Psalm 33, I want to read through
this Psalm with you, and then I want to go back through it
and comment on it verse by verse. In Psalm 33, in verse one, it
reads, 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 voice,
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. Let 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 has chosen for his own inheritance. For the Lord looketh from heaven.
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.
There is no king saved by the multitude of an 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. Now, when
you look at this psalm, what you see is that there is actually
an organization to it that if we understand, it helps us to
see the message through the psalm itself. If you look in verse
one, it opens up with this word, rejoice in the Lord. And as is
often the case in the Psalms, the opening phrase or the opening
verse is a summary for all that follows. So the Lord is telling
his people, rejoice in the Lord. And there's a good reason for
that. Because he goes on, he not only tells them just rejoice,
but he tells them what to do. Praise is comely for the upright.
He tells them with a harp, sing to him with a psaltery and an
instrument of ten strings, sing a new song to him, play skillfully
with a loud noise. And then he goes on in verse
four and he says, for the word of the Lord is right and all
his works are done in truth. So now he's introducing here
God's character, God's word, and these things together in
what he does. So his character, his word, and
his works. He says in verse four, the word
of the Lord is right. All his works are done in truth.
He loveth righteousness and judgment. The earth is full of the goodness
of the Lord. So he takes the earth as the
way you can see God's work, and in his work see that God is righteous,
that all his works are done in truth and done in judgment, and
therefore you know the character of the Lord, you know his word
is true, and you know his work is good. He says in verse six,
by the word of the Lord were the heavens made, all the host
of them by the breath of his mouth. And in verse seven, he
gathers the waters together as a heap and lays them up, lays
up the depth in storehouses. We put things in garages and
sheds and shops and things to store them, barns. God has designed
the earth To put the water of the earth in certain places he
stores up the water of the earth of his creation and he has done
this as part of his creation and he calls in verse 8 for all
the earth to stand in awe of him and to To fear the Lord and
to stand in awe of him and he says in verse 9 and here's why
here's here's the the thing that all the Earth knows about and
that he sets forth before all of the Earth, all the inhabitants,
he says, for he spake and it was done. He commanded and it
stood fast. So God sets forth creation. And
how did he create? He just spoke his word. That's
power. So his word has all authority. His word has all power. And so
he's drawing our attention to that. And he goes on in verse
10, the Lord brings the counsel of the heathen to nothing. He
makes the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of
the Lord stands forever, the thoughts of his heart to all
generations. So now he talks about all people. First he sets
before us the power of his word and his authority, his sovereign
authority in creation. And then he talks about the fact
that men, all men in the earth, the heathen, he's going to bring
their counsel to nothing, and he's going to take their thoughts,
their devices, as it says in verse 10, and he's going to bring
them to frustration, to none effect. He's not going to allow
them to accomplish what they're thinking. In contrast to that,
God's counsel standeth forever, and God's thoughts, the thoughts
of his heart, are to all generations. There's nothing that God thinks
that he doesn't do. Whatever God intends to do, that's
what he does. And so you see the contrast here. God is setting up, first of all,
for his people, he tells them in verses one and two, two and
three, to sing, to pick up instruments, to praise the Lord, because praise
is comely for the upright. Obviously, the Lord is worthy
of their praise. And then he talks about his character
in verses four and five and his word and his work. And then he
sets forth his work and his word, the power of his word in creation. He talks about the fact that
he controls all men, all women, all people on the earth, even
controls their hearts and their thoughts. He goes on. Let's see,
where did I where did I read that? Well, I haven't I haven't
gotten to it yet. Yeah, that's in verse 15. But
in any case, he's sending these things forth. And then he says
this in verse 12. Notice, I'm just doing an overview
now. He says, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord
and the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance. These
are God's people now. They're his inheritance. He's
chosen them. That's what it says, chosen for
his own inheritance. There's God's election. And that
nation, they're called a nation. His people are called a nation.
That nation is truly blessed because they're the Lord's people.
Their God is the Lord. This is a covenant relationship
here. He goes on talking about them. The Lord looked from heaven. He beheld all the sons of men. So here we have all of creation
and all the people on the earth. From the place of his habitation,
he looks upon all the inhabitants of the earth. He looks upon everybody.
