Psalm 145. Thank you, John and
Jeanette. Psalm 145. As you might know,
I've been reading through the Psalms again, like you do, and
I gave you that verse from this chapter, verse 18, I think, yeah. And I couldn't get it off my
mind, so I went back and started studying it, and we're going
to look at it tonight. This is called the Psalm of Praise. Praise means to revere or regard
with great respect, tinged with awe. Respect with awe. That's why I despise using the
term reverend. in front of any man's name. Psalm
111 says reverend, holy and reverend is his name. Respect with awe,
worship, give thanks. Here David reminds us of the
many reasons. innumerable reasons that we have
to praise our God. Our God is good, yay, great. Great. Just you wait and see.
No matter how bad things may seem, how evil some things may
seem, it's all good, yay, great. We're going to see someday. We're
going to know as we've been known. We're going to see it was all
not just good, it was great. Great, because our God is good,
our God is great, and our God can do no less than what is good
and great and best. He says in verse 1, David says,
I will extol thee, O God. I will extol. That means to praise
highly. That means to bless. I will bless
thy name forever and ever. I will. Do you? Oh, my. He says, I'll bless thy name. Verse 2, Every day will I bless
thee, I will praise thy name forever and ever. His name. How blessed you are, we are,
if we bless His name and don't curse His name. You know how
many people only use God's name to curse? We dare not do that. We fear His name, don't we? We
make mention of His name as exalted. We bless His name. We fear His
name. We will never use His name in
any way but thanksgiving and praise and honor and glory, right?
Why? Because God's been so merciful
to us, revealing Himself to us. And He says, I will bless thee
every day. Every day. Do you have... This
is why Lamentations 3 says that it's of the Lord's mercies we're
not consumed. His compassions, they fail. His
mercies are new every morning. So every day we have cause to
bless Him, don't we? Because every day is another...
day of mercy and great. Verse 3, great, great is the
Lord and greatly to be praised. Great is the Lord and greatly
to be praised. The song says streams of mercy
never ceasing call for songs of loudest praise. Greatly to
be praised. I know that term is bandied about
and used so flippantly today, isn't it? Praise. You've got
your praise leaders and you praise this and you praise that. And
our Lord said, this people draw near with their lips and their
heart is far from it. But God's people truly, from
the heart, they praise Him in spirit and truth. We really do.
Tell of His excellent greatness. Verse 3 says, His greatness is
unsearchable. You can keep digging, and this
treasure keeps growing. You can keep searching, and His
ways are past finding out. Greatness. I love Ephesians 2. It says in the time to come,
He's going to show us the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus our Lord. Great. Great. His greatness is unsearchable.
God is great in His works of creation. He's great in His works
of providence. He's great The greatest work
of all, salvation. Verse 4, one generation shall
praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty acts.
One generation to another. Adam, tell us how merciful and
how great the Lord has been to you, how gracious. Adam, tell
us. He'd tell you 930 years the Lord was merciful to me. And
I was so rebellious. Eve and I were so rebellious.
But God, rich in mercy. Noah? Tell us, Noah, how great
is the Lord to you? Oh, He chose me and my family
out of billions. Oh, great mercy and grace. One
generation shall tell another. Jacob, tell us. Jacob, tell us
something about the Lord's greatness to you. Oh, great grace. I love what Jacob said, he says,
I'm not worthy of the least of all thy mercies and all the truth
that you've shown me. Simon Peter, tell us, how great
is the Lord to you? How merciful is the Lord to you?
Oh, he said, you know how many boats were in that harbor that
day? And he called me and my brother Andrew. Mary Magdalene,
tell us, how great is the Lord to you? Oh my, he cast out seven
devils from heaven. Tell us brother, sister, tell
us, can you tell something of the greatness of the Lord to
you? One generation shall speak of his his works to another and
shall declare his mighty act." David says, I will. I will speak
of the glorious honor of thy majesty and of thy wondrous work. That's some line, isn't it? The
glorious honor of thy majesty. Another reason I don't like to
call kings and queens, your majesty. I think that only belongs to
our Lord. Majesty, the glorious honor of
thy majesty. Majesty means supreme greatness. That's what it means. Majesty
means sovereignty, royalty, loftiness, dignity, character, grandeur. Now who does that belong to?
