Go with me, if you would, back
to Psalm 47. Psalm 47. I love this psalm. I remember the first time I read
this psalm. And I loved the way it started.
I love the first line of this psalm. Oh, clap your hands. Oh, clap your hands, even though
that's not our practice. To clap our hands in our worship. When we think of everything that
Christ has done, let me just expound on something here to
you for just a second. When we think, if we really get
a hold of everything that Christ has done, you know, I think all
the time about our formality, how we stand up and go through
these motions and we say these things, we declare these things,
but if the Lord would let us get past all that, And really
just enter into what Christ has done. And really enter into everything
that he has accomplished and gained and regained. Everything that Christ has redeemed. Put back in its place. You think
about when God made everything, it was good. It was so good.
And we ruined it. And when we fell, we fell far. We fell so, so far. And just
to think about how Christ put his people right back in their
place. Reinstated, redeemed, seeing
how hopeless it was for man. Just if we can enter into just
how hopeless it was for man. Man had no hope of doing anything
to save himself. None. And the reason is because
man died. We ever get a hold of the fact
that man died? In the garden, man died. And if you can ever
get a hold of the fact that, if you could ever start listing
things that a dead man can do, then let me know. If you find
one thing that a dead man can do. But Christ came in this hopeless
state and just seeing how far down
man had fallen, how far man had gone, how impossible man's condition
was, seeing the depths that Christ plunged into to redeem his fallen
people all the way back up to set them free. on high with them. When I get a hold of the amazing
accomplishment of Christ, my heart cries, and I say this with
fear and trembling and unworthiness. I say this with fear and trembling
and unworthiness, such unworthiness. But when I enter into what he
did, my heart cries, bravo. Bravo. Do you know what I'm saying? I clap my hands in my heart. I clap my hands to him. Now let's
just enjoy this Psalm in our hearts and let's do some clapping
to him in our hearts. Let's do some praising and applauding
to the one who is worthy of it. Verse one says, Oh, clap your
hands. All ye people shout unto God
with the voice of triumph. We don't do that openly down
here. I believe we're going to do it
up there. I truly do. But we don't do that openly down
here because we sinners have a way of trying to make everything
we do about us This is why I want to just, like Job said, put my
hand over my mouth. As soon as Job saw God and all
of his holiness and fear struck that man, he said, I think it's
time I put my hand over my mouth. I think it's time I lay down
and cover myself in dust and ashes. We don't do anything because
we know that we'll have a wrong motive in it. We know that we'll
draw attention to ourselves. Usually when we get caught up
in things like that, we're trying to attract attention to ourselves
and we're taking that attention off of Christ. And that is the
exact opposite of what God's people want to do. We have one
goal and one desire. Put the spotlight on him. Put
all of it on him, all attention on him. But even though we don't do this
outwardly, we sure are doing it inwardly. Verse 1 says, O clap your hands,
all ye people. All ye people. Do you know who
all will truly clap their hands? All who have been caused to see
the triumph of the King. That's who will truly clap their
hands. The end of verse 2 says, He is a great King. Therefore, verse one says, the
end of verse one says, we shout unto God with the voice of triumph,
triumphant victory. We shout to him. We shout to
him and to him alone, because he's the one who got the victory. And because of his victory, we
can shout in victory. Think about this. If the king
is triumphant, the whole kingdom is triumphant. Because he got the victory, we
can shout in victory. What did he triumph in? He triumphed
in the battle over sin. He triumphed in the battle over
sin. He triumphed over the sin of
his people. He triumphed over the death of
his people. Don't you love hearing that death
is swallowed up in victory? I love that line. Death has been
swallowed up in victory in Christ. He triumphantly redeemed and
delivered every one of his enslaved. That's what man is by nature.
That's how man is born into this world. Enslaved, ruined, captive. He redeemed and delivered every
single one of his people back to himself, back to liberty and
freedom with him. Oh, clap your hands. Oh, clap
your hands. Verse two says, for the Lord
most high is terrible. He is terrible. That means he
is to be feared. He is to be feared. God is to
be feared. The Lord Jesus Christ is to be
feared. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. He is to be feared. He is to
be reverenced and honored and looked upon in awe. The Lord
is terrible. Verse 2 says, He is a great king
over all the earth. He's a great king over all the
earth. He's over everybody. Everything is under Him. He is over everybody and everything
and everybody and everything is under Him. Everything bows
before Him. Everything is subject to Him.