He fashions their hearts alike, verse 15. He considers all their
works. God knows what all men are doing
at all times, and he directs their hearts. He doesn't let
them do whatever they want to do. He said there that the Lord
brings the counsel, in verse 10, he brings the counsel of
the heathen to nothing, and he makes their thoughts, the thoughts
of the people, to come to frustration. Their devices that they imagine
are brought to no effect. But here, he says in verse 15,
he fashioneth their hearts alike, he considers all their work.
So God is in the hearts and minds, operating in the hearts and minds
of men, even wicked men, in order to accomplish his will and accomplishing
his thoughts. And then in verse 16, he contrasts
the way that all people naturally behave by trusting in their armies,
by trusting in their own strength and by trusting in the strength
of their horses. He gives that example here. He
says, in contrast to that, in verse 18, the eye of the Lord
is upon him that fears him, upon them that hope in his mercy.
So now we have these two groups of people And we see that God
is setting forth, first of all, his word, his character, his
word and work, example in creation. And then he shows how he controls
the hearts and minds of men in order to accomplish his will
and bring their plans to nothing. And then he says in regards to
every person on earth, he knows them. He looks down upon them.
And he sees them and he fashions their hearts alike, considering
all that they do in verse 15. And then he says, now there's
no one saved by their armies, no one saved by their own strength
and no one saved by their horses. And you can just you can attribute
that to those things that men trust in their warfare, whatever
it is, whether it be airplanes and rockets and tanks and bullets
and missiles and bombs or armies, their own computer systems, their
artificial intelligence, whatever it is, men trust those things.
God's people trust the Lord. It says, verse 18, the eye of
the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his
mercy to deliver their soul from death, to keep them alive in
famine. And then he goes on, now here's the the response of
those who are told to rejoice in the Lord, considering all
these things, verse 20, our soul waited for the Lord, He is our
help and our shield. In contrast to what men trust
in naturally, their armies, their strength, their own strength,
and the strength of their horse, God's people wait for the Lord,
they look to Him, And they wait for him to act on their behalf.
He is their help. He is their shield. And then
in verse 20, 21, our heart shall rejoice in him because we have
trusted in his holy name. We didn't put our confidence
in ourselves. We didn't put our confidence
in our army. We didn't put our confidence
in our horse. We put our confidence in the Lord. And then he asks
in verse 22, let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us according as we hope
in thee. So I hope that through that you
get some sense here of the flow of the psalm. What you can say
throughout this psalm is it's a revelation of God's work in
the world, in his creation. It's a revelation of God's greatness,
his sovereign power. His holiness, his righteousness,
his judgment, as it says in verse four, all his works are done
in truth. The Lord is right. He loves righteousness
and judgment. So all of these things are true
about God, are true about his word, true about his works. All
these things are said in contrast to the entire population of people
on Earth and all of creation. and how puny man is in God's
sight. And yet, here we see that the
nation is blessed, whose God is the Lord, in verse 12. So
this psalm is really God's sovereignty and His distinguishing grace.
in the lives of his people and his sovereign work in all things
in creation and in the hearts of men. And you can see that.
And God is setting this all for us here so that we as the Lord's
people would be taught and led to put our trust in him and not
in these other things which all men naturally trust. Okay? I hope that that overview helps
because when I get into the verse-by-verse explanation, you might lose that. And by seeing that, I found it
helpful to see the contrast here between all people and the Lord's
people. That nation is blessed whose
God is the Lord. They are the people he's chosen
for his own inheritance. And he has made a distinction
in all the peoples of the earth. He has a people for himself.
They're called his inheritance. They fear the Lord. They hope
in his mercy. They wait on him at all times. He is their help. He actually
helps them. He defends them. He's their shield. And and they
rejoice in him from the heart. OK. All right, so hopefully you'll
see God's sovereignty in this psalm, his unrivaled sovereignty,
unimpeded sovereignty. Nothing can stop him from doing
his will. Everything that he wants to do,
he does, according to Psalm verse 11. I mean, in this psalm, Psalm
33, verse 11, it says the counsel of the Lord stands forever. the
thoughts of his heart to all generations, everything God thinks
he does. And this is super powerful. This
is super comforting, because if God's will is to do something,
it is going to be done. And his will is to save his people
in Christ. Therefore, God's people are taught
here to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, now let's
go back and visit these verses in a little more detail, beginning
at verse 1. Look at verse 1. It says, Rejoice
in the Lord, O ye righteous, for praise is comely for the
upright. OK. So when you first read this,
sometimes we get tangled up in the things that trouble us the
most. It says, Rejoice in the Lord,
O ye righteous. First of all, we often don't
find a reason to rejoice, do we? In our life, we go along
with kind of a stoic look about us. I was just looking at some
old pictures of my daughters traveling across the states,
and she came across a place where my parents and their parents
and so on lived. And some old pictures came up
in the conversation. And I noticed that in old pictures,
nobody smiles. I'm not sure why that is. It
could be that the cameras were too slow to catch them smiling
and they got relaxed and they took a picture of them in a kind
of a stoic look. Or maybe that was just the way life was serious
then. And there wasn't a lot of smiling
in front of the camera. They just felt uneasy about smiling.
