Psalm 89. The title of the message. God is to be praised for giving
us His Son. That's the thought that was on
my mind as I looked at this chapter again. I have laid help upon one That is mighty. I have exalted one, I have lifted
one up, given him a name that is above every name. Chosen out
of the people, one of us. One of us. That's what he's saying,
one of us. Now the psalmist here continues
to praise God. As he started in verse 1, I will
sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. With my mouth will I
make known thy faithfulness to all generations. And he continues
this praise of God. He praises God for His greatness
in heaven. From time to time, I try to imagine
that place, what it must be like to be gathered in God's presence,
to look in the face of Jesus Christ, and to experience, to
just experience that whole thing, being in God's presence there.
I know we're in His presence now, I know that, but our experience
is also, we're here, you know, we're living in this world, but
When we leave this body and we go to be with the Lord, what
that's going to be like, I try to imagine that sometimes. Because
in a little while, it's going to give way to reality. We will know it by experience.
And he praises God here in his greatness in heaven, his greatness
in nature. And the way He rules this world,
aren't you glad of that? God rules this world. It's His. It's His. And He's ruling this
world for our good. When you look at what's going
on in the world, all that's going on, do you know He is ruling
this world for our good? It's for the good of the church.
And we have to rest in that. We don't question God's wisdom
and God's purpose. We know who God is. We know that
God is good. God is holy. He can do no wrong. So whatever's going on in the
fulfilling of His purpose is right. Isn't it? It's right. God can only do right. He can't
do wrong. And we are thankful, and we want
to enter into this praise of God who rules over all. And then He also praises God
down through here for what He has done and for the promises
that He has given to David, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we'll look at those, Lord willing, the next time, next week, these
different promises that He has given. down through these verses
to the Lord Jesus Christ. But now in verses 5 through 7,
the greatness of God is praised in the heavens, it says. And
the heavens, in verse 5, and the heavens shall praise thy
wonders. Thy wonders. O Lord, thy faithfulness
also in the congregation of the saints. The angels praise His
wonders in creation. His wonders in providence. They
see this. They see from above. They see
these things going on. They see this service tonight.
The angels see this service tonight. The angels are with us. Ain't
no doubt about that. I don't have no doubt about that.
They're with us. They protect us. They surround
this place. This place is surrounded. If
God would open our eyes, it would astound us, like He did that
young man. Remember when Elijah said, Lord,
open his eyes? And that whole hillside was full
of chariots of fire, angels. Well, they're still with us today.
And they stand in wonder. And when God created the heavens
and the earth, can you imagine what they saw? Providence, salvation,
they stand in wonder of salvation. And the redeemed in heaven? You
know, I feel like we attempt to praise Him. That's what I
feel like. You know, we do praise Him and we want to praise Him,
but it just feels like an attempt to me. But now in heaven, the
redeemed, they praise Him fully. And they praise Him for the wonder
of His grace. They praise Him for such a great
salvation. They are already experiencing
now the fullness of salvation. The presence of sin is gone. And they are experiencing this.
And they praise Him for His faithfulness. They know, they know the saints
in glory, they know they are there because God is faithful. Faithful to His Word, faithful
to His Son, faithful to His promises, faithful to His people. God's
faithful. And they praise Him for His faithfulness. Heaven
and earth are one in praising the greatness of God. Now when
I say earth, I'm talking about those whom the Lord has redeemed
and those who know Him. But I want you to turn over to
Psalm 148. Psalm 148. Listen to this psalm. This fits what the psalmist is
saying here. And the heaven shall praise thy
wonders, O Lord. Listen to this in Psalm 148. Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye
the Lord from the heavens. Praise Him in the heights. Praise
ye Him, all His angels. Praise ye Him, all His hosts.
Praise ye Him, sun and moon. Praise Him, all ye stars of light. Praise Him, ye heavens of heavens,
and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the
name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created. I thought, how does the sun and
moon praise the Lord? You know how they do it? By doing what He made them to
do. That sun to come up and go across the sky every day. And
it is shouting the praise of God as it goes across the sky.
