Go with me, if you would, back
to Psalm 146. From Psalm 146 to Psalm 150, the last five Psalms.
They are all Psalms of praise. The end of the book of Psalms,
they are all Psalms of praise. Do you see how verse one begins
by saying, praise ye the Lord? And then if you look at the very
last line of verse 10, the very last line of the Psalm, it says,
praise ye the Lord. Psalm 147 says, praise ye the
Lord. And the last line of verse 20
says, praise ye the Lord. Psalm 148 says, praise ye the
Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Psalm 149,
praise ye the Lord. The last line says, praise ye
the Lord. Psalm 150 says, praise ye the
Lord. The very last line of the Psalms
says, praise ye the Lord. David said, this is the conclusion
of the whole matter. Praise ye the Lord. Praise you
the Lord. Now Psalm 146 is our text. And it tells us that there are
two types of people on this earth. This is very important. There
are two types of people on this earth. Those who have man's help
and those who have God's help. Those who are leaning on the
arm of the flesh and those who are leaning on
the arm of the Lord. And this is so true and it's
so critical. There are two types of people,
those who are leaning on the flesh and those who are leaning
on the Lord. Those who lay claim on man's
works. And those who lay claim and see
if that'll sink in those who lay claim on God's works, Christ's
works for his own. I mean, claim them for your own
two types of people on this earth. And this Psalm tells us that
the difference in these two. Is eternal happiness or eternal misery? That's the
difference in these two types of people, eternal joy, eternal
rejoicing, or eternal misery. Now all men and women start out
in the misery category. All right. Every person born
into the world. Is born into the misery category,
looking to and leaning on the works of man. And we don't realize
that that's where we are and that's what we're doing, but
that's where we are. And that's what we're doing.
Anytime that we're trying to process, what is my involvement? What is man's involvement? That's
where we are. And that's what we're doing.
as far as salvation is concerned. The gospel cries, but God, right? This is where man starts out
in this misery category, leaning on the arm of the flesh, but
God comes at his appointed time. He comes to his miserable children,
wherever they are, And he makes his miserable child happy. He really does. And they really
are. Miserable, miserable, miserable,
and then all of a sudden happy, just flat miserable in religion. That's what people are. They
want, they want you to think they're all happy and just on
fire and just happy, but they're miserable, miserable, miserable. And then God comes, opens their
eyes, opens their ears, and all of a sudden they get happy. They
get so happy. The Apostle Paul is the one who
said in Acts 26, I think myself happy. That's what he said, I
think myself happy. And he's also the one who said
in 1 Corinthians 15, I am what I am by the grace of God. God
is the one who made me to be this way. So this Psalm shows
us who it is that God has caused to be happy. And this Psalm shows
us what it is that makes the child happy. Why he's so happy. Two of the verses in this Psalm
have been given to describe the miserable. There are 10 verses.
Two of them describe the miserable, who they are, and why he or she
will receive eternal misery. All of the other verses. have
been given to tell us why the happy are so happy. Aside from
those two, it's all happiness. I titled this message, The Miserable
Made Happy. All right, let's just go through
these verses, starting at verse one. It says, praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Who is he talking to right there? He's talking to himself. He's talking to himself. David
said, I am telling myself to praise the Lord. We would be
wise to follow him in these footsteps. I believe this can be a very
applicable, almost Bible study, a real help tonight. We would
be so wise to follow him in what he's done here. He said, I'm
telling myself to praise the Lord. Why are you telling yourself
that, David? Because it makes me so happy. It makes me so happy. The greatest defense that we
have against sorrow, misery, and depression. If anybody experiences
sorrow, misery, or depression, The greatest defense that we
have against them is start praising the Lord. That's the truth. That's a prescription. That's
medication. The next time that sorrow is
about to take us down to the depths of depression. Sorrow
will get a hold of us and it won't stop until it drags us
down into the absolute depths of depression. The next time
it starts doing that, start praising the Lord. I mean with anything
that can come to your mind to praise him on. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord and then see
what happens. Just think about all of his wonderful
works and all of his goodness. You just think about what He
has saved us from. Think about what we deserve and
what He's given us in return. Think about everything He's prepared
for us and everything we're gonna see and experience, namely Him. And just see what happens. Next
time that comes to you, just see what happens. David said,
praise the Lord, oh my soul. He's telling himself, do not
just give lip service. I want to tell myself, self,
Gabe, do not just give him lip service. Do not just give an outward show
of the flesh. David said, I need to, and I
want to, I want to praise the Lord. with my whole heart, I
want to praise him in my soul. He said in Psalm 103, bless the
Lord, oh my soul and all that is within me, bless his holy
name. Verse two, he said, while I live,
will I praise the Lord. I will sing praises unto my God
while I have any being. You know, you have to be alive
to praise the Lord. You know that you have to be
alive to praise the Lord. The only way that we can praise
the Lord is if he first quickens us to praise him. It's the only
way it's possible. Look with me at Psalm 115. Psalm 115 verse 17, it says,
The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into
silence. We were all born into this world
dead in trespasses and sins, and a dead man cannot praise
the Lord. He cannot praise the Lord. The
only way that it's even possible for our souls to praise Him is
if he first quickens these cold, hard, stony hearts, miserable
souls to life, he has to do that first. Then, and only then, only
after he finishes that work can we praise the Lord. And what
does Ephesians 2 verse 1 say? and you hath he quickened who
were dead." David said, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. If I praise
Him for His sovereignty alone, if I praise Him for who He is,
every person is who he or she is. All right, every person is
somebody could describe Gabe Stoniker as a fighting man. He's
a brawler. Don't don't look at him. Don't
don't cross him, buddy. He will pop you. I hope that's
not the Gabe Stoniker you know. All right, He is a certain way.
