Psalm 147. Psalm 147. Title of the message, A GREAT
PSALM HONORING OUR GREAT GOD. A GREAT PSALM HONORING OUR GREAT
GOD. Now I'm sure you have noticed
in these last couple psalms and this psalm and the next two psalms,
our worship does not change. It is always praise the Lord,
always. We praise the Lord in His unsearchable
greatness, for that never changes, it never changes. We praise the
Lord for His continual care, not only FOR US BUT HIS CREATION,
and that never changes. He continually cares for us and
His creation. And we praise the Lord for His
sovereignty over all, and how that He rules all things for
our good, and that never changes. We ought to, individually, set
aside a time to prepare our hearts to praise the Lord in private
as well as in public. I find, and I have found this
as I've grown older, the worship service here is better for me
if it begins before I get here. If praise begins before I get
here, it's even better once I get here. And His Word is read, and
we sing His songs together, His praise together. Now in verse
1, we are given three reasons to praise the Lord, and we're
given many reasons on down through this Psalm, but we are given
three reasons in the very first verse. Praise ye the Lord for
His good, SING PRAISES UNTO OUR GOD, IT IS PLEASANT, AND PRAISE
IS COMELY. IT'S GOOD FOR IT'S RIGHT. WHAT
WE'RE DOING TONIGHT IS RIGHT. IT'S ONLY RIGHT TO PRAISE GOD.
IT'S ONLY RIGHT TO GIVE UNTO HIM THE GLORY THAT'S DUE UNTO
HIS HOLY NAME. IT'S ONLY RIGHT. AND IT'S GLORIFYING
TO THE LORD, AND IT'S PLEASANT Our singing here tonight, the
praying, the reading back in the study, is pleasant to His
ears, is pleasant to His heart. You know, God has a heart. He
speaks of His heart. It's pleasant to His heart. How
would you like to hear your children sing in harmony together and
come together and be at peace and sing? Wouldn't that be pleasant
to you? THIS IS PLEASANT TO THE EAR AND
HEART OF GOD, IT'S PLEASANT. AND IT'S COMELY, IT BECOMES HIS
PEOPLE TO PRAISE HIM, IT'S BECOMING OF YOU TO DO THIS. IT'S ONE OF
THE WAYS WE ADORN THE GOSPEL, IS BY SINGING HIS PRAISES. WE DO NOT OFFER BLOOD SACRIFICES
NOW, BUT I TELL YOU, WE DO OFFER A SACRIFICE. WE ARE GOING TO
OFFER A SACRIFICE HERE THIS EVENING. YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS? IT'S THE
SACRIFICE OF PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING, AND THAT'S BETTER THAN ANY CEREMONIAL
SACRIFICE WE COULD OFFER. BUT TO OFFER THE SACRIFICE OF
PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING, THAT'S THE SACRIFICE WE OFFER. IT'S
THE PRAISE OF OUR LIPS, WHICH COMES FROM THE HEART. And then
we praise the Lord in verse 2 and 3. We praise the Lord for His
healing and restoration of us. Look here. The Lord doth build
up Jerusalem. I thought of the Jerusalem that
now is over in the Middle East. You know how many times that
place has been taken over and decimated, captive, and it's
still there. You know why it's still there?
The Lord. I mean, that's the only answer
I can give you. The Lord has kept them there.
You know how much they're hated. Hitler tried his best to annihilate
the Jews, and they are still there. But the Lord builds up
His TRUE Jerusalem, His SPIRITUAL Jerusalem, His SPIRITUAL Israel.
It's the Lord who builds us up. Tonight, right now, if the Lord
speaks to your heart, if you came here hungry, the Lord will
build you up. He'll lift you up. You've been
down today? You've been down this week? The
Lord will build you up. He'll build you up in faith,
hope, and love. And we need to be built up in
these three areas, don't we? Faith, we need to believe God. We don't need to doubt ever.
