Turn to Psalm 30. I want to read
through this psalm with you. It's 12 verses long, so we should
be able to cover it in this one night. It says in verse 1, I
will extol thee, O Lord, for thou hast lifted me up and hast
not made my foes to rejoice over me. Now what this means will
be explained in the verses that follow. He has lifted, the Lord
has lifted him up, and has not allowed his enemies to rejoice
over him. Verse 2, O LORD my God, I cried
unto Thee, and Thou hast healed me. Now this is typical of this
psalm and every psalm that the Lord's people find themselves
in distress, they call upon him and the Lord helps them. And
so we have this great promise that God's people can call and
they are heard by God and he does save them and heal them.
Verse three. Oh Lord, that has brought up
my soul from the grave, that has kept me alive, that I should
not go down to the pit. This sounds like the resurrection.
God has raised him up from the grave. Verse four. Sing unto
the Lord, O ye saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance
of His holiness. For His anger endureth but for
a moment, in His favor is life. Weeping may endure for a night,
but joy comes in the morning. And in my prosperity, I said,
I shall never be moved. Lord, by thy favor thou hast
made my mountain to stand strong. Thou didst hide thy face, and
I was troubled. I cried to thee, O Lord, and
unto the Lord I made my supplication." There it is again, how the psalmist
is constantly crying to the Lord, pouring out his heart, his prayers
to the Lord. himself. Verse 9, What prophet
is there in my blood when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust
praise thee? Shall it declare thy truth? Hear, O Lord, and have mercy
upon me. Lord, be thou my helper. Thou hast turned for me my mourning
into dancing. that has put off my sackcloth
and girded me with gladness." Sackcloth is something they would
wear, we don't really aren't familiar with that, but it was
a rough garment and they would put it on when they were in sorrow
and distress and he's saying here that God has turned his
mourning, his sorrow into dancing and has put off his sackcloth
and now has clothed him with gladness. The last verse, to
the end for this purpose, that my glory may sing praise to thee
and not be silent. O Lord, my God, I will give thanks
unto thee forever. I'm going to take a moment here
to turn the volume down on the computer because that chiming
can be an annoyance. Okay, so let's consider these
words now that we've just read in Psalm chapter 30. First of
all, recognize that the rest of scripture teaches us, and
I will read to you one of those scriptures in 2 Samuel chapter
23, that the Spirit of God, now this is directly from scripture,
the Spirit of God spoke through David concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ. It says in 2 Samuel chapter 23, It says, now these be the last
words of David. David was the son of Jesse. And
he said, the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the
God of Jacob and the sweet psalmist of Israel said, the spirit of
the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue. The God
of Israel said, the rock of Israel spake to me. He that ruleth over
men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. and so on. And then
he talks about the covenant God made with him, and that covenant,
of course, is made in the Lord Jesus Christ. So here David,
by his own words, by the recorded words of God in Scripture, says
that the Spirit of God spake by him And we know the subject
matter of what he spoke was this everlasting covenant. He says
in 2 Samuel verse 25, although my house be not so with God,
yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things,
and sure, this is all my salvation, all my desire, although he make
it not to grow. So in David's family's case,
It couldn't have been concerning him that God was speaking, which
is what he's saying here, but God spoke of another David, the
son of David and David's Lord. And he spoke of the everlasting
covenant which we know from the New Testament is made in the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, now, with that as background,
we know that in the Psalms, that David, who is the king of Israel,
and the sweet psalmist of Israel, in his own words from scripture,
that God spoke by him through his spirit. And we know also
what he spoke about, this everlasting covenant which was made in Christ.