It's doing what He created it to do. He says, "...He hath also
established them for ever and ever. He hath made a decree which
shall not pass. Praise the Lord from the earth,
you dragons, and all deep fire and hell, snow and vapors, stormy
wind fulfilling His Word, mountains and all hills, fruit trees and
all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl,
kings of the earth, And to all people, princes, and all judges
of the earth, both young men and maidens, old men and children,
let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is excellent,
His glory is above the earth and heaven. He also exalteth
the horn of His people, the praise of all His saints, even of the
children of Israel. People near unto Him praise ye
the Lord. As the prophet said, as the psalmist
said here, "...and the heavens shall praise thy wonders." They're
constantly doing so. Here's another reason to praise
Him. For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? Who
can be even remotely compared to Jehovah? The One who exists
by Himself. Who among the sons of the mighty,
who among the angels can Gabriel be compared to God? Michael. Who among the sons of the mighty
can be likened unto the Lord? Look over in Isaiah 40. In Isaiah 40, And look in verse 18. The Lord says, To whom then will
you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare
unto Him? Who's like God in any way, shape,
or form? I mean, really, truly like Him.
Turn over to Isaiah 46. In verse 5, "...to whom will
you liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be
like?" That question goes out more than once, doesn't it? Who
can be compared to me? Who can be compared to God? There's
none like Him in all of creation. God stands alone in His attributes. God stands alone in His person. God is pure, as the old writers
have said, pure, uncompounded Spirit. There's none to be compared to
Him in His holiness. No one made Him holy. There's
no one compared to Him in knowledge. No one gave Him knowledge. God
has never been instructed. He's never had to learn anything.
That's... I mean, it's up here, isn't it? He's never had to learn
anything. None compared to Him in wisdom.
You know, everything about God, remember this, everything about
God Almighty is infinite. Unmeasurable. It can't be measured. There's none like Him in power.
There is not one created being that can speak. Just speak. And it happens. You and I can't speak anything
into existence. We cannot speak and it's going
to happen without a doubt. It's going to happen. No, that's
not how it works. But God in creation, let there
be light and what's it say? There was light. Let the earth
bring forth. And you know it's been bringing
forth ever since he said that. He's established the earth. Global warming doesn't worry
me. It doesn't worry me. The only thing I know about global
warming is when God burns it up one day. That's global warming,
when he burns it up. But until then, it'll continue
when generation comes and generations go. There's none like Him to be compared
to Him in His grace. You know, when the Lord saves
sinners, sinners like us, you know, we are gracious, but we
can be ungracious too, can't we? But there's nothing like
God's grace. If God has had real grace on
you, He'll always have it on you. It will always be on you. In pity, listen to Micah 7.18,
Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity, and passes
by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retains not
his anger forever, because he delights in mercy. He delights, he doesn't retain
his anger forever, he lets it go. Because he delights in mercy. And God, he says there in verse
7, is to be greatly feared in the assembly of the saints. This
is where God most manifests Himself. Now, most all the ones I was
reading said that this is speaking here of the angels, but it speaks
of us too. Apart from God's church, there's
no fear of God on this earth. There's no fear of God. The Scripture
says there's no fear of God before their eyes. The only ones on
this earth that fear God properly and truly are His saints. It's you and me who've been born
of God. We have a right fear of God.
No one else fears God. They don't have a fear of God.
But He is feared in the assembly of His saints because this is
where He's most manifest. We know who God is. Now we know
who He is. We know what he can do. We know
what he could have done with us if he willed to do so, if
he purposed to do so, and leave us alone. He could leave us alone.
He left most of our ancestors alone. The Gentile world sat
in darkness for the most part. For thousands of years, the Gentile
world, which is us, perished. They sat in darkness. They were
left in darkness. And yet God has had mercy on
us. He sent the gospel to us. Never take that for granted.
