Go with me, if you would, back
to Psalm 146. Psalm 146. The Psalms, all of the Psalms
are songs. They are songs. I love singing
unto the Lord. We were just singing right there.
And the thought went through my mind. Well, I'll just keep
singing. Well, I'll just call out a few more and keep saying,
and I didn't do it, but these were written with music
to be sung. All of these songs. And every
now and then, the writer would put the word Selah. And that was there to bring our
attention to something. That was there to bring our attention
to either a key change or a change in subject, a new verse, something
like that. From a reading point of view,
whenever we see the word Selah, what it means is, pause right
there and dwell on that for a minute. And I got to thinking about the
fact, I write the word Selah in my notes a lot. It just tells
me, pause right there and dwell on that for a minute. Every line
in the Psalms could have a Selah. They're all worthy of being pondered. They're all worthy of being thought
about. I want to put one at the end of the first line of this
Psalm. Psalm 146 verse one says, praise
ye the Lord. Just pause for a minute and dwell
on that. Praise ye the Lord. I want to do that. I want to
do that. I want to do that tonight. I
want to do that right now. I pray that this message might
praise the Lord. That's my hope. That's my desire. I pray that this message might
praise the Lord. I pray that our worship tonight
might praise the Lord. I want us as a congregation to
praise the Lord. That's our goal. That's our desire.
And I pray that God might let me be a part of it in my own
soul. And let me just say this and
see if you can enter into it. There are times that I can preach
a set of notes and just be preaching a set of notes. And there are
times that you can hear the gospel preached and just be hearing
the gospel preached. And then there are times that
the Lord allows your soul to get involved. You know what I'm
talking about? I want to be a part of it. I
prayed that the Lord might let me be a part of it. And I want
to encourage all of us right now to ask the Lord in your soul,
Lord, would you let me be a part of it tonight? Don't just let
me be here. Let me be a part of it. Let me
praise you. Let me worship you, not just
in message, not just in the fact that we have congregated, but
truly in my soul, Lord, let me be here to worship you. Praise ye the Lord. Is there anything that you enjoy
more? And just Okay, just pause for
a minute and think about this. Is there anything that you enjoy
more in the moments when the Lord allows you to leave this
world? You know, the world takes top priority to your flesh, but
in the moments when the Lord lets you leave your flesh and
you just enter in to his spirit with a true sincere heart, when
he allows you in for that brief moment, Is there anything more
enjoyable to you than that moment when you are sincerely praising
the Lord, worshiping the Lord? Those moments are so hindered
by the flesh. You know, even when he allows
us to have one, it's so fleeting. It's just here and it's gone.
But it's not gonna be that way for long. It's not gonna be that
way. Once this flesh is removed, We're
gonna have the eternal enjoyment of uninterrupted praise, uninterrupted
worship of our Lord. Verse one says, praise ye the
Lord. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Verse two says, while I live,
will I praise the Lord. While I live, will I praise the
Lord. When will a child of God stop
living? He said, while I live, I'll praise
the Lord. When will a child of God stop
living? Turn with me over to John 11. John 11, verse 21. Then said Martha unto Jesus,
Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But
I know that even now whatsoever thou will ask of God, God will
give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, thy brother
shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know
that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection. I love that. I
am the resurrection and the life. I am the life. He that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Though he was
dead, yet shall he live. Verse 26 and whosoever liveth
and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? He said, whoever lives in me
and believes in me and believes on me shall never die. Death is not coming to that person.
Death is not coming to that person. Why Lord? How can that be? It's because death came to me
instead of that person. Death came to Christ in our place. He died that his people might
live. When he died, he removed death from his people. All right, well then why do we
lay down? Lazarus died. Why do we have
coffins and funerals and burials? Why do we have all that? Go with
me to 1 Corinthians 15. First Corinthians 15 verse 49,
it says, as we have borne the image of
the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now
this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and
we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality, So when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory."
What happens when the soul of a child of God leaves its body
and that body lays down? When that happens, death dies. Life does not die. That's what
we think happens. Well, life died, not for a child
of God. For a child of God, death dies. In that moment, physical death,
when you see that, what you're witnessing is physical death
being swallowed up in victory. Spiritual death was swallowed
up in victory in the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross of
Calvary. Spiritual death was swallowed
up in victory. Spiritual death was left in the
grave of the Lord Jesus Christ. Physical death gets left in our
grave. To be absent from the body is to be present with the
Lord. And when our, you know, our bodies are going to be redeemed,
we know that he's going to come back and get them. And that last day, when that
happens, life is the only thing coming out of that grave. Death
has been swallowed up in victory. That's a, that's a glorious thing. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. But to experience what it's going
to be like to leave death behind forever is going to be something worthy
of praising the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Turn
with me over to Revelation 5. In our text, David said, while
I have any being, that's what he said, While I have any being,
I'll praise the Lord. Whether my being is here, there,
in body, in spirit, whatever I may be, whatever I may be,
while I live, I'll sing praises to my God. Revelation 5, in glory
here, verse 9 says, they sung a new song saying, Thou art worthy
to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou was
slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every
kindred, tongue, people and nation. You were slain. You're worthy
because you were slain. Verse 10, and has made us unto
our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.
