Psalm 145. This is a psalm of praise, it
says. There's so many. All of them
are, actually. This house is a house of praise
and prayer. This psalm and so many others
begin with praise, and the very last psalm penned in the book
ends that way. Praise ye the Lord. Everything
that hath breath, praise the Lord. The purpose of creation
is the praise of our Lord. The purpose of salvation is to
praise the Lord. It's our purpose. The reason
we were born, the reason we were born again. Our purpose of our
gatherings, every time we gather. to praise, which means to thank,
honor, give all to do, glory, and credit, and thanksgiving
to our God. Everything. Verse 1, David begins,
I will, I will. I will extol thee, O my God,
lift thee up like Moses lifted up the serpent. That's what extol
means, lift him up. I will extol thee, my God, O
King, My Creator, My Owner, My Ruler, My Sovereign Ruler. And I will bless Thy name forever. I will bless Thy name forever
and ever. Verse 10 says, All Thy works
praise the Lord, the saints blessing. They bless him. Bless the Lord,
O my soul. One of my favorite Psalms, 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Forget not
all his benefits. Amen. Bless the Lord. Verse 2. Every day will I bless
thee. That's a good thing. Wouldn't
that be a good thing? Brother Kelly read from Psalm
147. It begins this way. Praise ye the Lord. It's a good
thing. It's good to sing praises. Our
God, to our God's pleasure, praise His countenance, fit Him. Every
day will I bless Thee. Why? Because His mercies are
new every morning and His compassions they fail not. Every day. And
I will praise Thy name forever and ever. Verse 21 says that
it ends this way with His holy name. Let all flesh bless His
holy name forever and ever. God's name. Now more than ever,
God's name should be blessed and honored and exalted and feared. Malachi, I'll not have you turn
anywhere else, but Malachi, yeah, 1 Chronicles 29, but Malachi
3, look at that. Malachi 3, in every chapter in
Malachi, he speaks of God's name and his fear. Look at Malachi
3, verse 16. I told you the world can only
quote one verse, John 3, 16. Well, I want you to remember
this verse, Malachi 3, 16. And they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another. The Lord heard it, and a book
of remembrance was written before Him to remember His wondrous
works, His greatness, His acts, His mercy, and on and on. It's
written before him, for them that feared the Lord and thought
upon his name. Look at chapter 4, verse 2. Unto you that fear my name shall
the Son of Righteousness rise. His holy name. David said, Unite
my heart to fear thy name. Only God's people know what that
means. They have such a respect for, reverence for God that they
don't use His name in any way but praise and honor and glory. Now more than ever, that needs
to be proclaimed. And it's so with God's people.
They fear Him and they do not use His name in any way but exaltation
and praise and honor and glory. Brother Kelly prayed for me tonight
in a study that the Lord would allow me to magnify His holy
name. Did you hear him say that? That's
the language of a believer. You don't hear that in the world
today. Magnify His holy name. Verse three, great is the Lord.
This is the title of the message. Our great Lord. Great is the
Lord. Greatly to be praised. His greatness is unsearchable. The Lord, that's Jehovah. Who? The Lord God. Who? The Lord Jesus
Christ. He's Jehovah. You believe that? You know, you're in a minority.
He really is. He's Jehovah. The Lord Jesus
Christ. He's God. Jehovah. Our God and
Savior, great, greatly to be praised, unsearchable. His greatness
is unsearchable. Where have you ever heard that
word, unsearchable? Speaking of whom? Christ. The unsearchable riches of Christ. Great is the Lord. There's no
man that's great. In the Scriptures, when it speaks
of some man being great, it means his possessions, that the Lord
gave him great possessions. He was great. That man became
great because he had this and he had that. All it says about
man's greatness in Genesis 6, verse 5, says, The Lord saw that
the wickedness of man was great in the earth. Evil, but wickedness.
