Psalm 28, let's read it together. It says in verse one, unto thee
will I cry, O Lord, my rock. Be not silent to me, lest if
thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the
pit. Hear the voice of my supplications
when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. Draw me not away with the wicked,
and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbors,
but mischief is in their hearts. Give them according to their
deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavors, give them
after the work of their hands. Render to them their dessert,
because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation
of his hands. He shall destroy them and not
build them up. Blessed be the Lord, because
He hath heard the voice of my supplications. The Lord is my
strength and my shield, my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth,
and with my song will I praise Him. The Lord, excuse me, the
Lord is their strength and he is the saving strength of his
anointed. Save thy people and bless thine
inheritance. Feed them also and lift them
up forever. Let's pray. Father, we pray that
you would be with us as we consider this text of scripture in Psalm
28. We pray that you would open our
understanding and give us that gift of precious faith to see
the Lord Jesus and trust Him with all of our heart. In His
name we pray. Now in verse one, if you notice,
it says, unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock, be not silent
to me, lest if thou be silent I become like them that go down
into the pit. So there's three things here.
First of all, he says he cries to the Lord. He pours out his
supplication to him. He asks him not to be silent,
that's the second thing, because if he is, then he will go down
to the pit. And he calls God his rock, the Lord my rock. So I would say this from considering
that in the light of all of scripture. First of all, David uses the
term rock to describe the Lord in several of the Psalms. I didn't
count them, but it seems like there's a number of them. And
it's not just limited to the Psalms. In Deuteronomy, it calls
God the rock, and in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, the Lord Jesus is
that rock that followed the nation of Israel in the wilderness so
that the water out of the rock, which represented Christ crucified,
was given by God to feed, or to water, to give drink to the
nation of Israel. So let's point out from that
then that the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, is our rock. And I want to look at this psalm
tonight primarily from the view of the believer. And so when
we see this, the Lord is my rock, we know that is speaking about
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our rock. And when we think
about a rock, we think about something that's large, that's
strong, that's immovable. It can endure the storm. Remember
Jesus said, if a man builds his house upon the sand, when the
storm comes, his house will fall. But if his house is built upon
the rock, then when the storm comes, his house will stand.
So the house stands or falls depending upon what it's built
upon, and the Lord is our rock. So if our house is built on Christ,
then we will not fall, not because of our strength, but because
the Lord is our rock, the strength of our rock. A rock can endure
the storm unchanged. I see rocks at the ocean where
the waves beat on them. And it's amazing how much force
that water continually applies to the rock. The rock just stays
there. And there's places along the coast where they've named
the rocks. And those rocks are still there
today because they named them a long time ago. So you see that
a rock endures. A rock is strong and sturdy. It's a strong foundation. Also,
when the Lord revealed his glory to Moses, he hid him in the cliff
of the rock. And that means that in order
for us to see God's glory, we have to be hidden by God in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we can see his glory there
and we're protected in Christ. So he is our rock. He's the one
in whom we hide as a refuge. He's the one that when we hide
in Christ, we can view God in his glory because we see God
in Christ. All these things are true of
the rock. And so he says here, unto thee will I cry, O Lord
my rock. We cry to the Lord Jesus Christ,
don't we? When Jesus was on earth, if a
blind man or a lame person or someone with an issue of any
kind called upon him, even if their friends, if they couldn't
call themselves, if their friends brought them, the Lord always
healed them. So we cry to the Lord, we call
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And whoever calls on the Lord
Jesus Christ shall be saved. And notice he's calling. So,
first thing we have to realize here is our calling, which is
called a supplication in this psalm, is because he called us. So not only is Christ our rock,
but he has to call us. God has to call us or we will
not call on the Lord. It says in Isaiah 65, 1, I am
sought of them, I mean found of them that sought not after
me. I am found of them that did not look for me, didn't call
upon me. So the Lord reveals himself to us. through our calling,
and that calling is the result of His calling us. We call Him
because He calls us. So it's especially true in all
issues of life, but in salvation it is especially true that we
cry to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation by His grace, and
that cry is the gift of God. Don't you know this is what faith
is? Faith is looking to Christ, looking to Christ in order to
come to God by Him, and asking for salvation from all of our
sins and our enemies, death and hell and the kingdom of Satan,
everything that is our enemy, all things that distress us,
He is our rock, He's our salvation from those things. And not only
does He cause us to call, we make our supplications to Him
because our supplications to Him come from Him, but also our
supplications that are towards God are made in Christ. We don't come to God in our own
person. We always come by faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We look to Him and so come to
God by Him. But not only is that true, but
even our prayers are made acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. So if
we consider all these things together, we see grace dripping
from this text of Scripture. We call because He calls. Our
supplications to Him are from Him. Our supplications to Him
are through the Lord Jesus Christ, and our supplications and our
prayers and our calling are made acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Everything hangs on the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's our rock. So when we consider
these things, we realize that our salvation, our prayers, our
faith, all of it is by God's grace. And this is what Scripture,
this is the message of Scripture, this is the teaching of Scripture,
that our salvation is all of grace, from the first to the
last and everything in between. We first believe, we continue
to believe, we continue to call on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
we are kept by the power of God unto salvation, 1 Peter 1.5.
