Alright, go with me back to Psalm
113. Psalm 113. My family has had so many reasons
this week to be thankful. And it's not just because of
things, but sometimes things remind us to be thankful. It's
about things behind the things. It's about love and it's about
grace and it's about all kinds of things, but we've had so many
reasons to be thankful. And sometimes I go into the study just overwhelmed by a thought
or by an emotion something has happened and most of the time, not all the
time, but most of the time I come to realize this is our message. I finally enter into the fact
that I can't think about studying. I just, I'm dwelling on this
and I'm dwelling on this and finally it hits me, this is our
message. And Friday morning I went into
the study and the thing that I couldn't stop
dwelling on was thanks. I was just thankful. Praise. Praise to the goodness
of the Lord. The Lord is so good. Man, He
is so, so good. And we forget about it. It doesn't mean He's not good,
but we just forget about it sometimes. And certain things happen that
cause us to realize, oh, our Lord is so good. And I was reading
through the Word, and the Lord led me to Psalm 113. And I don't
believe there's anything else I could preach from tonight.
If I had to preach from something else, I couldn't preach. This
is our message. Psalm 113, look at verse 1. It says, Praise ye the Lord. Praise to Jehovah the Lord. How wonderful is it to acknowledge
the Lord in praise? Every now and then, we get to
do that, because we just don't. We just don't. We go through
this life doing our thing, having our thoughts. But every now and
then, we get to take a minute and stop and just praise Him. And something happens in this
heart, and you realize, I am praising Him. My heart is praising
Him. How wonderful is that? That moment
of true, true praise. Charles Spurgeon said, Prayer
is the myrrh. Praise is the frankincense. And both must be presented to
the Lord. We come and we present these
things to the Lord. We call on Him. We praise Him.
Verse 1 says, Praise ye the Lord. Praise, O ye servants of the
Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. His name is Jehovah. That's his name. A shorter form
of that is Yah. J-A-H. Yah. Jehovah. The Lord. Praise ye
the Lord in English is Hallelujah in Hebrew. Hallelujah means praise ye. Yah means the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Now listen
to this. This blessed my soul. I read
this. I read this account, and oh,
this is such a blessing to me. Our Lord commanded the children
of Israel to keep certain feasts. One of them was the Passover.
And during that feast, they sacrificed a lamb. That's what they did. Sacrificed a lamb. And they sacrificed
that lamb remembering The Lord brought us out of Egypt. The
Lord delivered us from bondage. That's what they were doing.
They were all standing around, sacrificing this lamb, remembering
what the Lord did for them. They were worshipping God. That's
what they were doing. They were worshipping God. And
then the Lord gave them the temple. And they worshipped God in the
temple. They had formal, organized, public
worship. That's what they had. It's recorded that they would
begin their worship with singing. And we do the same thing, don't
we? And it's wonderful. They would begin their worship
with singing. The Levites would lead the people. And one of the
accounts that is written is they would often use this phrase as
their song. Praise ye the Lord, hallelujah,
as their song. And this is how they would do
it. The Levites would begin singing to the people. They would sing,
hallelujah. And all the people would respond
by singing, Hallelujah. And then the Levites would go,
Hallelujah. Praise ye. And all the people
would go, Hallelujah. Then they'd sing, Hallelujah.
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. It doesn't matter what melody
they use. That's the one we use, but the words are the same. Hallelujah. We sing hallelujah. Praise ye. We just sing it right
now. Yes, I will praise him. I will praise him. We're all
here worshiping together right now, and I love it. I love our
public worship. We're all here together, but
this is between each one of us and our God. You know that? I want to worship God. I want
us to worship God, but oh Lord, don't let me walk out of here
without worshiping God. Some are going to be blessed
tonight. Pass me not, oh gentle Savior,
me. I pray for you. I do. I want
you to be blessed. You don't have any idea how much
I want you to be blessed tonight, but I want to be blessed. I will praise him. I will praise
Him. Now our Lord, hallelujah, our
Lord, He came, didn't He? He came down here to this earth.
They were singing hallelujah. Now He came and He became that
Lamb. That's what He did. He became
that Lamb. He delivered us every single time we meet together.
It's no different than if we all brought a stone in here and
built a big pile of rocks right here. And somebody, you know,
Dickie or somebody had a lamb on his farm and he brought that
lamb in here. It's no different. We are going to gather around
the lamb and we're going to remember the lamb that was slain and we're
going to worship God and praise God, remembering that he delivered
us from all of our bondage. And then he ascended back up
to his father to make intercession for us and to prepare a place
for us. That's what he did. And he said
in his word, this is what he's promised to us. He said, where
I am, you're going to be also. You're going to be with me in
paradise. So we've added this line now.