He can remove it just as easy as He brought it here. He's to be feared. He deserves
the respect and awe that He deserves. Now, this fear is not a gripping
terror. You know, the Scripture says
that that kind of terror has torment, but perfect love casts
out fear. You know, terror has torment.
It's not a fear of torment. You know this. It's a fear of
respect. It's an awe of God. I wish I
could stand... When I talk about standing in
awe of God, I say to myself, John, have you really ever stood
in awe of God Almighty? Have you really ever stood in
such awe and wonder of God Almighty? He deserves that. He deserves
the respect as God. He deserves the respect as Savior. He deserves the respect as our
Father. Our Father. And He's to be had, it says,
in reverence of all them that are about Him. Someone said,
the nearer they are, or we are, the more He is adored. I have no doubt about this. The
closer one walks with God, the more awe and respect and adoration
that sinner has of God. Turn over to Isaiah chapter 6. Here's what I'm talking about. And you can tell it in speech,
you can tell it in someone's speech, the way they talk of
God, you can tell their fear and their admiration of Him,
the reverence they have of Him, You can tell it in our speech,
in our talk, when we speak of Him. Listen here, in the year
King Uzziah and Isaiah 6, in the year that King Uzziah died,
I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up,
and His train filled the court. Above it stood the seraphims,
each one had six wings, with twine, that is, two He covered
His face, And with twine He covered His feet, and with twine He did
fly. And one cried unto another, and
here, listen to what they said. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. The whole earth is full of His
glory. But when they flew about the throne, they covered their
face, they covered their feet, and they would cry, holy, holy,
holy. That's reverence. That's reverence. Oh, that God would allow us to
catch such a spirit about us, to have such reverence. When
we come here, when we come here, we come here with reverence for
the worship service. We come here with expecting God
to be here, expecting God to be here, and
having reverence for Him. This worship service is for Him,
isn't it? It's for Him. And then God is
to be praised for His ruling power over all. And I tell you,
the older I get, and the more I look at the way things are
going, I am so thankful, I'm serious, I'm so thankful, as
I know you are, that God is on the throne, and God is ruling
over the world and over the leaders of the world. O Lord God of hosts,
and we should pray like this. We should learn how to pray like
this. O Lord God of hosts, the army,
God of an army, who is a strong Lord like unto Thee, who has
strength Power, like you had. Or thy faithfulness round about.
His throne is surrounded with His faithfulness, the foundation. Everywhere He turns, you see
the faithfulness of God. I tell you what, everywhere you
turn, you see this saint, this saint, this one, and this one. You know why they're there? God's
faithful. There's nowhere that he can turn,
that his faithfulness is not on display. Thou rulest the raging of the
sea, when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them. You look
at a globe, I was saying this today, I used to have one, but
at work. You could turn it, and just how
much ocean there is. How much ocean covers this world?
And I love it that the prophets of old, they always recognized
God's power over creation. They always recognized God as
creator because whoever created all this is God. I promise you,
whoever did all this is God. And I remember Henry telling
one time the story when he was in the Navy and they was in a
typhoon. And he said, that ship, man,
it was like it's on a mountain. The next thing you know, they're
way down there and they're looking straight up at the top of that wave. They're
looking straight up. You're not looking out at the
little wave coming out here. You're looking straight up and the ship's
down here. And he's saying here that God,
God, he rules the raging of the sea. And here's what's interesting.
We flip over to the Gospel. And we see a storm raging and
waves coming into the boat. And the Lord stands up and says,
Peace, be still. He allows us, going from this
period of time until Christ comes in the Gospels and He's standing
in a boat. And now we see the One. We see the One. What manner of man is this? What
manner of man is this that can still the wind and the waves?