I don't know why. But the fact is, is we don't
naturally rejoice about the Lord, do we? God tells us though, do,
rejoice in the Lord. He tells us this in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5. He says, rejoice in the Lord
always. And again, I say rejoice. So
this is God's warrant for us to rejoice. If God says rejoice,
there's cause to rejoice. And notice it's to rejoice in
the Lord. We don't rejoice in ourselves.
We don't rejoice in the flesh. We don't rejoice in this world.
We don't rejoice in what we can do. We rejoice, we don't rejoice
in the works of our hands. We rejoice in the Lord, right?
It's in Christ that we rejoice. And this is what he says in scripture.
We're going to get to some of those in a minute. But notice,
here's the part that we naturally stumble on. Rejoice in the Lord,
O ye righteous. So we go, well, yeah, it's easy
for righteous people to rejoice because they have everything
in their lives under control. I don't, so that's why I can't
rejoice. But the fact is, is that if you
look at scripture, there is none who in themselves and of themselves
are righteous, right? Romans 3, verse 10, there is
none righteous, there is none that understandeth, there is
none that seeketh after God, there altogether become unprofitable,
there's none that doeth good, no, not one. That describes all
the inhabitants of the world by nature. That describes our
natural selves. So when the Lord says, rejoice
in the Lord, O ye righteous, we have to ask, how do people
who are naturally not righteous get this grace, this gift of
God, this pronouncement by God that in his sight they are righteous? How can that be? Well, this is
the story of the gospel, isn't it? This is what the gospel tells
us, that in the Lord Jesus Christ, God's people are all righteous. That's what justification means.
We are justified. In Romans 8, verses 29 through
30, he says, whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his son, and whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. Whom he called, them he also
justified. justified, who can lay anything,
it says in verse 33, Romans 8, 33, who can lay anything to the
charge of God's elect. It is God that justifies. And in Romans four, verse five,
it says to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth
the ungodly. So we're not righteous in ourselves.
We're ungodly in ourselves. And yet God justifies us. It
doesn't mean that God tells us now you need to change. You need
to stop sinning. And we eventually do. We get
better and better. And then God says, see, he's
righteous. That is not what justification
means. Justification means God pronounces
us to be what we are in Christ. Righteous. And because of that,
he justifies us. And so he says this in several
texts of scripture, which I'm sure are familiar. But for example,
in Romans 5, 19, as by one man's, Adam's disobedience, many were
made sinners. So by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. Not the obedience of each of
them, but the obedience of one, Jesus Christ. They are made righteous. In God, God has declared them
to be righteous. He says in Romans 5, 9, being
now justified by his blood. Here we have the work of Christ
in our redemption. We're freely justified, Romans
3, 24, being justified freely, not by anything we've done, freely
by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So this
title, the righteous, applies to those that God has given the
righteousness of Christ to and has imputed it to them as theirs.
And that's what this title, ye righteous, is referring to, those
God justifies. It's not something that we obtained
by our works. We're not justified by the works
of the law. And this is something that's
so naturally unknown to us, we have never heard it, we have
never conceived of it, that when the revelation of it comes to
us, It so liberates us that we view God in an entirely different
light. Our way of thinking about coming
to God is entirely changed because now we come through the way God
has provided the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who is righteous and
is in fact our righteousness. Okay? So, how are we righteous? God says in 1 Corinthians 1.30,
of Him, of God the Father, are you in Christ Jesus, who of God
is made unto us righteousness. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Christ is our righteousness,
isn't He? Romans 10.4 says, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. So no, we're not righteous in
ourselves. Naturally, we're not righteous. Not even after God
justifies us does God look upon our behavior or our thoughts
or our words or our motives or anything and declare us to be
righteous. He doesn't. He declares us righteous
for one thing only, what he finds in his Son. In fact, Christ's
obedience is not our obedience. We didn't work it out. It's his
obedience, but God counts it as ours. It's entirely outside
of us. What Christ did took place outside
of our history. We certainly didn't contribute
one thing to it. Not before we were born, not
after we were born, not before or after our conversion, not
after we get to heaven. It's Christ's righteousness.