And in 1 Peter 1, in verse 11, Peter, the writer in this chapter,
says, that the prophets of old searched
what or what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in
them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of
Christ and the glory that should follow. So now we see here that
the message that God had in The writings of David was the sufferings
of Christ and his glory, which would result because of his sufferings. And thinking along those lines,
I want to read this scripture to you from Proverbs 15 in verse
33. Proverbs 15, 33 says this, the fear of the Lord is the instruction
of wisdom. And before honor is humility. Now, we know the Lord Jesus Christ
was crowned with glory and honor. In Philippians chapter 2, it
says so. It says he was crowned with glory
and honor. It says it throughout the New
Testament. In Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3, Chapter 10, verse
12, throughout the New Testament, God shows that the Lord Jesus
Christ, after His resurrection, ascension, was exalted to the
right hand of God in glory and given all power. and all authority
in heaven and earth to bring about his will, which was the
will of God in the salvation of his people. He was given all
power, all glory, the glory of God, because he not only is the
son of God and therefore has it by nature, but because as
man, he did the will of God. And what was that will that the
Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled? Well, according to 1 Peter 1
verse 11, his sufferings, that will of God was the sufferings
of Christ. It says so in so many places
in the New Testament. One in particular is Hebrews
chapter 10 where he says in the volume of the book, the volume,
the scroll of scripture from top to bottom speaking of him
that he would come and do the will of God and he said this
when he was entering into the world when God prepared for him
a body and so we see there in Hebrews chapter 10 that the will
that God gave him to do was to lay down his life to make an
atonement as our high priest and as the sacrifice that was
offered to God for our sins and so bring us to God. In short,
David spoke by the Spirit of God of Christ crucified, risen,
reigning, and interceding for his people. And I say that by
way of introduction so that we see that when we read this psalm,
we can understand what it's actually speaking about. Another text
of scripture helps us, in 2 Timothy 3, verse 15, it says, Timothy,
the Apostle Paul speaking to Timothy said, from a child that
has known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise
unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Scriptures
make you wise to salvation, which is through faith in Christ. Okay, well that really helps
us, doesn't it? It forms the framework, the foundation
of everything we read in scripture. It concerns the Lord Jesus Christ,
and therefore our faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God concerning Christ crucified. And this message of
God in his word from scripture is called the gospel, and the
gospel is God's power to salvation. Therefore, he says, it comes
to us from the holy scriptures, and it's able to make us wise
to salvation through faith, which is in Christ. And this is consistent. We would wear out ourselves to
find all the places in the New Testament to speak about this,
and I'll just mention one. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
the apostle Paul told the Corinthians, I declare unto you the gospel.
And this was something he preached to them, and that he said that
they would be saved by it if they kept it in memory. And then
he goes on to tell them what that gospel is. He says how that
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was
buried, that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Now that's the gospel condensed
and that gospel concerns Christ dying for our sins according
to the scripture. So now we have all these things
laid out before us and we can say without reservation that
what David wrote was about Christ crucified for our salvation to
exalt Him, to lift Him up and give Him glory in that work of
His. And so the sufferings of Christ,
the glory that should follow, our eternal salvation in Him,
which comes to us by God, from God, through faith, which is
in Christ. God gives us faith, He tells
us of Christ, and that's the way He gives us that faith. That's
what we're gonna read about in Psalm chapter 30. Okay, let's
look at verse one. He says, I will extol thee, O
Lord, for thou hast lifted me up and hast not made my foes
to rejoice over me. Now, as I said, this was written
by David. There's no question about that.
It says in the very heading of the psalm, a psalm and song at
the dedication of the house of David. So it was written by David. David wrote this psalm, but how
are we to understand the words of the one speaking in this psalm? Because he said, I will extol
thee, O Lord, for thou hast lifted me up and hast not made my foes
to rejoice over me. Again, keep in mind, David is
speaking of David's son and David's Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what he says in Psalm
110, verse 1, the Lord, Jehovah, said to my Lord, speaking of
Christ, Adonai, sit thou at my right hand till I make thine
enemies thy footstool. And so, throughout the New Testament,
that text, Psalm 110, verse 1, is quoted as referring to Christ. And so when we read this psalm,
David is speaking not only about Christ, but he's speaking as
a prophet. And prophets spoke out of their
own experiences. God put those experiences, those
circumstances in their life, and then he gave them the words
so that what happened to them and the word God gave to them
both contain the message of the prophet from God. And what is
that experience here? Well, the experience of David
