Psalm 65 Psalm 65 I Want to get
to the last few verses Verse 11 mainly and but I want to touch
on a few things up to that point to People can go back and listen
to messages and things and that's good too. It's good to, you can't
catch it all in one go because you consider some things and
it's good to go back and if you want the notes too, I can send
you in their unedited form, read along with it. That's good. You'll
get more out of it. But I want to touch on a few
of these things going through here, but to do this, this song,
you have to experience the first hour. We have to, the Lord has
to apply that blood to us. He has to circumcise our hearts,
or this ain't for us. It's for the Lord's people. This ain't promises to every
child born of Adam. This is to those that the Lord's
worked in. And then those that the Lord hadn't worked in yet,
pay close attention. You might see the benefits of
this redeemer that come to save his people and the gloriousness
of it. It has some adoration for him
and what he does for his sheep. It says in verse one, Psalm 65,
praise waiteth for thee, O God in Zion. Praise waiteth for thee. I looked that up. That means silent stillness. Praise is silent stillness. It's good to be quieted before
God. It's good to have our words few
and to just be still and just observe, just listen, just look
at Him. Praise waiteth for thee is silent
stillness, O God and Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed. O thou that hearest prayer, until
thee shall all flesh come. Iniquities prevail against me.
Iniquities prevail against me. And I thought of David writing
this. There's so much pain and grief he had. And for the believer,
not for everybody, people like getting fluffed up. They like
having people talk to them and say they're sorry if you're going
through something rough. Our old flesh likes that. It's
pride. It lifts us up. Nobody's cried
for me. That's what Saul said, wasn't
it? Look at all these bad things that happened to me and nobody's
felt sorry for me. For the Lord's people, if our pure minds stirred
up, people say nice things, and they try to do good deeds for
us, and they try to say encouraging words in times of trial, and
they don't know what they're saying. They mean it as well
as they could be, but it weighs on you, don't it? It weighs on
you. As for our transgressions, not transgressions, thou shalt
purge them away. They're going to be put away.
Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and cause us to approach
unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts. That blessed man,
that's singular, that's Christ, he's the blessed man. And in
him we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, of
the Holy Temple. We're going to be happy in Him.
We know those things. How are we going to be in Christ? How are we going to be happy
in His Holy Temple? How are we going to be satisfied with His
goodness? And we'll see that He does all
things good here shortly. How is it? What's the payment
there? Verse 5, by terrible things. In righteousness wilt thou answer
us. Those are not just bad things,
that's fearful things. Fearful things, by things that
we can't even utter. In righteousness he'll answer
his people. By bloodying that son, by bruising
him, by wounding him, that's a terrible thing. That's a fearful,
reverent thing. And that's because Christ was
made us, and we were made the righteousness of God in Him.
That's how, that's how we're gonna be happy in His temple.
We'll be happy. I was glad when they said, let's
go to the house of the Lord. I was happy, happy. O God of our salvation, who art
the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that
are far off upon the seas, your people everywhere, which by His
strength Setteth fast the mountains, being girded with power, which
stilleth the noise of the sea. That's what the Lord said, wasn't
it? And the noise of their waves. He went out to those waves and
said, we're going to drown. You're asleep, don't you care? And he
said, be still. And even the waves obey this
man. And the tumult of the people. And it always speaks to his people.
Just like he can control those waves, he can look to his child
and say, be still. What was stillness? Waiting for the Lord, praising
Him. Fear not. Who's a God like unto
Him? Verse eight, they also that dwell
in the uttermost parts are afraid of thy tokens. Thou makest the outgoings of
the morning and the evening to rejoice. We see those tokens. Our brethren, wherever they are
in this world, if they're in the jungles of Mexico and Australia
or in Ireland or here or wherever they are, they see those tokens,
this token of circumcision, these tokens of the Passover, these
pictures that the Lord gives, and they honor him, don't they?
They honor him. morning and evening. It makes
the mornings nice, waking up, thinking on these things. And
it makes the sun going down in the evening nice, to rejoice
in Him, to see these things. Thou business the earth, and
water'st it. Thou greatly enrich'st it with
the river of God, which is full of water. Thou prepare'st them
corn, when thou hast so provided for it. The Lord came to this
earth. He brought that gospel here and
preached it. And that seed went into us. That seed went to earth
and died, didn't it? And brought forth much fruit.
