May God be pleased to bless us
together this morning as we look to his word. Let us turn to Psalm
89 and read verse 13. Psalm 89 and reading verse 13. Thou hast a mighty arm, strong
is thy hand, and high is thy right hand. This is indeed a wonderful testimony
that we have here, that the psalmist speaks. It would appear that
the psalm is probably written by David, although they were
not told so. But in any event, whoever penned this psalm had
a very clear view of the greatness of God, and surely how important
that is for us today to remember the greatness of our God and
particularly as we think today in our country in remembrance
of the wonderful natural deliverances that God gave to us and how truly
such a word was fulfilled in our country when we think of
what the Lord has done. He has a mighty arm and strong
is his hand and high is his right hand. We only have to think of
some of those deliverances as we look back over perhaps more
particularly the last two world wars, but we can go back further
than that. We look back in times of great
difficulty, we think of the days of the Spanish Armada, when the
Spanish Navy was very powerful and very strong and our navy
by comparison was very small and inadequate and then the Lord
came and the Lord caused the weather to change and to create
havoc amongst the Spanish fleet and how that weather was so amazing
how the wind blew and the wind changed direction and there was
a great victory gained. And how was it gained? Because
of the mighty arm of the Lord. No doubt there was a great amount
of prayer which went up to God in those days for deliverance. It seemed, naturally speaking,
to be very hard. But so it was granted. And there
have been many other occasions in the history of our nation
when there has been amazing deliverances. You have to think perhaps in
the last great world war, when on that occasion at Dunkirk,
there was a mighty deliverance for our nation there, when the
Lord brought about a great calm to the sea, a wonderful calm,
so that little boats were able to cross the channel, never normally
possible. And so a great deliverance was
granted to our army on that occasion. Well, we know that particularly
in the last war, there were those days of prayer which were called
for. Days of prayer which were called
for by our King, the late King George VI, and how that prayer
was answered. Well we should realise that still
today we come to this mighty God who has a mighty arm and
a strong hand. And this same God can do great
things again in a natural way, but perhaps today we need it
so much greater in a spiritual way. We need the Lord to come
in a wonderful way. Now again, we can look back in
our history as a nation. We think of those dark days,
before the times of the Reformation. And then we think of those, the
great works of those who were able to translate the Bible. We think of John Wycliffe in
his day, the labour that he did. We think of William Tyndale.
in his day, in the labour that he did. And we recognise that
the Lord in his providence was mighty to help those people. He had a mighty arm and strong
as hand to guide them and direct them. And so as a nation we were
blessed with the Bible and it was distributed against great
opposition. And so today now we have Bibles
freely available in our land. Now, we don't want those Bibles
just to be an historical account of the things which occurred
over 2,000 years ago. But we need the Bible to be greatly
blessed as people read it. And therefore, we're thankful
that we here have been able to distribute the Bible, not only
in our own country, but far and wide throughout the world. And
again, we're thankful to realize The Lord has a mighty arm and
a strong hand and he's graciously used this work to the blessing
of many souls. And so may we today be encouraged
to know that the Lord does not change. We have a God who is
all-powerful and we're told he is the same yesterday and today
and forever. And therefore we need this great
God to arise yet again in our nation and to pour forth his
spirit mightily upon many, many people. And perhaps we need to
come very closely to our own condition and to realise that
we need God to pour forth his spirit into our hearts, into
our souls. And we may be discouraged sometimes
And we may think, well, I prayed on many occasions for God to
come and to bless me, and really it hasn't occurred as I thought
it would, and how I had anticipated it would happen. Well, we must
first of all recognise that the Lord has his way, and the Lord
has his time, and both of those may not be in accordance with
what we think may occur. But may we have the confidence
in our God and to come to him perhaps in this way and acknowledging
that the Lord has a mighty arm to save us and a strong hand
that he can come to us and he can work powerfully in our hearts. We should not give up, we should
not cease praying because the Lord remains the same. But may
we have a greater fervency perhaps and a greater urgency in our
prayers. Because, if we look back, naturally
in the history of our nation, there were desperate days, desperate
times, when it appeared we might be overthrown as a nation. Naturally,
God heard and answered prayer. And so perhaps today, we need
in the same way, but in a spiritual sense, We need the Lord to come
and bless greatly and powerfully and mightily. And may we individually
be moved by the Spirit of God to pray fervently and earnestly
for these blessings. And as it were, to give the Lord
no rest. No rest. To pray again and again. Because we have a God who is
able and a God who is willing, my friends. Let us not lose sight
of the greatness of our God. Thou hast a mighty arm, a mighty
God. We must never underestimate the
power of our God. We must never underestimate how
strong He is. We must never underestimate that
He will be inquired of by His people. He says, I will be inquired
of by the house of Israel to do these things for them. And
it's not perhaps in just a casual way, but it may be in a great
way. When Israel, you know, had been
in captivity, they'd been in Babylon, they disobeyed God and
they'd been taken captive, and as they drifted back to Jerusalem,
and as they came together, well, there was a wonderful time when
the Lord met with them, when Nehemiah and Ezra assembled the
people together and you know they came together, they came
together willingly and they stood and they listened attentively
to what was being read and the words that were prayed and it
was a beautiful prayer that Ezra was able to put up to his God.
