Let us turn to God's Word in
the psalm that we read, Psalm 106. I'll read again verses 4
and 5. Remember me, O Lord, with the
favour that Thou bearest unto Thy people. O visit me with Thy
salvation, that I may see the good of Thy chosen, that I may
rejoice in the gladness of Thy nation. that I may glory with
thine inheritance." The Psalm of course recounts much of the
history of the children of Israel. There are many rebellions against
God and yet our God would continually renew His mercies. In many ways Does it not also
set before us something of our own lives? We are like the children
of Israel. We are those who rebel against
God, we disobey God, we forget God. And God has to deal with
us in the way of correction and chastening. But God's design
always is a good one. He knows the thoughts that He
thinks towards us, thoughts of peace. and not of evil to give
us unexpected ends. He is the God of all comfort,
the God of all grace. And here, in the words that we've
read, the psalmist desires that God would remember him. Remember me, O Lord, he says.
It's interesting that here in verses 4 and 5, we see the psalmist
speaking very much in the first person, Remember me, he says,
O visit me, that I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may
rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with
thine inheritance, all in the first person. And yet when we
go back to the previous verses, we see our In the first verse
he actually speaks in the third person. Praise ye the Lord, he says,
rather the second person. There in the first verse he says
praise ye the Lord. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord,
for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever. He addresses,
as it were, the reader of the psalm there, using the second
person in that opening verse, and then we see how He uses the
third person in the third verse. Blessed are they, He says. That's
keep judgment. and he that doeth righteousness
at all times. So he speaks in the second person,
he speaks in the third person, and each time he speaks in the
plural. Praise ye, he says. And then
he goes on at verse 3 to speak of they. That's keep judgment. But when we come to the words
that I've read in verses 4 and 5, we have the first person.
And we also find that it's in the singular. Remember, me, I'll
visit me, that I may see, that I may rejoice, that I may glory. And so, here in the words that
we've read as a text, We have to recognize how the psalmist
is really beginning now to address God. It's in the form of a prayer
and it's a prayer very much for himself. What we have in verse
4 is really a two-fold request. There are two things that he
desires. He wants that God should remember him. Remember me, he
says. Remember me Oh Lord! And we see in other parts of
the psalm he speaks of remembrance. Verse 7, Our fathers understood
not thy wonders. In Egypt he says, They remembered
not. They remembered not the multitude of thy mercies. And then again
at verse 13 he says, They soon forgot his works. They waited
not for his counsel. Verse 21, they forgot God, their
Saviour, which had done great things in Egypt, though they
failed to remember, they were forgetful. But the Psalmist desires
that God would remember him now. It's interesting, there are two
Psalms that bear in the title of the Psalm, a Psalm to bring
to remembrance. Psalm 38 and Psalm 17. Psalms to bring to remembrance
how we should remember God and we should certainly desire that
God would be mindful of us. Here the Psalmist then is deploring
this lack of remembrance, his forgetfulness of God. And as
he asks that God would remember him, So he goes on, at the end
of verse 4, to say something more. He desires that God, remembering
him, would then visit him. Remember me, O Lord, with the
favour that Thou bearest unto Thy people. O visit me with Thy
salvation. He wants God to come. He wants
God to draw near to him. He wants to taste, he wants to
see something of the goodness, the mercy and the grace of God. And then we have, as it were,
the consequence of these requests in verse 5. And it's really verse
5 that I want to concentrate your attention upon more particularly
this evening. Three times we have the word
that. This is the consequence, you
see, of God's remembrance. and of God's visitation. That,
or in order that, I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may
rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with
thine inheritance. And there's a sort of ascending
scale really in the three clauses that we have in this fifth verse. As God gives, he wants that God
should give something more. And isn't that the way in which
we are to come before God and deal with God? He is such a good
and such a gracious God. John Newton says, the best returns
for one like me, so wretched and so poor, is from his gifts
to draw a ploy and ask him still for more. He has said it is more
blessed to give than to receive and we should therefore not be
stinted in our asking when we come to pray to Him. And so, as we consider in particular
these words in verse 5 tonight, I want to deal with three things
really. Goodness, gladness and glory. the goodness that is from God,
the gladness that is also the gift of God and that glory, which
is the ultimate lot of them that are the Lord's people. Goodness,
gladness and glory. And in a sense, with each of
these we see that there is a backwards look, there is a consideration
of the present and then there is also a forward look. Well let us first of all consider
what he said here with regards to goodness. Remember Me, O Lord,
he says, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people,
O visit me with thy salvation, that I may see the good of thy
chosen. It's the good of those who are
the Lord's chosen ones. In that sense, it is a backward
look, because God's choice, of course, stretches back into eternity,
the great doctrine of election. And now the psalm really opens
on this theme of the goodness of God. We have that opening
statement, Praise ye the Lord, Alleluia. We have the same sentence
at the end of the psalm, Praise ye the Lord, Alleluia. But then the psalm really begins,
O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good. And what does the Psalmist desire
here in verse 5? His desire is that he might see
the good of God's chosen. All God is good. Again in another
of the Psalms we are told thou art good and thou doest good. That is the mark of God. That
is the character of God. It's one of God's attributes.