He prepares those things. He's done that. That's magnificent. And he makes it rain and we have
food to eat. Isn't that nice? We ain't starving
to death. He provides it. Thou waterest
the ridges thereof abundantly. Thou settest the furrows thereof.
Thou makest it soft with showers. Thou blessest the spring thereof. Thou crownest the year with thy
goodness, and thy paths drop fatness. They drop upon the pastures
of the wilderness, and the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with
flocks, not a sheep missing in that pasture,
in that paddock. The valleys also are covered
over with corn, they shout for joy, they also sing. There in verse 11, thou crownest
the year with thy goodness. and thy paths drop fatness. He
crowns the year with his goodness. I've heard some men preach on
this at the end of a year, the beginning of a new year. In the
December, beginning of January, this is a good thing to look
at. But it's also good in the middle of the year. I like singing
those Christmas hymns in July. They're just, hark, the herald
angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. I
like to sing that any day of the year, don't you? The Lord will crown this year
with goodness. He has crowned every year with His goodness. And there'll be a time, the only
thing we'll look back on and see is all the good things the
Lord's done. We get tastes of that throughout
in this life that we live. While we're sitting in this inn. Seems like we're passing through
Egypt and we're at a motel. While we're sitting here, we
get to see some glimpses of that, a little bit at a time. We get
an earnest down payment. We get to look back on small
trials in our lives and say, that was right. That was right.
Sometimes we have reminders of wonderful blessings that took
place. I limp. Broke my leg one time. And boy,
how the Lord used that. I don't want my leg broke again.
I don't want to stand on those means, but I see his goodness
in that year. And then we see his goodness
in another year. And sometimes we're in a year that's so dark
and like we ain't ever going to see the light of day. And
the Lord will crown it with his goodness. How can I be sure? How can you
be sure? How do I know? We want to know
things, don't we? How do I know? I want to know. How can I know this? I know this
is so because the Lord knows it's so. It ain't what I know,
it's what he knows. It ain't my, thanks be to God,
it ain't my love, it's his love. It ain't my acceptance, it's
his acceptance. It ain't my blood, it's his blood.
How do I know this? How do I know that the year is
gonna be crowned with his glory? He knows. He knows. Turn there
to Jeremiah 29. It's just one book after Isaiah. Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah. Jeremiah 29. There's a lot of people that'll
have, like Dave was troubled with people's iniquities. all
their good doings and their good sayings. And that's what sounds
good is horrible sometimes. We want to give people good advice,
not bad advice, carnally, right? There are some people that don't
know God and they say some horrible things to us and it weighs on
us. And the Lord says, don't pay
no attention to them. Look here in verse eight, Jeremiah
29, verse eight. For thus saith the Lord of hosts,
The God of Israel, let not your prophets and your diviners that
be in the midst of you. They're right there with you.
Don't let them deceive you. Neither hearken to your dreams,
which he calls to be dreamed. You ever had something dreamed
and you have a dream at night and the next day you kind of
see something and you ain't superstitious, but you're a little stitious.
Yeah, well, I don't know. Maybe I won't buy that car. Maybe
I won't eat that sandwich or something. Lord said, don't let
that deceive you. And then there's somebody in
your midst that keeps telling you something that's just wrong. But you hear
it long enough, you're like, well, maybe. No, not maybe, so
don't pay attention to it. Verse nine, for they prophesy
falsely unto you in my name. I have not sent them, saith the
Lord. Just a few chapters back in Jeremiah
23, it's whenever he says, the people that don't tell the truth,
I won't bless it. I didn't send them, and people
ain't gonna be saved through a false gospel and leave them
alone. It ain't so. Verse 10, for thus saith the
Lord, that after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will
visit you and perform my good word toward you. I'm coming to
you and I'm performing my good word towards you and causing
you to return to this place. I'll make you come back here.
Why? Four, verse 11, I know. For I know the thoughts that
I think towards you, saith the Lord." This is to his people,
to the circumcision. Thoughts of peace and not of
evil to give you an expected end. You're my child. I'm gonna
come to you. I'm gonna have my good word towards
you. And I've thought of you. That's why I'm gonna do this.
That's what I've thought of you. And he said, I've looked on you.