Christ is coming. Hallelujah. He's coming back. He's going to get us. We're going
to be where He is. Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord. Verse 2 says, Blessed be the
name of the Lord. We sing that one too, don't we? All praise to Him who reigns
above in majesty supreme. who gave his son for man to die,
that he might man redeem. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
His name above all names shall stand exalted more and more. That's the part I like. I was
thinking about that. He is highly exalted. And do you know throughout eternity,
never ending eternity, you know what's going to happen to the
Lord Jesus Christ? He's going to be exalted more and more. Amen. at God the Father's own right
hand where angel hosts adore. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Verse 2 says, Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time
forth and forevermore. Yesterday is gone. It's gone. If I didn't praise him yesterday,
Lord, let me praise him today. Let me praise him today. Yesterday's
over. It's over. If I was baptized
yesterday, that's wonderful. If I made my profession yesterday,
that's wonderful. But yesterday is over. Lord,
let me praise you today. It says, from this time forth
and forevermore. There are going to be gray skies
ahead. They're just going to be gray
skies. We had gray skies yesterday and today was so beautiful. And
there are going to be troubles. Nowhere is a believer promised
an easy life. Nowhere. Oh, the Lord saved me. Now it's all downhill from here.
No, we're marching to Zion and it's up. In this world, there's going
to be trials, there's going to be sorrow, there's going to be
sadness. It's going to be. By God's grace, what will we
do during those times? By God's grace, what will we
do during those awful times? We will bless the name of the
Lord. You know it takes God's grace
to do that. Do you know the story of it is well with my soul? About everybody in here knows
the story of it is well with my soul. It takes God's grace
to do that. That man lost his whole family
or he lost his children and he sent his family overseas and
the boat went down and he lost his children. His wife sent a
telegram, saved alone. And he penned, when peace like
a river attends my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll,
whatever my lot, thou has taught me to say, it's well with my
soul. Is it easy? No. What will we
do? By God's grace, we'll bless the
name of the Lord. It's the Lord. Let him do what
seemeth him good. This is not circumstantial. It's just not. God's people,
they do not just have a heart to do this when times are good. Verse three says, from the rising
of the sun unto the going down of the same, the Lord's name
is to be praised. I got up a little earlier than
normal a few days this week to get an early start on studying.
And I'm not, you know, I don't sleep in, so to speak, but I'm
not the earliest riser. And I got up and I got a cup
of coffee and I sat on the couch and I looked outside the window
in my living room and I was watching that early morning sun. And two
mornings I did that back to back. And both mornings I sat there
looking at that, thinking about all those scriptures that talk
about the Lord's faithfulness. Morning by morning, this is a
brand new morning. Morning by morning. Go with me
over to Isaiah 50. Notice verse 1 says, Isaiah 50
verse 1 says, Thus saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord. Verse 6 says, I gave my back
to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the
hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. This is the
Lord speaking. Now verse 4 says, The Lord God
hath given me the tongue of the learned. that I should know how
to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He wakeneth
morning by morning. He wakeneth mine ear to hear
as the learned. The Lord has given me the ability
to hear and send a word in season to comfort the weary. Morning
by morning, he speaks a word to us who are weary. He listens. We cry out to him, don't we? And when we do, we think, oh,
I hope he's listening. You ever do that? You ever call
out to God thinking, oh, I hope he's listening? Well, he has given his ear to
us. that he can speak a word of season
to us who are weary. Go with me over to Lamentations
chapter 3. Lamentations 3 verse 22 says, It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness. Great is Thy faithfulness. Morning
by morning, new mercies I see. Isn't that wonderful? So from
the rising of the sun until the going down of the same, the Lord's
name is to be praised. We need to think about that like
this too. From the time that we sinners
enter this world, from the rising of the sun until the time that
we sinners leave this world to the going down of the same, the
Lord's name is to be praised. You know it takes the grace of
God to put that praise on a tongue. It takes the gift of God and
the mercy of God. Lord, put that on our tongue. The Lord's name is to be praised.
Go back to Psalm 113. Verse 4 says, The Lord is high
above all nations and His glory above the heavens. He is high
above all nations, whether they know He is or not. He is high
above all nations. He's their God. He rules over
them. He is above this nation. He's
above this nation. He is high above all nations. All includes this one. He is
above this nation. The little k and the little r,
kings and rulers of this nation, they can only do what he allows
them to do. Now this is such a blessing.