Who does that title belong to but our God? The glorious honor
of Thy Majesty. Majestic sweetness sits enthroned
upon the Savior's brow. His head with radiant glory is
crowned. His lips with grace overflow. This is a song that we're looking
at tonight. And everything ascribes greatness
to Him and His glorious honor of His Majesty. No mortal can
with Him compare among the sons of men. Fairer is He than all
the fair that fill the heavenly train. The glorious honor of
His Majesty. Yes, let's bow the knee to His
Majesty. Verse 5 says, And of thy wondrous
works, as we said, creation, the heavens declare his glory,
the firmament showeth his handiwork. The things that are made without
things that are seen declare his eternal power and Godhead,
don't they? His providence. Oh, how great. We read on down there in verse
16. He opens in 15. He gives to everything
their meat in due season. He opens His hand and satisfies
the desire of every living thing. Great in His providence. You
know how much food it takes to feed all the living things on
this planet? And He just keeps feeding them,
just keeps feeding them. His salvation though, that's
His greatest work, the greatest of all. The margin here in verse
5, again this is why I love this version, it says, I will speak
of the glorious honor of thy majesty and of thy wondrous words. You see that? My wondrous things. Words. He's magnified His Word
above all His name. The more we look into God's Word,
the more glorious it is in us. Unsearchable. His words are amazing
and marvelous. The Word of God. Verse 6 says,
men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts. Well, you don't hear that language
anymore. Would you turn to one place with me? Exodus 34. Go
over there. Exodus 34. See what this is the
first time terrible is used. Exodus 34. And while you're turning,
let me read to you a couple of other scriptures. Psalm 99 verse
3 says, of Zion, let them praise thy great and terrible name,
for it is holy. And then Psalm 68 verse 35 says
this, it says, O God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places. That's an unheard of reference to God in it today.
Exodus 34, look at this, the first time it's used and he's
speaking to Moses on the mountain. In verse 10, he says, God said,
Behold, I make a covenant before all thy people I will do marvels. such as have not been done in
all the earth, nor in any nation, and all the people among which
thou art shall see the work of the Lord. For it is a terrible
thing thou wilt do with thee." Now, don't think of terrible
as something awful. Well, awful is not a bad biblical
word. It's full of awes. What's that
mean? We think of these terms as being something bad, but the
Lord is talking about himself and he says his name is terrible.
What it means is it incites fear. terror, reverence, fright, mingled
with amazement. Have you ever been, let me give
you an illustration. Have you ever been up on a high
precipice on a mountain? We went to, we took the girls
to, what's the name of the... Maccabees Knott. If you don't
walk out, just walk out to the exit. It feels you would tear at anything. But it's awe. It's amazement. It's beauty and glory tends with
fear. You understand? And this is our
God. Have you ever been when the ocean
is, wow, the waves are crashing. I have. And Mindy and I rode
out of Hurricane one time down in Florida. And the trees were
laying flat. And the wind was just, just a
roaring wind. It's terrible. Yet I couldn't,
I was amazed. I was filled with awe. I was
filled with worship. terror mingled with amazement. Have you ever been at a waterfall? Anybody been to Niagara Falls
or somewhere like that? Scripture says God's voice is
the sound of many waters like that. Roaring, yet wonderful. You don't understand what I'm
trying to say. I'm trying to describe God's terribleness in
a way, such a way that We might be in awe of it. Thunder.
Lightning. I'm a little different. Most,
when it starts thundering or lightning, I get out in it. I mean, it's amazement. Nothing
more powerful on this earth, coming from heaven, than a bolt
of lightning. Oh, that's our God, isn't it?
Amazement. That's our God. All He is, all
He does, terrible. Fear, yet awe and amazement and
wonder and, yes, love. We love that he is so, don't
we? Go back to our text. It says
in verse 7 that all God's people, men, shall abundantly utter the
memory of thy great goodness and shall sing of thy righteousness. They shall abundantly utter the
memory of thy great goodness. said to Moses on the mount, Moses
said, show me your glory. Remember? And the Lord said,
okay, I'm going to make all my goodness pass before him. I'm
going to declare the name of the Lord, the Lord, the Lord
God, gracious, merciful. He said, there's a place by me,
I'm going to put you on the rock, stand on the rock. And he said,
I'm going to put you in the rock. What is all that? What is God's
goodness? What is God's greatest goodness?