He alone is the one who is good. And so this is something that's
so foreign to the way we think that it has to be almost like
a hammer on the anvil of our brain beat into us from God's
word so that we would acquiesce and say, yes, yes, thank God. There's cause for rejoicing here
because the cause is not found in me, it's found in who God
has said is my righteousness. Now, read the verse again. Rejoice
in the Lord, O ye righteous. So let me read this again from
Isaiah 45. I've read this to you a number
of times, and it's something that we all should know where
it's at. And so I'm going to take you
there. Isaiah 45, it says this in verse 24. He says, Surely
shall one say in the Lord have I righteousness and strength,
even to him shall men come. And then in verse 25, in the
Lord, In the Lord, underscore that, shall all the seed of Israel
be just. Not one in heaven will be in
heaven by their own righteousness. They're justified in the Lord
and they shall all glory because of that justification that Christ
has worked out. He's the one who came to fulfill
the law. I come to do thy will, O God. No, we didn't do it. We
didn't do God's will, Christ did. And this is the work of
God, that you believe on him whom he has sent. Therefore rejoice
in the Lord, O ye righteous, for praise is comely to the upright. Who are these that are told to
rejoice? The justified ones, those in
Christ who have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ,
who have access by that faith which is in him into that grace
in which they stand. That's in Romans chapter five.
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into
this grace wherein we stand. And notice Romans five, verse
two, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And then in
Psalm in Revelation, chapter five, I want you to listen to
this verse in Revelation, chapter five and verse nine. He says
in Revelation 5 that the redeemed are those who are to rejoice.
Those are the ones who are the righteous. He says they were,
in Revelation 5, they sung a new song saying, singing to Christ,
praising Him, they're rejoicing in Him, they say, Thou art worthy. Before, when all of heaven was
silent because they couldn't find someone worthy to open the
book and loose the seals and to reveal and accomplish what
was written in God's will, His eternal will, Then the Apostle
John wept much, but when the Lamb came forward and took the
book from him who sat on the throne, then all of the saints
joined together and they said this, they sung a new song saying,
thou art worthy to take the book to open the seals thereof for
thou was slain and thou has redeemed us to God because the purchase
was his blood. And God gave that price and the
purchase was paid to God. We were redeemed to God. The
liberty with which we were to which we were set free was set
free from sin to God, redeemed us to God by thy blood. He did it. He did all of it.
out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. See the
distinction here? Out of. And that's what Psalm 33 is saying.
A distinction has been made by God's sovereign grace. There's
all the inhabitants of the world. There's all the heathen. There's
all the people in Psalm 33 when he talks about that in verse
10 and following. But here in Revelation five,
out of all the kindred tongue, people and nation, God has redeemed
a people to himself by the blood of his son. And then he says,
and you have made us made us unto God, kings and priests,
and we shall reign on the earth. Now, these are those who are
in heaven rejoicing because they're in the Lord Jesus Christ, redeemed
by his precious blood, redeemed even to God. They're his people.
And that's what Psalm 33 is talking about. And hence, those who are
justified, those who are redeemed, and also the church. These are
the ones who were redeemed out of every kindred, tongue, people
and nation in Revelation, chapter five. Jesus said this in John
17. He says, as thou has given me
power over all flesh, the son of God, the son of man given
power over all flesh by God, the father to give eternal life
to as many as God had given him. There you have it. So out of
this world, God's sovereign grace has made a distinction from all
people, chosen a people and redeemed them. And he tells them, you
rejoice. You rejoice in the Lord Jesus
Christ. You are righteous in him. And praise is comely for the
upright. When God accomplishes this work
in his people to know their redemption in Christ, that Christ has by
himself purged their sins and established for them an everlasting
righteousness before God, so that by His blood they have access
into the very presence of God in all His glory." You know what
they do? They rejoice. And God's work in them, giving
that understanding to them that brings forth His praise and rejoicing
and thanksgiving, What is that? That's beautiful to God. He looks
upon his own work and he declares praise is coming for the upright. What else are we going to do?