And so in all these things we see that salvation is all by
God's grace, and therefore we realize that this text of scripture
in Psalm 28, verse 1, is written under the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, as a great comfort to the believer, to all the Church
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Come to Him, call on Him, look
to Him, and realize that your coming and your looking is all
of Him, made acceptable by Him, and that this is by the will
of God. You've been directed to the Lord Jesus Christ, like
John the Baptist. He pointed to the Lamb of God
and said, behold, the Lamb of God. And when the people who
were believers in Christ were around him, John the Baptist
said, now my joy is fulfilled because the bridegroom is here
and the bride is joined to him. Hearing his voice made John the
Baptist, the friend of Christ, very happy indeed. And so that's
the way the Spirit of God is teaching us here in this psalm.
He wrote it. He gave it to the church. It's
given for our comfort. Call on Christ. Call on him at
all times, you people. And in 1 Peter 5, 7 it says,
casting all your cares upon him for he careth for you. There's
never a time when we're not to call. And then we are to realize
that our faith and our prayers are from him too. So even more
cause for thanksgiving, more cause that we can trust him to
make all of our coming acceptable. It's amazing to me that the Lord
Jesus Christ is glorified by sinners coming to Him for all
their needs. This is so comforting. We have
needs. That's all we really have. We
don't have anything of merit. We don't have any potential.
All that we have is of God, so we come empty-handed as beggars,
without strength, and we depend upon Christ for everything, and
it amazes me that's exactly what gives Him joy, is to save us
from our sins when we call upon Him. What a blessing it is. Remember in Psalm 27, we looked
at the last time we were together, in verse eight it says, when
you said, when thou said, seek ye my face, my heart said to
thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek. So the believer seeks the Lord
because the Lord first says to him, seek my face. And so we
see that here in this Psalm too. We don't know what to pray, like
we should, but the Spirit of God, according to Romans 8, 26
and following, the Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of Christ
in us, makes intercession for us, and He makes intercession
for us according to the will of God. And He reveals that that
will is that all things would work together for our good, that
we would be conformed to the image of his dear son, that the
Lord Jesus Christ would be the firstborn among many brethren. That's the will of God. And so
we see that here in this text of scripture. Supplication is
me as a believer, or you as a believer, a needy sinner, expressing to
God in Christ expressing my need for God to be my God, for Christ
to be my Savior. It's an expression of my need
for God's grace that everything must be done by Him out of His
grace alone in Christ alone. That's what supplication is.
And so supplication is simply expressing my need for God's
grace to be favorable to me in the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't
that what a believer does? Lord, be gracious to me for Christ's
sake. That's supplication. So, reading
it again. Unto thee will I cry, O Lord,
my rock. Be not silent to me, lest, if
thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down to the
pit. We see here then that the Lord Jesus Christ must answer
us or we will be left in our sins. We will be left in our
sins and we will receive the due reward of our deeds. And
so that motivates us even more to call on the Lord. Our desire
is to be saved from our sins. That's the believer's desire.
And that desire is a strong desire. We want to be saved from our
sins and we want to be brought to the Lord Jesus Christ. Both
of those things are done by Christ. He died for the unjust to bring
us to God. Okay? Now, let's go on to the
next verse in Psalm 28, verse 2. He says, Hear the voice of
my supplications when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands
toward thy holy oracle. So there's two things in addition
to supplications I want to point out here. First, he says, when
I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. Now, if we were
to go back in 1 Kings chapter six, we would see something about
the meaning of the oracle here. And let me just take you there
for a little bit. 1 Kings and chapter six, you
can look at this more extensively in your own time. I'll just get
you in the right direction and you can read through this whole
chapter. But in 1 Kings 6, notice here the way that God speaks
through his servants of the oracle. In verse 16, 1 Kings 6, 16, he
says, and he made, this is Solomon, but it's really Hiram who was
providing the material and a skilled workman who did the work. but
it's attributed to Solomon. He made two chapters of molten
brass to set upon the tops of the pillars. The height of the
one chapter was five cubits and the height of the other chapter
was five cubits. I'm sorry, 1 Kings chapter six
and verse 16. I was reading chapter seven.
No wonder it didn't sound right. Okay, 1st Kings 6.16, And he
built twenty cubits on the sides of the house, both the floor
and the walls with boards of cedar. He even built them for
it within, even for the Oracle, even for the Most Holy Place.
So here he's describing the building of the temple, Solomon's temple.