He made all His goodness pass before Him. We see it in Bethlehem's
manger. You see that child? That's the
goodness of God. You see that man walking this
earth, teaching, preaching, healing, saving sinners. That's the goodness
of God, the mercy of God. You see him hanging on Calvary's
tree, taking the blame for something he did not do and giving them
his righteousness. That's the goodness of God. That's
the gospel of God. And it says in verse 7, they
shall sing of thy righteousness. That's a foreign term today,
is it? No, not to God's people. It's on their lips, it's in their
heart. They sing of His righteousness. Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness,
my beauty are, my glory has strength. These are songs that we sing
from the heart because we know that Jesus Christ is Jehovah
Sidkenna. He's the Lord, our righteousness. Surely shall one say, in the
Lord have I righteousness. We know that number. David said,
I'll make mention of thy righteousness and thine only. Only God's people
say that. Our God is righteous. He loveth
righteousness. All he does is good and just
and pure and lovely and holy. The judge of the earth is righteous.
He does what's right. He speaketh right things. And
he sent the Lord Jesus Christ in spite of our sin, because
of our sin, to make us righteous. Now isn't that righteous? So
good, so righteous. His great work of redemption.
He made sin that we might be made the righteousness of God.
Yes, we'll sing of His righteousness. Not our own. It goes on to say
in verse 8, the Lord, here's what the Lord is. He's gracious.
Grace means giving. He giveth, and giveth, and giveth
more. What do we have we have not received?
Where do we get it? Every good and perfect gift comes
down from above. From the Father of lights, of
whom there is no bearableness or shadow of eternity. Meaning
he will never quit giving. He is gracious. The Lord is. That's what he is. He giveth, he giveth, and giveth
more grace. And he's full, per se, of compassion. Oh, compassion is a sweet word,
isn't it? It means to feel for, have deep inner feelings for. Full of compassion. For me? A sinner? Yeah. It's a faithful saying. That's what he came to say. He's
slow to anger. Oh, aren't you glad about that?
Slow to anger. We provoke him just like the
children of Israel in Psalm 107 and other places. They provoked
him, they provoked him, they provoked him, they never quit
provoking him. But he's slow to anger, slow
to wrath, slow to anger, of great mercy, great in his mercy, full
of mercy. That's the thing I need the most,
and that's what God delights to do. One of my favorite verses,
the Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him and knows that
hope in His mercy. I fear Him. By His grace, I fear
Him. I really do. I stand in awe of
Him. I think He's terrible. I'm smiling
when I'm saying that. Don't you? You understand a little
bit more about what that means. I think it's terrible and I love
it. Great mercy. The Lord is good
to all. Verse 9. His tender mercies are
over all His works. How good is He? How tender are
His mercies? Men, women, young people. Everything that hath
breath ought to praise him, but don't. And yet he keeps on giving. He keeps on doing. He's kind, he's merciful to the
unjust as well as the just. His reign falls on the unjust
as well as the just. So, he's tender, tender mercies. Scripture says he takes no pleasure
in the death of the wicked. There's another verse. He speaks
like us. He says, Why will you die? Why will you die? Verse 10, All
thy works shall praise thee, O Lord. Everything that God has
made gives praise to Him. The elements give praise to Him,
don't they? The plants, the animals, everything. Except man. But the saints do. Saints bless him. They bow the
knee. That's what blessed man. They
bow the knee. Every knee will bow and every tongue shall confess
whether voluntarily or not they're going
to. God's people, saints. It means
sanctified one. It means set apart. It means
chosen by God, separated from others to know Him and bless
Him. We've been separated, sanctified
by God to bless, not curse. To thank, not complain. To worship,
not blaspheme. How blessed we are. The saints
bless Him. I don't think we really realize
how blessed we are that we're not cursing God, that we're in
here tonight. Blessing is holding that. I really
do. Someday we will. When we see the wicked call on
the rocks and hills to fall, then, Lord, shall I know, and
not till then, how much I owe. God chose me and separated me,
plucked as a bran from the burning, to do what? Praise Him. Read on, it says, verse 11, they
shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, God's kingdom, It's glorious, something of the
gospel of the kingdom we know, something of the things that are not saying
we've seen a little bit, but not as we will. And it says,
they'll talk of thy power. Verse 11, they'll talk of thy
power. Oh my, the power of God, the
creative power. Heaven has declared His glory.