Imagination of his heart, only evil contended. Great wickedness. But great is the Lord. Every
man at his best state is altogether vanity. High and low. Vanity. But God is great. And his greatness
is unsearchable. Past finding out. One generation,
verse 4, shall praise thy works to another and shall declare
thy mighty acts. One generation. God has not left
himself without a witness in every generation. Every generation
God has raised up a preacher and a people, though they be
few and far between. But they declare His greatness,
nothing. They praise His works, not man's,
His works. Works of creation, we're going
to see in a minute, works of creation, especially the work
of salvation. It's all God's work, everything
God's. They declare Thy mighty acts,
Thy mighty acts, all His works. All His might, all His power.
He created all things by the word of His power and He upholdeth
all things by the word of His power. That's how great He is.
He just says, let there be, and there is. He gives the word and
things respond, things are created, things are maintained. Verse
5, I will speak, David said. of the glorious honor of thy
majesty and of thy wondrous work. I will speak again, David said.
I will extol my God and King. I will bless his name. Every
day will I. This is a man made willing. He's
not boasting of his will. This is just one of those Psalm
110.3 that's made willing in the day of his power. Thy people
shall be willing to extol him, unwilling to extol and bless
and honor man. but very willing and ready to
bless and honor our God. David says, I will. Nobody else
will. I will. I'll speak. I'll speak
of the glorious honor of thy majesty and wondrous worth. Surely
this is a title. His majesty is a title belonging
only to our God and our King, isn't it? I cringe. I've always cringed when I hear
men and women calling a king, a man or a woman on a throne,
his or her majesty. You have the dedication in front
of your King James Bible? Rip it out. I tell you, it's
blasphemous. Have you read it? I tore it out. It's awful. Don't read it. Margaret's not in here shaking
her head, she hasn't read it. Don't read it. It's blasphemy,
isn't it? It's majesty. His majesty. Majesty
means grandeur, beauty, excellency. Again, where do you read that
word, excellency? Paul said that excellency is
the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. His excellency. Peter
said we are eyewitnesses of His majesty. I don't think I would
stand before an earthly judge and call him your honor. I would
give him respect and say, yes sir, or yes ma'am, but your honor. We can honor the king, we can
honor a judge, we can honor men without giving them lofty titles
that belong only to our Lord. Holy and reverend is his name. Your honor. His majesty. Surely that only belongs to our
Lord. It's not disrespect to not call
men that. It's just having more respect
to our God. A man, a sinful man, all of a
sudden puts on a black robe and now he's your owner? We honor
the office that we give all honor and glory to God. Okay? So David says, I will speak of
the glorious honor of God's majesty and His wondrous works. How about
you? Look at 1 Chronicles 29. This
is wonderful. David's blessing. This is one
of the most glorious passages in all the Bible. 1 Chronicles
29, three verses that just Oh my, four verses, but three,
that extol and honor the greatness, power, the glory, the majesty
of our God. 1 Chronicles 29, verse 10. Wherefore,
David blessed the Lord before all the congregation, and David
said, Blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel, our Father, for ever
and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness
and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for
all that is in heaven and in the earth is thine. Thine is
the kingdom, O Lord. And thou art exalted as head
above all, both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest
over all, and in thine hand is power and might, and in thine
hand it is to make great and to give strength unto all. Now
therefore, our God, we thank thee and praise thy glorious
name." Isn't that something? That's how we speak of our God,
isn't it? We don't acknowledge men. People come in here and
we don't acknowledge visitors. We don't do that. Do we? We don't thank people for coming
to worship God. We thank God for allowing us
to come worship Him. Huh? This is not a place to honor
men. It's a place to honor God. It's
not a place to recognize people and their works. It's a place
to recognize our God and His work. That's what this place
is all about. If it dwindles down to two or
three people, if we're met together in His name, for His honor and
His glory, that's what we're going to do here. By His grace. That's the purpose. The church
is a pillar and the ground of the truth. Hold up the truth.
The truth of His greatness, His glory, His honor. I will extol
Thee, David said. I will bless Thee, praise Thee.