Let me show you that in Job 1. Go with me over to Job chapter
1. Job 1 verse 6 says, Now there was a day when the
sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came
also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan,
Whence comest thou? And Satan answered the Lord and
said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up
and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan,
Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like
him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth
God and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the Lord
and said, Doth Job fear God for naught? Hast not thou made an
hedge about him? You know what he's saying. I
can't touch him. I cannot touch him. Does he fear
you for nothing? I cannot touch him. Nobody can
unless you allow it. Isn't that comforting? You are
a wall around him. Absolute protection. A mighty
fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing. Did you hear what's
going on? Did you hear what they're doing? Well, a mighty fortress is our
God, a bulwark never failing. Go back over to Psalm 113. Verse 4 says, The Lord is high
above all nations, And His glory above the heavens. His glory
is above the heavens. His glory is above the heavens. The clouds are the dust of His
feet. But that does not even come close
to describing what that means. The sun, the moon, the stars,
the solar systems, the galaxies, I studied this on Friday. I told
you this morning we went to Bays Mountain yesterday and we saw
this thing. And as soon as I saw it, I thought,
how perfect, because I just studied all this yesterday. We live in a galaxy. There's
lots of galaxies. It's called the Milky Way. Now, I've never personally measured
it, so I don't know, but they say if they are right, They say that it's 100,000 light
years across it. However far a beam of light could
travel in one year, it's 100,000 light years across it. That's
one galaxy. One galaxy. How many are out
there? All of the galaxies of the universe
are just glitter under his throne. His glory is above the heavens. Is that not amazing? Do you believe
that's true? I do. The heaven of heavens cannot
contain Him. Nothing has ever seen the fullness
of His glory. Angels have never seen the fullness
of His glory. Never. Nothing has. He's above every imagination. I just had an imagination. That
didn't even come close. He is infinite. You know, we
talk about the word infinity, never-ending infinity. He is
infinite. He's infinite. Verse 5 says,
Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high? Little itty-bitty tiny man thinks
he's in control, doesn't he? And we get so torn all to pieces
over little bitty tiny man. We get so worried about what
little itty bitty tiny man is doing. And he's like a mite. He's like a bed bug compared
to the Empire State Building. And that's just not even close
to the comparison. Verse five says, who is like
unto the Lord our God who dwelleth on high? But look what he did
in verse six. Who humbleth himself to behold
the things that are in heaven and in the earth. He humbled
himself. When you start to get a small
glimpse of who God really is, I believe his throne is above
all the galaxies of the universe. And when you start to realize
who God is, that he would come all the way down to this earth
to become a lamb. a lamb on this earth. We will never be able to describe,
we'll never be able to understand how far he had to come down.
We talk about the Lord came all the way down. We'll never understand
how far he had to come down for us. Never. This says right here
in verse 6, who humbleth himself to behold the things that are
in heaven. Not earth, heaven. He has to
humble himself. He bends down to see what the
angels are doing in heaven. We'll never understand the depth
that he came down for us. Never. We'll never understand
that condescension. He entered into the lowest part
of the earth. He went from the highest infinity
to the lowest part of the earth, the grave. What did he do in
that grave? Verse 7. He raised up the poor
out of the dust, and he lifted the needy out of the dunghill.
Who is like this God? Who's like this God? If you were
that high, would you have done this? Who is like this God? That the infinite one would have
anything to do with mites. Worms is too good a term, I believe. I think it's too good of a term.
What did he do? Did he get them out of the pit
and then set them on the earth? That would have been great mercy.
But that's not what he did. Verse 7 says, He raiseth up the
poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill,
that he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his
people." He raised them all the way back up to where he was. He didn't say to any of the angels,
you're my son. He said to worms and mites, I'm
going to marry you. You're going to live in me, I
in you. We're going to reign together
all the way up. All the way up. Whom he did predestinate,
he called. Whom he called, he justified
in that condescension, in that lamb, in that grave, in picking
them up. Whom he justified, He glorified
all the way back up. Verse 9 says, He maketh the barren woman to
keep house and to be a joyful mother of children. We are all
barren. We are all His bride. No matter what this world throws
at God's people, they are truly happy people. But one of these
days, oh happy day, one of these days, we sinners are going to
experience joy unspeakable. It's not going to be able to
be described. It's going to be higher than the heavens. Saved
sinners are happy, happy people. Very happy. There's a song, there's
an old song that says, He lifted me out of the deep miry clay. He settled my feet in the straight
narrow way. He lifted me up to a heavenly
place and floodeth my soul each day with His grace. When you
think about the message of grace, the message of grace, the message
of grace, it is 100% good news. When you are telling a sinner
everything that he is, as low as he is, as sinful as he is,
that sinner knows there's a but God attached to it. And then
it becomes the greatest glory you've ever... It's the greatest
story ever told. The story of the gospel. You
went from the lowest to the highest. Who could hate that? What do
I have to do for it? Nothing. It's called grace. How could a mite ever think he
would have anything to offer the Almighty God? It's all grace. And He floods my soul each day
with His grace. So the end of verse 9 says, Praise
ye the Lord. We come right back to where we
started. We do it every time. You know that I preached this
exact same message this morning? Twice. And if you'd like a little insight
on Wednesday night, I'm going to preach the exact same message
again. We're going to keep coming back
to where we started. We never get away from the praise
of the Lord. That's all we do is praise the
Lord. We don't tell men what they have
to add to his glorious work. We just praise the Lord. We tell where he is, what he
did, what that means for us. He is the beginning. He's the
end. He's the author. He's the finisher. He's the first. He's the last. Hallelujah. Praise ye the Lord. All right,
let's stand together.