was that he had many foes, many enemies. And his experience was
that God lifted him up and did not allow his enemies to rejoice
over him. Think about the enemies that
David had. There was King Saul. Saul was
the choice of the people. Samuel warned the people that
they should not seek after a king like the kings of the nations
around them, and they wouldn't heed his warning. And so he told
them what their king would be like, that he would take their
lands, take their children, he would take the best young men,
he would make them soldiers, he would make their daughters
cook for him and do all sorts of things. And so Saul was given
by God against the, I mean, as a reward, not a reward, but as
an answer to the people, their demand for a king. And so in
that sense, it was a chastisement on the nation of Israel. But
Saul became David's arch enemy. Saul swore to kill David. And Saul represents those in
the New Testament who oppose the Lord Jesus Christ. David
was God's chosen and anointed king over Israel. Saul was chosen
by the people. David was a man after God's own
heart. Saul was a man after his own
heart, after the people's heart. And so you see in the relationship
between Saul and David, one of David's arch enemies. And then
there were other enemies. Remember Absalom, David's own
son, rebelled against him and tried to overthrow the kingdom
and take the king, David's role as king from him. And then he
got Ahithophel, David's trusted counselor, to give counsel against
David how he might overthrow the kingdom. and take it from
him and destroy not only his father but his soldiers and his
army. And so that's just a few of the
examples of the enemies that David had. Then there were all
the Philistines and the Syrians and so many people outside the
nation of Israel who were enemies not only of Israel but of David
because he fought the Lord's battles. He fought the enemies
of the Lord. So David had a number of enemies
and foes, and God, at the dedication of this house of David, the Lord
had lifted him up above his enemies and had not allowed his enemies
to rejoice over him. But, again, this is David as
the prophet. This is the historical setting,
the experience of David in his life. But that's not the end. That's not the full message of
this psalm. In fact, that's just the springboard,
if you will, into the real message. The real message concerns the
son of David, who is Christ. He's the one God had promised
to David that he would put him on the throne and he would rule
forever. For example, let me read Psalm
132 and verse 11 to you to show you that David knew this and
was written in the Psalms. Psalm 132, verse 11, it says,
the Lord has sworn in truth to David. He will not turn from
it. Of the fruit of thy body will
I set upon thy throne. And so he goes on and talks about
this. So here we have a promise explicitly made to David by God
that he would set his son upon his own throne. He wasn't talking
about Solomon. He wasn't talking about these
other descendants of Solomon. He was talking about David's
son Christ. And so Jesus picks up on this
in Matthew 22 and throughout the New Testament. He was the
one who was the son of David, who was David's Lord. Now, If
we look at it in this light, therefore, think about this as
the words of the Lord Jesus Christ spoken in prayer to God as his
God and Father, and not only for himself, but for his people. Because there's a key that unlocks
this psalm and unlocks every psalm. And it is this, that the
Lord Jesus Christ is being spoken of or is speaking in the first
person in prophecy. What he said in his life is recorded
here in prophecy. And what he experienced in his
life is recorded here in prophecy. And it has a spiritual explanation
to it. So as David was the king over
Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ is king of God's church, God's
elect people, those who are the true children of Abraham who
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And as David had many enemies,
the Lord Jesus Christ had many enemies. As those enemies were
enemies of David because he was the king and because he was the
champion in Israel, so the Lord Jesus Christ had many enemies
because he stood as king for his people to save them from
their enemies. And so we can understand the
psalm then when we see it in this light. The key is that David
spoke of Christ and Christ speaks in the psalm of what God had
given him to do as the Christ, as the king of his people. And
we see his experience in his life, how he would save them.
So reading verse 1 in this light, let's read it together. He says,
I will extol thee, O Lord, for thou hast lifted me up and hast
not made my foes to rejoice over me. The Lord Jesus Christ was
lifted up. God didn't allow his enemies
to rejoice over him. So we might stop and pause and
think for a minute, well how did the Lord Jesus Christ, how
was he lifted up? And how did his foes, how did
his enemies try to rejoice over him? Well, look at the same psalm,
Psalm 30, where we are, and look at verse 3. He says, O Lord,
thou hast brought up my soul from the grave, thou hast kept
me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. So this is clearly
speaking about resurrection, isn't it? And think now what
happened in the resurrection of Christ. He rose from the dead. That was a victory over death.
And how did he gain the victory over death? Well, he himself
bore our sins in his own body on the tree that he might put
death to death by putting our sins away. Sin is the consequence. It's the payback, the wages of,
I mean, death is the consequence and the payback and the wages
of sin. If there were no sin, there would
be no death. And so Christ removed the sting of death by taking
the sting into his own self, burying our sins in his own body.
