Psalm 33. Now, we started last
week by giving an overview and also focusing mostly on verse
one. So I want to go from there and
just highlight verse one and go right on into verses two and
following. Let's read it together. Rejoice
in the Lord, it opens up in Psalm 33, verse one. Rejoice in the
Lord. Now, if you notice in this Psalm,
It says in the end of the psalm, it says, let's see, where is
it? In verse 21, notice it says,
for our heart shall rejoice in him because we have trusted in
his holy name. So this is common in the Psalms.
The opening verse sets the context, the subject, and in the middle,
or the end of the Psalm, it brings that back to the beginning, and
this is what's done in this Psalm, to rejoice in the Lord. Our heart
shall rejoice in him because we have trusted in his holy name. So this is about rejoicing in
Christ, this psalm. And so he goes on, he says, Rejoice
in the Lord, O ye righteous, for praise is comely for the
upright. Praise the Lord with harp. Sing
unto him with a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.
Sing unto him a new song. Play skillfully with a loud noise,
for the word of the Lord is right. and all his works are done in
truth. He loveth righteousness and judgment.
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. By the word of the
Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath
of his mouth. He gathereth the waters of the
sea together as a heap. He layeth up the depth in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord,
that all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord bringeth the counsel
of the heathen to naught, to nothing. He maketh the devices
of the people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth
forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Blessed
is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom he
hath chosen for his own inheritance. The Lord looketh from heaven,
and he beholdeth all the sons of men. From the place of his
habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
He fashioneth their hearts alike. He considereth all their works.
And there is no king saved by the multitude of a host. A mighty
man is not delivered by much strength. A horse is a vain thing
for safety. Neither shall he deliver any
by his great strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is
upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy to
deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waiteth for the Lord.
He is our help and our shield, for our heart shall rejoice in
Him because we have trusted in His holy name. Let Thy mercy,
O Lord, be upon us according as we hope in Thee. So you can
see how this psalm develops. And I mentioned this last week.
It's talking about the, in the psalm, it develops it as how
God's character is seen in his word. in his creative work and
in his providence in the whole world with all men, and then
especially in his saving work of his people as the nation that
is called by his name. And that's the way the psalm
is written. To open it up, it says, Rejoice in the Lord, O
ye righteous. The ones who are told to rejoice
are those who are righteous, and there is none righteous in
themselves. Therefore, this is speaking about
those who are justified in the Lord Jesus Christ, those Christ
redeemed by his precious blood, those who have been chosen by
God as his sons, the children of promise, as he says in the
New Testament. These are the ones God says rejoice. And he tells them how to rejoice,
the basis of it and the subject of it, which is in the Lord,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we rejoice, we don't rejoice
because of what we find in our own selves. We rejoice of what
we find from scripture in the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is
so fundamental. We don't feel like rejoicing
most of the time in ourselves, we shouldn't, but even in the
cares of our life, they overwhelm us and they are constantly bearing
down upon us so that we don't find, we wake up in the morning,
we might feel Bad physically we might feel uneasy emotionally
or depressed. There's lots of reasons why we
naturally Find ourselves not wanting to rejoice in life in
general, but God lifts up He directs us to lift up the eyes
of our faith to the Lord to the Lord Jesus Christ and tells us
to rejoice in Him and that's what he's talking about here
scripture says this throughout 1 Thessalonians 5.16 says, Rejoice
evermore. That means all the time. And
also in Philippians 4.4, Rejoice in the Lord always. And again,
I say rejoice. So there you have it in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what Philippians was writing.
Paul was writing to the Philippians about him and then As I said,
this is about those God has given the righteousness of Christ to,
and he calls them, O ye righteous. So that's the first thing here.
The second thing he says is comely. He says praise is comely for
the upright, those who are righteous in Christ, they are upright,
and God says that praise is comely for them. It's beautiful to God.
In Philippians 3, I pointed this out last time, we are the true
circumcision. We worship God in the Spirit.
We have no confidence in the flesh. This is true of all believers. Everyone who is the righteous,
as it says in this verse, is someone who worships God in the
Spirit, who rejoices in Christ, and therefore has no confidence
in the flesh. So see those two things, how
they always have to be combined together? If we're trusting in
Christ, then we can rejoice in Him. But if we're trusting in
our flesh and what we can do, we have no basis for rejoicing.