I will speak. Verse 6 says, Men shall speak
of the might of Thy terrible acts. Men, all men are forced
to speak of the terrible things that God has done, though they
don't say He did it. Hurricanes and earthquakes and
tornadoes and floods and all that, the terrible acts of God. Romans 1, 18, the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men. Only God's people recognize that. It is God that did it.
Only God's people give Him the glory even for His wrath. But
men still speak of these things. They have to. And they speak
of it because it's so terrible. Hurricanes. They're still talking
about hurricanes years ago. It wiped out the whole nation.
Who did that? God's people know. And they know why. Because He's
not in love with everybody. He's angry. He loves His people. We're going to see this in a
minute. He's good to all. But the wicked, he says, will
be destroyed. And he sends these things as
warnings. Do men repent? They don't. Besides, only the
gospel, only conviction of sin brings repentance. But they speak
of the terrible act. David says, I will declare thy
greatness. And they, some men, They shall
abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness. Thy great
goodness. Abundantly utter. That means
always, often. Abundant means often, always. Utter means to gush out. I will, I can't help it, but
abundantly always and often utter gush out his great goodness. Great goodness. Where do you
remember reading that? You don't have to turn, I'll
turn for you. Can't help it. Exodus 33, Moses said, Lord,
show me your glory. You've already seen the Red Sea
part. You've already seen so many things. But he said, Lord,
if we found grace in your sight, Show us your glory. Show me your
glory. And here's what the Lord said.
In Exodus 33, 19, I will make all my goodness pass before them. I'll proclaim the name of the
Lord before them. And here it is. His goodness,
His greatness, is His sovereign grace and His sovereign mercy
to undeserving sinners. Salvation that no one is worthy
of. No one deserves a chance to be
saved. Everyone deserves hell. And starting
with this preacher. Salvations of the Lord. It's
all sovereign grace and mercy. He said, I will be gracious.
Now, that's amazing. That's God's goodness. And I
will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. It's not of him that
willeth, of him that runneth. It's of God that showeth mercy,
sovereign mercy. This is His greatest goodness.
Isn't His greatest goodness, His greatest glory, His grace,
His mercy, His greatest work, His acts seen more clearly at
the cross than anywhere else? In the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, there you see the goodness of God. There you see the mercy of God,
the grace of God. The great act, the great work
of salvation, which is of the Lord. And verse 7 says, And they
shall sing of thy righteousness. Thy righteousness. Jesus, thy
blood and righteousness, my beauty are my glorious dress. Do you
know what that means? Adam and Eve did. The first sinners
saved by grace did. And every sinner after that.
His righteousness. David said, Psalm 71, he said,
I'll make mention of thy righteousness and thine only. No, it said that. That righteousness is what Christ
did for his people in making us accepted. We're accepted in
the beloved by his righteousness, not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but as according to his mercy is saved. And the
righteousness, you must be as righteous as God. God is holy. God is just. How can God be just
and justify guilty sinners? through the righteousness of
Jesus Christ, imputed to our account, and our sins imputed,
laid on Him, and He put them away. You understand that, don't
you? Oh, I'll sing of thy righteousness. Not many do, but God's people
do. Look at verse 8. The Lord is
gracious. Now, here's His goodness. He
is gracious. He's great. Goodness is his grace. He giveth and giveth and giveth. Oh my, unspeakably, unspeakable. And Paul said, thanks be unto
God for his unspeakable gift, the son of righteousness. He giveth, verse six, seven,
eight, verse eight, the Lord is gracious and full of compassion. That means feeling. Feeling. He's touched with the feeling
of our infirmity. How's that? Why? Because he took
upon the likeness of sinful flesh. Because the children were partakers
of flesh and blood, he took part of the same. He's able to succor
and help them that are in the flesh, because he was in the
flesh. He has compassion. It's feeling. He went through
everything we went through, go through. He's full of compassion. This is His great goodness. He's
slow to anger. Slow to anger. Israel provoked
Him and provoked Him and provoked Him and so did we. Don't we? If you're honest. He's slow to
anger. Aren't you glad? And He's of
great mercy. Great mercy. Oh my, mercy means
not getting what you deserve. Not getting what we deserve. You know, God's goodness and
God's greatness is not in just what He does, but is in what
He does not do. You understand me? God's goodness is not only in
what He does, but in what He does not do. Scripture says He
has not dealt with us according to our sin. Oh, my. Their sins and iniquities, they
said, I will remember no more. And because Christ was made sin,
he's our righteousness. The Lord's good to all, verse
nine, he's good to all. His tender mercies are over all
his works. God's goodness is great goodness. is not only to those we think
are innocent, like the animals, but His greatest goodness is
that He's good to the unjust and the evil. He's good to the
evil. Our Lord said that He's kind
to the... He's merciful and good to the unkind. The rain falls
on the unjust as well as the just. That's how good our God
is. All men ought to praise Him,
shouldn't they? We need to praise Him that we
do praise Him. We need to be thankful that we're thankful.