We don't have any work that we can do to contribute to our salvation.
So faith is that that God given grace out of which true worship
comes. We can't do anything. Christ
has done it all. And that's what praise is, giving
all credit, all glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. OK, so. Let me see, I'm just checking
how much time I have here, just to know how much further we can
go in this song before we have to cut it short tonight. Let
me also read a couple of verses about the church that is rejoicing
from Romans chapter 15. Romans chapter 15. This is the
last part of the book of Romans, an epistle Paul wrote, a letter
Paul wrote to the Romans. And there were in that church
both Jews and Gentiles. So he's telling them this in
Romans 15 and verse 7. At the conclusion of the superlative explanation of the
gospel that God, through Paul, by the Holy Spirit, gave in the
book of Romans. He says this in Romans 15. Wherefore,
receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory
of God. How did Christ receive us? Freely. by his grace, through his redeeming
work. He did it all. He undertook to
bear our burdens and take away our sins and to bring us to God
and make us God's sons. Christ did that. He says, therefore,
you receive one another that way. Verse 8, Romans 15, verse
8. Now, I say that Jesus Christ
was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm
the promises made to the fathers. The circumcision would be the
Jews. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so on. David, all the Jews
before Christ came, God made promises to them, the fathers.
And he says, Jesus Christ came first to the Jews. He came out
of that nation. He was born to Mary and Joseph,
who were descendants of King David, who were descendants of
Abraham and so on. They were Jews. And he sent Jesus
Christ to them first. And he says, and that this is
another reason that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision
for the truth of God, that the Gentiles might glorify God for
his mercy. The Gentiles, that's me and you.
We're Gentiles. We're not descendants of Abraham
after the flesh. What we are is heathen after
the flesh. But he says here that God that
Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth
of God to confirm the promises made to the fathers and that
the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy as it is written. Here's from Old Testament scripture.
Listen to this. For this cause I will confess
to thee among the Gentiles and sing unto thy name. This is the
Lord Jesus Christ. I will confess your name. I will tell the Gentiles through
the gospel all that God is in declaring Christ and his work,
the name of God. I will sing unto thy name. It
just conjures up this attitude of awe and respect and honor
for the Lord Jesus Christ in these words from Old Testament
scripture. For this cause, that the Gentiles might glorify God
for his mercy, it says this, for this cause, I will confess
to thee among the Gentiles and sing to thy name. This is why
I'm going to do this so that the Gentiles might glorify God
for his mercy. He says, I will confess to thee
among the Gentiles and sing to thy name. Amazing, isn't it?
Christ confessed to among the Gentiles and sang to the name
of his God and Father in all that he did in order that the
Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. And then in Romans
15, he continues, verse 10, he said again, rejoice ye Gentiles
with his people, not just Jews, but Gentiles. And again, praise
the Lord, all ye Gentiles, and laud him, all ye people. And
again, Isaiah said, there shall be a root of Jesse, and he that
shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles
trust. Isn't that amazing? And King
David started out being king just of the nation, of the tribe
of Judah, and then he became king over the 10 tribes, and
then he became king over all of Israel, Judah and the 10 tribes,
and also the Gentile nations around him. And that is a typical
of the Lord Jesus Christ who reigns, was risen up by God,
raised up by God to rule over the Gentiles and they would trust
in him. Isn't it amazing? The one who
rules over us is the one we trust to save us. And then Romans 15,
13, same chapter, he says, now, now, given these things, now
the God of hope writing to the Romans, the God of hope, and
to us, the Church of God, the God of hope, fill you with all
joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through
the power of the Holy Spirit. And so we say, we go back to
the text of scripture here. There is a reason for us to rejoice. It's because God has chosen us
in Christ. He's redeemed us by Christ's
precious blood. He's given us his gospel. He
tells us that praise is comely. This is his work. It's all we
have to do is to look to Christ and to praise him and give him
credit for all things in our in our salvation and in our lives.