I've had thoughts of peace, not evil, to give you an expected
end. That's called, another translation,
hope. hope it's not we wish it's an
expected end and what's that no who's that it's a person it's
a person i'm doing all this we think it's evil he's telling
us it's not evil why because we think it's evil look at all
this bad stuff would come upon us no he said i know my thoughts
towards you i control everything Does evil happen during a year
that's crowned with His glory? You bet it does. Of course it
does. But our holy God is sovereign. If there was a chief attribute,
we gotta get a hold of first, He's holy. God Almighty is holy. Whatever happens in a year, or
a decade, or a millennia, or whatever, He is holy. And what goes hand in hand with
that that's just wonderful is He's sovereign. He's sovereign. Everything that comes to pass
throughout a year, throughout any day, throughout any second,
any moment in time, every molecule that's ever moved, an electron
in its orbit, whatever those things are made up of, God did
it on purpose because He willed for our good and His glory and
He's holy. Shall there be evil in a city?
And the Lord hath not done it. He's allowed it to happen. People
say, well, does the Lord do evil? You watch your mouth. Who are
you talking to? You're talking to a holy God. He permits things
to happen, doesn't it? David said in Psalm 76, surely
the wrath of man shall praise thee. What's the worst thing
man's ever done? God came here. and was merciful
and kind and long-suffering and preached the gospel to people
and they put him on a cross and killed him. And it was a blessing because
that's exactly what that determinate counsel and foreknowledge, the
love beforehand, the father purpose, but our wicked hands have done
it. Isn't that good? That's the best thing that ever
happened. People say that's the worst thing that ever happened on this earth
and it's the best thing that ever happened for Lord's people on
this earth. That bloody sacrifice was accepted by God. Now, if there's evil that takes
place in the city, if you got a crooked sheriff, is that to
God's glory? If he can handle his son being
put on a cross for his most majestic thanks going to happen in eternity,
I think he can swing a local congressman or whatever, can't
you? A local ordinance. I'll drink out of paper straws.
It's fine. I'm okay. He has to show us these things.
And you know what? That's holy God, that's sovereign. If the Lord give us this and
let us see it and just dwell on it, it'd really give us a
lot of peace. It'd settle us and we'd praise
silently and happily and contentedly. God does everything on purpose
and it's right and he's holy and he controls everything 100%
of the time, not 99% of the time. It seems so elementary but If
the Lord applies that to us, it'll give us peace. If we love
Him, because He first loved us. Romans 8, 28, right? And there's
something that happened before that, right? That Spirit's interceding
for us because we don't know how to pray. We just got through
with Romans 7. I'm a wicked man. And we know that all things all
work together for good to them that love God." Not everybody
underneath the sun. To them that love God, to them
who are called according to His purpose. God does things on purpose
all year, and that year is crowned with His goodness. It's Him being
good. Can He do bad? No. Anything He
does is good. That'll make us praise and waiting,
won't it? After those things happen, you're still there in
Jeremiah 29? The Lord chose us this. Verse 12. Then shall ye
call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will
hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me and find
me. when you shall search for me
with all your heart, and I will be found of you, saith the Lord,
and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all
the nations and from all the places wherein I have driven
you. How did we get there? I drove
you there, and I'm gonna bring you right back, saith the Lord,
and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you
to be carried away captive. We can apply that to the garden,
couldn't we? We were driven out of that garden because of sin,
and the Lord said, I've saved you, and I brought you right
back in presence with me, a place with no sin, and walking in the
garden with him, talking to him. Atonement, atonement. He said,
I'm gonna do this. That makes for a good year. How does the Lord crown our year
with his goodness? Look one book to the left there
in Isaiah 55. Verse six. This jumped out to me today,
and I hope this is precious to you and just lights your heart
up. Isaiah 55, verse six. Seek ye
the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he's near. He may be found. He's near. I don't know how long
the door to that ark's gonna be open, but it's open. Seek
him, draw near to him right now. Well, I did yesterday. Well,
today ain't yesterday, I need him now. He can be found. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord
and he will have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon Not by the skin of your teeth. Abundant pardon. For my
thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord. That's how you can abundantly
pardon. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down,
and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth
the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give
seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, just like I make
those physical things happen, so shall my word be that goeth
forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper. It shall prosper in the thing
whereto I send it. For ye shall go out with joy. and be led forth with peace.