What manner of man is this that can say, Peace! Be still! And it just lays down like a
lamb. And just is dead calm. Now who
can do that? Our God. And He can say that
to my troubles. You know that? No matter how
severe my troubles might be, if He just says peace, be still,
He can just make them dissolve into nothing. Thou rulest, that means He has
power over them. Thou rulest the raging of the
sea, when the waves thereof arise, Thou stillest them. Thou hast
broken Egypt in pieces, You know, at that time, at that time in
history, Egypt was the greatest nation on earth. And God broke
them like a bunch of sticks. Parted the Red Sea and let them,
in their blindness, think they could walk the same way the Israelites
walked. God made a way for Israel, but
that way he made for Israel was not for Egyptians. What was a way of life to the
Israelites became a way of death to the Egyptians. Isn't that
the gospel? Saviour of life unto life to
some and saviour of death unto death to some. Thou hast broken Egypt in pieces
as one that slain, thou hast scattered thine enemies with
thy strong arm, the Lord Jesus Christ, the strong arm of the
Lord is Christ, to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed, in
Isaiah 53, as I'd mentioned. That's the Lord Jesus Christ,
He scatters His enemies by Christ. The heavens are thine, here's
comfort, here's comfort. The heavens are thine, the earth
also is thine. As for the world and the fullness
thereof, thou hast founded them. They're yours. They're yours. Everybody's going to end up in
a grave, but not God. One generation is going to come,
another is going to go. It's just come and go, come and
go. But the earth is His. It is. The north and the south.
Thou hast created them. That is, you've created from
pole to pole, from east to west. Thou hast a mighty arm, strong
is thy hand. He's a strong hand. You hear
somebody that says, that's a strong hand. You know, that means they've
got a hold. You know what that means? It means they've got a hold of
the situation. They've got a hold of it. and high as thy right hand."
And then here's another reason for praise. Justice and judgment. Man, do we live in such crooked
times. But God's not crooked. The throne
of God in the heavens is not crooked. It's good to know that the one
who rules heaven and earth is just and his judgments are right. The right justice and judgment
are the habitation, it's the foundation of Thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before
Thy face. He's ever merciful. Aren't you glad? He's a just
God. He's just and His judgments are
just, but mercy and truth are ever before Him. That's why you
and I are here tonight. God's merciful. That's why He's
singing of the Lord's mercies. David spoke of his tender mercies.
Someone said this, God's ways are always right. They are always
right to the standard. Righteousness is the basis of
his throne. The distinguishing feature of
his rule is righteousness and judgment, equity. God will deal with everyone,
every leader, every person on this earth. God will do right.
You know what Abraham said? Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? God said, He that rules among
men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And mercy and truth are always
before Him. He's not a tyrant. God's not
a tyrant. He delights in mercy. But listen,
it's mercy and truth. You can't have one without the
other. And here's another reason for
praise. Here's a good, strong reason
here. Blessed is the people that know
the joyful sound. The joyful sound of what? Mercy
and truth. that He just spoke of. We know
what mercy is, don't we? We know how God can be just and
justify us. We know how God can be just and
have mercy on us and bring us to glory. That's what He's doing.
He's bringing us to glory. We are a blessed people. Blessed
is the people that know the joyful sound of the Gospel. You know,
it's hard to imagine how many people hate the Gospel. They hate the gospel. They hate
the Jesus Christ that the gospel represents. The sovereign Christ. They hate Him. They hate Him. They hate the
very God of heaven and earth. They hate the God whose gospel
it is. It's His gospel. It's the gospel
of His glory, and that's why they hate it. They don't hate
this gospel that's been made up by men and Satan. But the gospel of God they hate.
But blessed are you. You don't hate it, do you? I'm
glad God's sovereign. I'm glad God chose the people.
I'm glad that God chose to save sinners. I'm glad for it. It
makes this one happy. Blessed is the people that know
the joyful sound of mercy and truth. They shall walk, O Lord,
in the light of Thy counsel. We have His favor. We have God's
favor. In sickness and in health, we
have God's favor. In poverty and wealth, we have
God's favor in Jesus Christ. We have it. In thy name shall
they rejoice all the day. Whose name do you rejoice in? We used to rejoice in ourselves,
didn't we? We thought we were somebody. We thought we were
pretty sharp. There's nothing sharp about us. No, we rejoice. We rejoice all
the day. All when we get up, until the
time we go to bed, we rejoice all day in His name. And in thy righteousness shall
they be exalted all the way to heaven. They shall be brought
to heaven in His righteousness. They shall stand before Him in
His righteousness. For thou art the glory of their
strength. Christ said, without me you can
do nothing. Paul said, in Christ I can do
all things, through Christ who strengthens me. Who's the glory
of your strength? Well, what strength I have is
Jesus Christ. He's the glory of my strength.
He's the glory of your strength. He's the reason you believe.
Take Him out of the picture and you and I fall. We will fall for everything and
anything if He left us alone. The Lord, He says in verse 18,
for the Lord is our defense. He's our defense. Couldn't have
a better one. The Holy One of Israel is our
King. And we need to live with that reality. We are under a
theocracy. We are under a theocracy, the
church. Well, the whole world is. The
whole world's under King Jesus. He rules over all. But it's our
king that rules over all. Our king rules over all, not
a king, but our king rules over all. And the Holy One of Israel
is our king. Now, our greatest reason for
praising God is this. He gave us His Son, Jesus Christ. Here's our greatest reason for
praise. He laid help upon one that's mighty. Then thou spakest
in vision to thy Holy One, and said, As I have laid help upon
one that's mighty, I have exalted one chosen out of the people.
First of all, He's telling us here that salvation is of the
Lord. I have done it. I have done it. And then he says,
I have exalted one chosen out of the people. What we have in
this verse is the sinner's Christ. The sinner's Christ. Now we know this, we know that
in speaking of David, he said, I've chosen one out of the people.
We know that he chose David to be king. He chose him when he
was just a shepherd boy out there. I tell you what, he chose him
to be the king before he created the world. David didn't know
that, but here he is out there keeping sheep, and God said,
that's my king. But that's the one who represented
the king of glory. The true David. The greater David. He's the one. Now let's take
a look at him here. I have exalted one and chosen
one out of the people." He's speaking here of the Lord Jesus
Christ. By His very birth, He was one of us. Born of a woman,
made under the law. He came into this world a real
man. A real man. Bone of our bone
and flesh of our flesh. Bone of our bone and flesh of
our flesh is seated in glory right now. It says in Hebrews
2.11 that He is not ashamed to call them brethren. He's one
of us. He's our elder brother. Jesus
Christ is our elder brother. My brother. My brother, my king,
my high priest, my sacrifice, my atonement, My all in all is
seated at God's right hand. My righteousness, sanctification,
redemption, all of it. In his education, he was just
one of the people. He was educated in a carpenter
shop. That's why those Pharisees were
offended. They said, how knoweth this man letters, having never
learned? He didn't go to our school. Seminary. And in his public life, he was
poor. He was just one of the people.
I always think it's interesting that when they came out to get
him and Judas said, the one that I kiss, that'll be the one. He was so identified with his
disciples and so dressed like his disciples that Judas had
to point him out. That's how much one he is with
us. There was no halo over his head.
There was no glow on his face like Moses. There was no glow
on his face that says, you know, when you see the one that has
the glow on his face, that's him. No, he looked just like
all the other disciples sitting there. He's just one of us. One of us. Chosen out of the people. Poor
like the rest of His people. Scripture says He became poor
that we through His poverty might be made rich. And then we have
His election here spoken of. I have exalted one chosen. That
word chosen there has to do with election. God Almighty sovereignly
chose Jesus Christ to be the Savior. God chose Him to be the
Savior. A man. God, yes. Man, yes. A man. God chosen to be the Savior.
It's a wise choice, don't you think? It's a wise choice. I'm glad He made it. God sovereignly
chose Jesus Christ. So if anybody wants to talk,
slam election, they're going to have to slam Jesus Christ
because He's the first elect. And we were chosen in Him. And then we see the wisdom of
God's choice here. First, is by this choice of Jesus
Christ, the man, speaking here of His manhood, justice is fully
satisfied. It couldn't be satisfied any
other way. But it can be by this man whom
God chose. This man. And by this choice
we see fallen sons and daughters of Adam honored. God said, let
us make man in our image and after our likeness. That happens
in Jesus Christ. That is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. You and I are being conformed
to the image of Jesus Christ who is God manifest in the flesh. And then here's the wisdom of
God's choice we see in Christ. We have a kinsman redeemer. He
has the right to redeem us. That's what that's saying. He
has the right to redeem us. He's our kinsman redeemer. He's
our brother. He's our brother. Our brother
died for us. My brother died for me. You know
that? My brother died for me. My brother redeemed me. My brother
shed his blood for me. My brother took my penalty. My
brother did that. My kinsman. And then we see the wisdom of
God's choice here also that we see in Christ a high priest that
can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities because he's
a man. He hungered like I hungered.
He thirsted like I thirst. He was tempted in all points
as we are yet without sin. He can be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. He wept at the grave. of Lazarus
with Martha and Mary. He wept over Jerusalem. Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered you together as a hen
does gather her brood. But you would not. He can be
touched. He groaned in spirit. He was
grieved. And then we see, last of all,
his exaltation. God chose him. He chose him out
of the people, and now he's exalted. First of all, we see his exaltation
in this. Deity and humanity joined together,
united in one person. The God-man. The God-man. One undivided person. A real human body, a real human,
a real man, and yet God, very God, as the old writers would
say. The scripture says that the fullness
of the Godhead dwells in Jesus Christ. And then he was exalted
by his resurrection. The grave couldn't hold him.
They gave the order, Herod, or a pilot, one of them gave
the order to seal that tomb. You know, the Pharisees came
to them and wanted him to do it. Wanted him to seal the tomb
because they said, he said, you know, three days he'll rise again. So let's put a big stone on front
of that cave or that grave there and let's seal it. They sealed
it. And they even put guards there to make sure nobody came
and stole it and didn't say, well, he rose. That early morning, that early
morning, he came walking out of that grave. Jesus Christ is
alive and well. He is alive and well. The grave couldn't
hold him and the grave cannot hold you. The grave can't hold
you. It'll be a comfortable place.
for this body to rest until He comes and gets me. And He unites His people with
their new bodies. I don't know what that's like
right now. To be absent from the body, be
present with the Lord. I know that. But now there's
a body coming out of the grave. A glorified body coming out of
the grave. And it's going to be united To
the soul. The soul and spirit. That grave couldn't hold Him.
Then He was exalted in His ascension. The disciples are standing there
talking to Him. And next thing you know, He's
going up right in front of them. They're watching Him. And He
goes into the clouds out of their sight. Out of their sight. And He goes
back to glory. And He's seated at God's right
hand right now. ruling over all things, bringing
all things under His authority. He's doing that right now. And
like that angel said to those men, he said, Why do you stand
here gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus whom you saw
go away, He's coming again in like manner. He's coming again. And you know what's going to
happen? Here's what's going to happen. He's going to destroy
this earth and make a new one. And He's going to sit upon the
throne of His Father David and judge the nations. Turn over to Matthew 25. Here's what's coming. Here's
what's coming. Matthew 25. Verse 31, when the Son of Man,
and He uses that term, Son of Man, on purpose, because a man
is coming back. They crucified a man, God-man,
but the man. And when the Son of Man shall
come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall
He sit upon the throne of His glory, and before Him shall be
gathered all nations. He shall separate them one from
another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And
he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on
the left. Then shall the king send them on his right hand.
Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. That is what's going to be seen.
He's going to take the throne of his father David. And upon that throne, He's going
to judge the nations. Ain't nobody getting away with
anything. Nobody getting away with anything. He's going to
judge the nation. And they're going to see. All nations. Now listen. I'm
going to close. All nations are going to see
one day in the near future that man Jesus Christ Sitting up on
the throne. And all the nations and all people
are going to be gathered in front of Him. And He's going to be
the judge. Aren't you glad He saved you?
Aren't you glad that He has saved you by His grace? Alright. There's reasons for
praise right there, isn't there?