Everything answers to Him. And here's the reason why. Everything
belongs to Him. Everything. Everything. He owns it all. Look at Psalm
50. This is just I just, I love this. I've been looking so forward
to bringing this message to you all day. Whenever I wrote this
down Friday, maybe I've been looking forward to it ever since.
I love this. I love God and his sovereign
control over all things. Psalm 50, it says the mighty
God, even the Lord has spoken and called the earth from the
rising of the sun until the going down thereof. Out of Zion, the
perfection of beauty, God hath shined. Our God shall come and
shall not keep silence. A fire shall devour before him. You know, 2 Thessalonians 1 says
when he comes back, he's coming back in flaming fire, taking
vengeance and judgment. Our God shall come and shall
not keep silence. A fire shall devour before Him.
It shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call
to the heavens from above and to the earth that he may judge
his people." Who is the judge of all the earth? Jesus Christ. We're all going to stand before
the judgment seat of Christ. Verse 5 says, gather my saints
together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me
by sacrifice. And the heaven shall declare
his righteousness for God is judge himself. Hear, O my people,
and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against thee.
I am God, even thy God. Now watch this. Verse eight,
he said, I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt
offerings to have been continually before me. I will take no bullock
out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy fold, for every beast
of the forest is mine. and the cattle upon a thousand
hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains
and the wild beast of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I
would not tell thee, for the world is mine and the fullness
thereof." Don't you love that? It's all mine. That is the high,
terrible, triumphant God who reigns over all the earth. Back
in Psalm 47 verse 3 says, He shall subdue the people under
us and the nations under our feet. All enemies, all enemies,
the greatest enemy that I have is my own sin. That's the greatest,
but all enemies, everything that we have going against us in this
life, He will do everything that needs to be done to give us the
victory. The battle is the Lord's. The
battle is the Lord's. Oh, clap your hands. There's
nothing more relieving than hearing The battle is the Lord's. There's
nothing more relieving than hearing that. The battle is the Lord's. You will not need to fight. All
you need to do is clap your hands in rejoicing over Him. Turn with
me to 2 Chronicles 20. And while you're turning, ask
the Lord if He'll let you enter into this. I absolutely adore
this story. 2 Chronicles 20. Second Chronicles 20 verse one
says. It came to pass after this also
that the children of Moab and the children of Ammon and with
them other beside the Ammonites came against Jehoshaphat to battle
Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah Israel and these other nations
were going to try to take the land back and they were going
to battle against Israel. Verse 2, Then there came some
that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude
against thee from beyond the sea on this side Syria. And behold,
they be in Hazazon Tamar, which is in Gedi. And Jehoshaphat feared
and set himself to seek the Lord. and proclaimed a fast throughout
all Judah and Judah gathered themselves together to ask help
of the Lord. Even out of all the cities of
Judah, they came to seek the Lord. They all came together.
They heard that they were going to be invaded and they all came
together to seek help from the Lord. Verse five and Jehoshaphat
stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem in the house
of the Lord before the new court. and said, O Lord God of our fathers,
art not thou God in heaven? And rulest not thou over all
the kingdoms of the heathen? And in thine hand is there not
power and might so that none is able to withstand thee? Art
not thou our God who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land
before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham
thy friend forever? And they dwelt therein and have
built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying, If when
evil cometh upon us as a sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine,
we stand before this house and in thy presence, for thy name
is in this house. and cry unto thee in our affliction,
then thou wilt hear and help. He said, Lord, you did all this.
You brought us here. You gave us this and you gave
us this house to worship you in. And you said when we needed
you, we could come here and cry out to you and you would hear
us. Verse 10. And now behold, the children
of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel
invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned
from them and destroyed them not. Behold, I say how they reward
us to come to cast us out of thy possession which thou hast
given us to inherit. Oh, our God, wilt thou not judge
them? For we have no might against
this great company that cometh against us. Neither know we what
to do, but our eyes are upon thee. What a wonderful way to
approach God. We don't know what to do. But
we know that you're God Almighty and we believe you and we trust
you and we're looking to you. Our eyes are on you. We're waiting
to hear from you. Verse 13 says, And all Judah
stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives and
their children. Then upon Jehaziel, the son of
Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of
Madaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, Do you know that's
what is said every time? Every time God's people go to
him for help. He said, this sayeth the Lord,
the battle is not yours, but you just keep your eyes on him.
