Turn with me back to Psalm 33. Psalm 33. I have quoted a verse
here and there from this Psalm before, but I don't believe I've
ever preached from it. And what made me want to preach
it tonight is the last three verses. Verse 20 says, our soul waiteth for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. That is so true, isn't it? That
is so true. Verse 21 says, For our heart
shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name. Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon
us, according as we hope in thee. Is that not our prayer? David
said, Our souls are waiting for the Lord. Our souls are waiting
for the Lord. He is our help. He is our shield. He is our rejoicing, and He truly
is. He is our trust. Do you trust
anyone or anything more than Him? He's our hope. He is our hope. Why, David, why
do you say that? He spent the whole Psalm saying
why. All right, he spent the whole
psalm, the first three verses, he said, rejoice in the Lord,
praise the Lord, sing unto the Lord. That's how verse one, verse
two and verse three start. Rejoice in the Lord, praise the
Lord, sing unto him. And then beginning in verse four,
he said, this is the reason why we're just going to look at this
psalm together. Verse 1 says, Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous,
for praise is comely for the upright. He is speaking to God's
people. This Psalm is written to God's
people, the righteous. Not righteous in themselves,
not self-righteous, but righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. Chosen to be righteous in Him. Made righteous in Him. You know what righteous is? You
know what righteousness is? It's the exact opposite of what
we are. If you want to know what righteousness
is, just look at yourself for a while and then think of the
exact opposite. And that's what we are made to
be righteous in him. Scripture says God made Christ
to be sin. Honestly, you want to know what
sin is? Just look at Jesus Christ and think of the exact opposite.
And God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. So to God's people,
David said, rejoice in the Lord. And that's the message tonight.
Rejoice in the Lord. I've titled this Rejoice, Praise
and Sing. Rejoice in the Lord. We have
said this so many times before, but this is so true. This is
so true. We are reminded of this. At some
point, the Lord teaches us this, and then we are reminded the
rest of our days. We may and we will at times find
ourselves in a place where we cannot find anything in this
world to rejoice in. You ever found yourself in those
moments where you're just not happy? You just can't, your heart's
just not rejoicing. We're going to find ourselves
in moments where we can't find anything here in this world to
rejoice in, but a child of God can always rejoice in the Lord. Always. A child of God can always
come back to the Lord. That is so amazing to me that
the Lord truly is right there for his people. Right there,
the moment His Spirit turns us, turn us Lord and we'll be turned.
The moment He turns us and we come back to the Lord, He's right
there. Like when Noah and his family
were in the ark, you know the story of the ark. Noah and his
sons, his wife, his sons and their wives, they were shut up
in the ark with all of these animals. It rained 40 days and
40 nights. And the moment that it stopped
raining, there was a window in the ceiling of the ark. And I always wondered, why would
you put the window in the ceiling? It's because all they could see
was heaven. All they could look at and see. And when it stopped
raining, Noah took a raven and a dove and he turned them loose
to see if there was anything out there. And I guess that raven
found some dead thing out there it thought it could feed on because
it didn't come back. But the dove couldn't do it.
The dove had to come back to the ark for its rest, for its
bread, for its safety. That dove represents a child
of God. There may be nothing out there
that we can find rest in, and nourishment in, and comfort in,
but we can always come back to Christ our Ark. Even when there's
no rejoicing anywhere else, we can always rejoice in the Lord.
Rejoice in the Lord, and again I say, rejoice in the Lord. Verse
two says, praise the Lord with harp, sing unto Him, with the
psaltery and an instrument of 10 strings, sing unto him a new
song. Sing unto him a new song. What is the new song? It goes
like this. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. Isn't that a beautiful song?
Don't you love to hear people sing that song? Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give all the glory. It all goes to you. Thou art worthy, for thou was
slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood. Praise the
Lord. David said, play unto the Lord,
verse three. He said, sing unto him a new
song. Play skillfully with a loud noise. Why? Because He's worthy of it. You give it all you have. Give
it all your heart has. Whatever your hand finds to do,
do it with all your might. If you're praising Him, praise
Him with all your heart, all your mind, the instrument of
this heart. He is worthy of it. He is worthy
for this reason. David said, rejoice in the Lord,
praise the Lord, sing unto the Lord. Verse four. He said, for,
because. Here's the reason why. The word
of the Lord is right. And all his works are done in
truth. The Word of the Lord. Verse 6
says, The Word of the Lord. The Word of the Lord. In the
beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word
was God. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us. The Lord Jesus Christ. Revelation
19 says, His name is called the Word of God. Rejoice in the Lord. Praise the Lord, sing unto the
Lord, for the Lord Jesus Christ is right and all his works are
done in truth. Everything he does is right and
truth. Everything he does. Everything
he does. I love that story of when Shimei
came to David. You remember that story of Shimei?