And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about
the throne, and the beast, and the elders, and the number of
them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands
saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. to receive power and riches and
wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. Every living soul cried, you're
worthy because you were slain. You're worthy because you were
slain. You died that we might live. This is life crying that
to him. You're worthy because you died. that we might live. That makes you worthy of all
our praise. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Verse 13 right here says, every
creature which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth
and such as are in the sea and all that are in them heard I
say, and they heard me saying, blessing and honor and glory
and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the
Lamb forever and ever. This blessed my heart, thinking
of John saying that right here. What he was saying was, thank
God I was saying it too. In the verse before that, he
said, I heard everybody else saying it. And then he said,
thank God I was saying it too. They all heard me saying it. Praise the Lord, oh my soul.
I want to be saying it too. I want to be saying it with the
saints of life. Praise the Lord. You were slain,
so we wouldn't have to be. Go with me back to Psalm 146.
Verse one says, Praise ye the Lord. Praise the
Lord, O my soul. While I live, will I praise the
Lord. I will sing praises unto my God
while I have any being. Put not your trust in princes,
nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. David said,
don't put your trust in man, there is no help. There's no help. None. Listen to what one man said about
it. He said, put not your trust in
men, no matter how high they are in politics, economics, or
religion. Let me rewind that. Put not your
trust in men, no matter how high they are in politics, the economy, or religion. In man, there is no help. There is no hope and there's
no salvation. Doesn't matter how influential,
doesn't matter how seemingly wise in the flesh, there is no
good thing. David is saying right here, don't
even put your trust in me. He was the king. He's telling
them, don't put your trust in me. Don't put your trust in any
man. There is no wisdom in this flesh. There is no righteousness in
this flesh. There is no sanctification. There's
no holiness. There's no purity, not in this
flesh. There is no redemption in this flesh. None, none whatsoever. This writer went on to say, for a man to put spiritual confidence
in another man is like a beggar looking to another beggar for
food. or a blind man reaching for the hand of another blind
man to guide him." That's a good analogy, isn't it? The Apostle
Paul said in Philippians 3, God's people worship God in the Spirit. They rejoice in Christ Jesus,
key word being Christ Jesus, the God-man. and they have no
confidence in their flesh or any other man's flesh, none whatsoever. Why is that? Verse 4, his breath
goeth forth, he returneth to his earth and in that very day
his thoughts perish. Man is so frail As soon as his
breath leaves him, he dies. It doesn't matter who it is.
It doesn't matter what he's attained. It doesn't matter how powerful
he is. As soon as his breath leaves
him, he dies. And he returns to the dust that
he was made out of, proving that's all he is. It's all he ever was. And in that very day, all of
his goals and all of his ambitions and all of his, everything he
thought on, everything he planned, it's over. That's it, it's over. And his false thoughts about
God are over all the, for all of his life, all of his false
thoughts about God in that moment, they're over. He sees God as
he is. And he sees that God's ways are
not man's ways and God's thoughts are not man's thoughts. Opposite
the exact opposite. That's why we can't put our trust
in man. I'm going to tell you, but for
the grace of God, we would put our trust in man. We would be
trusting a man. You know, David was the king
and he said, don't put your trust in any man. Don't put your trust
in this king. Don't put your trust in this preacher. Don't
put your trust in any preacher. People are trusting man. Don't
do it. Trust God alone. The word of
God alone. But for the grace of God, that's
what we would do. We would put our trust in men. But for the
grace of God, turning us to Christ, completely turning us to Christ,
we would trust in everything but Christ. If God did not do
that for us, we would trust in everything but Christ. Had it
not been for the Lord that was on our side, we would have never
been on His. He gets all the glory. If He
did it all, He gets all the glory for it. Verse 5 says, Happy is
he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in
the Lord, his God. Happy is the sinner. Jacob was
a sinner. Happy is the sinner who has the
God of sinners for his or her help. This is the God of sinners.
Our God who is God is the God of sinners. He's the savior of
sinners. He said he was not the Savior,
the righteous, the self-righteous, the righteousness of the flesh.
And I'm so thankful he said he wouldn't because that's not what
I am. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. Are we proud of the fact, you
know, we talk about all the time. We're sinners. We're just sinners.
That's what I am. I'm a sinner. Are we proud of the fact that
we're sinners? No. Are we honest about the fact
that we're sinners? Yes, we have to be. The only hope we have. All of our hope, all of my hope
is in the fact that Christ came to save sinners and I'm a sinner. That's the only hope any man
or woman can have. Verse five says, happy is he that had the
God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord, his God,
whose hope is in the Lord, his God. Just pause on that for a moment.
Whose hope is in the Lord. He is God. Now it doesn't just
say the Lord who is the God. It says the Lord, he is God. You know, David said, the Lord
is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. When
I was in the conference in spring Lake, North Carolina, last October.
