be a blessing to you. Psalm 67,
the title, and these titles are inspired. They tell us who David
gave these to and the dedication and sometimes the event or the
time in which he wrote them. It's a psalm, as all the psalms
are, songs given to the chief musician on a ginneth, that's
a musical instrument, like gitteth is a gittite harp and this is
a stringed instrument, it's a song or a song that was commanded
by David, given by David to sing. They sang all of this. Sometimes
I'd like to start learning some of those, some of the psalms
that are in the Psalter, you know, they were in the Trinity
hymnal that you all refuse to sing. But we need to learn some
of those sometime. They were played on instruments
and David himself was called the sweet psalmist and he played
a harp. Wouldn't you have liked to have
heard him play? I feel certain our Lord could play any instrument
and play it quite well. God made music. And he had David
make instruments, and I'm quite sure those instruments were the
best, John, I'm sure they were made to perfection, often made
out of cedar, as spoken of much in scripture. But David said,
let everything that hath breath, God said, let everything that
hath breath praise. And I told you what praise means.
It means that literally the word means to strike with the fingers
on an instrument accompanied by your voice. You like music? You like to sing? You like to
hear people sing? If you can't sing, you like to hear people
sing. Well, God does. He said, sing. Sing unto me.
And he appointed singers. David appointed singers at God's
appointment. And the Psalms are poetry set
to words. The reason we have trouble singing
these in English is because they weren't written in English, but
in Hebrew. And it had a poetic quality to
it that our English language can't. They were meant to be sung. Look
at Ephesians 5 real quickly. A couple of epistles, a couple
of epistles that tell us, and Paul does this throughout his
epistles. Remember when they, after they
took the Lord's table together, that they sung a hymn. And they
went out into the garden. Ephesians 5.19, he says, speaking
to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always
for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And singing helps us do that.
Singing helps us do that. Singing helps us remember God's
Word. I dare say that most of you know
Psalm 121 by now, don't you? I will lift up mine eyes unto
the hill. Someone put a good, well, Frank
Sweeney did. The best I've ever heard, one
of the psalms put to music. And it helps us remember that.
So singing is good for the heart, good for the soul. Colossians,
Colossians 3. Paul says the same thing in Colossians
chapter 3, verse 16. Colossians 3.16, he says, Let
the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching
and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. James,
I'll turn for you. James says, is any merry? Are you happy? Sing
psalms. So, go back to Psalm 67. There's
seven verses in this psalm. As you know, seven throughout
the scriptures is the number, yeah, perfection. Seven. Psalm 50 says this, out
of Zion, the perfection of beauty. God hath shined, and may his
beauty shine forth out of this little Zion tonight through these
seven verses. And may we worship the Lord and
the beauty of his holiness. Verse one says, God be merciful
unto us and bless us. This is both a prayer and a declaration. God be merciful unto us and bless
us and cause his face to shine upon us. merciful. That's the first thing. God,
be merciful. First thing. You know how many
times the Psalms or all the scriptures speak of God's mercy? Why is that? Because it's God's
greatest glory and our greatest need. We're sinners. Moses said,
Lord God, show me your glory. He said, I will. He said, I will
be merciful. He said, I'll make my name, my
goodness pass before you. I'll declare the name of the
Lord. He said, the Lord, the Lord God merciful, merciful. You read tonight, the Lord is
gracious, merciful, plenteous in mercy. He delights to show
mercy. The Lord taketh pleasure. It
gives him great pleasure. Those that fear him and hope
in his mercy. Our greatest need is God's greatest
glory. And so it should be our greatest
reason for singing. Shouldn't it? Sing of His merciful. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed. His compassions, they fail not.