I have no reason and you have no reason to ever doubt God. Why are you so fearful? The Lord
said to His disciples several times. Why are you so fearful? Your doubts cause your fears.
They cause you your fears, your doubts of Him. That's where your
fears come from. But He does build up Jerusalem.
He's the master builder. Christ is the master builder
and you're the living stones and He's building up His temple.
He's building up Jerusalem. You're it. You're it. And listen,
He gathereth like the farmer gathers his harvest. He gathers together the outcasts
of Israel. He knows where they are. He pitieth
the outcasts. And this is in a spiritual sense
now, this is a spiritual sense. And then we praise Him as the
Great Physician. He healeth the broken in heart
and bindeth up their wounds. He goes where no physician HAS
EVER GONE BEFORE. HE GOES TO THE HEART, AND HE
GOES TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER. HE WHO GATHERS IN THE OUTCAST
OF ISRAEL ALSO HEALS THEM. You know, the Lord s people have
many spiritual sicknesses, we have many spiritual diseases,
and He heals us of every one of them. He s the Great Physician,
our Lord is. The Lord's people have many spiritual
sicknesses, they have heart disease. We say, you know, the number
one killer in America, they say, is heart disease. That's supposedly
the number one killer. Well, I wonder why? It's the number one killer in
spiritual death, the heart. The heart is wicked, desperately
wicked and deceitful. Who can know it? And then we praise the Lord for
His great wisdom, and power, and creation. You see, He says
He gathers in those outcasts of Israel. How can He know where
all of them are? How can He know? They are scattered
all over the place. Well, here He gives us a GLIMPSE
of His wisdom, and knowledge, and power. HE TELLETH THE NUMBER
OF THE STARS. NOW WHO CAN DO THAT? THAT IS
BEYOND OUR NUMBERING SYSTEM. WE DON'T HAVE A NUMBERING SYSTEM
THAT GOES THAT FAR. You know way back thousands of
years ago they just thought There was a few thousand stars, I was
reading this, they thought there was a few thousand stars. Then
they invented the telescope, and then they realized there
were more stars out there. Then they saw the galaxies in the Milky
Way, and it just goes on and on and on, and GOD GAVE EVERY
ONE OF THEM A NAME AND A PURPOSE. They serve a purpose, they're
not just up there because they had nothing else to do. They
have a purpose, and God calls every one of them by name. You think he doesn't know where
all the outcasts are? You think he doesn't know where
all his elect are? He knows where every one of them
are. Every one of them. He names everything he creates
and this shows its importance to him. This shows how important, you
know one of the things that struck me, whenever he sent Jonah Nineveh
he said there's much people in that city but you know what else
he said as much cattle he took notice of the cattle it was in
that city and you know he said there's a lot of people in that
city Jonah and there's also a lot of cattle you want me to burn
all them up he's concerned God's shows that he his his care for
his creation he cares for his creation HE TELLETH THE NUMBER OF THE
STARS, HE CALLS THEM ALL BY NAMES. GREAT IS OUR LORD! GREAT! I CAN'T EVEN... I HAVEN'T EVEN
SCRATCHED THE SURFACE OF NO LIVING MAN ON THIS EARTH, WHO HAS LIVED,
LIVING, OR EVER SHALL LIVE, HAS EVER SCRATCHED THE SURFACE OF
THE GREATNESS OF GOD. WE CAN'T TOUCH IT! WE CAN'T TOUCH
THAT! GREAT IS OUR LORD AND OF GREAT
POWER! my soul we haven't even scratched
the surface of his power his understanding is infinite his
understanding is infinite that means it cannot be measured everything
about god i've learned this everything about god is infinite everything
about god's infinite unmeasurable everything is unmeasurable Power, listen, power the scripture