and remember that young man who comes to the Lord Jesus in the
gospel desiring to know what good thing he is to do that he
might inherit eternal life and the way in which he addresses
the Lord Jesus good master he says good master what shall I
do that I may inherit eternal life And how striking is the
Lord's reply to that young man. Why callest thou me good? He
says. There is none good but one that
is God. And why does the Lord reply in
that fashion to him? He is coming to the Lord and
he is showing a great measure of respect when he addresses
him not only as master but as good master. Well, I believe
that the striking thing there, and he comes out in the way in
which the Lord answers him, is that he is not coming as one
who recognizes who Jesus of Nazareth is. This is the Christ. This
is the Son of God. He might speak with due respect,
but he doesn't recognize that this is indeed the Son of God. This is God incarnate? Isn't that the question that
must be put to those who know anything of salvation, the language
of the Lord to that man born blind? In John chapter 9 the
Lord had performed that remarkable miracle and given the man his
sight, they cast him out of the synagogue, he'd been excommunicated
from Israel as it were, he was treated now as a heathen man,
But the Lord seeks him out, and what does the Lord say to him?
Dost thou believe? Dost thou believe in the Son
of God? Or that rich young ruler might come with all due respect,
but he doesn't recognize who Jesus of Nazareth is. He is God. And he is that one who is good.
It is that attribute then that belongs unto God, and God reveals
to us His goodness. And how has God revealed to us
His goodness? Does He not reveal it in those
doctrines of predestination and election? Because in these doctrines
we do see that God is God, that God is that One who is absolutely
sovereign. Men despise the doctrines. They hate the doctrines. They
say that they are bad doctrines. But these doctrines are good
doctrines. Again, I remind you, we've mentioned
this before in the articles, the 39 articles of the Church
of England. Alas, I doubt there are many,
if any at all, in the Church of England today who really believe
those doctrines that were drawn up at the time of the Protestant
Reformation. Alas, that church is such an
apostate church, and yet they have those great historic documents,
and Article 17 speaks of election and predestination, and it's
declared to be a good doctrine. It says this, the godly consideration
of predestination and our election in Christ is full of sweet, pleasant
and unspeakable comfort to godly persons. That's good. If the
doctrine is full of all those things, sweet, pleasant and unspeakable
comfort to godly persons, is it not a good doctrine? And this is what we have in the
text, that I may see the goods of thy chosen all to draw comfort
out of that doctrine that reveals to us God in all His majesty,
in all His sovereignty. And there we see that so clearly.
Remember what's said concerning the sons of Rebecca there in
Romans chapter 9, the children being not yet born. neither having done good or evil,
that the purpose of God according to election might stand, it was
said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. The children
being not yet born, neither having done good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand. It's such a statement
revealing to us that in that doctrine of election we see the
sovereignty of God. We see that God is God. He is
that one who is absolute in his sovereignty. And as the doctrine
is one in which we see the sovereignty of God, so at the same time we
also see the eternity, its eternal election. according as He hath
chosen us in Him," says Paul to the Ephesians, chosen us in
Christ, before the foundation of the world. When did God make
His sovereign choice? Before ever He had created. Before
ever time was. It was in eternity that God made
that choice. And how is it then that we see
that doctrine of God's sovereignty here in time. Well, look at the
request that is made here, that I may see the good of thy chosen. What is the good of thy chosen?
What is the good thing that those who are elect come to see? Well, they come to see principally
two things. They come to see themselves as
they really are, and they come to see Him who is the only Saviour
of sinners. In other words, they are brought
to understand what sin is and what salvation is. Now we know
that sin is of man. God is not the author of sin.