And having done that, he was delivered for our offenses. Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures. And God raised
him up. He put away sins and therefore
God raised him from the dead. Now, if we read it in this light,
the Lord Jesus Christ in the fulfillment of the prophecy of
David here is saying, I will extol God. I will give praise
and honor and speak of him. And in my heart and with my mouth,
And he calls him, O Lord, for thou hast lifted me up. He's
raised him from the dead. Not only did he raise him from
the dead, but he put him at his own right hand and gave him glory
and set him as king over the whole universe as God and man,
and gave him the reward of all of his labors and his intercession. And you can read about that in
Isaiah 53, 12. He gave him this, well let me
just read it to you because I forgot exactly how it's put, but in
Isaiah 53, 12, he says this concerning what Christ did in his atoning
work. The last verse of Isaiah 53,
12, he says, verse 12, Therefore I will divide with him a portion
with the great, he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because
he has poured out his soul to death, he was numbered with the
transgressors and bear the sin of many, and he made intercession
for the transgressors." That's the work of Christ. He bore the
sin of many, he made intercession for his people, God therefore
rewarded him. He set him at his own right hand
and gave him honor, glory, power, and all things in heaven and
earth into his hand, especially his church. That was the reward
he sought most above all things, is the people he died to save. So God lifted him up. Now, the
second part of verse 1, Psalm 30 verse 1 says, and you have
not made my foes to rejoice over me. Again, how would they rejoice
over him? How would Christ's foes, and
who were they, how would they rejoice over him? Well, we know
the enemies of Christ. Jesus said in John chapter 15,
the world The world hates me, and the scribes
and the Pharisees hated me without cause. So the world of the religious
world, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and also the Gentile
world, the Roman authorities, they all put Christ to death.
They hated him, and it was without cause. There was no just reason
for them to hate and kill the Lord Jesus Christ. So they were
seeking to destroy him. How then would they rejoice?
How would his enemies, if God allowed them to, rejoice over
him? Well, they would rejoice if they
were successful in humiliating him in the eyes of their own
followers. So they had many disciples, and
the Pharisees wanted nothing more than to seem important in
the eyes of their disciples. So they would rejoice if they
could humiliate Christ in the eyes of their disciples, and
also in the eyes of those from whom they sought praise, like
Herod and others. They wanted power, political
power, so they sought to discredit Christ in that way. If they could
discredit him in the eyes of their followers and in the eyes
of the rulers over them, who were the Romans at the time,
they would gain power and authority over others, and they would have
respect in the eyes of men, and they lusted for that. So that's
one way the religious, the Pharisees and the religious hypocrites
would love to have humiliated him and proven him to be false.
And it seemed like they were successful at the cross, didn't
it? It seemed like he was hanging
there, stripped naked, he was beaten, bloody, they had a crown
of thorns on his head, they mocked him, they spit on him, they hit
him with their fists, and they pierced his hands and feet, and
eventually pierced his side. He was the laughing stock of
the drunkards, it says in scripture. So they seem to be successful
in what they wanted to do, right? But if you look a little further
in this Psalm, he says in Psalm chapter 30, in verse five, he
says, weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the
morning. So the Lord Jesus Christ did
endure humiliation, but only for a time. And then joy came
in the resurrection morning. So they would have rejoiced in
that way, but how else? How else would they have rejoiced
in him? Well, they would have rejoiced if in the eyes of his
followers, Jesus' followers, they could humiliate him. If
in the eyes of poor sinners, weak and helpless people like
the publicans and the harlots, who came to him to be healed,
to be forgiven, to have life, to receive salvation, if they
could discredit Christ in their eyes, then they would keep them
from their salvation. They would keep them from honoring
Him. And that's exactly what they
hated most, is when the children cried out, or the people followed
Him, and they gave praise to Him. The children crying out,
Hosanna! Hosanna to the King of David,
who comes in the name of the Lord. And they were so angry. If they could, they would have
then treated him like they did Stephen, gnashing on him with
their teeth and stoning him right there, but God had purposed that
he would die by the hands of the Romans, be crucified on the
cross. And so, that's another way they
could rejoice over him if they were able to humiliate him and
discredit him in the eyes of his disciples. But how else? Well, they would rejoice if they
could afflict him with a cruel and merciless suffering and death. And that they did. They inflicted
that death upon him with their own hand and by the hand of their