You can read of it. And he was beseeching and praying
earnestly that the people might be blessed and the Lord would
remember them. And as he came to the inclusion of that prayer,
all the people said Amen. And yes, they desired that that
which had been spoken might be attended to and the Lord would
come and hear and answer that prayer. Well, we know the Lord
did graciously come and bless his people once again. The walls
of Jerusalem were rebuilt once again. The temple was rebuilt. A wonderful favour, a wonderful
blessing. Israel didn't deserve it. My
friends, we look around today as we perhaps see the sad state
of the churches, the sad state of our nation, the sad state
of the world at large. We still have a God who can do
great things. Thou hast our mighty arm. My
friends, let us never forget the greatness of our God. Let us have a great confidence
in our God, and may we desire and seek earnestly for prevailing
prayer, not just a few words which are uttered in a traditional
way because we fear it's right and proper to pray, and so it
is, but it's a blessing when God comes and blesses us with
true pervading prayer, real urgency to come to God. And perhaps we
think of that time in the life of Jacob. You remember Jacob
had left his father-in-law, was journeying back to his own country,
his own place, and he was fearful what his brother Esau would do
to him. He knew he'd been deceitful to
Esau and he was afraid of what he would do. And he heard that
he was coming with 400 men and he was really concerned. He separated
his people and he was left alone. What did he do? What did Jacob
do? He prayed to his God. He prayed
to his God. Now when the Lord brings us into
situations. We may be fearful what the future's
going to hold. It may look very black. What
shall we do? Pray to God. Now Jacob, it wasn't a few words. We're told he wrestled with God. You know what wrestling is? It's
a close contact. Wrestling is a close contact.
It's body to body. And there was Jacob, as it were,
spiritually with his God. wrestling in prayer. And the word was, let me go.
What did he say? I will not let thee go, except
thou bless me. I wonder today, whether any of
us really understand what that meant. What he really was so
concerned about, that he came and said, I will not let thee
go, He didn't stop praying. He continued praying until he
received the blessing. Now Jacob had faith. He looked to his God and he would
have known the truth of these words. Thou hast a mighty arm,
strong is thy hand and high is thy right hand. You see we have
These words, mighty and strong, they are powerful words. They apply to our God, and our
God is mighty, and our God is strong. He is able to do far more, and exceeding
abundantly and we can ask or even think. There are many references
in the word of God, many references to God being mighty and many
references to him being strong and having a high right hand. There are many references, I
cannot go through them all. There are very many. I want to
just pick up a few. Psalm 98, first verse. begins like this, O sing unto
the Lord a new song. Now, if you and I have been in
a desperate situation and have not known the blessing of the
Lord, if the Lord has come and heard our prayers, there will
be a change and it will be like this. We will say, yes, I will
sing unto the Lord a new song. I've got something else now to
speak about. Something else now to say. Something
to sing about. Because the Lord has heard my
prayer. The Lord has delivered me. And he comes and says, for he
has done marvellous things. His right hand and his holy arm
hath gotten him the victory." I believe the response will be
when the Lord comes and richly favours us and blesses us to
come and to acknowledge what God has done. It's good, isn't
it? We read this word. Come and hear. all ye that fear God, and I will
declare what he hath done for my soul." What a blessing it
is when the Church of God, the individuals in the Church of
God have reason to come and to acknowledge what he's done for
them and to declare it and to declare it to the Church of God
that they may come together, come and hear I've got something
to say. I've got something to speak about. I've got something to tell. What
is it? My God has a mighty arm. He's a strong hand. He's high
with his right hand. He's heard my cries. He's remembered
me in my lowest state. Oh, says the psalmist, yes. He hath done marvellous things.