God is a vice too pure to behold iniquity. God cannot look upon
sin. And yet sin is. Who is the author of sin? Well,
Satan is the author of sin. And we see how sin enters into
God's creation. There in Genesis chapter 3 with
the fall of Adam and Eve. Sin is of man. All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. There is not a just man
upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. There are a
multitude of scriptures that state that obvious fact to us. Sin is of man, but the sense
of sin is not of man. That sense of sin must come from
God Himself. It comes in the way of conviction. It's the work of the Holy Spirit
when He has come, says Christ. He will reprove, He will convince
the world of sin, of righteousness, of judgment. and see how where there is that
real conviction of sin there is confession and that's what
we have here in the psalm in the very next verse verse 6 the
psalmist says we have sinned we have sinned with our fathers
We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly. He's recounting
something of the history of his own people. He's recounting the
days of Moses and all that God did in delivering the children
of Israel from Egypt and bringing them through the Red Sea and
into the wilderness and through the wilderness and across the
River Jordan into the land of promise. He's recounting all
their history. But now he has to acknowledge
that he's bound up with this history himself. It's not that
they sinned. He says we have sinned with our
fathers. We have committed iniquity. We
have done wickedly. Where there is that conviction
of sin, there will be the confession of sin. Although all our sinners
in God's sight there are, but few so in their own. New life
from Him we must receive, before for sin we rightly grieved. And here is that grieving over
sin. Oh, this sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made
him so. There is that sense of sin, but
then also salvation. Isn't that the prayer that he
is making here in the context, the end of verse 4? Oh, visit
me, he says, with thy salvation. It's not enough to know I'm a
sinner. If I want to know in reality the good of God's chosen
I must know that salvation that is laid up in Christ for those
who are sinners no good to say well I have an understanding
of what I am and I'm a wretched man you need to know that we have
peace with God's pardon through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
And how we have this salvation recounted time and again. I love
this word nevertheless that we see so many times in the book
of Psalms. We have it in this psalm. Verse
7, Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt. They remembered
not the multitude of thy mercies, but provoked him at the sea,
even at the Red Sea. Nevertheless, he saved them. for His namesake, that He might
make His mighty power to be known. All God brings His people, you
see, into circumstances which seem to be utterly impossible
and their condition seems to be so wretched and they're so
lost, and yet God, in spite of all their provoking of Him, nevertheless
He saves them. And then again, later in the
psalm there that Verse 43, following many times did He deliver them,
but they provoked Him with their counsel, and were brought low
for their iniquity. Nevertheless, He regarded their
affliction when He heard their cry, and He remembered for them
His covenant, and repented according to the multitude of His mercies. Oh, it's here you see, it's in
the way in which God deals with these people that we say the
good of His chosen. The secret things belong unto
the Lord. The things that are revealed
belong unto us and to our children, we are told. We do not know who
the election of Christ are. The Lord knoweth them that are
His. We're to give diligence, yes,
to make our calling and our election sure, says Peter. But how important
is the order as we have it there in 2 Peter 1 and verse 10? We're to
give diligence to make our calling. Calling is first, and then our
election. We can understand our election
by the fact that we've known that efficacious grace of God,
that irresistible grace of God in his core. It's our experience, you see.
Of course, in reality, we know that election is eternal, so
that must be first. and those whom God set his love
upon from all eternity in the appointed time here upon the
earth, he calls them to himself. But when it comes to us examining
ourselves, giving diligence to whether or not we are those who
know the salvation of God, the goodness of God, we have to look
to our calling, are we those who have known that grace of
God, the goodness of God in calling us unto himself, making his word
mighty and effectual in our souls, that I may see, he says, the
good of thy chosen. And then in the second place,
he goes on to speak of gladness, that I may rejoice
in the gladness of thy nation." The gladness of thy nation. Now, remember, here in the Old
Testament, of course, Israel are a typical people. Ethnic
Israel, the type of the true spiritual Israel. They are not
all Israel, that are of Israel. How Paul brings that out so clearly
in his epistles. He points out to us who the true
Jew is, what the real circumcision is, for example. At the end of
Romans chapter 2, he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither
is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is
a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart
in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of
men but of God. This is the converted Jew, the
Apostle to the Gentiles, telling us that the true Jew is a spiritual
Jew. The true Israel is a spiritual
people. But what of the Old Testament then? Well, here in the Old Testament,
ethnic Israel is a type of that true spiritual Israel, the Church
of the Living God. And how they were favoured, or
how they were favoured, they must be favoured, they're a typical
people and God does favour His Israel. Look at what we're told
at the end of the 147th Psalm. And there at verse 19, He showeth
His word unto Jacob, His statutes, and His judgments unto Israel.