rulers, the Romans, the Gentiles, and they took delight. They actually
took delight in his pain and suffering. And they took a special
delight when he cried. They said he trusted in the Lord
that he would save him and deliver him. And they waited, and the
Lord didn't appear to save him or deliver him. And so they took
a special delight in that, didn't they? And so how else? Is there other ways in which
they would rejoice? Well, they rejoiced when they
buried him, didn't they? When he was buried and out of
mind. And if they could just put him out of sight and out
of mind of the people, those who trusted him to save and deliver
them, then they would rejoice. Or they would rejoice if they
could silence him. And they did that when they put
him to death and put him in the tomb. And when his followers
were silenced, those who were his disciples, if they could
silence them. And so they did all sorts of
things to silence the disciples. And they would especially rejoice
if God himself forsook him and discredited him. If God did not
show his favor of Christ, then they would be totally successful. But in all these things, in this
psalm, in verse 1, what we see is the Lord Jesus Christ is thanking
and extolling God because he did not allow his enemies to
rejoice over him. In all of these things, they
were thwarted, they were disappointed in their intent, their evil intent. He did have, he was mocked, he
was humiliated, he did suffer at their hand, and it seemed
like his disciples forsook him, and he himself was put to death
and buried, but that was the will of God. That's the way in
his weakness that he destroyed Satan and death, and he put a
sentence of condemnation on all of his enemies. And so that's
what God is speaking about here in this verse one here. The Lord
Jesus Christ, in this psalm, he exalts over his enemies. He
leaps for joy, as it were, and rejoices in triumph, exceedingly
at the success and the victory of his cross. That's what it
means. I will extol thee because you
lifted me up and did not allow or did not make my enemies to
rejoice over me. All right, let's go on in verse
two. He says, O Lord, my God, I cried
unto thee and thou hast healed me. Now, how did the Lord heal
him? Remember in 1 Peter chapter,
well, let me read to you another text of scripture in Matthew
chapter eight. Matthew chapter 8 he talks about
him taking our infirmities and this Taking our infirmities was
the way he healed those that he healed he said in Matthew
8 In verse 16, when the evening was come, they brought to him
many that were possessed with devils. He cast out the spirits
with his word and healed all that were sick, that it might
be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying,
listen to these words, himself took our infirmities and bear
our sicknesses. So he took them. How was he healed? Well, he was beaten with stripes,
wasn't he? and his stripes that were inflicted
upon him. became the healing stripes of
his people. In 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse
24, who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree
that we being dead to sins might live unto God by whose stripes
you were healed. Okay. So here we see that the
Lord Jesus Christ, and this is the other key to this psalm,
when he speaks in prayer, He's making intercession, not for
himself alone, but for his body, the members of his body, those
who were joined to him in a union made by God. And what union is
that? Well, it's a union of election. God chose us in Christ. And it's a union of suretyship. Christ pledged to be our surety
to bring us again to God and that he himself would bear all
that was demanded of God from us. And so he answered with himself
and brought us again to God by his own substitutionary work. He put himself in our place as
our surety. We were one with him. and also
as our Redeemer. Remember, the Redeemer was a
near kinsman. He was joined to us. In Hebrews
chapter 2, it says, He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are
all of one. So He was joined to us as our,
in election, we were joined to Him as our surety, as our Redeemer,
and He was joined to us in covenant. All of this was part of the covenant
God made with Him for us. That covenant that's everlasting
that was made in His blood, in that covenant, Christ is the
head. We are the ones God made the
covenant with when He made it with Christ. And that covenant
was made when Christ shed His blood. He says He took the cup
and gave it to His disciples and said, drink this. This cup
is the New Testament in my blood, the new covenant in my blood.
On His death, all of that testament was put into force. In Hebrews
9, 15, it says that when the testator died, the covenant was
put into force. So we were one with him in election,
in his surety ship engagements, as our Redeemer and as our covenant
head. And because he was our covenant
head, just like Adam was in that transgression in the garden,
whatever Christ did, we did in him. Just like Levi was in the
loins of Melchizedek when Melchizedek paid tithes, I mean when Abraham
paid tithes to Melchizedek, so we were in Christ when the Lord
Jesus Christ fulfilled our tithes to God for us, when he suffered
and fulfilled our righteousness. Everything Christ did, he did
not as an individual, but as the head of his people, as the
champion and the captain and the firstborn and the firstfruits.