They're new every morning. That's His name, merciful. Now mercy, as you know, most
of you know, means not getting What we deserve. Someone said
mercy is not getting what we deserve and grace is getting
what we don't deserve. That's true. But mercy has a
double meaning throughout the scripture. It means not getting
what we deserve. It means being spared. It also
means kindness. Always. It means kindness. not
getting what we deserve. His mercy to us is for Christ's
sake. God spared not His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all. Spared us, but spared not His
Son. He didn't give us. He hath not
dealt with us after our sin. He dealt with Christ after our
sin. He gave us mercy. He gave Christ justice, didn't
He? But He showed kindness to us,
the same reason, for Christ's sake. The day, the ages to come, Ephesians
2, 7 says, in the ages to come He's going to show us the exceeding
riches of His grace and His kindness toward us through the Lord Jesus
Christ. His mercy. God is merciful to
us for Christ's sake. Like old Mephibosheth. You want
to hear that? Mephibosheth. Maybe one of my favorite. There's
so many Old Testament types. Ruth may be my favorite. Ruth
chapter 3, if you haven't read that in a while, read it. Just
read that chapter. You'll shout. But Mephibosheth,
I was just reading that, 2 Samuel 9, where he says, Is there any
of the house of Saul that I may show kindness for Jonathan's
sake? And they said, there's one. He's
down in the house of no bread and he can't come. He's lying. He said, go fetch him. So he showed him mercy. He was
one of Saul's sons, and the rest of Saul's sons were killed. They
were enemies of the house of David, and David killed them.
But he showed mercy to Mephibosheth for Jonathan's sake, his beloved's
sake. And that's the mercy of God to
us in Christ, isn't it? So God be merciful to us. He
has. He is. He will. And bless us. Bless us. Bless us. The blessing of the Lord. Did
you hear the message on the radio Sunday? What a blessed passage
it is. The Lord said to Moses to tell
his preachers, Aaron and his sons, to speak to the children
of Israel and tell them the Lord blessed them. And keep them. And make His face shine upon
them. And be gracious unto them. And lift up His countenance upon
them. and give thee peace." And he said, and put my name on them. Put my name on them. Call them
my sons. And he said, I will bless them. I will. He said, to tell them
that. Tell them, the Lord bless you.
He's going to keep you. He's going to keep you. He'll
in no wise cast you out. Oh, what a blessing that is.
He's going to cast out many. He's going to keep all those
people that are in Christ. and cause his face, verse 1, to shine
upon it. Go to Isaiah 8. I quote this
quite often because this is such a description of the times we live
in, dark times. Isaiah 8, the last part of the
chapter, says there's People of the world fret themselves
hungry, fret themselves, verse 21, and curse their king, their
God. That's about all you hear God's name in it. And look upward
and they look, look unto the earth and behold trouble, darkness,
dimness of anguish, driven to darkness. That's this world in
it. That was Egypt. Nothing new under
the sun. That was Egypt, right before the Lord took His people
out. It says it was darkness so thick that you could feel
it. But the children of Israel had light
in their dwellings. They weren't in darkness as others.
They had light. Why? Because the light, the knowledge,
the glory of God had shone upon them in the face of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You say Christ was in it? Yes,
He was. That Lamb that was slain. Right there is the love of God,
the mercy of God, the grace of God, the light, the truth, the
way, the truth, and the life, the blood of the Lamb. And we
do too, don't we? He's caused His face to shine
upon it. Stop. Selah. It's a musical rest. What would music be like, Jeanette,
without rests? Stops. These ladies know the
value of rest and stop. They appreciate a rest while
you're playing. But what is it? Pause. Catch
your breath while you're singing, while you're playing. Let's hear
that last note. It means stop. Think about what
you just read. Think about what was just said.
Meditate. Ponder. It's all through the
song. Sila. It's not really meant to be read.
It's just a pause. And then Spurgeon said it means
now lift it up. Second verse, same as the first,
lift it up. Spurgeon said it means the next verse, sing it
louder after a pause. Look at the next verse. That
thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health upon all nations. Thy way. that thy way may be
known. Oh, may God be merciful and blessed,
because His face, the gospel of Christ our Lord, shine upon
this earth, upon our nation. This psalm is a psalm for salvation
of the nation. You know that? He's praying to
God for the whole nation of Israel and the world, the earth. Wouldn't
that be something? And the Lord sent a great, great
revival. He says, make thy way that thy
way may be known upon that. What is God's way? Well, this
is God's way, God's truth. And in Genesis, well, Genesis,
right before the flood, God said the whole earth had corrupted
his way. That's his truth. He's worshiping
the corrupt. It's full of violence. So God
said, I'm going to destroy it. And that's now. Oh, Lord, send
the gospel that men may know Thy way. There is a way that
seemeth right unto men and women and young people. But what is
it? It ends in destruction. This
is the way I see it. That's what man says. This is
the way I see it. does that which is right in his
own eye, but it's wrong. It's only one way. What's the
way? It's one way. Christ said, no man cometh unto his Father
but by man. Nobody gets to God except through
Jesus Christ. Nobody. Doesn't matter who they
are. You say, but the Muslims haven't
heard. Yes, they have. Yes, they have. Hadn't they not
all heard Paul said that 2,000 years ago? Yet, verily, the sound
is going throughout the earth. As the old writers used to say,
if a man would walk in the light God gives him, He'll give him
more light. Till finally, God will show him Jesus Christ, the
light. There's a sign that comes up
every day that tells all human beings, the Son of God reigns. Oh, let thy way be known upon
the earth, thy saving health. Well, this goes two ways, you
know that? Spiritually and physically. Because
of sin and unbelief, that's why sickness comes. Isaiah 1 says
the whole head is sick. Our society is sick and our world
is sick. From the way they walk to the
way they think. Everything about it. There's
no soundness in them. That's leprosy. No soundness
in them. Oh God, send the gospel that
heals lepers. Get the mind of Christ. Put them
in the way of righteousness. To walk by faith in Him. And
then there's physical sickness that God sends because of sin. and unbelief. That's right. God sends these
things. Man doesn't know his Creator.