He hath not dealt so with any nation. And as for His judgments,
they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord. Hallelujah. How God has favoured, you see,
His nation. How has He favoured them? He
shows them His words. He sends them His statutes and
His judgments. You only have I known, He says,
of all the nations of the earth. Therefore, I will punish you
for all your iniquities. Oh, the Lord, you see, He must
deal with those who are truly His own people. What is a church? It's a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation. And here in the text he speaks
of rejoicing in the gladness of that nation. How is it a nation
that is made glad? Because God takes account of
them. God doesn't just give them His words and favour them with
that revelation that He has granted of Himself. We have it here in
Holy Scripture, but of course what we have in Holy Scripture
When they are called by the efficacious grace of God, that word in scripture
is implanted in their hearts, they receive it as that engrafted
seed that is able to save their souls. It becomes a reality to
them. The natural man doesn't receive
these things of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness to
him. Neither does He know them because they are spiritually
discerned, but when God deals with His Israel. Oh, they understand
these things. The Lord opens their understanding,
He opens their minds, He opens their hearts, He moves their
wills. The Lord works all these gracious works in those who are
His true spiritual Israel. And then as the Lord has given
them His word, so the Lord deals with them in a very personal
way. We have that there in Amos 3, 2. You only have I known of
all the families of the earth. What then? Therefore, I will
punish you for all your iniquities. How does God punish them? Well,
they are those whose sins have received their judicial punishment. Their sins have been punished
in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has
died for them, the just for the unjust, to bring them to God. There's no visitation of any
judicial punishment upon these people. Nevertheless, the Lord
does punish them because of their sins. He deals with them time
and time again. He makes them to feel the folly
of their ways. Look how we read of it later. It says in verse 29, they provoked
him to anger with their inventions. The plague break in upon them. Oh, that's God's chastening.
That's God's chastening, correcting them. Not a judicial punishment. It's a mark of God's fatherhood
in the way in which He deals with them. Whom the Lord loveth,
He chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. If ye
endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. Oh, what
son is he whom the Father chasteneth not. It's a mark of sonship when
the Lord deals with his people and corrects his people and so
those who are his nation they have cause to rejoice they
have reason for gladness because God doesn't just give them over
to their own ways and leave them to wander far from Him. But as
they wander, as they backslide, so the Lord restores them. And
that's what we see time and again in this psalm, the Lord's dealings
with Israel of old. He will not let them go. They
wander from Him, He brings them back to Him. this is ever the
way of God and right then is the language of the hymn writer
when he says that though our cup seems filled with gall there's
something secret sweetens all, it's the Lord, it's the Lord
dealing with us and making us more and more to appreciate the
wonder of that grace that he has bestowed in the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ, he makes it ever more real, more precious
to His people. All we read in the Psalms, in
Psalm 104, of that wine that maketh glad the heart of man. That's what sweetens all the
Lord's dealings with us. What is that wine? It's what
God has revealed to us here in the Gospel of His grace. How is the Gospel spoken of?
You know the language. that we have in Isaiah chapter
25 and verse 6. In this mountain shall the Lord
of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast
of wine on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the
lees well refined. I know it's It's pictorial language,
but it's setting forth something of the beauties and the glories
of the Gospel. In this mountain, that's Mount
Zion. That's the Church of the Living
God. What is there? Oh, there's a feast of fat things.
And amongst those fat things, that wine on the leaves, well
refined. That wine that maketh glad the
heart of man. in spite of all that the Lord
has to do in the way of correcting us, chastening us. The hymn writer again says, the
gospel bears my spirit up, a faithful and unchanging God lays the foundation
of my hope in oaths and promises and blood. Isn't that the gospel?
Or what is the gospel? It's the promise of God. But
it's that promise of God that God has confirmed by an oath
He has sworn by Himself. How He has elevated His Word
above all His name. He is true to His words. He has
sworn by Himself. And not only that, He has sealed
it all with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Here then is the desire of the
Psalmist not only would he see the good of God's chosen but
he also desires to rejoice in the gladness of God's nation
not being left to himself but the Lord dealing with him just
as he dealt with Israel of old. And then thirdly here we have
glory and in this surely we have that forward look If the goodness of thy chosen
is taking us back, what we have at the end of the text, the glory
of thine inheritance carries us forward. What is this inheritance? Well,
we can think of inheritance in a twofold sense. There's that
that might be said to be God's inheritance, and there is that
that is the believer's inheritance. What is God's inheritance? Surely that's being spoken of
here. Thine inheritance. The inheritance that belongs
to God. What is God's inheritance? Well, Psalm 78 and verse 71,
we read of Israel, his inheritance. Israel, his, that is God's inheritance. Again in Deuteronomy we read
the Lord's portion is His people. Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. The Lord has an inheritance.