Everything was done that way. Again, Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures. He was buried and He rose again
the third day according to the Scriptures. He was delivered
for our offenses. He didn't commit them. He just
bore them. And he rose again, but we didn't
perform the righteousness that caused his resurrection to be
ours too, that we would receive life in his life. No, he acted
as one with his people. So, throughout scripture, in
the New Testament especially, it says this, it says, I am crucified
with Christ, or Christ who is our life. Now these are just
examples. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which
I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. All these things speak
of this union with the Lord Jesus Christ in His life, in His sufferings,
in His death, in His resurrection, and even in His ascension to
glory. We're risen with Him. Christ
is our life. He's our wisdom. In fact, it's
all distilled in this statement in Colossians 2, verse 10. We are complete in Him. Okay? So, when the Lord Jesus
Christ is praying in this psalm about being healed here, you
have healed me, he's referring to his people with him. The stripes,
the chastening, the wrath of God poured upon him for our sins
was a wrath, a chastening, stripes poured upon him for us, and we
were healed by His stripes, and He Himself was risen from the
dead. He was restored to the evident
favor of God, and all the blessings, and all the honor and glory of
having fulfilled the will of God, and being justified in the
eyes of the onlooking universe, especially His enemies, that
He was truly the Christ of God, the Son of God. And so the Lord
healed Him, and we are healed with Him. So do you see how the
psalm now, if we step back and reflect on things we've talked
about here, the key to understanding this psalm and every psalm is
to see our union with Christ, that he stood for us, that David
wrote of him who was his son, the Christ of God, and that he
wrote of him who would suffer, and who would be glorified by
God when he fulfilled his obedience in that suffering. And that's
what we see here. Now let's go on. He says in verse
three, Oh Lord, thou has brought up my soul from the grave. Thou
has kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit. Here
again, we see plainly, this is speaking about the resurrection
of Christ. How often in the Old Testament
does the Old Testament scripture talk about the resurrection?
And in 1 Corinthians 15, again in verse 4, he says that Christ
not only died and was buried for our sins according to the
scripture, but he rose again according to the scripture. And
the scripture teaches that God raised him from the dead because
that was part of the obedience that he gave him to do. He says
in John 10, Verse 17 through 18, that the Father has given
me this commandment to lay down my life and to take it up again. It's all part of God's will given
for him to complete and finish, and the resurrection was a capstone
on that work. He finished it when he was risen
from the dead, and God justified him and justified his people
with him. He justified us. So here the
father raised Christ from the dead. He himself laid his life
down. He took it up again. This was
a commandment he received from his father. He fulfilled that
commandment. And so in his death, every believer
died to sin with him. And in his resurrection, every
believer was raised and justified with him. Not in our own body,
not even in our spirit at the time he was raised, but in our
surety, in our covenant head, in the one who was our redeemer. Now in our husband, think of
it that way, Christ loved who? The church. He loved the church
and gave himself for it. And so this union is so closely
knit that God uses that union between a man and his wife and
he says if a man loves his wife, he loves himself. And so we see
this, there were members of his body, of his bones, and of his
flesh. This is all talked about in Ephesians
chapter 5. So when every believer every
believer given to Christ in election, joined to Him as their surety
and Redeemer by God's will, made their covenant head by God's
doing, then when He rose, then we rose with Him. By His obedience,
we were made righteous, and the righteous live. God rewards us
with a life, everlasting life, because our obedience is Christ's
obedience. Okay, let's go on to verse four.
He says, sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give
thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. Now, as is often
the case, as we've seen in the Psalms, not only does the prophecy
speak of weakness and sufferings and affliction and sorrow, and
then deliverance after crying to the Lord, but also, What we
see in the Psalms is there's this call to God's people, his
congregation, his brethren, the saints, or whatever word God
uses there to join him in this praise. So here in verse 4 he
says, Sing to the Lord, O ye saints of his, those who are
sanctified, made holy, and give thanks at the remembrance of
his holiness. Now, the only way that we can,
with clear conscience, give thanks at the remembrance of God's holiness
is if we see that God's holiness is what required the death of
Christ for us, because God in his justice could not let sin
go unpunished, and having taken our sins and laid them on Christ,
he delivered him up to death. He did not spare him. But we
also see God's holiness not only in His justice, because He didn't
spare His Son when He was made sin for us, but also we see God's
holiness in His grace, because God in His grace provided His
Son. He gave His Son. He delivered
Him up and did not spare Him for us all. Therefore, God's
grace shines brightly too. In other words, we see all of
God's perfections in the Lord Jesus Christ in him crucified. And so he says, he calls on God's
saints. Sing to the Lord, O ye saints
of his. You are holy, and how are you
holy? Well, we've been sanctified by
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, according
to Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 10 and verse 14. And in Hebrews
13, 12, it says that Christ sanctified the people with his own blood.