He's good to all. He's great goodness. He's tender
mercies. Tender mercies means care for. It means feelings for people. God takes no pleasure in the
death of the wicked. He does not afflict, the Scripture
says, willingly. That is, take pleasure in afflicting
people. He takes pleasure in them that
fear Him and those that hope in His mercy. That's what he
read in Psalm 147. It's tender mercy. See, God is tender and kind to
people, to animals, to insects. Insects. Do you ever have any
feelings for insects? Do you? Sarah, what's wrong with you?
Have you no mercy? I do. Don't you? You see a spider or a worm or
something, and you think, no, I'm going to save it. Sally? Sarah? Y'all need to show some
mercy. We're insects. The inhabitants
of the earth are like grasshoppers. Why doesn't he step on all of
them? Because he's tending to himself. Don't you now? Don't you have
a little bit of, a little bit of, don't you feel sorry for
him? They're not sinners. God shouldn't feel sorry for
any sinners that prick their fist in his face and hate his
son and don't give him thanks and just take, take, take and
bite the hand that feeds them. God shouldn't feel sorry for
anybody. Should he? The whole creation groaneth because
of sinful, wretched, rebellious mankind. God should have snuffed
him out. Just left the animals. They weren't
sinning against Him. They still don't. He's tender. He's tender and
merciful. Right down to the insects. You
need to chill, son. Seriously. You know, we have
a lot of mercy on our dogs and cats. My, my, my. They ain't
worth a plug nickel. And our God is merciful, tender
mercy on all His works. Everybody. Everybody. That's His goodness. He's great. We ain't got any goodness. It's
obvious. We're just not like Him. It says,
verse 10, all thy works shall praise the Lord, and thy saints
bless thee. Bless his holy name. Speak, sing,
worship, praise, and bless him. That's what bless means. People
say that. They bless you at the grocery
store. They bless you at the gas station. They bless you,
bless you, bless you. We bless God. We bless his name. We don't utter that around and
make people think we're religious. That's a sick name. I want you
to know how religious they are. Now, let's, if we're going to
bless somebody, let's bless God before men. Blessed be His holy
name. Saints bless God. They, verse
11, shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom and talk of thy
power. His kingdom. Oh, everybody's
talking about the United States of America and Russia and China
and all that. That's not the topic of my conversation. We speak our conversations in
heaven of His glorious kingdom. That's what He told us to pray.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. And you know what? It is. It
is being done. The kingdoms of the Lord, of
the world of the Lord, they belong to him. The king's heart is in
the hands of the Lord. Fear not. Fear God. Don't fear man. Talk of his kingdom,
not theirs. Kingdoms come and kingdoms go.
All these powerful kingdoms, the Romans, the Greeks. Alexander the Great died when
he was about 30 years old. Died of syphilis. Boy, doesn't
God bring men down in their pride. We're going to speak of his kingdom,
his glory, his honor. We don't discuss politics here.
We talk about his kingdom. Our Lord said, my kingdom is
not of this world. If it were, my servants would
fight. But my kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, a spiritual kingdom.