And if we praise Him for how He is and has declared Himself
to be, if we praise Him for being the sovereign God, I mean love
His absolute authority and say in all things, you have it all,
I have none of it. You are true and I'm a liar. Praise the Lord. If we praise
Him for His sovereignty, And if we praise Him for His glory,
you get all the glory and I get none of the glory. I don't even
want to share it with you. God forbid. If we praise Him for His work
alone, it's everything you did by yourself on that cross for
me. If we praise Him, then praise
the Lord. If we praise the Lord, then praise
the Lord. It means he quickened us. It
means he's already given us life. Now go back to Psalm 146. Verses
three and four describe the miserable. It says, put not your trust in
princes. The natural man in his natural
state, he's prone to look for safety and he's prone to look
for peace. And he's prone to look for happiness
and he's prone to look for provisions everywhere, but in the Lord,
that's what he's prone to do. And those who do not look to
the Lord Jesus Christ are only going to be disappointed in the
end. That's all that can come when we don't look to Christ.
The end of everyone who praises man is nothing but misery. Verse three says, put not your
trust in princes. David is saying, don't put your
trust in Kings. I say, don't put your trust in
presidents. Don't put your trust in any leader
of any kind. Verse three says, nor in any
man, any son of man. David was a King and he said,
don't put your trust in Kings. I'm a pastor. And I say to you
right now, don't put your trust in pastors. I would love to get that across
to people. They're just so devoted to pastors, people in religion. Well, I know
he's not exactly right. I know he doesn't, but you know,
he's a, he's been here for so long and we're just going to
hang in there with him. Don't put your trust in pastors. Don't follow pastors just because
they're pastors. Don't follow them if they're
not following Christ. Um, the apostle Paul said, follow
me as I follow Christ. Don't listen to their words.
If they're not repeating the words of Christ, David said,
preach the word, the word of God. Look with me at Jeremiah
17. Jeremiah 17 verse five says,
thus saith the Lord, cursed be the man that trusteth in man,
and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the
Lord. For he shall be like the heath,
that means the deserted, the abandoned, in the desert, and
shall not see when good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched
places in the wilderness, in a salt land, and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in the Lord, whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree
planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the
river, and shall not see when heat cometh. But her leaf shall
be green and shall not be full of care in the year of drought.
Neither shall cease from yielding fruit. Only trust in the Lord. Only trust in the Lord. Don't
turn but Philippians 3 verse 3 says we are the circumcision. We are God's people. which worship
God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no
confidence in the flesh." None. Martin Luther said, my warrant
is the Word of God, nothing else is worth believing. No other
word from no other man. So back in Psalm 146, Verse three says, put not your
trust in princes, nor in the son of man. Why? There's no help. In whom there is no help. Psalm
46 says, the Lord our God is a very present help. God is a
very present help. In man, there's no help at all.
Verse four says, his breath goeth forth. His breath leaves his
body, he dies. That's all that man can do, really,
is die. That's all he's guaranteed to
do. Verse 4 says, he returns to his earth. Our Lord told Adam,
from dust you came and to dust you're going to return. Verse
4 says, in that very day, his thoughts perish. All of his will,
all of his pursuits, everything he was working toward is just
over. Man leaves it all sitting right
there. And he goes to stand before God
in the judgment of his sin. And it's just a miserable end.