says, I believe it's in Job, it says, once have I heard this
twice, POWER BELONGS TO GOD! And any power that man has, any
particular man has, God gave it to him. Any power the devil
has, which he has a lot more power than I got, God gave it to him. He gives it to him and it restrains
him, takes it back. He's not allowed to do it. He
said when Israel at one time he said even a dog can't even
bark against you. Not a dog can't even bark against
you. POWER IS JUST WHEN SOMEONE SPEAKS
AND IT HAPPENS. REAL POWER IS WHEN HE SPEAKS
AND SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING COMES INTO BEING. THAT'S POWER. POWER IS TO HAVE A THOUGHT. And
it happens! God said, As I have thought,
so shall I do. That's POWER, people, that's
POWER! I believe it was the Lord said, Is anything too hard for
the Lord? What's impossible with men is
possible with God. And then we praise Him for His
CARE the humble now what king who's in such power has such
power what king takes such careful notice of the poor and needy usually in a king in a kingdom
the they're poor and needy because of the king he's taking their
money he's taking he's taking everything they got HE TAKES CARE, HE TAKES NOTICE,
HE TAKES CARE AND NOTICE OF THE HUMBLE, THE LORD LIFTETH UP THE
MEEK, HE CASTETH THE WICKED DOWN TO
THE GROUND. You see, the meek spoken of here are the ones HE
MAKES MEEK BY HIS WORD AND SPIRIT, HE BREAKS THEM. We re not naturally
meek, not naturally, He makes us that way. HE LIFTS THEM UP
FROM THE DUNG HILL AND MAKES THEM SIT AMONG PRINCES. HE MAKES THEM KINGS AND PRIESTS.
THAT'S WHAT HE DOES. NOT SO THE WICKED. NOT SO THE
WICKED. HE IS LIFTING UP THE BEGGAR FROM
THE DUNG HILL, WHILE THE WICKED, THE PROUD, THE AROGANT, HE CAST
DOWN TO THE GROUND. and He does it many times over
their lifetime until one day time shall be no more and they'll
be cast down for the last time. Then we praise the Lord, verses
7-11, we praise the Lord for His great provision and sovereignty
over creation. Who provided for you today? Who
provided for the little bird today? God did. Let us not become cold to that.
Let us not become indifferent to these things that we pass
by every day. Them birds are singing every
day because God's feeding them. God's feeding them. Rebecca sent me a picture of
the birds, the feeders they put out. Go figure. BUT THEY PUT SOME FEEDERS OUT
FOR BIRDS. AND SHE WAS SENDING ME SOME PICTURES OF A ROBIN,
REAL PRETTY BIRDS. AND I SAID GOD USED YOU TO FEED
HIS BIRDS TODAY. GOD USED YOU. YOU KNOW WHAT? THAT MEANS SOMETHING
TO GOD. THAT MEANS SOMETHING TO HIM.
LOOKING AFTER HIS CREATION. IT'S HIS CREATION. IT'S HIS. WE OUGHT TO LOOK AFTER OUR FATHERS.
creation, shouldn't we? We praise Him for His great provision
and sovereignty over His creation. Now verse 7 is another call here
to praise God with thanksgiving. Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving,
sing praise upon the harp unto our God. You know a harp, someone
said, represents the heart. The beautiful music that's played
on a harp We may not realize it, but when
we're truly praising God, that's beautiful music. That's beautiful
music when there's real praise to God. And then we praise the Lord for
His sovereign control over the elements. Aren't you glad for
that? Oh, I'm so glad that God controls the elements. WHO COVERETH
THE HEAVEN WITH THE CLOUDS, someone said, like with a wool blanket.
He knows exactly, God knows exactly how many clouds to put in the
air, in the sky, to water the earth at any given time. They're
not just happening. There may be 10,000 clouds today,
that's exactly how many God put in the sky to water the earth. God did that. BRETHREN, I TELL
YOU, WE WILL BE ABLE TO PRAISE GOD WHEN WE SEE HIM IN EVERYTHING. WHO COVERETH THE HEAVEN WITH
CLOUDS? WHO PREPARETH RAIN FOR THE EARTH?