And that's what we talk about. And that's what we fight for.
honor and the glory of His kingdom. They talk of His power. We're
not worried about Putin. Putin shouldn't be. I don't want bombs to drop. I don't want these things to
happen, but if they do, God did it. You hear me? That's a fact. His power. There is no power
of God. The powers that be are of the
Lord. We'll talk of His power. To make
known, verse 12, to the sons of men His mighty acts, the glorious
majesty of His kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom. Thy dominion, His reign, His
rule endureth throughout all generations. He's reigned and
ruled from the beginning. Who? The Lord Jesus Christ. Don't
you love Psalm 2? Psalm 2, oh, he says, I've set
my king on my holy hill of Zion. And he that sitteth in the heavens
laughs at man. It says, kiss the son, lest he
be what? Angry. And you perish from the
way when his wrath is what? His wrath is kindled. How much?
Just a little bit. That's the God of the Bible.
That's the Jesus Christ of Scripture. That's the Lord we know and worship,
isn't it? That's the one we extol and all.
That's the one. His Majesty. Verse 14, I love
this. The Lord upholdeth all that thou
art. Raiseth up all those that be
bowed down. Notice the tense of the verb upholdeth and raiseth. It's present. Hidden. Upholdeth. Upholdeth. Picketh up is what
it means. Keep picking up. All that fall. Once. It means the fallen. The falling. Those that keep
falling. He keeps holding them back up. I'll turn to this one for you.
Proverbs 24, listen to this. A just man falleth seven times,
and riseth up again. But the wicked will fall in the
midst forever. How many times have you fallen? Are you through
falling? Oh, no. When your children were
little, when your children were little, how many times did they
fall? Especially when they're learning
to walk. And we're still learning to walk, by the way. How many
times did they fall, Jeanette? How many times did you pick them
up? Huh? If they were laying there crying
and hurting, did you say, ah, they'll be alright? Oh no, I
don't know you. You pick them up. How much more
are they having to fall? All that fall. Especially, this
is fitting in our sister Nancy in her old age. Who did that? There are no accidents. Isn't
it? Well, the Lord upholdeth all
that fall. Raiseth up all those that be
bowed down. Bowed down. Right across the
page, verse 8, verse 146, the Lord opened the eyes of the blind,
the Lord raises them that are bowed down. The Lord loveth the brave. Those
that are bowed down, oh my, doesn't everything in this life tend
to make us, just cast us down? Doesn't it? The sin within us,
the sin around us, the trials, the troubles make us bow our
head. Don't they? Just weigh us down. It's a heavy
burden. But the Lord raises it up. How many heavy burdens have you
been under in your years? How many? He's picked you up
every time, hasn't He? Every time. No matter how heavy
the burden. Hadn't he raised you up again? Then you get under
another one. He raises you up again. Verse 15. This is a great psalm. John Davis said, that's my favorite. Along with 140. Verse 15. The
eyes of all wait. upon thee, and thou givest them
their meat in due season. Brother Kelly, Sunday, we were
talking at the service about how much we love to feed animals.
That's giving these cats some food. And it's just enjoyable. Do you enjoy feeding your animals?
I do. I just love it. And as I said,
none of them are worth anything. But they are to us because we
just love them. And we enjoy feeding them. Don't
they look to you like they adore you? Don't your animals do that? Don't they? They do, don't they?
Because they do. And you know that in John 9 where
the Lord came down from the mountain, that leper, is that John 8 or
9? Anyway, that leper, the Lord
came down and the leper came and it says he worshipped him.
Remember that? Look that word up. You look it up in strong concordance,
and the word worship means, like a dog licks his master's hand. That's worship. You want to see
worship? A dog looking up at your face, or a cat. My cats
do that. I love you so much, I need a
treat. Can you resist that? No. Our Lord doesn't either. And
it says in Psalm 145, it says, They all wait, and He gives them
their meeting. He gives them their meeting, you see. He opens
His hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing. What is
your desire? What is your greatest desire?