So we can see through these things that our holiness before God
is first and foremost, again, in Christ. God has made him to
be for us wisdom, righteousness, underscore, sanctification, redemption,
and redemption. So he's made him everything for
us, including our holiness. In Exodus 31 and verse 13, it
says, I am the Lord that sanctifieth thee. The Lord does the sanctifying
of His people. He calls us saints because we
are holy in Christ. He chose us to this, Ephesians
1, 4. God has chosen you in Christ
from the foundation of the world that you should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. So what God required, He provided
and He performed it for us. He performs all things for us,
Psalm 57, verse 2. So, again, he's calling on the
saints, who are the Lord's saints, to give thanks for the remembrance
of His holiness. God, in His holiness, required
the death of His Son, not only to be just, but to be the justifier
of the ungodly. That's it. Think of this and
give thanks to God for His holiness. We can completely clear conscience. Come to God based only on what
Christ has done. what God has said concerning
that what he has done is sufficient, all sufficient for his people.
Now, in verse five, it says, for his anger endureth but for
a moment, or but a moment, and his favor is life. Weeping may
endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. First of all,
think about the last part. As a believer, we follow in our
experience the experience of the life of Christ. Remember
Jesus' words to his disciples, the servant is not greater than
his master. If they have persecuted me, they'll
persecute you. If they've hated me, without
cause, they'll hate you. If I have washed your feet, then
you also ought to wash one another's feet. And he said these things
over and over to them. Remember, he said, the word that
I spoke to you, the servant is not greater than his master.
And so our experience follows the pattern of Christ's experience. So, weeping may endure for a
night in our life. We endure all sorts of trials
of our faith in order to purify our faith. And so the Lord Jesus
Christ, it says in Hebrews chapter 5, though he were a son, yet
learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. Weeping endures
for a night, but joy comes in the morning. And so, again, though
we have this great joy because of the salvation God has given
to us in Christ, yet in this life we have heaviness, and then
he promises us that this salvation will be revealed in the last
day. We will experience all of the fullness of our salvation
on the last day. That's the morning. That's the
resurrection morning. Going back to the beginning of
the verse, it says, his anger endureth but a moment, and his
favor is life. Now, the other part of our experience
is that we sense the loss of God's presence in our life, don't
we, as believers? And this is, in fact, the chastening
hand of God. This is the way God chastens
his children. He withholds the sense of his
presence to them, and what do they do? Well, there's nothing
more distressing than to lose the presence of Christ in your
life, at least the sense of it. Jesus promised, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee. No, never. And he says in Matthew
28 verse 20, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of
the world, the earth. And so there's no doubt that
Christ is not going to forsake his people. But there is a time
in our experience when we feel His forsaking, don't we? And
that time usually is at the time when we are distant from Him
in prayer, or in His Word, or in sin, or something of that
sort. And it doesn't have to be those
things. Sometimes we feel like we're
just going along and things are well, and suddenly the next moment
we wake up and we feel despondent. The world looks dark, it's closing
in on us. We don't see, you know, we begin
to lose a sense of joy in thinking about the potential of our life
or something like that. All these things closing in on
us. What does it cause the believer to do? Well, it causes us to
cry out to God to show us his favor again. And so in Psalm
80, he says this over and over again. He says, turn us again,
Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine and we shall be
saved. If you shine in favor upon us,
then no matter what the circumstances are, if we know and have a sense
of your presence, We can, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
go into the furnace of fire and endure it without it singeing
even our clothes or passing the smell of fire upon us, because
we have Christ with us. But without Him, it doesn't matter
what blessings we have, whether it be money, or a family, or
anything. or security in our home or whatever
it is that we treasure in this life, if we have all those things
and miss the presence of Christ in our life, that felt sense
of his presence through the preaching of the gospel again. when we
find our hope in Christ alone and we rest assured in Him and
find our peace and joy in what He is and has done for us and
that He's all of our salvation, we come to God by Him alone and
therefore come with full assurance, when we lose that, then we're
upset. It doesn't matter what we have,
it's not enough to quiet our unruly, our unrestful spirit.