We call it Solomon's temple because it was given to him by God to
build it. David provided all the material, just like Christ
in his death provided all the material to build the church.
Solomon represents the risen Christ in his glory, building
the Church of God. So he says, though, that he built
this place, he says, the walls with boards of cedar, he even
built them for it within, for the oracle, for the most holy
place. So the oracle here is the most
holy place. Going on down to verse 19, same
chapter, In First Kings 6, 19, it says, and the oracle he prepared
in the house within. So the oracle, which is the holy
place, was within the temple, the house, to set there the ark
of the covenant of the Lord. So we know right away the description
given here is that the oracle is the holy of holies in the
temple Solomon built. So now we understand. Let's keep
reading just so you can get the full persuasion of this in verse
20, and the oracle in the forepart was twenty cubits in length and
twenty cubits in breadth and twenty cubits in height thereof
and he overlaid it with pure gold and so covered the altar
which was of cedar. So Solomon overlaid the house
with pure gold and he made a partition by the chains of gold before
the oracle and he overlaid it with gold. So before the oracle
would have been the separation between the holy of holies and
the holy place and he used chains of gold to separate those. two
places. And the whole house he overlaid
with gold, until he had finished all the house. Also the whole
altar that was by the oracle he overlaid with gold. And within
the oracle he made two cherubims of olive trees, each ten cubits
high. So now you can see, the cherubim
are looking down on the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat.
This is within the Holy of Holies. So what is the oracle then spoken
of in Psalm 28, verse 2? Well, it represents God's presence
God's dwelling place to meet with sinners because of and in
communion of the blood of Christ sprinkled in heaven. The Lord
Jesus Christ entered heaven with his own blood by the Spirit of
God and sprinkled his blood there and obtained for us eternal redemption. Christ himself offered himself
to God. When it speaks of the blood of
Christ being offered, it signifies Christ offered in total, in death,
for the sins of his people, offering himself to God for them, and
his blood was shed because his life was given for them. so that
their life was not taken by God. It was a substitution. So when
we look at that then, in verse 2 of Psalm 28, it says, hear
the voice of my supplications when I cry to thee, when I lift
up my hands toward thy holy oracle. To lift up the hands here doesn't
mean literally that I'm going to raise my hands like I know
some people do in church services. That's not what he's talking
about here. Well, then what is he talking about? Well, the hands
have to do with what we do. We put our hands to the work,
don't we? A man accomplishes his work with
his hands. And so the hands here being lifted
up toward the holy oracle is speaking about the sinner coming
to God by the blood of Jesus and viewing the work of Christ
as the work God accepts for his work. The sinner has no work
to bring, no works that he can bring to God. The best of our
works are called filthy rags in Isaiah 64.6. So the lifting
up of the hands here is the act of faith looking to Christ as
all of my righteousness and my work. And that work of Christ
was offering himself to God. And it is my propitiation. God
was propitiated. It's the atoning of my sins. He made reconciliation for my
sins when he offered himself in death. And he did everything.
He made full remission. He established my righteousness.
He justified me by his own blood, Romans 5, 9. I already mentioned
propitiation. He made full redemption. He obtained
it. He obtained forgiveness of my sins. Everything is by the
blood of Christ because Christ offered himself when he offered
his blood. If he offered himself, then he
offered up everything. If he offered up everything,
there's nothing left to offer. Therefore, he could only offer
himself once. And this is the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So we go on. here, point that
out. Now let me read a text of scripture
to you from Psalm 40, chapter 40 in verse 6. It says, Sacrifice
an offering thou didst not desire, mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt
offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said
I, the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking in prophecy in Psalm 40 verse
7, then said I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me. This is the whole message of
scripture. The volume of the book, from
the top of the scroll to the bottom of the scroll, the volume,
it's written of Christ, he says, and this is what's written. I
delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my
heart. And so we see here that that
ark, where the mercy seat is on top of it, and inside that
ark were the two tables, the manna in the golden pot, and
the censer, I'm sorry, the rod that budded, the golden pot that
had manna, and the two tables of the covenant were in the ark,
and it represents the Lord Jesus Christ offering himself to God,
and us being accepted by his offering of himself to God. So
God's law was within his heart. All those things were put in
the ark. He fulfilled what we couldn't fulfill. He lived a
life we could never live. He endured a death we could never
die. And so therefore we say, upon
a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die. Another's life,
another's death, I hang my whole eternity. And this is what the
believer says when it says in scripture, I cry unto thee when
I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. The Lord Jesus Christ
in his own person took his blood into the holy oracle. He lifted
up his hands when he did it. But the believer says, I lift
up my hands when by faith I look to Christ who laid his life down
for me. in heaven itself, gave himself
for my sins, now appears in the presence of God for me, makes
intercession for me, and on this basis everything else is answered. All of my supplications, my desire
for grace from God is fulfilled in the giving of Christ and God
opening my eyes to that, allowing me to take hold and lay hold
of this by faith. Let's look at verse three, Psalm
28, verse three. He says, draw me not away with
the wicked and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace
to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts. So it's clear
the people here being talked about are called, quote, the
wicked. And secondly, they are workers
of iniquity. They say one thing, but they
do another. They pretend to be at peace with their neighbor,
but they have mischief in their heart. God says this over and
over in scripture about hypocrisy. These people draw nigh into me
with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And then Jesus
said about the Pharisees, you lay heavy burdens on men, but
you're not willing to lift them up with a single finger. So hypocrisy
is the earmark of false religion. And we ourselves are prone to
hypocrisy, aren't we? I remember a long time ago, there
was a book a man wrote. It says, you've seen those books,
A Recovering Alcoholic. He said, I'm a recovering Pharisee.