David was walking along with his shoulders and this man Shimei
started cussing David, throwing rocks at David. And his soldier
said, David, do you want me to go take his head off? And David
said, no. The Lord said to that man, curse
David. He said it could be the Lord
means good for me through this. All things work together for
good to them that love God. Everything he does is right.
Everything he does is truth. Everything he does is just. Everything
he does is faithful. Everything Christ does is yay
and amen. That's really something to get
a hold of. Every step we take in this life is ordered by God
and it's all yay and amen. We just think everything's falling
apart, don't we? It's not. It's yea and amen.
This is just as yea and amen as glory itself is. We'll just
be able to see it up there. Everything He does, everything
He does is right. It's all done in truth. Verse
5 says, He loveth righteousness and judgment. The earth is full
of the goodness of the Lord. Now, if you have a center margin
in your Bible, do you see that the word goodness means mercy? What an amazing verse that is.
He loves righteousness and judgment. The earth is full of his mercy. He loves righteousness. He loves
judgment. The earth is full of His mercy.
You know what that means? That means His mercy is according
to righteousness and judgment. In the transaction of Him saving
us, He was right in showing mercy to us sinners. He was right. The judge of the earth said that's
the right thing to do. That's in agreement with my judgment. That's in agreement with my law.
Why? How? It's because God made Christ
to be sin for us. That's why, that's how. When
Christ became sin for us and took our sin from us and bore
that sin for us, righteousness and judgment said, He must die
and they must live. They must live. Every soul in
His covenant, every soul under His atonement must live. Every soul that He stripped sin
from. And that's what Christ did. He
came to each one of His people and He just stripped sin from
them. Every soul that he stripped sin
from must live. David said, Rejoice, rejoice
in, praise, sing unto the Lord, because he delights to show mercy. Verse 5 says, He loveth righteousness
and judgment. The earth is full of the goodness
of the Lord, full of the mercy of the Lord. That means there
is plenty. He is plenteous in mercy. Verse
6, By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the
host of them by the breath of His mouth. He spoke it all into
existence. He created it. It's all His. It's all His. Verse 7 says, He
gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap, He layeth
up the depth in storehouses." It's all being upheld by His
power. By Him, all things consist. He's the Creator of all things.
He's the Doer of all things. Therefore, He gets the glory
for all things. Verse 8. Let all the earth fear
the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the
world stand in awe of Him. I wish that all men and women
would bow the knee to the King of Kings. One of these days we
are going to stand on an earth where the whole earth does bow
to the Lord. The whole earth does worship
the Lord. I do wish that this entire world
would bow the knee to Christ. I really do. The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And I wish that all men and women
feared the Lord in a saving way. But that fear only comes to those
that God gives that fear to. Only those that God causes to
bow will bow to the king of the earth. Do we realize how blessed
we are? We realize how blessed we are. Verse nine says, for he spake
and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. Everything that happens happens
at the word of his command. The Lord is the originator of
all things. The Lord is the doer of all things. Verse 10 says, the Lord bringeth
the counsel of the heathen to naught. He maketh the devices
of the people of none effect. He allows or he doesn't allow. He is the one who makes the heart
of men go one way or the other. Everything that happens to you,
whatever happens to you, you just remember, however it
falls. God is the one who controls that.
God is the one who controls whether things go this way or that way. There really are no forks in
the road. It's only his path. We just find out what it is. He is God and there is none else. Man is only going to do what
God allows man to do or doesn't allow man to do. And that's it. Man devises all of his plans
and all of his schemes, but whether it comes to anything or not,
that's in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 11, the counsel of the Lord standeth
forever. The thoughts of his heart to
all generations. He is the counselor. He is the
governor. He is the almighty God. If you
need counsel on something, go to him. I know that sounds like
that's a given statement and I ought to just like, you know,
that's in my notes and we'll just move on, but it's not in
my notes. I just said it right now. I'm
telling this to you right now. Whatever you need counsel on,
go to him. You go to him. He is the counselor. He is the almighty God. Thank
God. Thank God. Rejoice in the Lord. Praise the Lord. Sing unto the
Lord. Verse 12 says blessed is the
nation whose God is the Lord. And the people whom he hath chosen
for his own inheritance. Amen. You talk about a blessed
people, the people who he has chosen for his inheritance. In this thing of inheritance,
God did all the choosing. We all think about inheritance
and we have this inheritance. God did all the choosing. Psalm
47 says he chose our inheritance for us. Thank God for that. In verse 12 right here says He
chose His own inheritance for Himself. He chose ours for us
and His for Himself. Well, what did He choose? What
did Christ choose for us and for Himself? Well, He chose Himself
for our inheritance. He decreed that we get Christ. You know, you think about all
of these riches in glory that are being reserved for all of
God's people. He is the richest. Oh, the unsearchable riches of
Christ. We get Christ. He put it in a binding contract,
sealed it with blood. Our inheritance is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, what did he choose for
himself? He chose us for himself. That's what he gets, that's his
inheritance. He could have chosen anything. He could have chosen
anything. And he chose us. He wanted to, he chose to inherit
us. Verse 13 says, The LORD looketh
from heaven, he beholdeth all the sons of men from the place
of his habitation, he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the
earth, He fashioneth their hearts alike. He considereth all their
works. That means he sees everything
from his throne. He sees all the inhabitants of
the earth. He sees all the hearts of the
inhabitants of the earth. He sees all the hearts of men. He knows that we're all just
alike. We really are all just alike. He knows that we're all cut from
the same lump. He knows we're unworthy. He remembers
our frame. He knows we're dust. That's why
he had mercy on us. That's why he saved us. It's
because we so desperately needed to be saved from our sin. Verse
16 says, there is no king saved by the multitude of an host.