Man doesn't recognize his Creator. This is a prayer for the nation,
for the world, sin-sick sinners, for the saving health, the salvation
of mind, soul, spirit and Body. And Christ is that way. Salvation. Saving, healing, power
of God. When our Lord sent His disciples
out, this was the order, He told them to go. He said, go into
all the world and preach the gospel. He said, heal the sick. Right after that, preach the
gospel and heal the sick. Cast out devils. The gospel is
what does that. The gospel heals the sick. And literally, the Lord sends
his judgment and wrath upon a society for its sins. Literally, physical illness and
sickness. So, Lord, he prays, send thy
way upon the earth. That's why our Lord said, pray,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done. on earth as it is in heaven. Pray. Pray, he said, for salvation. Thy saving health among the nations. Verse 3, let the people praise
thee, O God. Let all the people praise thee. This is like a chorus. See that? Because it's repeated in verse
5. If we knew Hebrew, we could see the poetry in this and the
musicality of it. Let the people praise Thee, O
God, let all the people praise Thee. However he sang it, it
was a chorus, and then he repeated it after the next line. Let the
people praise Thee. Throughout the scriptures, it
speaks of the heathen, that's people that don't know God. Then
he talks about God's people. Psalm 2 says the heathen imagine
a vain thing, rage, and the people imagine a vain thing. We're His people. Do we have
reason to praise Him? Let the people praise Him. Praise
Him. Praise Him. Praise Him. Praise
God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here
below. Praise Him above ye heavenly
host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost. Let the people praise Him. You
say, we're not supposed to do that during a message. Where
does it say that? Well, we don't do that. Well,
we ought to. Let the people praise Him. Let all the people praise
Him. If you have reason to praise
Him, has the Lord been merciful to you? Kind to you? Gracious
to you? It was Spurgeon that said this.
He said, people sing for various reasons. They sing because they're
supposed to, sing because they ought to, sing for entertainment,
sing out of habit or sing out of this. But he said, real singing
is from the heart made glad. It's from the heart that's overjoyed
with thanksgiving and praise. Oh, we ought to have reason to
praise Him. We do. We do. The Lord's been merciful to you
and gracious to you. Listen to this. Isaiah 66. Let me turn over there for you. Isaiah 66. Thus saith the Lord.
Well, hell, that's not it. That's not what I wanted to do.
It tells us to sing. Psalm 66. Yeah, number one. Psalm
66. Right beside it. Verse one. Verse
one. Isaiah 66. Just as good. But
look at verse 1, all through the psalm. Make a joyful noise
unto God, all ye lands. Sing forth the honor of his name.
Make his praise glorious. Verse 4, all the earth shall
worship thee, shall sing unto thee. They shall sing to thy
name. Verse 8, oh, bless our God, ye
people. Make the voice of his praise
to be heard. Verse 16, David said, come and
hear, all ye that fear God. I'll do it. I'll declare. I'll sing unto him. Oh, look
down at chapter 68, verse 4. Sing unto God. Sing praises to
His name. Sing. Verse 19. Bless the Lord who daily loaded
us with benefits, the God of our salvation. He that is our
God is a God of salvation. Down in verse 26. Bless the Lord
and the congregation. Verse 28. Thy God has commanded
strength. Verse 27. It talks about... No, see, verse... Twenty-five. The singers went before, the
players on instrument followed. The damsels playing with timbrel.