It's a miserable eternity. All right. So those were the
two verses devoted to misery. Everything else is just happy.
Everything from this point on is happy. Verse five says, Happy
is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in
the Lord his God. The happy, those who are happy,
are those who hope in the Lord their God. They truly do, in
their souls, hope in the Lord their God. I told you that the
title of this was The Miserable Made Happy. That happens the
very moment that God turns a sinner from looking to himself or any
other man. And that is, again, that's the
daily activity of man. We look to ourselves and we look
to other men. That's all we do. In this world,
that's all we do. We look to ourselves and we look
to other men. We look to ourselves and we look to other men. But
the moment God turns us from looking to ourselves or any other
man to the Lord, I mean locks us on Him, that's the moment
happiness comes every time. Eternally in those quickened
eyes of salvation. We look to Him for everything
we need. Wisdom. We need wisdom. A lot of decisions need to be
made. A lot of paths need to be taken.
We need wisdom. The moment that the Lord turns
our eyes to Christ for that, what would you have me to do? The moment he settles us on,
you know best. That's the moment happiness comes.
We need wisdom. We need righteousness. We need
a perfect standing before God. And the moment that God turns
us from looking to ourselves to earn this acceptable state,
the moment he turns us to look to Christ, that is a happy moment. We say, isn't that so relaxing? We need sanctification. We need
to be cleansed from everything that we have been all the days
of our life. I'm just ruined and ruined and
filthy. I'm filthy. I need to be washed
from it. And the moment we look to Christ,
happiness comes and we need redemption, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. We need to be back in his union. In one word, what does a sinner
need most? Mercy. which is another way of
saying Christ. Where is mercy found in Christ? We need Christ. In the moment
we see Christ and we see mercy in Christ, happiness comes, true
happiness. It says, verse five, happy is
he that hath the God of Jacob for his help. The moment God
reveals to a sinner what that means, happiness comes. What does that mean? What does
it mean that he says the Lord God Almighty is the God of Jacob?
Here's what it means. He's the God of mercy. He's the
God of mercy. Happy is he that has the merciful
God for his help. Turn with me to Exodus chapter
three. Exodus three, verse 13. Moses said unto God, behold,
when I come unto the children of Israel and shall say unto
them, the God of your fathers had sent me unto you and they
shall say to me, what is his name? What shall I say unto them? Who should I tell them that you
are? Verse 14, and God said unto Moses,
I am that I am. And he said, thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. You tell them that I am holy. I am the judge, you tell them
that. I am sovereign. I am almighty,
you tell them that. But verse 15, God said, moreover
unto Moses, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel,
the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you. This is
my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. You tell them that I'm the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. This is
what God said concerning Abraham. He said, Abraham is my friend. He said, Isaac is my covenant. And he said, Jacob is my trophy.
That sinner, Jacob, that miserable sinner, you go tell him, I'm
the sinner's God. You go tell him, I'm the sinner's
God, not the self-righteous's God. You go tell them I'm the
miserable sinners, savior, the worst of the worst, the most
miserable of them all. That's who I make happy. Miserable over their sin. You
tell them that. Go with me back to Psalm 146. Why does trusting in the Lord
and having Him for our help bring so much happiness and so much
hope? It's because verse six says, He made heaven and earth,
the sea and all that therein is. He made heaven and He made
everything that's in it. What that means is it's His to
do with it, whatever He wants to do with it. If he wants to
prepare a place for us there, he can do that. If he wants to,
he can do that. If he wants to give us an inheritance,
if he wants to make us to be a joint heir inheritor with him,
he can do that. If he wants to, along with himself,
freely give his bride all things, he can do that. He's able to
do that. It's His to do whatever He wants
to do with it. And to every miserable sinner
that has received mercy from Him, mercy in His blood, He said,
I'm going to do that. I'm giving it to you with me,
in me, you get it all. That makes sinners happy. You think about that. You get
all of heaven with Him. Everything that's His, you get
it with Him. That makes sinners happy. Can we count on that promise
to us? Look at the end of verse six.
It says, he keepeth truth forever. If he said it, it's gonna stand
forever. Titus 1 verse 2 says, in hope
of eternal life, which God that cannot lie, promise before the
world began. He cannot lie. If he said it,
it's going to happen. A lot of times we read what he
has said and just really hope it happens. He cannot lie. If
he said it, it's going to happen. It's going to stand forever.