And this is true of every believer. We are recovering Pharisees.
But here he says, if you're silent to me, in verse 1, then I will
go down to the pit and I shall receive my due reward for my
sins. And in this verse he says, don't draw me away with the wicked.
So it's a confession here in verse 3. An honest admission
that unless the Lord holds me fast and does not draw me away
with the wicked, then I shall plunge myself into their same
ends. If he does draw me away with
the wicked, then I will plunge myself into my own sin, the same
end of the wicked. So it's a confession here. And
that's the difference between what's said here about the wicked.
They profess one thing, but they actually believe something else.
They're acting out. They're thinking something other
than what they say. They say, I'm at peace with you,
but they're really planning your demise. They're thinking through
deception how they can get the upper hand, how they can get
the advantage. That's the nature of the wicked. That's the nature
of all of us by nature. But God does something else with
the believer. What he does with the believer
is he causes us, because of grace, because we lift up our hands
to the oracle, meaning we come to God on the basis of Christ's
work and his sin-atoning death, because we come that way, then
we are honest before God. In our heart, we can come as
sinners saying, Lord, I have no hope. I have no basis for
coming to you. I can only come to you as a sinner
in myself, trusting that you will look upon Christ for me.
You see that difference? That is the difference of fruit
between a believer, this is just expressing what faith does, it
comes to God by Christ, and an unbeliever called the wicked.
But in scripture, the term the wicked is always contrasted with
the righteous. And so over and over in scripture,
you'll see pronouncements made on the wicked and God's blessing
on the righteous. So we understand from that that
these describe every person. Every person is either considered
the wicked or they're considered to be the righteous. And God
is the one who makes the difference between the wicked and the righteous.
By nature, we We live like they do. There's no difference between
us and the wicked. This is not a verse that's looking
down our noses at the wicked saying, I'm not like them. Not
at all. This is a confession that if
God doesn't hear me, doesn't answer me, and doesn't leave me to be drawn away with
the wicked, then I also will have the same end that they have.
And so this text of scripture is not only a confession, but
it's also a statement of the fact that God has divided the
human race into the wicked and the righteous. And no man is
righteous in himself. There is none righteous. No,
not one. There's none that doeth good. So by nature, we're all
wicked. But God has chosen his people in Christ. So he doesn't
consider them in themselves anymore. He calls them the righteous.
Because Jesus Christ, though there is none righteous among
men, is called Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus the Righteous in
1 John 2, verse 1. We have an advocate with the
Father, Christ Jesus the Righteous. And he told the rich young ruler,
there's none good but God. And so it was because he is good. He's Jesus Christ the Righteous.
He says in John 8, The Gospel of John chapter 8, he says, Which
of you convinceth me of sin? He was holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. He knew no sin, did no sin, and
in him was no sin, and is no sin. So he is truly Jesus Christ
the righteous. He's the one who alone in himself
is righteous, and all of his people, though in themselves
are sinners, In Him they are the righteous. He is the Lord
our righteousness." Jeremiah 23 verses 5 and 6. So now if
we get this understanding of the distinction here, what we
see the two classes of people. We see the elect of God crying
out, confessing what they are and their weakness by nature,
asking God not to draw them away with the wicked. Don't leave
me to myself, save me from my sinfulness, my iniquity. Save
me from my sins like David prayed and all of God's people do. We
don't come to God on the basis of our own repentance. We come
to God on the basis of Christ's obedience and shed blood. There's
never a time when we can come to God on the basis of some fruit
given to us by grace. We can't come on the basis of
fruit. All the fruit we're given by the Spirit of God directs
us to Christ, doesn't it? That's what repentance is. It's
directing us to the Lord Jesus Christ away from self-confidence. We have no confidence in the
flesh. It says in Philippians 3, 3. So that's the fundamental
difference here. God saves his people. We damn ourselves, but God saves
us. That's the message of the gospel.