The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead
of thorn, there shall come up the fir tree. Instead of the
briar, shall come up the myrtle tree. And it shall be to the
Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. Those ways aren't my ways. I
can't bring that to pass. His thoughts of these things,
though the means he uses and he gives Seba in Egypt for the,
he raised Pharaoh up. He let a man be king just so
he could show his power. I wouldn't have picked it that
way, but my thoughts ain't the Lord's thoughts. Who says a terrible
year or a terrible decade or bad economy or whatever. Ah,
if we could see Him in it, we'd know who's on the throne. It'd
give us contentment there in a moment. Back in our text there
in Psalm 65. Verse 11. Thou crownest the year with thy
goodness. Thy goodness. It's his goodness.
Not the goodness I would depict or things I think's good. It's
his goodness. His goodness. Surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Those two
watchdogs. Goodness going ahead and mercy
behind. Forgiving sin. All the days of
my life. And. Like that wasn't good enough. and I will dwell in the house
of the Lord forever, forever. Thou crownest the year with thy
goodness and thy paths drop fatness, fatness. Is that just something
that's got a high caloric being and be good for us? The root word of that is to satisfy,
fatness, and it does. but it's to satisfy and the ashes
of the sacrifice. Would you guess that fatness
means the ashes of the sacrifice? Throughout his past, he crowns
this year with goodness. And on his past, he drops fatness.
He drops the ashes of the sacrifice. He drops proof of the acceptable
propitiation. of Christ the sacrifice. That's
what's lingered all through our ways. We walk through this life.
How does he do that? Through his people, isn't it?
His candlesticks he has, that he assembles a couple times a
week together. They're out in the communities
and eating with each other and going house to house and living
peaceably with all men. And so that's our good doing.
No, it's not. What's there through Paul in 2 Corinthians is that
God said, I will dwell in them and walk in them. The trail of a believer is blessed
wherever the Lord takes his people. It's so. There's evidence of
it. We can see it. Other people may
not see it, but we can see it. I told you that before. The gospel
went through the islands there in the Caribbean. And they're
still phrasing inside of songs people sang there. And I'm like,
how did they know? I kind of want to talk to that person.
Why'd they write it that way? Well, there used to be a gospel
there. God used to have some people there years ago. Maybe
he does now. There's a blessing to those collaterally,
collateral blessing, those around the Lord's people. They're blessed
just because the Lord's blessing his people. I can prove it to
you. Look over Matthew 5. Matthew 5, verse 43. You've heard that it hath been
said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say
unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do
good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you. Is that good for the people that
aren't the Lord's children? Yeah. Believers are kind to them. They pray for them, and they
have somebody to pray to. It's not some silver and gold
idol on a hillside somewhere. It's the living God that hears
us. And deal patiently with them. They despitefully use you, but
you pray for them. That, verse 45, you may be the
children of your father, which is in heaven. We're going to
be like him. For he maketh the sun rise to
rise on the evil and the good. He sent the rain on the just
and unjust. He makes that corn to grow for
those that curse him actively. They breathe his air. They're
trespassing on his earth and eating his food. Or if you love someone which
loves you, what reward have you? Don't the publicans do the same?
It's easy to love somebody that loves you. There's a cat we have. I like that cat because it likes
me. I ain't a big fan of cats. That's easy, isn't it? I think
of that verse all the time. If you salute your brethren only,
what do you do more than others? Do not the publicans do so? They
say hi, they call one another brother. Be ye therefore perfect. even
as your father, which in heaven is perfect." What's that? He
loved the unlovable. He was kind to the enemy. He
prayed that our faith fail not. And I don't know whose is his
and who ain't out there that's yet to be discovered. And so
I want to pray for them. I want to be kind to them, be
good to them. That'd leave a good trail, wouldn't
it? Of ashes. Why? Because Christ has given
his life for us. He saved us. Maybe he'll save
them. I reckon our text there, Psalm
65, 11. Thou crownest the year with thy
goodness, and thy paths drop fatness. That's what we can look
back and tell you all the time in these trials, the Lord's gonna
show himself to us. We're gonna see the gospel and
we're gonna see Christ in it. We just don't know when or how
and how long it'll take, but throughout the year, we look
back and we'll say, yeah, I see now. I see those ashes from the
sacrifice. They drop upon the pastures of
the wilderness. Where are we right now? We're
in this wilderness, ain't we? And we're in a paddock that the
Lord's assembled some sheep together in. We're in this pasture right
now. And he drops that. He drops those
ashes of the sacrifice. Daily, our living bread. Give
us today our daily bread. That's what we need, isn't it?