And my friends, when the Lord comes and blesses our soul, He
has done marvellous things. Let us not let His blessings
lie forgotten in unthankfulness and without praises die. Are
you thankful today for God's blessings? Are you truly thankful
for what God has done And if you are, have you declared it? The psalmist goes on, the Lord has
made known his salvation. What does that mean? He's made
known to you and me his blessing in saving our soul. And that's
a great favour, isn't it? The greatest blessing really
you and I can ever receive to know that we are born again in
His Spirit, that we are saved. The Lord has saved our souls.
We haven't been left to perish in our sins. The Lord's heard
our prayer, He's heard our cry. It's a mighty, a mighty arm. The Lord's put out that arm and
has saved us. You may remember in the times
when the Lord Jesus was on the earth, the case of Peter. Peter was very outgoing. We might
say he kind of wore his heart on his arm. Everybody knew what
Peter was thinking or believing. And there was that time when
there was that storm and the Lord Jesus was walking on the
waters. Peter and the disciples were
in the ship and they realised who it was. Peter said, bid me to come unto
thee on the water." The Lord said, come. He jumped out of
the boat and began to walk towards the Lord without any difficulty.
Yes, what did he see? He saw the Lord's mighty arm. And then he looked around. He saw the raging seas. Oh, and he began to began to
sink. Why did he begin to sink? I'll
tell you. He looked around. He wasn't looking
at Jesus. My friends, very often, that's
our problem. We look around and we find a
heart which is unbelieving. We disbelieve God. My friends,
we either looked at Jesus Now what did Jesus do to Peter as
he began to sink? Peter cried out to the Lord.
The Lord put forth his hand, his arm, what a mighty arm, what
a hand it was, and took hold of Peter. My friends, we have
the same God today, who knows where we are, he knows our condition,
and he puts forth his hand. that mighty arm and that strong
hand that takes hold of us and holds us up, holds us up so that
we don't sink, so that the storm may still rage. We don't sink. Thou hast a mighty arm, strong
is thy hand and high is thy right hand and especially as we may
come to know then His salvation. And His salvation is a glorious
work. And we have to sing, He's done
a marvellous thing. The Lord saves our soul, my friend,
when He saves your soul. It's a marvellous thing. It's
the greatest blessing that you and I can ever desire and ever
can receive. It's the blessing of our soul.
It outdoes anything this world can offer. Anything that you
and I can possess. Because it brings with it eternal
blessings. Oh, the mighty arm of Jesus. Do we know anything of that today? Are you able to thank God for
his mighty arm towards you and his strong hand? And high is
thy right hand. Well, we have this wonderful
exhortation to sing unto the Lord this new song. David, in
the 40th Psalm, a very familiar psalm perhaps to some of us,
but how wonderful it is to read what he says. He tells us the
Lord heard his cry. It means he heard his prayer.
And what was he able to say? He brought me up, also out of
a horrible pit, and out of the M�ori clay, he fall into it,
and set my feet upon a rock. What was that rock? The rock
was the Lord Jesus Christ. And establish his goings, it
meant he'd established him in the truth of God. There he was
on that rock, Christ Jesus. And he was established in the
truth of God. And what was the result? Again,
in this testimony here. And he hath put a new song in
my mouth. What was it? Praise unto our
God. Praise unto our God. Many shall
see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord. You know the effect
is like that, isn't it? If we understand and know by
personal experience the greatness of God, who is a God with a mighty
arm, who is strong, yes, there will be praise to our God. Praise unto our God. And in this
case here, again, many shall see it and fear and shall trust
in the Lord. The effect will be to trust in
the Lord. Well, I might ask the question
this morning, are you and I trusting in the Lord? I'll tell you this,
there's no one else to trust in that you can rely upon There's
no other God that is a God with a mighty arm and a strong hand.