It's that people that He has set His love upon from all eternity. It is that nation that he deals
with in time, giving them his words, but also at times dealing
with them in the way of chastenings and correctings and bringing
them back to himself, showing them ever more and more of himself. Go and look at the language that
we find later in the 132nd Psalm. And there Psalm 132 and verses 13 and 14. The Lord hath chosen Zion, he
hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest forever, here
will I dwell, for I have desired it. All this is God's inheritance.
He has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his habitation. He rests there, he dwells there,
the Lord's portion there. It is so much His people. And when we come to the New Testament,
as I've already intimated, We begin to understand that we're
not to think in terms of ethnic Israel in the Old Testament.
We're to recognize that they are a typical people that God's
true inheritance is his spiritual Israel. It's those who have been
chosen in the Lord Jesus Christ from before the foundation of
the world. And see how Paul speaks of them
there in that opening chapter of the epistle to the Ephesians. He speaks there quite plainly
of their election, their chosen in the Lord Jesus Christ before
the foundation of the world. But what? What are they chosen
to? Well, Ephesians 1.11. He says, "...in whom also we
have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will." "...in whom also we have obtained
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will now
that word inheritance literally it has to do with the casting
of the lot it's derived from the verb to cast a lot to choose
or to assign a thing by the casting of a lot and we see that believers
are those who are allotted to the Lord Jesus Christ in God's
eternal purpose. They are allotted to Christ as
his inheritance. They are appointed to salvation. And Christ is also at the same
time allotted to the believer as his inheritance. The believer
is Christ's inheritance and Christ is the believer's inheritance
that I may glory with thine inheritance is the desire that's expressed
here in our text and how Paul in that opening chapter of the
epistle to the Ephesians remember he concludes that chapter by
turning to God in prayer. In the opening part we have profound
doctrine but when we come to the end instead of addressing the Ephesians
it's as if he prays to God on their account. He says at verse
17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened,
that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what
the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. Oh,
this is His prayer that they might know the riches of the
glory of his inheritance in the saints it's the same as we have
here in the text back in Psalm 106 that I may glory with thine
inheritance the eyes of your understanding being enlightened All of the salvation that they
come to enjoy is that that has been sovereignly allotted to
them. Remember the significance of that word inheritance that
we have there in Ephesians 1, 11, and again at verse 18, and
the idea behind it is it all occurs in accordance with
the casting of the lots. Now what of the casting of the
lots? Well, the wise man tells us in the
book of Proverbs how the lots is cast into the lap and the
whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. It's all again the
sovereignty of God. And what they say? They're saved
by the grace of God. by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God faith is
God's gift faith comes by the operation of God that's what
we're told in Ephesians 2.12 it's faith not that a man is
able to work up in himself it's faith of the operation of God
and when Peter is writing to believers here in the opening
words of his second epistle, he reminds them how they have
obtained like precious faith with us. And again, the word
that he uses there literally means obtained by the casting
of a lot, the sovereignty of God. And how it stands out so
plainly here in the language of the text tonight. It's all
of God, it's all of grace. or this inheritance. It's what
was allotted to Christ from all eternity, these people that were
given to Him in the eternal covenant, and as they were given to Christ
so Christ is also given to them. They are His inheritance, as
He is their inheritance. And this is what the psalmist
prays for. He wants God to remember him.
Remember me, O Lord, with the favour that Thou bearest unto
Thy people. But more than that, He wants
God to visit him. Visit me with Thy salvation.
And what would be the consequence of such remembrance, such visitation? That I may see the good of Thy
chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of Thy nation, that
I may glory with thine inheritance. Whom have I in heaven but thee,
he says. There is none upon earth that
I desire besides thee. O God, grant that we might be
those who have the same desires and would utter the same prayers
as we find here in the Old Testament in the Book of Psalms. As I said
at the outset, what we have here in these two verses, four and
five, is very personal. It's in the first person, it's
in the first person singular, it's me. Remember me. I'll visit me. And then repeatedly
there in verse five, that I may see, that I may rejoice that
I may glory or God grant that we might know such personal and
particular dealings with the God of salvation. May the Lord
bless His word.