You just wait on him. Look to him. Verse 16 tomorrow. Go ye down against them. Show
up to the battle. Show up to the war. Go ye down
against them. Behold, they come up by the cliff
of Ziz and you shall find them at the end of the brook before
the wilderness of Jeruel. You shall not need to fight in
this battle. Set yourselves, stand ye still,
and see the salvation of the Lord with you. O Judah and Jerusalem,
fear not, nor be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them,
for the Lord will be with you. And Jehoshaphat bowed his head
with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. And
the Levites of the children of the Koathites and of the children
of the Korites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a
loud voice on high. And they rose early in the morning
and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa. And as they went forth,
Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah and ye inhabitants
of Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord your God. So shall you be established.
Believe his prophets. So shall you prosper. And when
he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the
Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness. Singers
and praisers. As they went out. Before the
army, you see those three words. My favorite part. In front of
the army. He appointed singers and praisers. And he told all of them, y'all
are front row, we're going into battle, we're about to go fight
with three other nations that are coming in against us. He
said, I want all the musicians and all the singers out front.
And to say, praise the Lord for his mercy endureth forever. He
said, that's what I want you to sing, that's what I want you
to pray, to play. That's what we're gonna cry.
Praise the Lord, for His mercy endureth forever. Watch verse
22. And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments
against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, which were
come against Judah, and they were smitten. For the children
of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir,
utterly to slay and destroy them. And when they had made an end
of the inhabitants of Seir, everyone helped to destroy another. They
all thought they were coming against Israel and they all ambushed
each other and fought each other and slew each other. Verse 24,
And when Judah came toward the watchtower in the wilderness,
they looked unto the multitude and behold, they were dead bodies
fallen to the earth and none escaped. And when Jehoshaphat
and his people came to take away the spoil of them, they found
among them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies and
precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves more than
they could carry away. And they were three days in gathering
of the spoil. It was so much. They were all
afraid because they thought they were going in to die. And it
took them three days to carry the riches back out. I can only envision them. I think
about that. Think about those men. Think
about their feelings as they were headed into this. I can
only envision them when they walked up to that battlefield
and saw all of those nations that were coming against them
dead. I can only envision them in their
hearts saying, Bravo. Bravo. The Lord did this. We didn't do anything. The Lord
did this. Oh, can you imagine the rejoicing
as soon as they saw that and it registered in their mind what
had happened? Can you imagine the shoutings of praise? Go back
to Psalm 47. Verse one says, Oh, clap your
hands, all you people shout unto God with the voice of triumph
for the Lord most high is terrible. He is a great king over all the
earth. He shall subdue the people under
us and the nations under our feet. Verse four says, he shall
choose our inheritance for us. The excellency of Jacob, whom
he loved. Thank God for his sovereign,
merciful election of sinners. Thank God. Thank God. Jacob, he shall choose our inheritance
for us, the excellency of Jacob, the sinner, whom he loved. Thank God he chose our inheritance
for us. He has chosen our inheritance
for us. Aren't you so thankful for that? What is our inheritance? What
did he choose for us? He chose himself. He is our inheritance. Had He not chosen Himself for
us, we would have never chosen Him for ourselves. So thank God
for His sovereignty in that matter. Thank God for His predetermined
will concerning His people that chose our inheritance for us. Verse 5 says, God is gone up
with a shout. The Lord with the sound of a
trumpet. God is gone up with a shout. When our Lord came to
this earth to redeem his people, the scripture says the angels
desired to look into the things that happened to him. They steadfastly
beheld his face. They just waited to hear a command
from him. They just waited to hear a command
from him. Like when Judas's mob came to
take the Lord and the Lord told Peter, he said, if I give the
command, 72,000 angels will fly as hard as they can to come wipe
everybody out. Don't you know they were sitting
on go? Don't you know they were? Don't
you know they're saying, please give the command. Nobody lays
a hand on you. They didn't understand everything
that our Lord was doing, just like the disciples didn't understand
everything our Lord was doing. Can you imagine the heartache
they felt as they ministered to the Lord in the garden? In his agony. Oh, when they saw,
I mean, this is the Lord of glory. They've been with the Lord since
whenever he created them. And this is their Lord in utter
agony. Can you imagine the devastation
they felt when he bowed his head and gave up the ghost? The pain
of watching them lay him in a tomb. But can you imagine the joy?