THAT'S WHAT HE'S DOING WITH THOSE CLOUDS, HE'S PREPARING RAIN FOR
THE EARTH. WHO MAKES GRASS TO GROW UP ON
THE MOUNTAINS? WELL, NOBODY IS. NO MAN LIVES. HE GIVES THE BEAST HIS FOOD.
Who's giving you your food tonight? Well, I feel like a beast most
of the time, and yet God feeds me. David said, I'm like a beast
before you, and yet God provided food for him. But he takes care
of those beasts, they're his. He said, I own the cattle on
a thousand hills. Who's going to take care of them?
He is. Same one takes care of you and
me. He is. He giveth to the beast his food,
and to the young ravens which cry. Interesting thing I read
in my readings this week is young ravens, they are turned out of
the nest earlier than other birds. It says the dame leaves them
earlier than other birds leave their young. And they were by
the ceremonial law impure to be used. The Jews couldn't use
them. RAVENS! MEAT EATERS! Meat eaters. I thought of how God used a raven
to feed Elijah. You know what that's a good picture
of? God using this world to feed me and you. How many of you going
to jobs tomorrow, owned by a bunch of Gentiles that hate God? GOD USES THE RAVENS TO FEED HIS
PEOPLE, HE USES THIS WORLD TO DO SO. BUT THIS STRUCK ME ALSO,
AND THIS IS JUST A GOOD PICTURE THAT CAME TO ME, MY THOUGHTS,
IT'S A GOOD PICTURE OF GOD SAVING GENTILES. AREN'T WE LIKE A BUNCH
OF MEAT-EATING RAVENS? THAT WAS US, A BUNCH OF HEATHENS?
WEREN'T WE? A BUNCH OF HEATHENS! Look at
our, just check out your ancestry. Everybody wants to put up the
one that has the something to brag about. Well, there's a whole
lot more in that tree than that one person. Keep on going back
and you'll find them dancing around the fire somewhere. You'll
find their idols somewhere. You'll find idols everywhere.
That's my ancestry. And yet, God feedeth the raven. And then we see in verse 10 and
11, we see God's delight in those who fear Him. He delighteth not,
and the first thing we'll see is what He does not delight in.
This scripture is convicting to me. He delighteth not in the
strength of the horse. Really? God's going to take pleasure
in a Kentucky Derby? God's going to take pleasure
in that. This one really got me. He taketh
not pleasure in the legs of a man. I'm guilty of this. I don't,
anymore, I don't have a team. I used to have the Dallas Cowboys. I just thought I'd live and die
by them. Jump up and down off the couch
when they was winning. I mean, just carried on. And
they struck me today. And I want you to think about
this. When your best team's playing, And they're winning, and you're
up off the couch and you're carrying on. You and I have never praised
God with that kind of enthusiasm. Boy, that struck me today. I
thought I've never praised God with that kind of enthusiasm.
I have watched people, when Kentucky basketball was playing, I've
watched people hurry up and get out of the service and get home. They shouldn't even, might as
well stay at home. Might as well stay home. You're not going to
worship. It's just not going to happen. It's just trying to
quiet your own conscience. But God doesn't take pleasure
in the legs of a man. He doesn't take pleasure in them.
None of this foolishness we do. None of this hoopla in your face
when you win. God's not in that. God's not
in that. He's not in that. He tells us
right here, He taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man whose same
boat can run fifty miles an hour and it wouldn't entertain God
at all. But you know what He takes pleasure
in? Them that fear Him. God takes pleasure in you. You
please God. Is it possible to please God?
I know there are some who say, No, it's not. Yes, it is. Without
faith, it's impossible to please God. Well, what's the flip side
of that? With faith, it's possible to please God. By faith, Enoch
was translated that he should not see death, and he was not
found, because God had translated him. For before his translation,
he had this testimony. He pleased God. By faith. By faith. by your faith walking by faith
you please God that's not to obtain salvation you know that he taketh pleasure in them that
fear him that's who he takes pleasure in the rest I don't
the rest God's gonna put into hell I mean you take your favorite
team a bunch of God-hating ATHLETES, FOR THE MOST PART, THEY MIGHT
BE ONE OR TWO OUT OF THE WHOLE THING SAVED, I DON'T KNOW. BUT
FOR THE MOST PART, THEY HATE GOD, THEY'RE GOING TO GO OUT
AND PARTY, GET DRUNK, CARRY ON. I KNOW WHAT GOES ON. I KNOW WHAT
WENT ON WHEN WE WENT TO FOOTBALL GAMES WHEN I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL.