A mighty man is not delivered by much strength and horse is
a vain thing for safety. Neither shall he deliver any
by his great strength." Well, then how are men going to be
saved? There's only one way. There's
only one salvation. There is no other salvation anywhere
else. There is no salvation in any
other person or any other thing. Men all over this world are worshiping
the wrong God. Breaks my heart. They're devoted
to Him. You know, they have this little
God that they pick up and carry around with them wherever they
go. Breaks my heart. No salvation in any other person,
any other thing. Our salvation is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Salvation is of the Lord. Verse
18 says, Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him.
Upon them that hope in his mercy. Think about this and answer it
in your heart. Do you hope in his mercy? Do you hope in your ability to
change your ways or do you hope in his mercy? Are you hoping in the fact that
you're going to stop sinning from this point on? Or are you
hoping in his mercy? We're hoping in his mercy. Our
hope is in the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where our
hope is. It's in the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
verse 18 says, Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that
fear him. Does it comfort you to know that
he is watching you and loves you and has purposed mercy for
you? The eye of the Lord is upon them
that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy, hope in His
blood, hope in His covering, hope in His atonement, His mercy. What is the eye of the Lord upon
them for, upon His people for? What is His intention in having
His eye on them? What is His will and His purpose
for them in having His eye on them? Here it is, verse 19. To deliver their soul from death
and to keep them alive in famine. That's why He keeps His eye on
them because He's going to deliver their soul from death. And to keep them alive in famine
as they go through famine. His eye is on His people to keep
them alive. The famine of this earth that
we're living through and walking through as we spend all of our
days in this famine plagued place. In the book of Amos, it was prophesied
that the days would come when the Lord, the Lord, the one who
controls all things, the one who is the originator of all
things, It was prophesied that the days would come that the
Lord would send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread,
nor a thirst for water. He said, there'll be plenty of
bread and water, plenty of material things. The world itself will
be abounding. But he said, there will be a
famine of the hearing of the words of the Lord. thought of that scripture, it
made me realize how blessed we are that we just started at verse
one in a psalm and went down every verse of the psalm. Honestly,
I had this moment. I thought, you know, I wonder
how many people, verse by verse, look at the word of God, consider
the word of God. Really? There is a famine in
this land of the hearing of the word of God. A famine of what
feeds the soul of a child of God, a famine of what comforts
and consoles and nourishes and encourages and reminds the soul
of a child of God. We hear this and we really do
realize this is our hope. Christ is our hope. Christ is
our all. This world is fleeting. This
world is leaving. It's gone. It's over. It's a
vapor. The only thing that will last
is Him. Him. And He said the whole time that
you walked through that famine in the land, He said, I'm going
to have my eye on you. I'm going to keep you alive.
I'll deliver your soul through it. You're not going to be forsaken
or begging spiritual bread. My people will not be. That's
why David said in verse 20, Our soul waiteth for the Lord. Boy, that's the conclusion of
the whole matter. Our soul waiteth for the Lord.
We are looking to the Lord. Our eyes are upon the Lord as
His eyes are on us by the faith that He has given to us. Our
eyes are on Him, looking and waiting for His daily provision,
looking and waiting for His return. In both cases, our eyes are on
the Lord. Verse 20 says, Our soul waiteth for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. He is our protector. He's our
keeper. He's our maker, our defender,
our redeemer, our friend. Verse 21 says, For our heart
shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name.
We will rejoice, we will praise, we will sing, and it's all because
we will trust. It's because He has caused us
to trust. That's why we rejoice and praise
and sing. It's because He caused us to
trust Him. And by His grace, we do. We have
trusted and we will trust in His holy name. Verse 22 says,
let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us according as we hope in thee. Let thy mercy, O Lord. We know
your mercy is going to be on somebody. You said it was going
to. Let it be on us, even us, even
us. Let thy blessing fall on us.
Let thy mercy be on us according as we hope in thee. That is our
trust. That's our hope. That's our prayer,
our cry, our plea. Lord, let your mercy be on us
and our children for Christ's sake. Lord, we believe that because
you began the work, you'll perform the work all the way till the
day you return. That's our hope. So rejoice, praise, sing unto
Him. Amen. All right, Brother Eddie,
you come.