Ask yourself this question. David said, All my desires before
thee, Lord. He said, One thing have I desired,
Lord. Will He give that? Oh, will He give that. Delights
in giving that. In fact, Psalm 37 says this. Listen to this. It says, I think
it's something. Yeah. Delight thyself in the
Lord and He'll give you the desires of your heart. If He's your delight,
then you give Him. He'll give you his desire. And
he's so good that whatever men and women go after, whatever
they want to go after, they can get it. You have to get it. You
work hard enough, you give it all you got, you get it. He puts
the world in the heart of the world, so have these things for
God's people. But what do God's people desire?
David said one thing about his heart. He said, Whom have I in
heaven but Thee, and there's one on earth I desire, none on
earth I desire beside Thee. Can you say that? If so, oh,
He's going to give you the desire of your heart. The Lord is righteous,
verse 17, in all His ways. He's right. The judge of the
earth does right. Oh, He's right. Let's commit ourselves to him
that judgeth rightly in all things. He's holy in all his work. And nowhere is his righteousness
and his holiness seen more clearly than at the cross, isn't it?
It's holy. Holy, holy, holy. Does God hate
sin? He sure does. Look at the cross. Does God kill? He sure does. He killed his own son. Yes, he
did. Men didn't do that. God did.
Right? He's holy. Holy, holy, holy.
The Lord, verse 18, is nigh unto all them that call upon him in
truth. He's nigh. You know, I have some
friends in here, and I can call on you, You'll come to help me. I know you have. You've done
it before. You've dropped everything. But you can't always be near
and come every time I call you. You can't do it, can you? You
just physically aren't able. He's a very present help in times
of trouble. There's another song. Isaiah
says here, before you call, he'll hear you. He's listening, like
a mother listening for that child, you know, to sleep. Hannah was
a baby. You know, they'd wake up all
night, and they'd be fed, and they'd cry. And I heard some
of them, but not all of them. Many heard them all. One night
I said, well, she slept all night, didn't she? And she said, no,
she woke up three times. She heard every cry. How much
more? Our Heavenly Father. David said,
My tears are in your bottle. Every tear cried. Isn't that
something? He's nigh unto them that call upon him, all that
call on him in truth. I was so disappointed with the
commentators on this. I didn't see not one of them
mention Christ. God's not going to hear us apart
from crying. You know that? All that call upon Him in truth.
Our Lord said this many times, John 14, 15, 16. He said, the
Father will hear you. You ask anything in my name,
the Father will hear you. Right? We call upon Him in truth. What's truth? Christ said, I
am the truth. Right? We must call upon him
in the name. The whole world talks about God
and calling on God. The Muslims call on God. Well,
we call on God in the name of Jesus Christ. There's none other
name under heaven. There's one mediator between
God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. God won't hear us apart
from faith in Christ. Isn't that right? You know that.
You're blessed to know that. We call upon Him in truth. Sure,
it means in sincerity, but more than anything, I'm certain, if
you look at your marginal reference right beside in truth, it gives
John 4, 23 and 24. That's calling in Christ's name. He will fulfill the desire, verse
19, of them that fear Him. The desire of God's people is
toward Him. He will hear their cry. He will.
What will He do? He will save them. Our God saves everyone He loves. Our God saves everyone Christ
died for. Our God saves everyone that asks
Him for mercy and grace. Our God is a Savior. That's what
He does and that's His name. He will save them. Who saves
them? He saves them. Salvation of the
Lord. The Lord preserveth, verse 20,
all them that love Him. Preserveth. The Lord is our preserver. Salvation of the Lord. Psalm
121. The Lord shall preserve thee
from how much evil? All evil. Right? He shall preserve
thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this time forth and even for evermore. He preserves us. All them that love him, they're
called according to his purpose. And all the wicked, what's he
going to do? Destroy them. So David ends his
psalm where he began. My mouth. Did we see something
of his greatness? Something of his goodness? Something
of his mercy? Something of his greatness? Something
of his mighty actions worth? Just a little bit. We just waded ankle deep in the
ocean of his fullness. My mouth. Wouldn't it be good
to use this mouth for this one thing? To speak of the praise
of the Lord. Let all flesh bless His holy
name forever and ever. Amen. All right, stand with me.