That makes sinners happy. He's true to His Word, He's true
to His covenant, and He's true to His people. Verse 7 says,
"...which executeth judgment for the oppressed." He executed
judgment for us. Why are God's people so happy?
It's because He has already executed judgment for us. He executed judgment on us in
Himself based on the things that we have done today. We were here
this morning for a service and we're back tonight. In that span
of time between these two services, all of us in here have done things
and thought things and felt things worthy to send us to an eternal
hell. He has already executed judgment
for that. You want to talk about make a
miserable sinner happy? There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. None. He's already executed that
condemnation on Himself. He condemned Himself in our place. He removed us from the condemnation
by condemning Himself. Verse 7 says, He giveth food
to the hungry. He feeds His people. If we belong
to Him, physically speaking, we will be fed. We will be clothed,
having food and raiment. David said, I've been young,
and I'm now old, and I've never seen the righteous forsaken,
nor his seed-begging bread. Never. But more importantly than
that, he feeds his people with the spiritual bread of life.
That's what we need more than any of it. Lord, if need be,
take away my physical food. Just give me that heavenly bread.
Take away my physical clothes. Just cover me in that robe of
righteousness. He said in Matthew 5, blessed
are those that hunger and thirst after righteousness. They're
going to be filled. They're going to be filled with
righteousness. They're going to be filled with that heavenly
bread. And I love this. He said, open your mouth wide
and I'll fill it. As much as you want, you can
have. Verse 7 says, the Lord loosens the prisoners. You just
think about that. The Lord loosens the prisoners
justly, rightly, legally. And I'm going to I'm going to
speed this up. I was going to have you turn to Isaiah 61. Don't
do it. Just listen to this. It says
in Isaiah. Sixty one verse one. The spirit of the Lord God is
upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings
to the meek. He sent me to bind up the broken
hearted. to proclaim liberty to the captives
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Who is
he describing right there? Us. Meek, brokenhearted, captive,
bound by sin. He said, I'm gonna proclaim the
acceptable year of the Lord. I'm gonna proclaim everything
that Christ accomplished for them. And why am I going to do
that? To appoint unto them beauty for
ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment of praise
for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees
of righteousness. He said, I'm going to do that for all of my
people. That's what he proclaims to them. Verse 8, it says, the
Lord opens the eyes of the blind, the spiritually blind, those
who can't see God and can't see Christ and can't see the truth
of His Word and can't see the truth of their own sin, He opens
their eyes to all of it. And it breaks them. It absolutely
breaks them, it crushes them, it humbles them, it brings them
low. And then verse eight says, the
Lord raises them up that are bowed down. After he brings them
low, he raises them up. How does he do that? He reveals
his love for the righteous. The end of verse eight says,
the Lord loveth the righteous. Who is the righteous? Christ
is. And every soul the father puts
in him. He was made sin that we might
be made righteous. Verse nine says the Lord preserves
the strangers, strangers to this world, strangers to the way of
holiness and righteousness. They're not strangers to him.
He said, I know you, I love you and I'll preserve you. Verse
9 says, He relieveth the fatherless and the widow. When Adam sinned,
he was cast out and he lost his union. He was separated from
God. He lost his union with the Father
and with Christ the husband. Spiritually speaking, all of
mankind, because of that, is fatherless and widowed. That's
what man is in his sin. Outside of Christ, that's where
man is going to stay. The end of verse 9 says, the
way of the wicked, he turns upside down. But for every soul that's
covered in the blood, union is regained. The family is reunited. Every soul in the blood has union
again with the Father and union with the Son, Christ the husband. Verse 10 says, the Lord shall
reign forever. See if this makes you happy.
See if this makes you happy. The Lord shall reign forever. We are, if we belong to Him,
He's gonna gather us to Himself. We are gonna be translated into
the kingdom of His dear Son. And we are gonna stand before
the throne of the King, who is Jesus Christ. And because the
Lord loved us, that's who He made to be King. And He will
never die from His throne. He'll never die. And He will
never lose His throne to another. Our God will be the same God
forever and ever and ever. We get used to a leader and then
a new one comes along. Well, how's it going to be now?
All right, we're going to have the same king forever and ever
and ever, and he is never going to give it up. He shall not be
discouraged. He'll never step down. The Lord shall reign forever. Even thy God, O Zion, unto all
generations. He's going to reign not only
over us, but over our children also. And David said, I only
have one response to that. Praise ye the Lord. Praise the
Lord. Praise God from whom all blessings
flow. Praise Him. All right, let's
all stand together.