I KNOW WHAT WENT ON. THEY ASKED ME TO PRAY ONCE AT
A FOOTBALL GAME, AND I SAID NO. I TOLD THEM NO. I'm gonna pray
against what I want them to do. I'm gonna go out there and just
knock the daylights out of them. I'm serious. Mike, if you're
gonna put your helmet on, you hit them hard enough to make
your mother feel it. Now you want me to pray? You
want me to pray? And I've got that attitude? I
don't think so. God's not in there. I told one man, I said,
God's not in this. This is our junk. God's not in
this. He takes no pleasure in this. May the best team win. Nobody, unless you get some preacher
on the other side of the earth to pray about it, may the best
team win. But the guy that's there, he don't want the best
team to win. He wants his team to win. I just see the hypocrisy in it.
It's the hypocrisy that's in it. We praise God, listen, then we
praise God, verse 12, for protection and blessings. And then he says
here in verse 12, he starts with another praise. Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise thy God, O Zion! The ungodly
is not going to praise Him on purpose. Now they praise Him by doing
His will, and they don't know it. They don't know it. But they're not going to do it
on purpose. But you and I do it on purpose. We are going to praise God tonight
on purpose. The purpose, the reason we came
here tonight. And then we praise the Lord for
strengthening Zion there in 13 and 14, for He has strengthened
the bars of thy gates. This describes the utmost safety
of God's church. You're safe. We live in an ungodly
world. We live in a world of darkness,
don't we? We think we live in an enlightened
age. We live in a world of darkness. I don't care how much technology
advances. It doesn't matter how far advanced
we get in technology and whatever. It's a very, very dark world
we live in. But you're safe. YOU ARE SAFE! YOU ARE SHIELDED
BY GOD HIMSELF! YOU ARE! SATAN SAID CONCERNING
JOB, YOU HAVE PUT A HEDGE ABOUT HIM! HE COULD NOT TOUCH JOB! GOD PUT A HEDGE ABOUT HIM! AND
GOD HAS A HEDGE ABOUT EVERY ONE OF HIS CHILDREN! AND IF HE REMOVES
THAT HEDGE, HE IS STILL THEIR SHIELD AND BUCKLER! And then in verse 14, He maketh
peace in thy borders. I like to read it like this,
He maketh peace thy borders. That's a good border to have,
isn't it? Peace. And He filleth thee with
the finest of wheat. John Gilses referenced that to
being filled with the gospel. With the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. HE MAKETH PEACE IN THY BORDERS, AND THE ONE WHO MADE
PEACE IN OUR BORDERS IS THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, THE PRINCE OF PEACE. Give some real thought to this,
you who believe. We have peace with God. We have
peace with God. Now consider who God is, and
what we are, and we have peace with Him. And He said, He maketh
peace in thy borders. And then we praise Him for His
authority over creation. He sendeth forth His commandment
upon earth. His Word runneth very swiftly. When God sends out a Word, His
Word, guess what? It happens. It happens. Whatever He says to happen, when
He gives His Word, it happens. It's that swift. It's that swift. It doesn't return void, as He
said in Isaiah 55. He said His Word will accomplish
the purpose for which He sent it tonight, right here tonight. God's Word will accomplish the
purpose in every heart here. everyone it'll accomplish the
purpose for which he sent it and listen here in verse 16 he
give us snow y'all that snow that that we we didn't get to
hear but back home in ashland they got a lot of it i was talking
to tom harding he was telling me how hard it was snowing He'd
give us snow like wool to blanket the earth. You ever just look
at the hills when it's really snowed? You ever just look at
all that land? Who in the world, who can cover
that much territory with pure white snow? He said to Joe, have you entered
the treasures of the snow? There's treasures in that snow
that we don't really understand. God does, this earth needs it
or He wouldn't send it. He gives snow like wool, He scatters
the horror frost like ashes. You go out in the morning and