There's no one else. Where is your trust this morning? Where is our trust this morning? Is it in the Lord? Is it in the
Lord? If so, perhaps we can come and
say, Thou art a mighty arm, strong is thy hand. A blessing if it
is so. We can come like that and truly
speak these words from our heart, not just in theory. There is a theory of the things
of God which is right and good. But there is then a personal
testimony. The things of God are real because
we know them in our heart. We know they're true. And again,
David tells us in the 17th Psalm, he says, show thy marvellous
loving kindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them
which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against
thee." Now, it's beautiful to see here really, that David is
trusting in his God. And what is he desiring? To see
the marvelous loving-kindness of God. The loving-kindness of God. It's
a very sweet term, really. Loving-kindness. It combines
things, doesn't it? It combines love and it combines
kindness. And to realize that we have a
God who chose His love and his kindness to unworthy
sinners of the earth. And so he prays his prayer, show
thy loving, thy marvellous, again there's another adjective, marvellous,
loving kindness. And it really means that we are
to marvel at this. Well I wonder again, if you and
I have marveled at God's love and have marveled at His kindness, perhaps you're questioning, perhaps
you're saying, well, I don't really know this love, I don't
really know the kindness of the Lord. Well, before you come to
that conclusion, just carefully and prayerfully examine your
life and observe whether there are things that you may have
passed over and not have realised the Lord's kindness and the Lord's
love towards you so that you may have cause to
suddenly realise that you, as it were, have been blind. And now the God, as it were,
has given you sight, spiritual sight, so you can observe the
marvellous, loving, kindness of the Lord. And He says, O thou
that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in
thee, Now I hope this morning that we are amongst those who
are blessed with that trust in the Lord. My friend, remember
there's no one else that you and I can put our trust in, who
we can rely upon, who we can believe will really hear and
answer our prayer. A God who is really one who we
can come and honestly and truthfully rely upon. What a blessing then
to have such a God as this, this morning. Thou hast a mighty arm,
strong is thy hand and high is thy right hand. And in the next
Psalm, the 18th Psalm, that 17th, we read, Thou hast also given
me the shield of thy salvation, and thy right hand hath hold'd
me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great." Now, this mighty
God, this holy God, this righteous God, He deals very often in love
to our souls in a gentle way. In a gentle way. We don't deserve
a gentle treatment, you know. Because we've been hard-hearted,
we've often been rebellious to our God. But I think we have
a God who deals with us gently, in love to our souls. And it's thy right hand which
has held us up. We were about to sink under the
load, perhaps the load of our sin. Yes, it may have weighed
us down. We were about to sink and the
Lord's held us up. He held up Peter. He's the same
today. He holds his people up. What
a great blessing it is then to realise that we have such a kind
and gracious and loving God, mighty arm, strong hand that
holds us up and doesn't let us sing. Now, again, we need to
follow the Word of God and the testimony of God's saints who
have gone before. And in the 63rd Psalm, we're
directed to what David says. He tells us this. He says, Thy
right hand hath upholdeth me. What did he say before that?
He says this in the 8th verse, My soul followeth hard after
thee. You may remember what I spoke
from last Sunday morning about Caleb, who wholly followed the
Lord. Here we have a testimony of David. My soul followeth hard after
thee. the gracious exhortation, thy
right hand upholdeth me." Well, may we be found then, following
hard after this great God who has a mighty arm, who has a strong
hand, and who has a high right hand. He is high. He is a gracious,
merciful, and long-suffering Lord God. One final reference
in the 108th Psalm, where we're told in the 6th verse, that thy
beloved may be delivered, say with thy right hand and answer
me. God has spoken in his holiness. The Lord directs us here to this
statement, that thy beloved God's people are all beloved of his
God. God loves all his people. He loves them to the end. That thy beloved may be delivered. Well, what a prayer. Perhaps
we might pray. We may be praying. Don't give up. Pray on to this
great God who stays with his right hand and does answer. that you may be delivered, you
may be brought safely through. Oh, my friends today, may we
be blessed with that faith in God. The children at the Sunday school
have been thinking recently about faith in God. Noah had wonderful
faith to come and to believe God and to build that ark in
that In that dry land, many people thought what a fool he was, but
he had faith in God. Now may you and I today be blessed
with faith in God. To come to Him, believing that
He has a mighty arm, that He has a strong hand, and that he
has a high right hand. Remember, the things which are
impossible with men, the devil will tell you and me, that can't
happen. The things which are impossible
with man, are possible with God. All things are possible with
God. And the word of God encourages
us in this way, have faith in God. my friends, may it be so. May we be blessed today with
faith in God and to come to Him in this way and acknowledge the
truth of these words, Thou hast a mighty arm, strong is thy hand,
and high is thy right hand. And to remember that we have
a mighty Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is able and willing
to do far more exceedingly abundantly and we can ask or even think. Amen.