The Word of His power. We talk about the Word of His
power. The Gospel is His power. The Gospel is the power of God
and the salvation of Christ is the wisdom of God and the power
of God. We talk of Men are impressed
with men and various things that men think are powerful. We're
impressed with the gospel that is the power of God Almighty.
The gospel that saved a wretch like me. The gospel power that
controls the wills and the hearts. And it turns and changes, takes
away the stony heart, gives a heart of flesh, makes a man who said,
I will not, makes him willing in the day of His power. That's
power. If you can control men's wills
and hearts and mind, that's power. And that's our God. I'm so thankful
He exerted that power. Men say, He won't go against
your will. He won't violate your will. He better! He better or
you're a goner. And it takes great power to do
that. I can't convince you. I can't make you do anything.
Most of you are older than me. No, some of you are. But I can't
convince you, you can't convince me that God can and must and
does. That's power. That's power. So we pray to Him. We don't try
to convince people of anything. We don't try to whatever. We don't use tactics and all
that. We use the gospel that is the power of God in salvation.
And we pray, Lord, exert Your mighty power as You did to me
upon them. Amen. He says in verse 12, "...to
make known to the sons of men His mighty acts of glory..."
There it is again. He can't quit saying, "...the
glorious majesty of His kingdom." We're going to see, aren't we?
We're going to see. We're going to be there. We're
going to be there when our Lord ascends that throne. We're going
to be like Queen of Sheba. Remember she saw Solomon ascend
that throne? since there's no more spirit
left. And when we see our Lord Jesus Christ ascend His throne
and all His subjects there in that kingdom, oh my, it's going
to be something. And of that, I can't write to
speak much, man. Oh, thy kingdom, it says in verse
13, is an everlasting kingdom. And thy dominion endureth throughout
all generations. Thy kingdom. It's an everlasting
kingdom. Kings and rulers and emperors
and presidents come and go, don't they? We vote them in, we vote
them out. We shoot them, we impeach them. They don't last long, do
they? Our king reigns forever and ever.
And every one of these that have been put into office, he put
them there. So, what are we worried about? Thy God reigneth, our
God, the Lord Jesus Christ reigneth forever and ever. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Verse 14, look at
this. Now here's what all the Lord
does. We've seen what he is and what he doth. Verse 14, the Lord
upholdeth all that fall. He upholdeth all that fall. Listen to Psalm 37. Don't you
love that? It says in verse 23 and 24, it
says, The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and
he delighteth in his way, though he fall. He shall not be utterly
cast down. The Lord upholdeth him with his
hand. And Proverbs 24 says, Though
a just man falleth seven times, he will rise up again. Oh, we fall all the time, don't
we? Well, how do we get back up? The Lord makes it so. He
upholdeth all of them that fall. He raiseth up all those that
be bowed down. Oh, we get bowed down with sin,
with guilt, with shame. We get bowed down with sorrow, worry, fear. We get bowed down,
don't we? He raises us up. How does He
do that? How does He? Pick us back up.
How does He raise us up? What is it that quickens us?
The Word of His power, the Gospel, the same power. Always. That's why we keep coming here.
We crawl in here and we fly out. Don't we? We come in here weak
and sickly and we go out healed. We come in here fallen, sinful,
and we go out forgiven, pardoned. Here in the gospel. It says in
verse 15, the eyes of all wait upon thee, thou givest them their
meat in due season, thou openest thy hand, satisfy the desire
of every living thing. Like I said, how much food it
takes. I read one time, you know, whales are amazing, aren't they?
Leviathan. That's what the Lord spoke to
Job about, didn't he? Have you said, can you catch
one with a hook, the Lord said? I can't. That's what God said.
But anyway, he speaks of him. Do you know how much fish that
one great sperm whale eats? Do you know? Thousands of tons
a day. Surely the ocean's going to run
out of fish. Nope. God feeds them. And we're worried about our next...
Oh no. He opens His hand, all weight
upon Him, and He gives them their meat and their seed. He opens
His hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing. What is
it that we desire? That's verse 18, let me go on
down here. It says in verse 17, the Lord
is righteous in all his ways, he's holy in all his works. Righteous,
holy, that means he does right in every situation, in every
case concerning every person. He's right, he can't do wrong. Don't you love that about him?