all that frost on the ground, God did that, God scattered that. Think about that the next time,
you see frost all over your backyard, God visited you, God visited
your backyard. I'm not exaggerating, God did
that. Who can stand before His cold? You know, God has stopped wars,
He stopped military advancements just by His cold. He did. And if we can't stand
before His cold, why would we think we can stand before His
fire? Our gods are consuming fire. He sendeth out His word. We think it's the sun rose up
and melted the snow, don't we? We don't think upon God. The
human race doesn't think upon God melting the snow. They think
the sun rose and it melted the snow. It says here, He sendeth
out His word and He melts them. He tells, He gives a command. HE GIVES A COMMAND FOR THE SUN
TO HAVE A CERTAIN TEMPERATURE AND MELT THE SNOW. HE CAUSES HIS WIND TO BLOW JUST
LIKE HE DID IN CALIFORNIA. THAT'S HIS WIND. LOOK OVER IN
PSALM 148 AND VERSE 8 FIRE AND HAIL, SNOW
AND VAPOR, STORMY WIND FULFILLING HIS WORD. All that's going on there in
California right now. Now listen, it's God fulfilling
His word. He's blowing that wind. It's His wind. He sends His word
out and He melts them. He causes His wind to blow and
the waters flow. He melts the ice and the waters
flow. this is how he melts the heart
by sending forth his word you see the spiritual reference here
is to the heart the holy spirit is represented by the wind in
john 3 and the holy spirit melts the cold dead frozen heart how
many how many times growing up did you sit under
the gospel And that cold, dead heart, and
one day God thawed you out. The Holy Spirit took the Word
and just blew across your heart. And you begin to have an interest
in Jesus Christ. He'll melt that frozen heart
when He blows upon it using the Word. Our Lord said this in John
4.14, But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give
him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall
be in him a well of water springing up, flowing over. It says the
waters flow, the waters flow out of the heart when God saves
a sinner, it just flows, springing up. Then we praise the Lord for
His unique relationship with His people. He showeth His Word,
He revealed His Word to Jacob, His statutes and His judgment
to Israel. This Word is different than the
one He commands to go forth and the wind to blow and the snow
and to melt the snow. This Word is the Word of salvation.
This is the Word of salvation. He speaks to His creation with
commands, this to happen, that to happen, but when He speaks
to the heart of a sinner, He speaks in His word of grace,
in His word of mercy, word of power, conversion, life, commands
life, and He said, No other nation was so privileged as he says
in verse 20, But no other nation was so privileged as the Jews
were, and no people on this earth has ever been so privileged as
you are right now, as you are right now. Oh, God, impress that upon us,
impress that upon us. And we praise the Lord for His
electing grace. Verse 20 and I close, He hath
not dealt so with any nation, and as for His judgments, they
have not known them. They have not known the decrees
of God, the Word of God, the ordinance of God, the purpose
of God. YOU DO! YOU DO! I praise God for choosing me.
I praise God for choosing me, because if He hadn't, I would
never be saved. When I stand in glory, I know beyond a shadow
of a doubt I had nothing to do with it. I had nothing to do
with it. He has not dealt so with any
nation as for His judgments. They have not known them. Praise
you, the Lord! Praise you, the Lord! You have!
You know them! And this is the reason why we
have a reason to praise Him. 1 Peter 2.9 But ye are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood. You are royalty, you know that?
You are royalty. And holy nation, a peculiar people,
a purchased people, bought people. And here is the reason why, that
you should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out
of darkness into His marvelous light." Isn't that a good psalm? A great
psalm honoring our great God. All right.