Brother David Edmondson, in one of the messages he preached,
he told the story of this great orator, great speaker, this,
this man who was renowned and famous for his speaking
and was called on this many, many years ago. He was often
invited to banquets of Queens and nobles and things like that.
And he said, oftentimes his custom was to stand and read Psalm 23.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want often. He'd go places, stand up and
in his, in his, you know, great voice, the Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want, but this man. attended a banquet of some kind
that he was invited personally to attend. And, uh, he noticed
while he was there, an old gray hair preacher sitting up on the
podium. And when the time came for the
benediction to be read, this old gray-headed man stood up
and read Psalm 23. And there wasn't a dry eye in
the place, including this great orator. He had tears just streaming
down his face. And the man who was sitting next
to him, said to him, I have heard you read that Psalm many times. But he said, my dear friend,
I have never heard you read it like that. And the orator with tears in
his eyes looked at that man and he said, I know the Psalm. He knows the shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. He is my God. He is our God. This thing of praising the Lord
is not just praising the Lord. It's praising my Lord. This thing
of putting my trust in God and not man is not just putting my
trust in God, it's putting my trust in my God. Verse 5 says,
Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose
hope is in the Lord his God. His God. David in verse 6, he said, the
Lord my God is the one which made heaven and earth the sea
and all that therein is which keepeth truth forever. The God
who proved through everything that He has created that He is
God. He proved it. Look around. He
proved it. He is God. The true and living God, He said,
He is going to keep truth forever. Everything else will pass away.
I'm so glad to know that. Everything else will pass away. The only thing that's gonna stand
in the end is truth. Truth will not pass away. He
will not pass away. The one who is truth will stand
forever. Christ Jesus, the Lord. And all
who stand in Him, they're going to stand with Him forever. Verse 7 says, "...which executeth
judgment." He is the one who executeth judgment for the oppressed. "...which giveth food to the
hungry." The Lord looseth the prisoners. The Lord openeth the
eyes of the blind. The Lord raiseth them that are
bowed down. The Lord is the one who does
all this. He said, the Lord does this, the Lord does this, the
Lord does it, the Lord does it. Why? For Christ's sake. It's because the end of verse
eight says the Lord loveth the righteous. There's only one righteous. You know, people read that and
in their pride, they think, well, he must love me because I'm righteous.
There's only one righteous man, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is our righteousness. The
message of his righteous work on the cross. That's how we see
our judgment brought to us. That's the most wonderful thing
a sinner will ever say. Once he realizes I must be punished. There it is. That righteous message of the
work of Christ on the cross. That's what feeds us. He feeds the hungry. That's what feeds us. That's what sets us free. That's what opens our eyes. The
same message. This one message feeds the hungry. looses the prisoner, opens blind eyes, raises us up,
this one message. It's where we see God satisfied
with us, right there in Christ on the cross. That's where we
see God satisfied with us. God was satisfied with him and
we were in him. God satisfied with us in him.
Verse 9. The Lord preserveth the strangers. He relieveth the fatherless and
the widow, but the way of the wicked, he turneth upside down.
Strangers are what God's people are in this world. And he preserves
them. We're going to be preserved.
We're going to be preserved. We're going to be sealed like
preserves. We're going to be kept. Forsaken, that's what God's
people are by this world. And He relieves them. He relieves
them by the Spirit and the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ. To
all of the spiritual fatherless and widows, the Spirit of the
Word cries, the Lord will take you up. Are you without? Are
you left? Are you forsaken? The Lord will
take you up. The end of verse 9, he said, but the way of the
wicked he turneth upside down. You say, well, haven't all sinned
and come short of the glory of God? Aren't God's people wicked
too? You know, you see that, you see
the way of the wicked, he turns upside down. Aren't God's people
wicked too? Not in Christ, they're not. They're
not. In the flesh they are, but not
after what Christ accomplished for them, in Himself. because of Him as He is, so are
we. That's amazing. Verse 10 says,
the Lord shall reign forever. Even thy God, O Zion. I absolutely love that. The Lord
shall reign forever. That's the verse that made me
want to be here. And then I went back to verse
one and read down to it. And, um, you made me want to
look at the whole song, all the verses equally, but the Lord
shall reign forever. Even your God, Zion, you know, a lot of people have
a lot of gods. Theirs is not the one who's going
to reign. Ours is Zion. Your God is going to reign Zion. He's the one who's going to reign
forever unto all generations. That is just, that is so wonderful. Us, our children, our children's
children, you know, generations back have been saying that. And
there was a point in my life when I only considered myself
to be a child's child. And now I see myself as a child
who has kids, me and my children. And maybe one day the Lord will
let it be me and my children's children. But how blessed we are. Thank
God. He is going to remain the same, the same reigning God. The Lord shall reign forever. Even thy God, O Zion unto all
generations. He's going to remain the same
reigning God. He was that yesterday. He is
that today. He will be that forever. David said, praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. If the Lord
will let us praise Him now, He will let us praise Him for all
eternity. We're gonna be praising the Lord
for this for all eternity. All right, stand together with
me. And let's turn to page 283.