But so that's what he's saying here. His anger endures for a
moment. We sense it, but there will be
a time when it's restored because God doesn't forsake his people.
But again, he is the one who actually did endure the wrath
of God for a moment. And this was just this was compared
in Isaiah 54 to the flood of Noah's day when he says, In Isaiah
54, he says, in verse seven, for a small moment have I forsaken
thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. When did
God for a moment forsake his people, as it were, it seemed
like, and his son? Well, it was at the cross when
Jesus cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And
it was at that time when the Lord Jesus Christ himself in
an inexplicable way that we can never really get into when the
whole earth was covered with darkness, there was no light. And he cried in anguish, my God,
my God, why has thou forsaken me? And so he says here in Isaiah
54, for a small moment, have I forsaken thee, but with great
mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have
mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. This is as the
waters of Noah to me, as I have sworn that the waters of Noah
should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would
not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. Listen to these words in
Isaiah 54 10. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be
removed. There's no doubt about it. This
earth is going to crumble and be destroyed. It's going to happen.
He says, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither
shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that
hath mercy on thee. And then look at the last verse
of Isaiah 54. He says, no weapon that is formed against thee shall
prosper. and every tongue that shall rise
against the injudgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage
of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of
me, saith the Lord." What comfort this is! Expect the world to
crumble. Expect that weapons will be formed
against you. But every weapon that's formed
against us, whether it be inside of us or outside of us, whether
it come upon the whole world or just come on us, No weapon
that's formed is going to prosper. Every tongue that rises against
you, you're going to silence. Why? Because we'll say, our righteousness
is of Christ. It's in Christ. Everything we
have is in Him. And so His anger appears to us
in our experience for a moment, but because His anger was on
Christ, and it was on Him for a time, and was lifted because
He's satisfied as the propitiation for our sins, the wrath of God,
and took it away, Therefore, our sins being taken away, God
has favor upon us. His favor is life. Weeping may
endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." Now there you
have it. That's the gospel, isn't it? And so we've reached verse
8, and I'm going to pause there to allow us to catch our breath
for next time, because I don't want to wear you out just this
much this time. Do everything this time, because
we won't have time. So think about these things.
See the key to understanding the Psalms. It's seeing Christ
crucified, his sufferings and his glory. And see the key to
understanding his words, that he spoke in union with his people,
that what he did, what he suffered, what he accomplished in his death
and his resurrection was one with them. And his prayers were
for them, he made intercession for the transgressors, and he
was heard." That's our comfort. That's our encouragement. We
can come to God because he made the way. That's why it says throughout
scripture he's called the first begotten from the dead, or he's
the firstborn among many brethren. He's the captain of our salvation.
He's the forerunner. All these things speak of Christ
acting for us as our champion and as our covenant head in this
work of salvation. He cannot fail to raise any of
His people from the dead for whom He shed His blood, because
God in His holiness will not allow it. He will raise them
from the dead. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for
your mercy that the Lord Jesus Christ stood for us and answered
everything for us. And now you've given us his own
words and we can see that he rejoiced in your salvation. When
you raised him from the dead, all of his enemies were silenced.
None of them were able to rejoice over him. over him and none of
them are able to rejoice over your people because of our union
with him and our salvation in him and his glory even now that
he has for us. We know Lord that your word is
true and your holiness you have done all of this and we pray
Lord that you would fulfill your will and your word and exalt
your son and save us to the praise and honor of your glory by your
grace. Be with those that we mentioned
in prayer earlier, with the Nehavas, and with Jamie and Jimmy, and
with Moses, Irene's son, and we pray, Lord, that you'd be
with our children and us as we go into this season of time,
when we can spend time with our families, and we can consider
the things you've done throughout history in the accomplishments
of our Lord Jesus Christ, even in his birth, and in his death,
and his resurrection. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.