Yes, we can bring condemnation upon ourselves by our sin. We
can bring guilt upon ourselves, but we cannot undo our guilt.
We cannot remove the condemnation. We can't change our heart. We
can't open our own eyes or give strength to our lame feet. We
can't unloose that mute tongue and speak of God's glory in Christ.
We can't see with blind eyes. God has to give us all these
things. So this is just speaking about the difference God makes.
The difference is that he saves his people. He calls them the
righteous in Christ and he gives them saving faith so that they
look to Christ and they trust him for everything. But he is
here saying something about the wicked and he continues it. He
says in verse four, give them according to their deeds and
according to the wickedness of their endeavors. give them after
the work of their hands, render to them their dessert. Now, this
is pure justice, isn't it? Who can complain when God gives
someone what they deserve? We might wince at it, but when
you get punished for what you've done, you don't have an excuse.
I mean, no legitimate excuse. You might try to make an excuse
in order to avoid the punishment. You might hide, like Adam, You
might make an excuse like those in Matthew 7, 21 through 23,
where they claim they had good works and cast out devils and
prophesied in Christ's name, but all those excuses and self-justifications
will avail nothing with God. He's going to render to them
pure justice, and that's what he says here. God is going to
give them according to their deeds and according to the wickedness
of their endeavors, meaning their efforts, whatever they do. their
endeavors, their attempts, even their works. He's gonna give
after the work of their hands, and he's gonna render to them
what they deserve. The people who receive what they
deserve are those outside of Christ. The people who receive
what Christ deserves are those in Christ. And 1 Corinthians
1.30 tells us, of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
Christ is our all, and we are complete in Him. Colossians 2,
9 and 10. Okay? So, this is a prayer though.
God will render justice. He is not a respecter of persons. It doesn't matter if you are
the most devoted, most religious person in all the world, and
you've lived in isolation from everybody else in order to avoid
their sin. and you have flogged your back like Luther did in
the monastery all by himself in his own cell because he was
trying to get rid of his sin, drive sin out of himself. It
doesn't matter. God is not a respecter of persons.
He's going to give you what you deserve. He's absolutely just.
His justice is blind in that way. He doesn't make a distinction
because You attempted to do something in your own efforts to save yourself. You failed to look to Christ.
You failed to give honor to God for what Christ did. And so you'll
receive exactly what you deserve. And so that's what he's saying
here. Now, let's look at verse 5. He says, give them what they
deserve, verse 5, because they regard not the works of the Lord
nor the operation of his hands. He shall destroy them and not
build them up. All right, this is going to be
the case at the end of time and even sometimes during history. God is going to destroy those
who do not regard his works or the operation of his hands. Now, when we think about the
works of the Lord, what do we think about? Well, first of all,
let me say this. Whatever God does brings glory
to God. When he made the world creation
in Genesis 1, 31, it says, God beheld all that he created and
it was very good. It gave glory and honor to him
because it was good. And God assessed his own work
and he declared it to us that my work is very good, you see. But the wicked don't regard God's
work in creation. What do the wicked do? It says
in this one place in scripture, let me see if I can find it here.
I wrote it down. It says, well, I won't spend
time looking for it, but let me say this about creation here.
In creation, what do we see? Well, according to Romans chapter
120, creation teaches us two things, primarily. Number one,
the Creator is our sovereign. He's the one who rules. We didn't
inspire Him to create us. We certainly didn't provide any
power to assist Him. We weren't there. He spoke and
it was done, and it stood fast when He said it. And so the Creator
is sovereign, and not only is He sovereign, but He is almighty.
There's nothing He cannot do. His power is limitless. And so,
God is sovereign and He can do what He wants and He does do
what He wants at all times in all places. He's the creator.
That's the first thing we learn about creation. Of course, we
also learn that even though creation teaches this to men, God has
put it in our hearts, we reject it. We don't regard the work
of God in creation, and we make up idols. We say things like,
well, and I was just like, what was it, Monday or Tuesday, someone
told me about, well, yeah, when we evolve from this to that,
something else happened. I said, well, I don't believe
in evolution, so. It shoots that all out of the
water. The point here is that men make idols. They make up,
imagine how God should be because that way they can control and
manipulate him and leave themselves untouched by his sovereignty
and his power. God says he's the creator and
although men deny it and they make up foolishness in order,
in their so-called wisdom, called science, they make up these wild
stories about how The universe got here in a big bang. I don't
know where that mass came from that originated in the big bang,
but it did somehow got there. They always have a beginning
they can't ever explain, but somehow mass is eternal and it
exploded, created everything else, even living things in our
current state. What a bunch of hogwash. I've
never heard anything more preposterous. Well, I have heard some preposterous
things, but nothing so preposterous. But men don't consider this.
In Acts 17 and verse 24 and 25, it says, God made all things. He made them for himself, by
himself, and he gives to all life, breath, and all things. This is what creation teaches
us. God has given me my life, my breath, and everything that
I have. And the very least we can do
is thank God as our creator for giving us life and breath and
all things. And so the believer is happy to do this. The believer
regards God's works and the operation of his hands. The unbeliever
does not. He rejects it. And then the next
thing he says here, well, the next thing to consider in God's
work is his work in providence. So first we say in our heart,
we say things like it says in Isaiah 45, shall the clay say
to him that fashions the clay, what do you make or your work? Does he have no, or thy work,
he hath no hands? Does the clay say about the potter,
he had no hands? Of course not. If Clay were to
say something like that, the potter would pick up a hammer
and smash him and remake him. It's absolutely preposterous,
stupid, idiocy that men come up with. And they walk around
without any shame on their face, claiming these completely false
things, as if everyone around them accepts them, so it must
be true. No, it's all hogwash, it's baloney. And those are kind
words. God, I'm sure, speaks more clearly
and plainly to them. But again, he says in Isaiah
45, verse 9, woe unto him that strives with his maker. Let the
potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay
say to him that fashioneth, what makest thou? Or thy work he hath
no hands. That's ridiculous, OK? So also
in God's providence, the work of God in his operation in providence. What does God do in providence?
of everything. Known unto God are all his works
from the foundation of the world. There's nothing in time that
happens that is not precisely according to God's eternal will. Nothing happens in time that
wasn't determined by God before time for his glory to accomplish
his work. And this is prominently seen
in Acts 2, 23, where he says, you by wicked hands have crucified,
have taken and crucified. Remember, I'm not quoting it
correctly, but in Acts 2, 23, Peter preaching to those who
crucified the Lord Jesus Christ in that one sermon, at the very
beginning of the sermon, he makes it clear that this was according
to God's will. According to God's will? Can
you imagine how they felt hearing that? He said, Him, Christ, being
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.
You did it, but it was God's will. And how does that make
you feel? Well, I hope it makes you feel
like a believer should feel, Lord, if you leave me to myself,
if you draw me away with the wicked, then my latter end will
be like theirs. Remember Peter? He denied the
Lord. Remember Judas? He betrayed Christ. Remember
Pilate? He condemned the Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember the soldiers? They gambled for his garments.
Everything happened precisely according to what was written
in scripture, according to the word of Christ. Jesus told Peter,
you're going to deny me, three times before the morning cock
crows. He told Judas what he was going to do and that it was
according to Scripture. Pilate delivered him because
of what Scripture said. The soldiers divided his garments
because of what Scripture said. But they all did it. They did
what they did according to their own heart's desire. They were
held in the current of their own character and nature to act
out God's eternal will. Now, what does that make you
feel like? Doesn't it make you realize that God's work in providence
and his operations in providence are such that you and me need
to go to him to ask him for mercy, that he would direct our lives
so that we would not be taken with the wicked and drawn away
with the wicked to judgment? Absolutely it does. It causes
the hair on the back of our necks to stand up and say, Lord, if
you leave me to myself, I will be like one of them. And we ask
him to make a way in his eternal will to also save us for Christ's
sake and to deliver us by giving us his spirit and faith and all
that goes with it to find our all in Christ and give God the
glory. So even though like Peter, who
denied Christ, the Lord Jesus said, I have prayed for your
faith. And that was the difference.
He made the difference. All right. Now, so let's go back
to Psalm 28. And he says, these guys, oh,
and I'm not even done with verse five. He says, because they regard
not the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hands, he
shall destroy them and not build them up. The third work of God
is the work of God in salvation. And here we see the most important
aspect of God's work. How do we know that salvation
is God's greatest work? Well, we might think, because
He saved me from my sins, and that would be a reasonable response. But the real reason is this.
What work did God have to do when He saved His people from
their sins? The Lord Jesus Christ had to
give himself an offering to God instead of them, an offering
God would accept. God required it. God approved
it. God accepted him and with him
accepted his people. This is the work. This is the
operation of God's hands. And this is what we stand and
look upon. Jesus said in several places
in the New Testament, he asked his father to glorify himself.
He did it in John chapter 12, in John chapter 13, in John chapter
17. It happened at his baptism. It
happened at the Mount of Transfiguration. In all those cases, the Father
spoke regarding the fact that he would glorify himself and
it was always going to be in the Lord Jesus Christ and his
saving work. This is so significant. But what
God says here is that the wicked don't regard the work of God
or the operation of his hands. But what do the righteous do?
This is the one thing that we have to regard, don't we? I want to know more about Jesus. I want to know more about God
by looking at what he did in his saving work. Christ offered
himself. He gave everything. It couldn't
be repeated because he gave all. It doesn't need to be repeated
because when he gave himself, he gave all God required, all
that God could ever ask. Christ made known the righteousness
of God in his gift of himself. What a stupendous act that was. Everything about God is seen
in the work of salvation. Not only His sovereignty and
power as in creation, not only His predetermined counsel and
foreknowledge in providence and His power to work out His will
to bring about good out of evil, what a work. But in salvation,
we see the wisdom and the power, the truth and the mercy, the
righteousness and the peace, the justice and the grace. We
see all these things of God harmoniously in concert together, rising to
the highest apex of their expression in the work of God in salvation. And this is this is what the
wicked don't regard. That's OK. Cain brings his own
offering. I don't care about this offering
of the lamb. Mine's just as good. He set his own work on par with,
in preference to, the work of Christ. Esau did the same thing. I'll just take that bowl of porridge
now, if you don't mind. I don't care about the birthright,
the inheritance of eternal salvation in Christ promised to Abraham,
to all who believe. No, I don't care about that.
I just need some soup now. All the way through scripture you
see that. Balaam, he, no, I'd rather have the money to curse
Israel or to do what I want from Balak, the king of the Moabites. Judas, the same thing. He was
plunged, he plunged himself into hell by his greed, his covetousness. And so would we, unless God saves
us. So he teaches us to regard the
work of Christ. And we just hold it up and look
about it. And we're not, we're not tired of looking at it. We're
not tired of looking at the Lord Jesus Christ and his work. We
see God's beauty there, don't we? Just like we saw in Psalm
27. I long to be in Christ, to inquire
into the temple, in the temple of God, and to behold the beauty
of the Lord, seeing all of his work in my salvation. All right,
now Psalm 28 and verse six. Blessed be the Lord, because
he hath heard the voice of my supplications. What's the reaction
of a believer when he realizes that God has heard his cry, in
fact, that God is the one who called him, and therefore he
cried, and he cried to Christ, and Christ heard, and he knows
that because he now looks to Christ for everything and finds,
even though he's a great sinner and nothing at all, that Jesus
Christ is his all in all. What's the reaction? It's in
verse six, blessed be the Lord. Blessed here means the adoration
and awe of worship that a man expresses when he considers the
work of God in Christ. It's that worship that comes
by the Spirit of God. When we see God's work in the
Lord Jesus Christ, we see God's person, his works. We see God's
glory in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We say blessed
be the Lord. because he has heard the voice
of my supplications. I cried, but he gave me the cry. It was his will to call me and
cause me to cry and answer my cry. He said to the woman at
the well, if you knew the gift of God, you would have asked
and he would have given you living water. So we come, Lord, give
me the living water, please. I need it now. If you don't give
it to me right now, please give it to me soon because I need
it and I thirst. So this is God's work and the
believer is at joy. The peace and joy in believing
because we see Christ is all. Everything is met. Everything
is done. God is happy. He's happy with with his son.
He's happy with us. And we're happy that he's happy
with his son for us. All right. Verse seven. The Lord
is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted in him and I
am helped. Therefore, my heart greatly rejoices. And with my song, will I praise
him here again? Here's here's the joy and peace
of faith. When God laid everything on His
Son to save His people as our surety, He didn't hold anything
back. Everything rested upon what Christ
would do for them. And the believer, by God's grace,
has the same attitude. Everything must rest on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Nothing is held back. I'm not
going to reserve part for me and the rest for Him. We see
all is done by Him. The life I want to live, I never
live. I can't live it. But when I see
the Christ life, I say, that's the life God provided for me. That's the life I'm satisfied
with. When I hear of his death, I realize that's the death I
could never die without being eternally damned and separated
from God. But then I see the Lord Jesus
Christ and say, that's the death on which I rely. God did it and
he did it for me. And I trust him as a sinner for
that. OK, now let's go on. to verse, there's much I could
say about that, but let's keep going. Let's go to the last verse,
no, second to the last verse, verse 8. He says, The Lord is
their strength and he is a saving strength of his anointed. Now
we know who the anointed is right away. That's just a name for
the Messiah. Anointed and Messiah, same name.
It means that God has poured out his spirit on his son without
measure. He is the Christ. That's just the name. Anointed
means Christ. God will save his anointed and
when he saves his anointed, he saves his people. I want to give
you something that occurred to me as I was listening to the
Bible reading, as I was traveling. I have an app on my phone. I
can listen to the Bible reading. I really like doing that. It
allows me not to have to look down and still be able to hear
the Bible. But anyway, I was going through
Matthew chapter 4, and Jesus was being tempted by the devil.
We're very familiar with that account. What happened there?
Well, the devil said to Jesus in the first temptation, he said,
if you are the son of God, then command these stones that they
be made bread. And what was Jesus's response
to the devil's temptation? Notice carefully, he said, it
is written. So his defense was scripture.
It is written. Man, he was tempted to prove
that he was a son of God, but he made himself of no reputation.
He says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Now, consider what he
said. Where did that text of scripture
come from? Well, it came from scripture,
but it was given to who? Well, it was given to men. Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. And yet, Christ was the one who
took it to himself. It was written by God for men.
Christ comes into time, applies that scripture to himself as
the anointed. You see, so he's fulfilling the
word of God, applying it to himself as man because his people were
partakers of flesh and blood. He also took part of the same
in order that he might redeem us from our sins. So everything
said here then, it says he will save, he's the saving strength
of his anointed. Now, when God delivered the Lord
Jesus Christ, because he carried him through all the work he gave
him to do by his spirit, upholding him through his life as a man,
so that he was enabled to do everything exactly according
to scripture, fulfilling everything for his people, he was saving
his people. He was living out what the word
of God said about himself as a man. But he was doing it as
the anointed, the Christ of God, in order to do it for his people.
So here the verse then takes on a new depth. He says, the
Lord is my strength and my shield, my heart trusted in him. I am
helped, therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth, and with song will
I praise him. The Lord is their strength, and
he is the saving strength of his anointed. the strength of
all who trust him. He is the savior of all who trust
him through his anointed, their strength and his salvation. And
now finally, the last verse. Notice the last verse. And I
wish that I could give you this verse all by itself, because
really it's a sermon or two just in this one verse. He says, save
thy people. Four things are said here. Notice,
save thy people, bless thine inheritance, Feed them also and
lift them up forever. Save, bless, feed, and lift up. Now this is such an outpouring
of God's blessings on his people, isn't it? What does he say first?
Save thy people. He doesn't say, save every man,
does he? He says, save thy people. This
is a prayer of particularity. It's a definite people he's praying
for. The Lord's people, not the wicked,
but the righteous, those in Christ. Save thy people. His name is
Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. So the answer
to the prayer is fulfilled in Christ. Save thy people. Then
bless thine inheritance. God's people are his inheritance
and he is theirs. And so he says bless them. To
bless here means God pouring out benefits, saving grace and
saving benefits, even eternal life and eternal glory on his
inheritance, on all those who are called his children of promise,
his adopted sons in Christ. And then he says, feed them also. In this life, not only does he
save us and bless us in Christ, but he feeds us. This is the,
The way in which we know that we're the Lord's people is that
he feeds us. John chapter 10 is the classic
explanation of this. The shepherd, because the word
feed here can be translated as feed or to shepherd, he's feeding
as sheep his people. The shepherd feeds his flock.
Psalm 23, even in the presence of mine enemies he makes me lie
down. He leads me through the shadow of death. I'll fear no
evil. Psalm 27, the Lord is my strength and my light and my
salvation. Whom shall I fear? So he's going to feed them continually
through their lives and that feeding is going to be giving
them faith in Christ, the bread of life, the water of life. That's what eating and drinking
is. It's living upon Christ by faith. This is what Paul said,
I live Not I, but Christ lives in me and the life that I now
live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and
gave himself for me. That's feeding, isn't it? When
God feeds us and we're able to do that, we're satisfied. And
then finally, he says, and lift them up forever. To lift up means
to exalt. It means to bless with a blessing
of honor. And what honor do we receive? Well, we receive the, We're joint
heirs with Jesus Christ. All that's given to Christ is
given to his people. He says, he that spared not his
own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? Lift them up forever. And we're raised from the deadness
of our sins to what? We're seated with Christ in the
heavenly places, Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 10. We're God's
work. He can't fail. His work is perfect. He's our rock. And the Lord Jesus
Christ is that one that we trust, the one we rest upon, the foundation,
the cornerstone, and we're built on Him. We cannot fail because
Christ is our rock. And so we cry to Him. It's God's
work. He receives us for Christ's sake. And He directs us, not
like the wicked. He doesn't leave us with the
wicked. He pulls us out and brings us to Himself in the Holy Oracle. We lift up our hands by faith,
trusting Christ's work alone, not our own. And God gives us
this fourfold blessing of salvation, blessing and feeding, and lifts
us up forever with Christ. What a blessing. Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you for your word. It's an overflowing abundance
of all you've done for your people. Help us, Lord, not to consider
ourselves like Abraham did not consider his own flesh. Help
us to consider the Lord Jesus only, because when we consider
ourselves, we find reason either for doubt and fear or a reason
to hide. But when we consider the Lord
Jesus, we have this boldness to come into the presence of
God through Him, knowing that you see Him and look to Him only
for your people. And we trust, Lord, that you
will look to Him for us too. You've put this in our heart
to trust Him. We know we wouldn't have done it on our own. We pray
that you would continue the work you started and perfect it to
the end. Save us to the uttermost, Lord Jesus. We know you're able
to do that. We can't do it ourselves. We
can't even begin to do it, but you can. And so we call on you
to do what you desire to do and you can do to your glory forever
and ever. Amen.