Can you see this procession, David and the people? David was coming into Israel,
coming into Jerusalem with that ark. He'd been gone a long time.
And he was so happy. He himself had been exiled for
a while. He was so happy, bringing the ark back. He put an ephod
on, like a priest. He put an ephod on. Dancing from
that arm, just so glad. People, people, everybody was
playing, singing, and dancing, all that. Hallelujah. The gospel
has come back. God hadn't left us. David said,
he hadn't left me in exile. He brought me back to my people. Well, his wife, Micah, didn't
know the Lord. And it disgusted her. I said,
you made a spectacle of yourself. And God smote her. She was buried
all her days. And David said, if that's vile,
I'm going to be more vile from now on. Let the people praise
thee. Let all the people praise thee.
You say, I can't sing. Then make a joyful noise. Some
of the best singing I've heard is by people who can't carry
a tune. Honestly, there's some in here that can't. They sing
anyway. Verse 4, Oh, let the nations
be glad and sing for joy. Let the nations be glad and sing
for joy. The nations have reason to sing?
Yes, they do. It's of the Lord's mercies that
they're not going to sing. Right. Psalm 145 says, He attend
their mercies over all of His work. How's that? He feeds everybody. That's right. Everything that
has breath and life, God feeds them. What they need, He feeds
them. Everybody ought to give thanks We teach our young people to
sing, they ought to, whether they know the Lord or not, they
ought to. Maybe, just maybe, someday they'll take that from
here and here and put it in their heart. If all men and women would
but see something of the goodness and mercy of a God upon all His
work, how He feeds and clothes and provides us, if men and women
would repent and give thanks, God pour out His blessing, pour
out His Spirit. He would. He would. Verse 4 says, Let the nations
be glad and sing for joy, for thou shalt judge the people righteously
and govern the nations upon earth. Our God does right. The judge of the earth does right.
And that includes Christ because all judgment is committed on
Him. He's the Lord. He's the one God's given this
universe into the hands of to judge, and He does what's right. And He's so merciful, He's so
gracious, He's so kind. He said over and over, let the
wicked forsake His way. Let him turn to the Lord. He
said He will not just pardon, abundantly pardon. There God's
good in it. He said, all matter of sin, it
doesn't matter what it is, just be forgotten, be wiped out, separated
from the East. John read my favorite psalm,
103. And he said he separated our sins from us as far as the
East is from the West. Go Eastward. Find where it begins. Can you? Well, if you could,
then go West. There is no. It doesn't end. And then it talks about His mercy
higher than heaven. Start going north. There's no
end. That's God's mercy. Oh, let the people pray. Let
the people praise Thee. Let all the people praise Thee. Let the nations be glad. He judges
the people righteously. He governs the nation. You know,
our Lord's laws, His spiritual laws, are holy and just and good. There's nothing wrong with God's
laws. What's wrong is us. You see,
if you're willing and obedient, you eat the good of the lamb.
But we're not. Thank God He sent Christ, the Law Keeper. Our Savior
too. His natural laws are good. Aren't
they good? His natural laws are holy and
just and good. Full of mercy and grace. After
the flood, God said, I don't want to destroy the world anymore
by flood. I want to put a rainbow in the sky to show all mankind.
And what has man done with that? It's a bow to show God's sole
mercy. That there's mercy in the ark,
in Christ Jesus, a rainbow. To show God, I'm not going to
destroy this world by flood anymore. It's the mercy of God. He said
there's going to be springtime, and summer, and harvest, and
winters, as long as the earth exists. He's going to send food. Isn't that good? Isn't that good? His natural laws are wonderful. He governs the nation upon the
earth. Stop and think about that. He governs all. Why hadn't man killed himself
off yet? Because our Lord reigns. That's
why. Why didn't that little fellow
over in North Korea drop a bomb on him? Because Jesus Christ
wouldn't let him. That's why. He governs. He reigns. Let the people praise
Thee, O God. Let all the people praise Thee. Everybody. Everybody. Verse 6, Then shall the earth
yield her increase. Then shall the earth yield her
increase. When sin entered this world,
it cursed the ground. You know that? That Garden of
Eden was... Beautiful. Indescribable. A new earth is going to be so
beautiful that the former won't even come to mind. Get a hold
of that, and we're going to be in it. Grapes like Esko. That's something to think about,
isn't it? Without sin, wherein dwelleth righteousness. But the
earth was glorious and beautiful. And in seeing it, Thorns, thistles, pain, suffering,
sweat, blood, tears, weeds, rocks, and this little curse theory.