Can you honestly imagine the rejoicing that broke out in heaven
when that stone was rolled away and the Lord of glory walked
out in resurrection? Can you imagine? When the moment
came for him to rise back up to his father, can you hear those
angels crying, open the gates? The king of glory is coming back
in. Can you hear heaven breaking out? Open the gates, open the
gates. The king of glory is walking
back in. I can only envision, I mean this,
I mean what I'm saying right now. I can only envision all
of heaven clapping their hands as he walked back in. As they
watched him walk back in through those gates and sit down on his
throne. When he died, there was silence
for 30 minutes. And since he has risen, I can't
imagine the applause has yet stopped. I can't imagine it has. Clap your hands. Oh, clap your
hands. Verse five says, God has gone
up with a shout the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. You know,
he's going to descend again with a shout and the sound of a trumpet. He went up that way. He's coming
back that way. Verse six says, sing praises to God. Sing praises,
sing praises unto our King. Sing praises for God is the King
of all the earth. Sing ye praises with understanding. Five times in those two verses
it says, sing praises. Sing praises. Our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ is our maker, defender, redeemer, friend. And at all
times he is worthy and it's appropriate to sing praises to him at all
times. Everything concerning us has
been ordered for good. The judge of the earth will only
do right. He will only lead us in a path
that's right. So whatever our circumstance
may be, this is the appropriate response to it. Sing praises,
sing praises to him alone. I love the fact that after Paul
and Silas had been beaten to a pulp and thrown in that Philippian
jail. You know what the first thing
is that they did? They beat those men and beat
those men and beat those men and put them fast in stocks and
slung them in that cell and shut the door. And what's the first
thing they did? They started singing praises to God. All the
prisoners heard them. And God shook the place. Just
sing praises, just sing praises. Verse seven says, For God is
the king of all the earth. Sing ye praises with understanding. Do it with understanding the
understanding that he is worthy to be praised because he's the
king of all the earth. He is the king of all the earth.
Colossians one says by him, by the Lord Jesus Christ, were all
things created that are in heaven, that are in earth. visible and
invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities
or powers. All things were created by him
and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things
consist, and he is the head of the body, the church, who is
the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, and in all things
he might have the preeminence. That means he's the head of everything.
He's the head of everything. Verse 8 says, God reigneth over
the heathen. Thank God. That's me. That's
me. He reigns and rules over me.
God reigneth over the heathen. God sitteth upon the throne of
his holiness. He sitteth. That means he keeps
on sitting. That's what it means. He keeps
on sitting. They asked David, where is your
God? He said he's in glory, sitting on a throne. He's still there. He is still there. Somebody,
I've told you this before, somebody asked Brother Henry one time,
just so, can't imagine asking a man this question. But Brother
Henry's son died in Vietnam. And this man asked him, he said,
where was your God when your son died? He said the same place
he was when his son died, seated on the throne. What an answer. What an answer. Thank God he
sitteth. He is unmovable. He's unchangeable.
He is unmovable and he's unchangeable. In Christ, we have a prophet
who will never leave his word, a priest who will never leave
his office, and a king who will never leave his throne. For that
reason, we clap our hands. Verse 9 says, The princes of
the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of
Abraham, for the shields of the earth belong unto God. He is
greatly exalted. The shields of the earth, the
shields of his people, all of them belong to him. Everything
belongs to him. This would be a good outline
to follow sometime. Let me just quote some scriptures
to you. Psalm 3 verse 8 says salvation
belongs to him. All the shields of his people
belong to him. Salvation belongs to him. Psalm 62 11 says power
belongs to him. Psalm 62 12 says mercy belongs
to him. Psalm 94 1 says vengeance belongs
to him. Daniel 9 verse 7 says, righteousness
belongs to him. And I love Mark 9 41, it says,
you belong to him. Everything belongs to him. And
for that reason, the end of verse 9 says, he is greatly exalted. And he is, he is greatly, greatly
exalted. Oh, clap your hands. Now and
forevermore. Amen.