He's just. He's holy. He's right. There's
no evil in him. There's no sin in him. There's
no, what's the word? He's just right. Vindictive. There's none of that
in him. No malice. He's righteous. He's holy. And again, it's this
thing that causes fear and yet causes love and amazement and
thanksgiving that, Lord, He's righteous. He's holy in all His
ways. Holy means everything we're not. Merciful, bountiful, gracious,
holiest. The word holy often means other
than. He's other than. Altogether,
unlike man. The Lord, verse 18, here's our
verse. The Lord is nigh unto all them
that call upon Him. The Lord is nigh unto all them
that call upon Him. Listen to Psalm 138. It says,
Bo the Lord be high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly. To this man will I look, the
Lord said, he is poor of a contrite heart and tremble at that my
word. He said, I dwell in a high and
holy place with him that is broken and contrite. He's nigh unto
all them that call upon him. to all that call upon Him in
truth. He's nigh unto all them that call upon Him in truth,
that is, in sincerity, truly calling on the Lord for mercy,
for grace, for help, for wisdom. But truth, as you know, is Jesus
Christ. He's the truth. All that call
upon Him in Christ. Christ said, Ask the Father whatever
you ask Him in My name, He'll hear you. Knowing we're sinners,
Knowing that Christ came to save sinners, believing, trusting,
looking to Christ alone. We really do, don't we? And so
we call upon this holy and righteous and just God, who is terrible,
and we call upon Him in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, none
other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be
saved. And we call upon Him, Lord God in heaven, have mercy
upon me, for Christ's sake. You know, He just delights to
do that. He said, I'll be near you. Near,
nigh, and all, all that call upon Him. That's about all I
can do. That's about all I can do. Help. He says He's nigh. Always nigh. Call upon Him in truth. Verse
19, here it is. He will fulfill the desire of
them that fear Him. You'll hear their cry. He'll
save them. He'll fulfill the desire of them
that fear Him. What is your desire? Tell me
what your greatest desire is. Come on now. From the heart.
Can you not say with David, one thing of my desire? Can you not? Really, dig down deep now. Every
child of God is a man after God's own heart. They have the heart
of David. They have the heart of God. God
sheds abroad in them His love for Christ, for righteousness. And every single child of God
from the heart can say, one thing have I desired of the Lord, and
that what I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the
Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord
and inquire in His temple. You say that? One thing, Paul
said, this one thing I do, I press toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ. I want to win Christ
and be found in Him. Oh, that I might know Him, fellowship
with His suffering. Can you say that? All of God's
people can. The world can't say that. All
of God's people. He will fulfill that desire of
them that fear Him. He will. And it says, he will
hear their cry every time. He'll hear their cry. David said,
my tears are in your bottle, Lord. Every tear he ever cried,
every cry he ever cried, the Lord heard it. And look at these
three words, four. And we'll save them. He will
save them. You'll fulfill their desire,
you'll hear their cry, and we'll save them. You remember the message
old Jacob, when Jacob was dying, he said, don't bury me in Egypt. Remember that? Oh, I look back
with fondness. Jacob said, don't bury me in
Egypt, take me out of here. When you leave, take me out with
you. And don't you say, Lord, when
you come for your people, don't leave me here. And you know what
he said in John chapter 6? This is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone seeth the Son, believeth on him, should
not perish, and I will raise him up at the last day. I will. I ain't leaving you behind. Not
one hook will be left behind. Not one person. None of them
that trust in him shall be desolate, shall be abandoned. So and so is calling on you,
but we don't need Him. Let's go on. No. Every single
person that calls on me is coming with Him. Every single one that
He will save them. Isn't that good news? Read on. The Lord preserveth all them
that love Him. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. shall preserve thy soul, and
he preserveth all them that love him." Do you love him? Do you
love his person? Do you love his word? Do you love his gospel? Do you
love his kingdom? Do you love his people? Do you
love his salvation? Do you love his glory? Do you
love his glory? Do you love to hear him glorify
God? His truth. He loves His truth. Oh, He'll
preserve all them that love Him and all the wicked. This is the
only negative. This is the only reference to
judgment. The wicked? Who's the wicked? Those that don't fear God. Those
that don't worship God. Whether they be religious or
irreligious. Don't give Him His glory. Don't give Him His due.
The wicked he will destroy. My mouth. So he ends this way.
He begins with blessing his name and he ends with blessing his
name. And the next five songs begin with praise and end with
praise. All these end psalms begin and end with praise. David
said to begin with, I will bless thy name forever and ever. And
in verse 21 he says, My mouth shall speak the praise of the
Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever. Amen. You're dismissed.