But because we have no confidence in the flesh and we trust Christ,
therefore we have every reason to rejoice in Him. And Paul says
it in that same text of scripture in Philippians chapter 3, he
says, he wanted to be found in Christ, to be found in Him, not
having my own righteousness. We have, men think they have
a righteousness. Paul says, I repudiate, repudiate,
I forsake, I abandon, I hate, I despise anything that might
be called my own righteousness. I give it up. I consider it dung,
he says in the same section. He says, I'm not having my own
righteousness, which is of the law. That's trying to be obedient
to the law in order to please God. but that which is through
the faith of Christ, through his, Jesus Christ's faith, not
mine, because my faith is always going to be tainted with sin
at best. And he says, that righteousness
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith. We believe that our righteousness
is what the Lord Jesus Christ has done in his redeeming work,
as it says in Romans 3, 24, freely justified being freely justified by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So these
are those who rejoice in Christ, those who have no confidence
in the flesh. They don't rejoice in their own righteousness, but
they rejoice in Christ's righteousness because they're given his righteousness. And that's why God calls them,
O ye righteous. Now, this praise is comely for
the upright. No one can worship God but in
the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus
told the woman of Samaria, when he came to that well at Samaria,
he said, woman, believe me, the hour comes when you shall neither
in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. She asked,
should we worship here in Samaria or should we worship at Jerusalem?
He said, it's not the place, it's not the physical place,
it's in the spirit. So not yet, not in Jerusalem,
not here. But he says, you worship, you
know not what. You don't know what you worship.
You do worship, but it's not the true God. He says, we know
what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. The one we worship
is the God of salvation. Our God is the God of salvation.
Our God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The
only way we can worship God is as the God of our salvation.
So he tells her this, if you knew the God of salvation, then
you would know what to worship and how to worship. So he goes
on in John chapter four and verse 23, the hour cometh and now is
when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth. What does that mean? Well, it
means you have to be born of the Spirit of God. You can't
worship God unless you're born of God. Only God's children can
worship him in spirit and in truth. And it also means that
you worship him in truth, meaning the truth of the gospel of our
salvation. He says, he calls the gospel,
the gospel of our salvation. in Ephesians 1, verse 13, I think. I'm looking for my reference
on that, but I think it's in Ephesians 1. But the point here
is that those who worship God, worship Him by the Spirit of
God, because they're born of God, and He, Christ, dwells in
them, and they worship Him in the truth of the gospel of their
salvation. That's the only way we can worship
God. Now, this worship, which is obviously the fruit of God's
work in us, to worship in spirit, being born of God, we have to
have God working in us, and to have the truth is to have it
revealed to us and given faith to believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. God is saying here that this
truth and this grace by which we worship God in the Spirit
are found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember John 1 verse 17, grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ. So praise here in Psalm 33, 1,
praise is comely to the upright, because the upright are the righteous
ones in Christ, and they are given by God the Father to know
and believe the gospel of their salvation, and therefore they
worship God in Christ by the faith that he gives them, which
is in him. And so this is a beautiful work,
isn't it? It's God's work. And all of God's work is beautiful.
It's comely. This work is beautiful. God takes
a sinner and makes him his son by Jesus Christ. And it is a
beautiful work that he gives that sinner praise to Christ
and to God in him for salvation, for life, and in admiration and
worship of God in all of his perfections. Because when we
see Christ, we see the brightness of God's glory. The outshining
of the very glory of God is seen in the Lord Jesus Christ. and
this is spoken of throughout scripture, but Hebrews chapter
one is one place, and second Corinthians chapter four, verse
six is another place, where God commanded the light to shine
out of darkness, and the same way he shined in our hearts to
give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. So we worship God, It's comely
for the righteous to praise Him, and that work is God's work.
It's a work that He does in His sons. It's His operation in them,
and He says it's comely because it's His work. It's beautiful
to God for Him to cause us, because of God's saving grace to us in
Christ, to worship Him in spirit, born of the spirit, and in truth,
the truth of the gospel. So it pleases God that he has
chosen sinners. All God's work pleases him. He
has chosen sinners. He purchased them with the blood
of his son. He purified them. He made them his children. He
caused them to worship him and praise and thank him. And they
give him all the glory and they rejoice in Christ. And this is
beautiful. This is beautiful. But even so,
our sacrifices of praise to God have to be made acceptable to
God by Jesus Christ, as it says in 1 Peter chapter two and verse
five. So we go on to the next verse
here. In verse two of Psalm 33, it
says, praise the Lord with harp, sing unto him with the psaltery
and an instrument of 10 strings, sing unto him a new song, play
skillfully with a loud noise. Okay? So, look at these things. What does this mean, to praise
the Lord with harp and sing to him with a psaltery, an instrument
of ten strings? Well, it seems to me that the
instruments that God is talking about here, these instruments
of music, as is common throughout Scripture, God uses these things,
and he refers to not just physical things, he's not limiting it
to this, nor is he specifically talking about getting out a guitar,
for example, in a worship service and plucking away. I'm not saying
that's not acceptable, but that's not necessarily what he's talking
about here. What he's saying here is that
with all that you have, With the most precious and pleasant
sounds that you find pleasing, direct the most beautiful music
and melody in your hearts with your very best, with all the
skill and thanksgiving the Lord has given you because of Christ,
direct it to Him. Sing unto him with a loud noise.
Don't go outside and yell with all of the volume that you have
and go out banging garbage can lids together or something like
that. That's not what he's talking about. But do you know what it's
like when you're in the closet of your heart or whether you're
on a walk outside? And you express this overflowing
joy because of God has seen fit in his grace to save you in Christ
and in Christ alone. And you find it well being up
in you because your confidence is in him. You have access to
God by him. And so you want to take the very
best things that you have with all the skill that God has given
you. And you want to use that in praise to your savior. And
that's what he's talking about here. So with all that God has
given us, with all the skill he has given us, whatever that
is, praise Christ with it. Praise God in Christ. So I want to keep moving through
here so we can try to get through this tonight. Let's see. So, to praise Him with harp and
to sing to Him with a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings
is all these things speak of praise to God from our hearts
with all the skill God has given us. Remember, it's God who's
at work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure and all
that we are, we are by His grace. Use whatever instruments of praise
we may have, whatever it might be. Lift up whatever God has
given you in your life, and in your understanding, and with
your voice, and with your desires, and your prayers. All these things
are designed. Everything you have, God has
created it. You didn't create yourself, God
made you. Use it to praise Him. Whether it be working, whether
it be at home, whether it be with your family, whatever it
is, you praise the Lord Jesus Christ for everything. Be continually
in prayer to Him in your heart. and always looking to the Lord
Jesus Christ and expecting him to save you to the uttermost.
This is what we do. Now, it also says here in verse
3, sing unto him a new song. Now, I want to spend a little
bit of time on this because this is something that you find throughout
scripture, a new song. It says in the book of Revelation,
they sang a new song. It turns out that in Hebrews
chapter 10, we find this word, new, and it's used in this way. It says in Hebrews chapter 10,
verse 20, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated
for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh. And what
he's talking about here is that the Lord Jesus Christ, as our
high priest, has made a way into the holiest of all. And the way
was made by his flesh when his body was broken and when he died
with our sins, offering himself to God to make a propitiation
to God for our sins. Now, this was a new and living
way. Why was it new? Was it new because
God had never mentioned it before? No, God had mentioned it before. He had mentioned it in promise.
In Genesis 3.15, the seed of the woman will bruise the head
of the serpent. And in Genesis 3.21, God clothed Adam and Eve
with the skins of an animal. And in Genesis chapter 4, Abel
offered to God a more excellent sacrifice. And Genesis chapter
22, Abraham told Isaac, my son, God will provide himself a lamb.
And Exodus chapter 12 and 13, verse 13, God said, when I see
the blood, I'll pass over you. So, and we know Christ is our
Passover, sacrificed for us. So throughout scripture, God
had been speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ in his sin-atoning
work, Isaiah 53. We could go on and on. Psalm
22. Throughout scripture, God is
constantly talking about the work of Christ as our Redeemer. Throughout all the sacrifices
in the law is pointing to Christ as our High Priest. Christ is
the Lamb offered. And, you know, the flood, the
ark was Christ. They were in the ark. They were
saved there. And we could go on and on with this. So it's
not because it was never mentioned. The reason God speaks of it as
new here is because it was newly made. It was actually fulfilled,
newly fulfilled. Now, let me read this to you
in Hebrews chapter 10. I want to get the bigger context
here from verse 14. It says, for by one offering,
This is an offering Christ made and he offered himself for by
one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Okay, we're sanctified by what?
By Christ's offering according to the will of God. Read Hebrews
10 verse 10. He said, I come to do thy will,
O God. And he said in Hebrews 10, by the witch will, we are
sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. So here in verse 14, by one offering,
Christ has perfected forever them that are sanctified. Those
sanctified by his offering are also perfected. They're made
perfect, absolutely perfect. What does perfect mean? It means
perfect. There's nothing lacking. The fullness of the Godhead dwells
in Him bodily and we're complete in Him. So He did that by His
one offering, right? That's what it says here. Whereof,
verse 15, the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us, for after
that He had said before, this is speaking about in the Old
Testament before, This is the covenant that I will make with
them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws
into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and
their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." So clearly,
whatever Christ did was successful because the Holy Spirit is saying,
I will not remember their sins. Why? Because, he says in the
next verse, where remission of these is, there's no more offering
for sin. There's remission, therefore
no more offering, therefore Christ perfected forever by His one
offering. for all time, for perpetuity. There's never a time when Christ's
blood won't take away the sins of his people. It took them away
once and it's done. And the Spirit of God says, I
will therefore remember them no more because remission has
been made by Christ's blood. We have to get this firmly, firmly
in the eye of our faith that what Christ did by His death
on the cross and that one offering of Himself to God for our sins
accomplished all of our salvation. It made remission of our sins.
It made reconciliation for our sins. It made redemption for
our sins. It made justification for our
sins. It made sanctification for our sins. It gave us access
to God. He presented us before God as
holy. What else do we need? We're complete in Him. Now, he
goes on to prove this. He says in verse 19, listen,
having therefore, brethren, boldness, boldness to enter into the holiest,
wow. by the blood of Jesus. Notice,
it's just, it's only, alone, only by his blood, the blood
of Jesus. It accomplished everything. His
offering of himself fulfilled the law, purged our sins, satisfied
God, purchased our redemption. It made us children of God in
a way that we're brought into God's family. It did everything
for us. The blood of Jesus, that's why
we say, nothing, what can wash away my sins, is nothing but
the blood. It just goes on in that song, nothing but the blood
of Jesus. Now, now we get to verse 20,
the new song. He says, having therefore, brethren,
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, he says,
by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through
the veil, that is to say, his flesh." The Lord Jesus Christ
dedicated himself, sanctified himself, set apart himself to
offer himself as a holy sacrifice without spot to God, bearing
the sins of his people, and by doing so, took their sins away. That is the new and living way,
His flesh, His body offered for us. And the word new here, the
word new here, it means freshly slain or freshly slaughtered. And so when we look at this here
in Psalm 33 verse 2, it says, To praise the Lord with a harp,
sing to him with a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.
Sing to him a new song. He's saying here that the new
and living way was made by Christ, the Spirit of God testified to
it, our sins are no more remembered, the covenant was fulfilled in
Christ's blood, And He opens our heart to know this. He gives
us faith by which we now live and walk in Him. And so we're
trusting Christ, and there's no more need for another sacrifice.
We have access and boldness in that access into the very presence
of God. And so it says, new and living
way. It was The Lord Jesus Christ newly fulfilled
this covenant when he shed his blood. He told his disciples
when he gave them the wine in Matthew 26, verse 28, he says,
this cup is the new testament in my blood. It's the blood of
the everlasting covenant, says in Hebrews 13 verse 20. So it
was newly fulfilled, newly put into force, and it was newly
declared. When the Lord Jesus sent his
disciples out, he said, you go preach the gospel. You declare
this. And they did. In 2 Corinthians
chapter 5, Paul says, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though
God did beseech you by us. Be ye reconciled to God, for
he has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. That's the gospel. And so it's newly fulfilled,
newly declared, newly believed, because we obviously are hearing
it as if for the first time. When we hear the gospel, and
you know this is true if you're a believer, when you hear the
gospel preached to you from the Word of God concerning Christ
and His work, I'm not talking about what you need to do, but
when you hear about what the Lord has done, and you're given
to understand and believe the gospel, it's as if you had never
heard it, it's as if you were converted at that moment in time
because it suddenly becomes light to you, but it's also as if you
had it a long time like a treasure in your hand, only in your mind
you've been savoring it so that you find great delight in it
still, because it's a treasure that you highly value. So all
those things mingled together make it to you a new song. See,
the Lord Jesus Christ, freshly slaughtered, freshly slain. It
says he's the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
because his blood is always fresh to God, always present, always
in the present, always fresh, so that it has efficacy to cover
all of our sins throughout eternity, because it actually is successful. And it satisfied God. It brought such great joy to
God. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He fulfilled all his will. And this is why we sing songs
like, tell me the old, old story of unseen things above. of Jesus
and His glory, of Jesus and His love. Tell it to me slowly that
I may take it in." That wonderful redemption, God's remedy for
sin. Tell it to me often. I forget
it so soon. The dew of morning is passed
away at noon. So we're constantly and interested
in and wanting to know this song, this song that's new, newly fulfilled,
newly declared, newly believed, and constantly feeding on it
like water, a fountain of water, constantly taking from that fountain.
constantly eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the new song. We're singing
it in our hearts. We sing it to God because God
has done all necessary to save us by his son and faith directs
us to him. God's word directs us to him.
And that's what faith lays hold of. OK, so let's go on here in
verse four of Psalm 33. It says, For the word of the
Lord is right. All his works are done in truth. Notice now, the word of the Lord
is right. All his works are done in truth.
So he's talking about his word, his works. Goes on, verse 5,
he loveth righteousness and judgment. The earth is full of the goodness
of the Lord. So it sets before us the character
of God. It sets before us the word of
God, and it sets before us the work of God in these two verses
here. The word of the Lord is right.
All his works are done in truth. He loves righteousness and judgment. The earth is full of the goodness
of the Lord. And so it sets before us the
Lord, our God, as a God of truth, justice, judgment, righteousness,
and goodness, okay? And this is important. Notice
that when God speaks of himself as the creator, it immediately
makes it plain that everything depends on him. He depends on
nothing. OK, that's very important that
we get this. Paul told the people at Athens
at Mars Hill in Acts 17, God who made the worlds, seeing he's
Lord of heaven and earth, he does not need your worship. He's
not worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything,
seeing he's Lord of heaven and earth. He drives his home because
the proud heart of man thinks they can do something to manipulate
God, to get God to do things, like a genie in a bottle. God
does not need anything. He created all things. Therefore,
creation depends on Him, and He depends on nothing. The other
thing is that no one first gives to Him. If God created all things,
then what? Then He gives all things. No one first gives to God, okay? He needs nothing. He created
all things. He must give us life. He must give us breath. He must
give us all things. And it's setting us up so that
we can see not only God's will, word, and work, and character
as good, right, just, and holy, but it's going to use these things
in the psalm as it develops it. He says, because he's the creator,
everything belongs to him, right? We have nothing that he didn't
give us. All that is his shall provide a return on his investment.
God doesn't put his, he doesn't do something without it producing
what he intends to have done with that. We do that, you know,
you put your money here or you put your time or your labor's
here and you hope to get something for it. Sometimes you wasted
your labor. A lot of times you waste your
labor or you put your money in the wrong place and you lose.
God never loses one thing that's his. He does everything that
He wants. So we're to praise Him for these
things, considering the fact that His word, His works are
righteous and just, and the earth is full of His goodness. He does
everything in truth. Now, let's go on here. We're to praise Him for His righteousness,
praise Him for His judgment. Think about this. What is it
like in the world? What is it like to you when you
see justice fail? in government, for example. You
see wrong that is done and nothing's done about it. And you see wrong
in the highest places in government and nothing seems to happen.
What happens? What is this describing? This
is describing a complete failure of justice, isn't it? What would
it be like if God wasn't just? Think about that. If God wasn't
just, what hope would you have? There would be no hope because
evil would run rampant and there would be no consequences. But
there is a there that God is just and he will hold all to
account in his judgment. He will. He will do that. But
the believer trusts him because he is just. Do you want your
salvation to be a salvation that is not just? Or do you want your
salvation to be squarely founded on the justice of God? The justice of God? His throne
is the habitation of justice, right? It says, I think it's
in Psalm 89, 14. Every one of God's attributes
are like this. His justice, his judgment, his
righteousness, his truth, his faithfulness, all of them make
up who he is as God. It's not like we piece him together
like a jigsaw puzzle with these different attributes and put
him together as God. He is all of these things at
once in perfect harmony. But we think of it because that's
the way our minds work. We think of these attributes
of God. faithfulness and truth and judgment and justice. And
we could go on and on. Even his wrath, his love, his
grace, his mercy, all these things are. Now, this is the thing in
God's in God's work. He never diminishes one of his
attributes in favor of the other. This is very important to understand.
When we think about what God does, he always maximizes every
one of his attributes in all that he does. I don't know if
you can get a hold of that, just a little bit, but think of it
this way, because this is the only way we can really understand
it. When the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross for his people,
we see what? The love of God, don't we? We
see the justice of God, too, don't we? He spared not his own
son, but delivered him up for us all. That in itself boggles
the mind. We'll never be able to get our
minds wrapped around that, will we? The love of God has spared
not his own son. And in his justice, he delivered
him up to his own rigid requirements for righteousness and judgment
in accordance with his truth. But here's the point. When Christ
died for our sins by the will of God, He didn't attenuate,
He didn't lower one of God's attributes and then exalt another. All of them were shining out
in their full glory in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
see the humility and we see the glory of that humility. It's
just blazingly bright. That's why it says in Hebrews
chapter one, he is the brightness of his glory when he had by himself
purged our sins. Here we see this, that God's
goodness and all that he is is seen in his work. And he always
maximizes, never diminishes, but always maximizes his own
name, his character in all that he does and all of his word.
And this is meant to draw forth our admiration and awe. And we
see it in creation too. So let me go on and read this
here in verse 6. He says, By the word of the Lord
were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath
of his mouth. The breath of God's mouth refers
to the Spirit of God. He gathereth the waters of the
sea together as a heap. He layeth up the depth in storehouses. Let all the earth Fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the
world stand in awe of him. If you read somewhere in scripture
where the Lord Jesus appears in his glory and the effect it
has on people, They're spellbound. They fall in the dust. The Apostle John in the Revelation
chapter 1, for example, he falls at his feet as dead. And throughout
Scripture, you see this happening. In the book of Revelation, it's
prominent. But when the Lord Jesus was on earth, His glory
was veiled in His human flesh, and so people weren't afraid,
they weren't intimidated by that. But here, we see God's glory
shining forth in creation. He spoke! Bam! It was done. Now, stand in awe. Stand in utter, spellbound awe. reverence Him, whose word is
so almighty, as all of God's characteristics are, it's so
almighty that nothing can disobey when God commands it. It's going
to leap. The nothingness, the darkness
and the void that was there in the beginning, out of that appeared
everything that God said to appear in creation. Out of nothing.
And so he speaks of that here. He spoke, creation was done,
and it stood fast, it didn't wobble. He brings the counsel,
he says in verse 10 now, the Lord brings the counsel of the
heathen to nothing. Now what he's doing here in the
next thing, first he sets up his own character, word and work,
his judgments and righteousness, his truth and his goodness. He
talks about his sovereign power and creation. This is the God
we're to stand in awe of. And now he shows us all the peoples
of the earth. He said in verse 10, the Lord
brings the counsel of the heathen to nothing. He makes the devices
of the people of none effect. Now, devices here is the same
word, it corresponds to the thoughts of his heart in verse 11. The
counsel of the Lord standeth forever, the thoughts of his
heart to all generations. But in verse 10, the Lord brings
the counsel of the heathen to nothing. Meanwhile, the counsel
of the Lord stands forever. And in verse 10, he frustrates
the thoughts of the people. He brings them to no effect.
They have thoughts. They want to do things. But God changes their ability
to do it. He takes away their ability.
He frustrates them. Meanwhile, all of God's thoughts
are done. You see this? This should cause
us to rejoice. Isn't that what verse 1 says?
Rejoice in the Lord? He does everything He thinks.
Everything God wants to do, He does. Everything He intends to
do, He does. Nothing is kept back from Him.
Could He have a desire that's not fulfilled? To say so would
be to contradict Scripture. Let me read Isaiah 14 and verse
24 in comparison to this. Isaiah 14. Let me read this to
you. Sorry, I didn't write this one
down. He says in Isaiah 14, 24, it says, the Lord of hosts, listen
to this, the Lord of hosts, that means the God of all the armies
of heaven, the Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, surely as
I have thought, So shall it come to pass. And as I have purposed,
so shall it stand. You see, everything God thinks,
he does, whatever he intends. Meanwhile, here in verse 10,
the Lord brings the counsel and the thoughts of the people to
utter frustration. OK, now in verse 12, he says,
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. and the people whom
he hath chosen for his own inheritance." Don't you see a contrast here?
We have the heathen in verse 10, the counsel of the heathen
brought to nothing, their thoughts frustrated, God's thoughts, meanwhile,
stand forever. He does all that He wants to
do. In fact, verse 12, He talks about His inheritance. Now, does
God have an inheritance? Yes. What is it? His people. He says, "...the people whom
He hath chosen for His own inheritance." And will God's thoughts be done
with respect to them? You better know it, because God
does all His thoughts, and His counsel concerning them will
stand. Nothing's going to come to frustration. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifieth. Who
is He that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Yet rather,
who is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also makes intercession for us. So, we have that contrast here.
There's the heathen. God brings their counsel and
their thoughts to nothing. He frustrates them. Meanwhile,
everything God thinks and says is done, especially concerning
his own inheritance. Now, in verse 13, he talks about
all men again. The Lord looketh from heaven,
and he beholdeth all the sons of men. From the place of his
habitation, he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
You see God sitting on his throne. Everything has to give an account
to him. He's looking, he's seeing, and all will answer to him. Verse
15. He fashioneth their hearts alike. He considereth all their works. Now, This fashioning of the hearts
alike, what does this mean? It means that God can control
the thoughts of a man. We're not surprised, are we?
Even people can manipulate my thoughts. We're pretty... wimpy when it comes to our ability
to think things through of ourselves, aren't we? We depend upon what
other people tell us. You hear something, you think
that that's the way it is. And then later you hear something
else, you think that's the way it is. We're so unstable in that
way. But God easily can fashion the
hearts of men. In fact, he says this in Proverbs
21, Verse 1, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. As
the rivers of water, he turneth it whithersoever he will. So
the rivers, the waters flow in the path the river has. God just
can turn the hearts of kings any way he wants to. And he does. This is what God does. He looks
upon all the sons of men. He observes them and he fashions
their hearts alike. There's not one of them who's
exempt from God's sovereign control. We think, well, we're going to
do what we want. Ha ha. Better think again. God's in
control. Stand in awe of him. Fear the
Lord. Stand in awe of him. That's what
he says. And so he can do this. But think about this. If God
fashions the hearts of all men, Then cannot God also fashion
my heart for the gospel, for Christ, for good, for my salvation? Yes, that's the good news, right? In Psalm 119, since God controls
the hearts of all men, I know He can control my heart. Therefore,
what do we do? We ask Him. And Psalm 19 says
this, enlarge my heart, teach me thy way, give me understanding,
turn me from vanity, incline my heart to you and not to covetousness. Make me go in the path of your
commandments. Give me life in your way. This
is what Psalm 119 says. I'll read it to you. He says,
I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
Verse 32. Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I shall
keep it to the end. Give me understanding, and I
shall keep thy law. Yea, I shall observe it with
my whole heart. Make me to go in the path of thy commandments,
for therein do I delight. Incline my heart unto thy testimonies
and not to covetousness. Turn away mine eyes from beholding
vanity and make me alive, quicken me in your way. So you see, this
is what the psalmist prays. Since God can fashion the hearts
of the king and he turns it whithersoever he will, then we go to him. to
whom we're supposed to give awe and reverence and ask him to
fashion our hearts. And so this fear by nature, we
don't trust Christ by nature. We don't fear him. We don't fear
the Lord. What do we do? Lord, you promised
in the new covenant that you were going to put your fear into
the hearts of your people. Put it there, put it in mind
and make me go in that way. OK, and verse 16. There is no
king saved by a multitude of a host. It doesn't matter how
big your army is. I heard somewhere the Chinese
government some years ago boasted they had a million man standing
army. That's a lot of people to feed. No wonder they're having
trouble with their finances over there. But no one can be saved
by a multitude of a host. They think the larger the army,
the stronger their nation, the more likely it is they're going
to have their way. What does God say here? It doesn't matter
how big your army is. Notice the next thing. A mighty
man is not delivered by much strength. That's true. Remember
all the people that David's men killed? A guy with six fingers,
a guy who had a spear like a telephone pole, these nine foot, ten foot
giants? They all fell. They're nowhere
to be found anymore. It doesn't matter. You're not
delivered by your own strength. Do you see that? It doesn't matter
how many armies on earth you have. The next thing it says,
and a horse is a vain thing for safety. You can't escape. It
doesn't matter how fast your horse is. You're not going to
get out of this. What is God saying here? that the things
that men use to defend themselves and to wage war are not the way
that God's people are going to be delivered. We do not trust
in armies. We don't trust in technology. We don't trust in science. What
do we trust? We trust the Lord who created
all things. You see, that's what he's saying
here in the next verse. He says, behold, the eye of the
Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy.
We are sinners. God has said that he justifies
the ungodly. Do we hope in him as the ungodly? As sinners who need mercy? Yes,
we do. We've hoped in Christ, haven't
we? We've put all of our eggs in this basket. We have no other
hope. We are expecting, we are asking
God to receive us as Christ for Christ's sake, aren't we? Yes,
we are. God has said this in his word,
and so we trust him that Jesus Christ came into the world to
save sinners, and that when he did this, he did it by himself,
and so we trust him. And God says, it doesn't matter
how big your army, or how strong your body, or how fast your horse,
all those things are worthless. God will deliver his people who
fear him, who trust in him, who hope in his mercy. Verse 19. And you can see this throughout
the Old Testament. Verse 19. This is what he'll do. He'll
deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.
And so, in verse 20, he's circling back now to the beginning of
the Psalm. Our soul waiteth for the Lord. What does it mean to
wait? It means we're looking to Christ. We're looking to the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord, to save us, we're depending on
Him, relying, and we're expecting Him to do that. And so we go
into the presence of God in our heart, trusting that by the precious
blood of Christ, we're accepted there, and so we wait for the
Lord. We're expecting Him to act, and
we don't take up our own salvation by trying to get ourselves saved. We're asking God to do it all
through Christ. He goes on, our soul waited for
the Lord, He is our help and our shield. What does a helper
do? He does everything we can't do.
What does a shield do? It takes all the arrows, it takes
all the beating. And isn't that what Christ did?
He took all the beating that we deserved. By His stripes,
we were healed. He's our shield and He's our
reward. He's our helper. He's our all,
isn't He? He takes the blows. When the
club comes against us, we hold up the shield. When the accusations
of Satan afflict our conscience, when our own conscience rises
up against us, what do we do? We look to Christ, our shield,
don't we? Verse 21, for our heart shall
rejoice in him because we have trusted in his holy name. His
holy name, the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that his name? Jesus shall
save his people from their sins. That's his holy name. He's the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the God. Thomas said,
my Lord and my God. And then verse 22, let thy mercy,
O Lord, be upon us according as we hope in thee. What is this
saying here? Does it mean somehow that God
will save us in proportion to our faith? Well, not necessarily. It doesn't mean that. I've actually
heard a preacher say that, but I don't think that's what he's
talking about here. But let me take you to the New Testament.
I won't take you there right now, but let me refer you to
it. You've known this story. The
centurion had a servant who was sick. He comes to Jesus. He's
a commander of many men. He comes to Jesus and he says,
Lord, my servant is sick. And Jesus said, I'll go and heal
him. And the centurion says, no, I'm
not worthy for you to come under my roof. I have servants. I say to this one, go. And he
goes. I say to this one, come. And he comes. He says, speak
the word only. And the Lord Jesus said, be it
unto you according to your faith. As you have believed, be it unto
you. What do we believe? What do we
believe? Well, I don't know about you,
but I believe that in Scripture, in the Gospel, God has said the
Lord Jesus Christ by Himself has purged our sins. He says
that He came into the world to save sinners, that God justifies
the ungodly, and that when we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us, and when we were dead in sins, For His great mercy
and His great love were with He loved us, God has quickened
us alive and made us alive in the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe
that God does, that salvation is of the Lord. I am hoping in
His mercy. In other words, I'm expecting
Him to do as He said He would do in His word. And so, verse
22, let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope
in thee. according as you have revealed yourself, Lord, as you
have said." David said in 2 Samuel 7, 25, Lord, do as you have said. That's what we say, don't we?
Lord, do as you have said. We hope in you, according as
we have hoped in you, as you have revealed yourself in the
Lord Jesus Christ, do as you have said. Save us, O Lord, our
God. We trust in you. We're looking,
we're waiting, and we have no one else to look to. Rejoice
in the Lord, O you righteous. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your mercy to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you that
he is all that we need. and He is all sufficient. He
doesn't lack in one thing. And He has saved us to the uttermost
and will save us to the uttermost by Himself. It will all be to
the glory of God, to His great glory. Nothing will be compromised. There will be no loss in all
of God's attributes, will be set on display to the highest
possible level because the Lord Jesus Christ did it all. It all
rests on Him and nothing of it depends on us, and your grace
has declared this to us, made him real to us, and given us
this in our heart. May we be given grace to rejoice
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we know that this is your work,
and therefore, this work of grace in us, by which we worship you
in awe, is beautiful, it's because it's your work, in Jesus' name
we praise and thank you, amen.