Turn to Psalm 9. We'll see how far we get. I don't
think we'll get past verse 11. If we do, I'm going to be without
notes because I only made it to verse 11. I titled this message, A Holy Resolve. a holy resolve. If you'll notice
in these first couple verses or so, I will, I will, I will. I listened to a message that
Brother Henry preached on this, I don't know, a couple, three
days ago. And he made this statement concerning
this first verse, I will praise Thee, O Lord, with my whole heart.
And he said, and it just struck a chord with me, that's not always
easy. It's not always easy to praise
God with your whole heart. It's not always easy to praise
God when you're sitting in darkness and when you're going through
such a painful situation. It's not always easy to praise
God. And boy, it just struck a chord with me. I thought, I'm
glad you said that. That was my first thought, I'm
glad you said that. Because when we read this, it just sounds
like I'm just up on top of a mountain and you're all, it's not that
way. But here is a holy resolve that David makes. And as it applies to the greater
David, we know he did, for sure, at all times. Now, he never had
a time when he did not praise God with his whole heart. But
he says here, I will praise Thee, O Lord, that is, O Jehovah, our
Savior, with my whole heart. First of all, it's personal.
I will." David was determined to praise God at all times. There is, in a child of God,
especially as that child matures, a determination to praise God
no matter what comes. He's worthy of praise whether
I have a good day or a bad day. God's worthy of praise for who
He is. And as Henry said, praising God
is not always easy, but we are determined to do it, to praise
Him. Oh Lord, oh Jehovah my Savior,
we praise Him who only is God. Our God is God and there is none
beside Him. You know, if you really stop
at times, just give that some thought. The God we worship is
the only God there is. He is God. And He's our only
Savior. There are not many saviors. There's
only one. No man comes unto the Father
but by Me. Straight is the gate, narrow
is the way. And that straight gate and that
narrow way is Jesus Christ. It's a person. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the only God and He's the
only Savior. He's Jehovah, my Savior. And I will praise the old Lord
with my whole heart, listen, with that new heart. Lord, that
You have given me, I will praise You with. I'll praise You with
a new heart. God must give us a new heart
to praise Him, for the old heart never will praise Him. It never
will praise Him. Never has, never will. But God
has given to us a new heart. He said, I'll give you a new
heart. In Ezekiel, I believe it is. I'll give you a new heart.
And this is the heart that worships God. This is the heart that worships
God in sincerity and in truth. This new heart. And worshiping
God from the heart is true worship. Listen, you and I could be here
and worship never happened, and it won't even be within a mile
of us. But, if my heart is engaged in
this, this is true worship, when God is worshipped with the heart.
When the heart is engaged, God is worshipped in Spirit and in
truth, when the heart is engaged. And then he says here, I will
show forth all thy marvelous works. Now first of all, the
Lord Jesus Christ is the only person who can show forth all
the marvelous works of God because He is God. He's the only one
who can reveal all the marvelous works of God. In creation, in
providence, but especially salvation. He can reveal them, but also
to us. It is a privilege, it's a real
privilege and an honor and a duty to show forth the marvelous work
of God in salvation. That salvation is of the Lord. It's no other way. It's of the
Lord. From its beginning to its end,
it's of the Lord. And we show that forth here week
after week after week. The message doesn't change. Now,
I may come from a different portion of Scripture, but the message
is Christ and Him crucified. The message is salvation is of
the Lord, and we give unto Him the glory due unto His name. Now, one of the ways to praise
God is to tell the truth on Him. That's one of the ways we praise
Him. We brag on Him. We tell the truth on Him. We
speak of His holiness, of His love, of His grace, of His goodness. We speak well of Him. To speak
of His marvelous works is to speak of Him first. Because the
work is worthless if it's not Him. It depends on who's doing
the work, whether it's worth anything or not. The reason that
salvation is so sure is because of the One who did it, God in
human flesh. Redemption is His chief work. It's His work exclusively. Exclusively, it's His work. We
have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, the precious
blood of the Lamb, the Lamb of God. Redemption is His exclusive
work. And then He says in verse 2,
I will be glad and rejoice in thee. I will be glad. There is
a determination. You know, you get up in the morning,
you're determined, and I've said this to my grandkids, I said,
you can pretty much have the kind of day you want to have.