Isn't it wonderful that God has told us to do the one thing we
want to do, which is give all glory to the Lord Jesus Christ
as poor, helpless, needy sinners saved by his grace. All right. I think I've covered that and
I could go on and on. I've got more in the handout
that I sent out to you. You can always go back. So the
conclusion of all this so far is that it pleases God, it pleases
God that he has chosen a people for himself in Christ, that he
purchased them with the blood of his son. that he made them
his children, that he caused them to worship and praise him
and thank him, and that he gave them this mandate, this privilege
to rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. And to God, this is beautiful. Remember this, though we do give
glory to God in our lives, Though in our hearts we are in our prayers,
we're thanking God that he receives us for Christ's sake freely and
for his sake alone, for his righteousness, not our own, for his blood and
not for our tears. Given that, we must always remember
that God only accepts our praise and our worship and our thanksgiving
through Jesus Christ, because our praise and our worship and
our thanksgiving are still yet full of sin and unbelief. And
so he says this in 1 Peter 2, 1 Peter 2, in verse 2, he says,
as newborn babes, those born of God and newly born, he says,
desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.
If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. There it
is. The cause of our rejoicing. We've
tasted. The Lord is gracious. To whom,
coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, as unto a living stone, a living
stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious,
you also as lively stones, living stones, disallowed, I mean, sorry,
are built up to us as a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, notice,
to offer up, this is first Peter two verse five, to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. There you have
it. So all of our praise and thanksgiving
and worship to God, even though it's from God, a gift of his
grace, giving us faith in Christ and seeing him. Even that is
all. We must give all credit to God
for that grace and it must be received by God through the Lord
Jesus Christ. He makes our praise, thanksgiving
and worship acceptable. Now, besides just knowing that
it. It evokes thanksgiving in our
heart again, that God would accept even our faltering prayers and
worship and praise and thanksgiving, because we know how little we
truly worship and praise and thank God, don't we? And how
poorly we pray. I mean, you take the best prayer
you've ever spoken in all your life and you wonder, you probably
borrowed the words from scripture if it's your best prayer. But
you wonder how you could be so ignorant of all of God's saving
truth, because our prayers are so impoverished with with a true
knowledge, a heartfelt knowledge of the truth of God. And so we
find this so comforting that even though we are limited, so
limited in our understanding and in our prayers and in our
praise and in our worship, yet God accepts us for Jesus Christ's
sake. And isn't that isn't that itself
cause to rejoice? You see, we can rejoice because
the full cause, the all sufficient cause, the only cause of our
rejoicing is Christ, is what God thinks of him, what God has
said of him. We don't find cause in ourselves.
It says in Philippians chapter three, chapter three, verse three,
we are the true circumcision or we are the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. All right. There you have it.
We take no confidence in the flesh, no confidence, none, not
any. But we do rejoice in Christ.
And because we rejoice in Christ, We can rejoice, can't we? Is
there anything about the Lord Jesus Christ that has not perfected
us? Is there anything that we are
in him that is not complete? Colossians 2 verse 10, Hebrews
chapter 10 verse 14. No, by one offering he has perfected
forever them that are sanctified. We are complete in him in whom
the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. So is there cause for
rejoicing then? Of course. The cause is so great
that we have God's word, scripture itself, as the mandate for it.
Rejoice evermore. And again, I say, rejoice. Rejoice
in the Lord. Oh, ye righteous, righteous in
Christ, for praise is comely for the upright. God takes delight
in the praise and the prayers and the thanksgiving and the
worship of his people. It says in John chapter four,
the father seeketh such to worship him. And how do we worship him? In spirit and truth. The spirit
of God in our hearts, having given us this new birth, the
truth of Christ in the gospel. Now, I'm deliberately stopping
here because we don't want to overburden you with the details. We will pick this up next time,
beginning at verse 2, and we'll try to continue through the rest
of the psalm next time. Let's pray. Father thank you
for your mercy to us that you've given us a warrant here from
your word to rejoice and the foundation is the Lord Jesus
Christ in the Lord. In him we are righteous and in
him we have this grace that comes to us which is called faith and
out of this faith we hope in him. We call upon Him, we trust
Him, and we thank Him, and we come to you by Him. And every
time you've given us this grace to see that and to come to you
by Him, we find such peace and comfort in our souls that we're
led to have this joy, this inward joy, heart joy, because of this
heart faith you've given to us. and all because of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. Help us to enter into the truth
of your words here, not just as intellectual academic knowledge,
but as a life that we live in experience of these things that
are true, because you've not only said it, but you've done
it. It's all to your praise and you find it comely. It's your
work, Lord. Take all the credit. Take all
the glory. Put every crown on the head of
our Savior, and we pray, Lord, that we might be enabled to see
him and so worship you in him. In his name we pray, amen.