We need to know that that sacrifice is accepted daily. But he does
that to us here in this wilderness. I thought of Ruth. Boaz said
to Ruth, he said, hear thou not, my daughter? He said, go not
to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here
fast by my maidens. I've already got some I'm feeding
right here, and you stay here where they're being fed. Don't
go to another field. You stay in my field, you stay
on my property, you stay where my maidens are being fed, and
let the eyes be on the field that they do reap, and you go
out after them." He said, "'Have not I charged the young men,
they shall not touch thee?' Then I told Moses, he said, "'Everybody
that wants to kill you is gone, and you get down there to Egypt.'"
And when thou art athirst, you go into the vessels, and you
drink that which the young men have drawn out. You go to the
same place where those maidens are, and they're eating. You
go to the same place where those brethren are, and they're drinking
water. And you just go up to the pitcher and get all the water
you want. Eat what you want and drink all you want." And she
fell on her face. What would we do with that? Woo-hoo! I'm going to heaven. I didn't
lose, no. She fell on her face and bowed
herself to the ground and said in him, why have I found grace
in thine eyes? Why me? I know what I am and
you're gonna feed me with your daughters and maidens and you're
gonna let me drink where your boys drank and you ain't gonna
run me off? You talk about turning evil into
good. What was Ruth? Moabitess. Where'd
Moab come from? That was the incestuous relationship
of Lot. Who could have ever said that
Sodom would turn into a good thing? And that Lot's horrible
relationship could turn into anything good. That's the exact
lineage the Lord chose to bring his son to us. You talk about
a trail of ashes. That's some fatness isn't it?
That satisfy? What a thought. Five, I found
grace in thine eyes that thou should take knowledge of me,
seeing I'm a stranger. I'm a stranger. I'm not supposed
to be here, and I wasn't born into it. I'm an enemy. I'm from
a foreign country. I ain't like you. He said, when
it's time to eat, you come eat all the food you want from my
maidens, and you get thirsty, you drink all the water you want
out of them harvest pots. And when she rose up to glean,
Boaz commanded his young men, saying, you leave her alone.
and reproach her not. And he said, and let fall also,
like it wasn't good enough, right? Let fall also some of the handfuls
of purpose for her. Let it drop down right there
in that wilderness. What a good thing. Don't just
pardon her, abundantly pardon her. Give her extra. She went
home with, they went to go get just enough to make a biscuit
in the evening. And she went home to Naomi and had a big old
arm for it. She said, where'd you get that?
And so I was a field out there and this fellow come talk to
me. He came to me, nice looking man, named Boaz. There's one man in this whole
place. that can redeem us, that's able
to redeem us, that's willing to redeem us, and that's related
to us, and you happed on his veil. All that stuff took place
in Sodom, all that stuff took place in the cave, all those
years of Moab was brought to this point right here, and it
couldn't happen any other way. What a thought, huh? Tailor-made. Aaron, Psalm 65, verse 13. The pastures are clothed with
flocks. The Lord takes his sheep and
puts them right there on that green pasture, leads them beside
the still waters and feeds them. Our shepherd, isn't it? And the
valleys also are covered over with corn and they shout for
joy and they also sing. What a day that'll be. They'll
come a day when the Lord's people, they'll have no sin, none. And the ground on that new earth,
Lord said, there'll be a new heaven and a new earth. It's
not going to be cursed like this one. We don't know what that
means. That's what I thought. I got to start weed eating. I
need to cut grass. And I look and I was like, ain't
no grass here. Ain't nothing but weeds and pokey things. And I don't
think there's a blade out there. We don't know what that's like.
Our imaginations can't fathom those things. To be without sin,
to be in a place where there's no sin, and every knee thou there
bowing, and every tongue confessing, He's Lord. Christ is Lord. He's
on His throne. Look at it. He's crowned eternity
with His goodness. and they'll be singing from the
hills. I thought you worked out there
20 some years singing hills. Every day drive. The hills gonna
sing for real. And trees gonna clap. They're
gonna rejoice. Birds sing now, boy, what are they gonna do then?
And us with them. That makes for a year crown of
goodness if we see these things. I pray the Lord will show us
that. Allow us to see Him and what He's done, where He is now,
and that His promises to His people shall happen. They shall
come to pass. Brother Trevor and Cass, if you
would, come hand out the elements.