the Word of God tells us
this, those that honour me I will honour, and those that despise
me shall be lightly esteemed. May we be amongst those who truly
and honestly desire, from the full heart, to honour our God
for what He has done. Praise waiteth for thee, O God
in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed. Amen.