If you want to have a bad day, go ahead. It's the attitude you face it
with. It's how you handle what comes your way. If you're going
to have a bad day or a good day. I will be glad. Now David, how
do you know that? I am determined. I'm going to
be glad. Because whatever happens, it's
of God. It's of the Lord. Whatever happens,
it's of the Lord. And he says, I will be glad and
rejoice in thee. Our gladness comes from being
in the Lord. That's where our gladness comes
from. The believer's gladness is in
the Lord Jesus Christ, his or her Savior. And it becomes a
part, now listen, it becomes a part of their character. It
becomes a part of their character. Gladness becomes a part of their
character. I'll be glad in the Lord. I'll
rejoice in the Lord. Paul said, Rejoice in the Lord.
I believe it was over in Philippians. Quint, Always. But I'm not having
a good day. Well, the Lord hasn't changed.
Salvation hasn't changed. You're still secure in Him. You're
still saved. Your sins are still gone. He's
already determined the end from the beginning. You know, I was
watching a bit of a history thing on Church Hill from 1940 to 45,
I think it was, leading up to World War II. And all this worry
and all this gathering of the minds and all of this that was
going on, and I was sitting there watching that and I thought,
if they only knew, if they only could really get a hold, that
the end has already been determined. Gentlemen, let's pray and let's
go back and let's do what we feel led to do. But the end is
already determined. The outcome is determined. Now
for me, that creates rest. That really truly creates rest
and comfort for me in whatever situation I'm in. It creates
comfort and rest because I know the outcome is already determined. The best thing to do is just
take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. Then he says here, he says, I
will be glad and rejoice in the Lord. I will sing praise to thy
name, O thou Most High. Put a tune to your gladness.
Put a tune to it. You know, it's hard to sing,
really sing now from the heart and not be glad. I mean, I know
there's a lot of A lot of mournful songs, especially if you listen
to country songs. Put a tune to your gladness.
We sing unto Him with gladness because, you know why? We sing
unto Him with understanding. I know the one I'm singing to,
and I know what I'm singing about. Every time we gather together
like this, our singing ought to take the roof off. We're not
going to hell. Think about it. Selah. He has
lifted us out of the pit. You are a firebrand lifted out
of the fire. If anybody on this earth ought
to sing, it ought to be us. It ought to be us. We sing with
understanding, listen here, because He says this, "'O Thou Most High,'
we know the One we're singing to. We worship and serve no earthly
God but God who's on high. We sing unto Your Highness. And when my enemies turn back,
they shall fall and perish at Thy presence." Don't you like
that confidence? If my enemies don't get me, you
know, if they don't get me... No, that's not what he says.
He says when. When my enemies fall and turn back. Faith is really just confidence
in God. It's trusting Him, it's believing
Him, it's just confidence. Our enemies, and this was such
a blessing to me, the thought of this was a blessing. My enemies,
your enemies, you who believe, they're already defeated. God
is just using them. God is just using them to form
me and mold me into the image of Christ. They're already defeated. That's a good thought for me. Who are these enemies? Who are
my enemies? Well, the chief enemy is Satan. Another enemy is sin. Another enemy is death. God has turned them back. Death is no more an enemy to
us, is it? Not to the believer, it's no
more an enemy. God has taken, I remember when I was just a
kid, I watched Rudolph, watched it every year, you know, when
I was just a kid. And the abominable snowman, he
took his teeth out. And he wasn't dangerous no more.
God has defanged our enemies. He's defanged them. They have
no teeth, they got a bark. Satan is called the accuser of
the brethren. He's got to bark, but he has no bite. He has no
bite. And then look here, let me see
where I'm at. In verse 4, look at this. "'For thou hast maintained my
right and my cause, thou saddest in the throne, judging right,
But thou hast maintained my what? Righteousness. Where did you get righteousness
from? God. God has maintained my righteousness
because it's of Him. He's maintained it. I can't destroy
it. This is a righteousness I cannot
destroy. And he's maintained my cause
because Christ took it up. He's the Keeper of my righteousness,
for it comes from Him, and the Judge of the earth." Listen,
he says, "...thou set us in the throne doing right, the Judge
of the earth." Abraham said, we'll do right. He's the justifier. When all is said and done, final
judgment ends with God. Not the courthouse here in the
county. It ends with God. That's where
the final judgment is set. Thou hast rebuked the heathen. Thou hast destroyed the wicked.
God has put out their name forever and ever. Now I know this is
victory assured, what this is, because I still have enemies,
don't you have enemies? We have enemies, Satan's an enemy,
he's still around, but listen, he speaks here, he says, they're
already defeated, they're done. They're done. Victory's already
assured. He says, you have destroyed the
wicked. This is speaking as our Lord saying this, this matter
is already done. I have destroyed the wicked. I have taken away their power.
Sin shall not have dominion over you. You are not under the law,
you are under grace. But it says here, the heathen,
he said, Thou hast rebuked the heathen. The heathen is rebuked.
But they don't hear the Word. Every time the Gospel is preached,
the heathen, the unbeliever, is rebuked. Every time it's preached,
they're rebuked. But the Scripture said, God speaks
once, yea, twice, but man perceives it not. He perceives it not. Just like
I wrote it in the book, I think it was this week, I put it in
the bulletin. You know, when you hear thunder, do you think
of the thunder of His voice, or do you just think it's going
to be a storm? Believers hear the voice of God. They know God, that storm and
that thunder is His. That's His. All the heathen hear is, there's
a storm coming and we need to get in the house. God speaks once, yea, twice,
but man perceives it not. O thou enemy, destructions come
to a perpetual end. God's going to put an end to
all the wretchedness and the destruction of this world. He's going to put an end to it.
"...and thou hast destroyed cities..." God's brought them down, that's
what He's saying. God has brought down cities. God has brought
down Sodom and Gomorrah. How many cities? Look over history.
Some of these cities are buried deep under the earth, deep under
the sand over there, deep places are buried. God's laid them waste. Their memorial is perished with
them. They built a memorial. Somebody
had enough money, gave enough money, got his name out there,
got him a little memorial, and God has destroyed it. He said,
I destroyed your memorial to yourself. When God does here, He turns
the enemy's destruction upon their own head. You know, they
thought when they put the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, they
nailed Him there to the cross and they crucified Him, they
thought they had put an end to Him. But you know, all they did
was promote His success. That's all they did. But the Lord shall endure. He
puts an end to their cities. He brings their memorials into
the dust. But here's the good news. Here's the comfort of God's
people. But the Lord, Jehovah our Savior,
shall endure, or the translation is this, He's seated upon His
throne. The Lord has never abdicated
His throne. He's still on it. And He's still
ruling. When you and I are gone, He'll
still be running this. Our Lord will still be running
all this. when we're gone. But the Lord shall endure forever. His throne is prepared for judgment. He's not unprepared. Nobody has ever died and come
before God, and He has to open the book and say, who are you?
Let's see if I can find your name here. No, it's prepared
for you. Waiting on you. Waiting on you. For the unbeliever. First of all, the eternality
of our Lord is a real call for praise and gladness. He endures
forever. If you ever seem to be at a loss
to praise God, which you'd be... I don't know if that could happen,
but as sinful as we are, it can happen. We can praise Him for
His eternality, for His unchangeableness, His immutability. I am the Lord,
I change not. I am so glad there's an anchor
I'm so glad there's one in all this change who does not change. You can go to Him, and you can
go to the throne of grace, and you don't have to be afraid if
he had a bad day. You know, your dad comes in from
work, he's tired, and you've got something you want to talk
to him about, but you're like, Mom, what mood is Dad in? Our Lord is always, always, always
ready to hear His children. He's always ready to bend an
ear to their cry. He's never in a bad mood toward
His children. Never. Never. Kings and kingdoms come and go,
but our God remains the same forever and ever. Not subject
to any change. Not subject to any change. You
know, it says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever. There's no change in His appearance. There's a change in my appearance,
other than a red face. But there's a change in my appearance.
I'm getting older. Paul said in Corinthians, though
our outward man perish, I'm looking at a bunch of perishing bodies
right now. Your body, my body, is perishing. Gravity is taking it to the grave. But the Lord knows no change,
no change of attitude, no change of body. He knows no change. He's the
Eternal One. And right judgment, He says He
has prepared His throne for judgment. Right judgment is always to be
found at His throne. Lay your case, now listen, lay
your case before Him and trust Him. A believer can
do that. A pretender cannot do that. But
a believer can. And God's going to bring the
judgment. I don't think He's going to do something wrong just
because you're His child either. No, we just lay it before Him
and whatever, however He judges it, it is. It is what it is.
And it's right. He'll not take the side of wrong.
And He shall judge the world in righteousness. Now the world
is going to be judged in strict, strict righteousness. They're going to find out who
God is. Outside of Christ, He's a consuming fire. unbending,
unyielding in any point. I mean any point. There's not
going to be a jury there that's going to vote on whether this
person is guilty or not guilty. God says guilty or He says not
guilty. He shall judge the world in righteousness. He shall minister. He shall execute
judgment to the people in uprightness. God can never be charged with
wrong. He can never be charged with
favoritism. He can never be charged with favoritism. He always judges
right. The Lord is righteous and His
judgments are right. I think next week Lord will finish
the rest of this chapter, but look at verse 16. The Lord is
known by the judgments which He executes. He's known by His
judgments. Holy. Right. Just. And there's a set time for judgment.
Listen to Revelation 20. And I'm going to read this. I
copied this down. And I saw a great white throne,
and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the
heaven fled away. And there was found no place
for them. What did Christ say in John 14?
I go and prepare a place for you. And the ungodly, the unbelievers,
those who believe not, he said there was no place found for
them. And I saw the dead. small and
great, stand before God. And the books were opened. And
another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the
dead were judged out of those things which were written in
the books according to their works, the things that they thought
were forgotten a long time ago, The things that they said, well,
I won't do that no more. Well, it doesn't matter. You
already did it. It's on the books. It's on the
books. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it. And death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man
according to their works. You know, God's not going to
give someone more punishment than they deserve. Really, there
are degrees of torment. He's gonna give to everyone what
they deserve. Now, the wages of sin is death,
I know that. And I can't even imagine how
bad even the least might be, if I can use it that way. But they were judged every man
according to their works, and death and hell were cast into
the lake of fire. This is the second death. And
this is the death that you and I will not taste. We will not
taste of this death. And whosoever was not found written
in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Now the
world can laugh at judgment, they can laugh at this, but they
won't be laughing when that day comes. They'll be crying for
the rocks and the mountains to fall on them and hide them from,
it says, the wrath of the Lamb. But then he says here in verse
9, also will be a refuge, a high
place for the oppressed." These are His people, the oppressed
of His people, a refuge in times of trouble. In judgment, in this
judgment I just read to you, Jesus Christ is our refuge. He's our refuge. I heard Henry
tell a story once, I may have told this, but I'll tell it again. And he said, there was a wagon
train going out west. This really stuck with me when
he told me the story. It was in a message he was preaching.
He said, there was a wagon train going out west, and there was
a prairie fire. And a little girl was sitting
there with her dad, and she was scared to death. And the wagon
masters had them to circle the wagons, burn a big spot out. Had them to burn a big spot out.
And then the wagon master had everybody get on that burnt ground.
And that little girl was scared. She was crying. And her daddy
said to her, said, honey, don't worry. Where the fire has burned
once, it will not burn again. The fire fell on Jesus Christ. The fire of God's wrath fell
on him. It's not going to fall on me. It's not going to fall
on you. We don't have to worry about it. The Lord is a refuge. He is burnt ground. Jesus Christ
is burnt ground. And in times of trouble, whatever
the trouble may be, Jesus Christ is our refuge. He's our high
place. He's the place we run to. In confusion, it doesn't
matter. Job said in Job 10, I am full
of confusion. What is going on? But then he
goes on to say, I know that my Redeemer liveth. I don't know
how this is going to come out, but I know he's alive. And I
know that after the skin worms have chewed up this body with
my own eyes, I'm going to see him. That's what kept him going
through that terrible time of trouble. The Lord Jesus Christ
kept His Redeemer before Him through all that trouble. The Lord also will be a refuge
for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And they that
know Thy name will put their trust in Thee. Those that know
His name. Jehovah Jesus. they will put their trust in
Thee. For Thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee."
It's like he's saying here after verse 9, he's saying, and to
add to that, everyone that knows Thy name will trust Thee. Everyone
who knows the name of God. That's not just name dropping.
That's not just knowing a name. I mean, I can know a name and
not know the person. but to know His name here is to know Him. The Lord will provide. The Lord
is our righteousness. The Lord is our righteousness. His name is where we take refuge. Who He is. And when you know a person, When
you know them, you know if you can trust them or not, don't
you? You can't trust that person. I know him. Or there's someone
you know, you say, you can trust, you can take him at his word.
You can take God at his word. And those who know him, as he's
been revealed to them, he's revealed himself to them. They trust him. They trust him. When you know him, you'll find
in him all you need. Faith and knowledge go together
like faith and repentance. You can't believe on someone
you don't know. There's got to be God-given knowledge. Someone
said this, knowledge, faith, and experience are thus connected. Paul in Philippians 3, he calls
this knowledge excellent knowledge. He gave up everything for the
excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Then he says, "...but for thou,
Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee." God reveals
Himself as the faithful God to those who earnestly seek Him.
He says here in Jeremiah 29.13, "...and ye shall seek me, and
find me, when ye search for me with all your heart. For thou, Lord, hast not forsaken
them that seek thee." You're seeking the Lord. Your
heart is going after Him. Your heart's going out after
Him. You're seeking Him in prayer.
You're seeking Him right now, being here in this service. Speak,
Lord. Be our teacher. And then he ends here in verse
11. We don't end, I'm going to end. "...Sing praises to the
Lord which dwelleth in..." Where? You, Zion, the church, God dwells
in you. Now, does it look like it? No,
most of the time we don't act like it at all. But God dwells
in you, Zion. Sing praises. See, now David
calls upon the people of God to join him in praising God.
He starts out, I will sing, I will praise, I will be glad, and now
it's like he turns to the people, the congregation, and he says,
now let's sing. Let's sing. We're going to have
to sing after this one. We're going to have to lift it
up. The greater David, the Lord Jesus
Christ, calls upon us to sing praises to Jehovah our Savior. What he shows us here is that
God dwells in the church. He gathers with His people where
they gather. And that's where there is a special
manifestation of His presence, His Word, His truth, His gospel. And He says here, I'll declare
among the people His doings. That's what I'm doing right now.
That's what I'm doing. Sunday at 9 o'clock, that's what
we do on the radio. We are declaring among the people
what the Lord has done in salvation. It is a great privilege to tell
others about the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell me the old, old story one
more time. This is how God saves sinners.
God does not save sinners through getting them to do this or do
that, but to just shut up and listen while we tell the story. All right.