But not completely. God is so merciful. He said,
now you're going to have to work real hard for your bread. Adam
didn't have to work at all before. Now you have to work real hard
for your bread. Sweat, the sweat of thy brow,
you'll earn your bread. Oh, he said, but if the people
would just praise Him, if the people would just praise Him,
give thanks, repent, call on His name, the earth would yield
her increase. Go throughout the Old Testament,
you'll see that. That God judged this land, and
He's still doing it, with drought. And water is such a picture of
God's mercy and grace in Christ, Christ said, I'm the water of
life. And if God withholds water, we
die. You can't go more than three
days without water. I can't even go now, I can't hardly go eight
hours. You get used to drinking water,
you can't go without it. Wake up so thirsty, don't you?
At the middle of the night? Thank God for water. Thank God
for Christ. This world, we live in a dry
and thirsty land where no water is. Now we've got a rock, Brother
Kelly, that God keeps pouring out the water to. And that rock
is crying. But the earth will yield its
increase. And God says, even God, our own
God. See, this God is our God, to
whom belong salvation. He shall bless us. Now this is
a promise. He has. He is. What you're doing
right now is the blessing. You're blessed. We just don't
realize it. We just don't realize it. We've
forgotten the pit. All of us, to a great extent, have forgotten
where we came from. And what a blessing it is that
we're sitting here right now, hearing that. I told Brother
John, he dropped by again. And we had such a good time,
didn't we, John? But I told him it was a time when the songs
of Zion, these hymns, I didn't want to hear them. I remember
as an 18, 19-year-old boy, my parents would be singing or playing
these hymns, and it was, I don't want to hear that. I got to get
out of here. I remember thinking that. I want
to weep thinking about it. But I did. I remember thinking,
oh, that's annoying. I don't like that. Here I am. Here I am. I love
it. Nothing gives me more joy than
to sing these hymns. I've seen it on the faces of
young people come in here out of duty or whatever and can't
wait to get out. Oh, my, my. May the Lord Bless them with
salvation, healing, grace. God shall bless us. Verse 7.
God shall bless us. He shall. He has. He is. He shall. And all the
ends of the earth shall fear him. Out of every tribe, here's
how good God is. Out of every kindred, Nation
and tongue under heaven. God has people. What does that
mean? It means exactly what it says.
How many kindreds are there? How many families are there? Every family. Nation. How many nations? Godless nation.
Muslim, Buddhists, all that. Hindu. God's got some people
there. China. God's got some people
there. Isn't it good? And they all shall fear Him. This psalm is a psalm of praise,
of joy and gladness and thanksgiving, but it ends with fear. Can you
both fear God and praise God? Joy and fear? You must. That psalm too, serve the Lord
with fear and rejoice with trembling. He takes pleasure in them that
fear Him. So yes, we must. We do. That's how you know God's people. They fear Him. And you know,
this fear, when you fear the Lord, then He shows you His mercy
and His goodness to you in Christ Jesus Lord, then you rejoice.
You think, He ought to cast me out. And then you hear, I don't
know why He's cast you out. Then you sin and you fear again.
He comes back to him and he tells you again, I'm not casting you
out. Yes, joy, mingle with fear. Gladness, mingle with fear. Let the people praise him, oh
God. Let all the people praise him. Stand with me. Oh God, our God, our own God,
we praise you, we praise your holy name. As much as lieth within
us, Our Lord, we want to praise you and worship you as we should.
Forgive us our feeble attempts. Forgive us. As the song says,
in vain we tune our formal songs. In vain we strive to rise. Hosannas
languish on our tongue and our devotion dies. We ought to praise
thee from the top of our lungs and bottom of our heart. We don't.
We don't. Forgive us for Christ's sake.
Make us glad. Make us glad. And deliver us from unbelief. Show us all the reasons we have
to be glad. The greatest of all is thy mercy.
Endureth forever. And we pray these things and
give thanks that we're met here tonight in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen.