Spring has at the opening day. O God, I help in age and time. I hope for years to come. Be Thou our guide, Thou our guide. Good. Now let's look again at
that psalm from which that hymn was written. Psalm 90. Psalm 90. I want you to first
notice the title given to this. or to whom it
is attributed, you see where it says, A prayer of Moses, the
man of God. So this is a psalm attributed
to the pen of Moses, and many feel that it is one of the oldest,
if not the oldest, of all the psalms recorded. An old psalm penned by an old
man. Moses had to have been He wrote this psalm. Moses was a prophet, a man of
God, it says here, the man of God, who is a type of that prophet,
the man of God. And it says here, it is a prayer.
But before he—and the whole thing is in the form of a prayer. He
addresses the Lord, first of all. But the first eleven verses
are more a meditation. It causes us to think on some
things before he begins to supply or make supplication to the Lord
in verse 12, an actual prayer to the Lord. He states some things.
It's a meditation and a prayer, and that's good. That's the order
in which they should take, because we should think about who our
God is, who we approach. Before we pray, we ought to think
about it. That's the reason I'm so against rushing into God's
presence in these little shows of forms of prayer. I'm so against that, because
there needs to be—we need to be aware of whose presence we're
coming into and what we're going to say to him. We need to think
about some things. And then the prayer. All right,
the prayer of Moses, and it's on behalf of us, God's people,
because, and that's the way good prayer should be, us. Our Lord prayed for his—he is
our advocate, he is our mediator, and he prayed for his people,
didn't he? He never just prayed for himself.
He always prayed for others, prayed for his people. And if
you'll notice, all the way through here, Moses says, us, he says,
our, he says, we, he says, thy servants. And he begins by ascribing
greatness to God and nothingness to man. That's a good way to
approach God in prayer. All right, let's begin. Verse
1, Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Our dwelling place. Lord, and
who is the Lord? The Lord Jesus Christ is the
believer's dwelling place. He is our refuge. He is our abiding
place where we live and move and have our being in Him, in
Christ. In Him, of God, are we in Him. He is the rock. God has hewn
the cleft of the rock that He has—God has put us in and hidden
us in while the overflowing scourge of God's wrath passes by. It'll
not come now that we're in Christ. He's our dwelling place, our
refuge, our abiding place. He is a temple. He's the temple
where we live and move and have our being. Someone said, one
of the old writers said, mere professors of religion. Mere
professors of religion, they run to and from the Lord, in
and out, to and from him in times of trouble or times of need.
that only come to Him at those times. But believers dwell in
Him. As Colossians 3 said, Christ
our life, when Christ our life shall appear. Christ is the life
of a believer, not a part of it, not even a greater part of
it. He is their life. We live in
Him as much as He enables us, we're always conscious of him.
We abide in him. Look at Psalm 91, verse 1 and
2, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, that's
Christ, shall abide, or lodge. Stay there. Dwell there. Do you
remember our message on abiding in him, what it means to abide? It means to stay that, to dwell
that, under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord,
David said, I will say, he is my refuge, my fortress, my God. In him will I trust. Verse 4,
he shall cover thee with his feathers. And didn't our Lord
himself say, as a mother he end up gather her brood? Where the
carcass is, it's where the eagles gather, under his wing. under
his wings, I am safely abide." Oh, Lord, thou hast been our
dwelling place. He always has been. We've dwelled
in him from the beginning. There's never been a moment,
never been one of God's people who has not been under his divine
shelter. Now, verse 2, before the mountains
were brought forth. Now, here he begins to describe
his God. Before the mountains were brought
forth, the eternality of his God. Wherever thou hast formed
the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting,
thou art God." Who is God? Christ is God. That's who. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him and
without him. Who's him? In him, in Christ. All things were made by him. That's what Colossians says. Without him, without Christ,
was not anything made that was made, God said in Genesis. Let
us make man." Who's he talking to? Angels? No. Under the angels,
he didn't say it any time. Thy throne, O God, is forever. But under the Son, he said that.
Before the mount, thou art God, even from everlasting to everlasting. Who is it? He's Christ, our God,
eternal, immutable, Jesus Christ, the same Who? The same what? The same God, yesterday, today,
and forever. More than a point of theology
to argue, this is our very salvation. Didn't he come and say that,
John? Have I been so long time with you, and you have not known
me? Neither of God heareth God's word. I am that I am. O Lord, Thou art our God. Christ, Lord, Thou art our God. And someday we'll see God, though
no man has seen God at any time. No man can see God and live,
yet we will see God, face to face. Who? Christ, the face of
Christ. Verse 3, Thou turnest man to
destruction. Who does? The word destruction
there in the original I have a Hebrew-Greek Bible. The word
destruction is dust. Thou turnest man back to dust. That's what that says. Dust thou
art, and remember when the Lord said that in Genesis 3, verse
19, dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return. Who does that? He who has the keys of hell and
death at his side says, he says, at our appointed time, He says,
return. That's what it says. Return,
ye children of man. Return to the dust from which
you were made. When Christ says die, we die. When he withholds our breath,
the psalmist says, they die. See, man's days are determined,
the number of his months are with thee. Who? Christ, who has
the keys. Thou hast appointed his bounds,
he cannot But that's fine with me. He knows how many I need. And he says, return, and when
a man dies, it's because our Lord, our God, killed him. No matter what the means may
be, whether it be cancer, whether it be a car wreck, whatever it
may be, it's God that did it. Deuteronomy 32 and 39, I killed. I make a lie. And that's Jesus
Christ. And man's end here, note that.
What is man's end? It's destruction, dust. We really only own, for the charge,
we really only own about six feet of dirt that can rightfully
be called ours. The rest we want to leave to
some, the scripture says, fool to spend or use or throw away. And we own six feet of dirt.
That's it. That's ours to spend. Thou turnest
man to his dust. Verse four. Verse four. Four. A thousand years in thy
sight, in God's sight, are but as yesterday, when in his path,
as a watch in the night. A thousand years are as but as
yesterday. And this is hard for us to to
consider, but if we were to bring up someone who lived a thousand
years ago, they could attest to that, couldn't they? It's
gone. They were living here on the
earth just like we are, living their lives, going to work, having
families, and going about their business, so to speak, just as
a thousand years ago. But that's gone. And a thousand
years has passed like that. You know, as children, an hour
in time is a long period of time. I remember when our daughter
was much younger, when we'd travel on a journey somewhere, an hour,
she'd say, how much longer? Every ten minutes. According
to her age, earlier, earlier, I want to be over five minutes.
Are we there yet? No, I just told you. Five minutes
ago, we're not there yet. It's going to be a few hours.
Well, how long is that? And 20 minutes ago, are we there
yet? No, honey, no, not yet. Well, to a child, an hour is
a long time. To an adult, it's nothing, isn't
it? A day is nothing to us. Right? A day. Really, a week is nothing.
It's nothing. Scripture says to the Lord, whose
time is of no essence at all to Him, He doesn't even measure
things by time, measureless. A thousand years are nothing
to him, nothing. A watch in the night, it says
here, a watch in the night. In Eastern times they used to
have night watchmen and there was, they didn't have clocks
and all, and during the night they could know what time it
was. They had these watchmen who Every two or three hours,
it'd be basically four watches. They would make a cry or do something
on an instrument or whatever, and it'd be four watches in a
night, the equivalent of about two hours. A thousand years or
two hours. It's not even a day. A watch in the night. You remember
much of that last night? Huh? It's gone, isn't it? Verse 5, Thou carriest them away,
or the years that is, Thou carriest our years away as with the flood,
or carry men away. Why, how many people have lived
upon this planet? Trillions! Not billions, trillions! What's the next number? Zillions, is that it? I don't
know. Zillions! Quadrillions! have lived on this
earth. They've been carried away like
a flood. Gone. People like you, gone. Myriads of people, gone. Carried
away like a flood. In a flood you have a rapidly
rushing stream. You ever been there a real rush? Sure you have. A rushing, flooding
river. Things are carried away swiftly,
aren't they? Gone. Well, that's our years. Gone. Rushing by as asleep. Look at
this. It says there as asleep. Asleep. As I said a moment ago,
what do you remember about last night's sleep? You went to sleep
last night, Stan. It's gone. The minute you go
to sleep, you're up, aren't you? Do you remember anything about
that sleep? Do you remember enjoying it? Oh, you're awake just as
soon as you go to sleep? That's what he says our years
are like. And that's what he said in a moment in the twinkler
of an eye. I'm 40 years old. Some of you are turning 50 this
year. And some will be 60. We have
several generations here. Charles is 70. That's it, Charles. That's it. First score of 10, I see it.
It's over for you. Isn't it? Might get 80, might
not. Where'd they go, Charles? Like
a flood. Aren't they? Don't you feel like you ought
to be 20 years old again? Young, dashing fellow courting
that young, dashing woman? Huh? They're gone. They're gone. Where'd they go to, Charles?
They just flooded away, didn't they? They're gone. The years
are gone. In the morning, verse 6, I believe
that's what he's alluding to here, in the morning, the early
light, in the morning it flourishes and groweth up. Man, youth, youth,
so alive. Ah, a few years, so dead. You know, you think you're going
to live forever. You can't, a young person, this
is the reason a young person cannot enter into death. Just
can't do it. I had friends of mine die at
early ages. When I was 15 years old, I pulled
my best friend out of a basement and asphyxiated him. I carried
him out in my arms. He was dead. Gave him, just tried
to resuscitate him. I couldn't, I still couldn't,
you know, I didn't have any impression, lasting impression on me. Youth
can't enter into death. Well, we have all our years ahead
of us, do we? I was fifteen when I was at God's
hand. I remember that like yesterday.
Twenty-five years gone. And in another twenty-five years,
if I live that long, I'll say, well. In the morning, like grass should
flourish, but in the evening, In the evenings, cut down and
withereth. The old age is gone. Cut down and withereth. Why? Why do we die? You know, scientists—don't
answer that. I'm glad you know that. Most
people don't. Scientists try to figure out
why man is dying. Why does man die? Was man meant
to die? Is man created to die? You know,
God created this body to last forever. This is the same body
God created in the beginning. Same body that God gave to Adam. It's meant to last forever. Scientists
don't know why the heart beats, why it lives, period, let alone
just one day stops dying. And some people that die, they
can't—they don't know why they die, they just—that's what they
attribute it to—natural causes. What natural cause? Sin. You can say it now, Terry. Sin. That's why we die. Had there
not been sin, we would not die. Adam would have lived forever.
We would not die. There's no fault in the creature.
The creation? No. Look at verse 7. He says that we're consumed by
that anger. That's why we die. God's anger
against sin. That's why we die. He winked
at it. The Scripture talks about him
winking. If you read those Scriptures, you have him winking at sin. Men lived for hundreds of years.
God allowed them to do so. And Scripture talks about winking,
but, and then the years are getting shorter, and I'm getting ahead
of myself. But we're consumed, we die because of God's anger
against sin, verse 7, by his anger, and by thy wrath we are
troubled. Man, the Scripture says, is born
of woman, is born of woman is full of troubles. Why? What is
our trouble? What is the trouble with man? Sin. Sin. And God's wrath against sin.
That's what all this trouble's all about. That's why things
happen the way they do. God hates sin. And one of these days, he's going
to be done with this whole ball of sin. He hates it. We're going to see in a moment
how we don't even know how much he does hate him. Someday we're
going to see just how much God hates sin when he casts this
whole thing with people on it into eternal torment with no
remorse. That's what verse 11 intimates. Who knows the power of his anger?
Well, men and women wonder at all the things—men and women
wonder at all the tragedies that befall innocent people. Someone wrote a book one time
when bad things happen to good people. They don't know God,
do they? They don't know why all this
is happening. Why do babies die? Because God is holy. Innocent people? No, there's
none good. No, not one, not one. Verse 8, and he says this, Thou
hast set our iniquities before thee. You see that? Thou hast
set our iniquities before thee. David said, Thou, Lord, seest
me. Thou, Lord, seest me. Our secret
sins in the light of thy countenance. They're in the light of thy countenance.
He sees us. Verse 9, All our days are passed
away in thy wrath. Passed away in thy wrath. You
know, this is interesting. That passed away is one word
in the old Hebrew, and it means they're turned back in thy wrath. He comes as a little child. He's
so helpless and he's born by other people, born about or carried
by others and helped and provided for and cared for and so forth
by others. And then he grows up and gets
a little bit independent and gets a little knowledge and thinks
he's really something. And then he gets some real strength
and some ability and starts getting set full of pride, you know,
man, young man. middle-aged man all he could
just take the world on and then and then he starts going back
before long he reverts right back to a baby all over again
that proud man who thought he was something and somebody's
gonna carry his little withered body to bed and wash him he can't even wash
himself He says our ears are turned back.
We spend our years, verse 9, as a tale that is told, a short
story. Any of you read short stories?
That's about the only stories I have time for anymore. I cannot
get interested in these long books anymore. I don't have time. So I read short stories. Ask
me the last short story I've read. I can't hardly remember. He was short. My memory is short. Right? Let me ask you this. What did I preach on Sunday morning? I bet you nine out of ten don't
remember. Isn't that a fact? I'll have to think a minute.
That was a short sermon. It's a mighty important story.
Mighty important. We forget that. We spend our
years as a tale that is told. Are we going to live a meaningful
life? People talk about, I want to
live a full life, a meaningful life. Will it mean anything,
really? Really? Huh? When's the last time you thought
of Virgie Jones? I bet you it's been a while.
I bet you she, her name, as much as we loved her, as much as she
was here, every service, huh? Have you gone a day, two days,
three, a week, two weeks, without thinking of Virgie Jones? She's
gone. Out of sight, out of mind. Rick Williams sits right there.
And before long he's going to be gone, and somebody's going
to say, I remember Rick Williams. Who? Right? Silly little saying that men
have, you know, only one life will soon be passed, only what's
done for Jesus shall last. That's hogwash. What we do, anything
we do, won't last. Right? It won't last. It's gone.
Our years are a tale that has been told. Let me tell you about
old John Davis. I remember old John Davis. He
could sure pick a bass. Big deal. Huh? He sure was a nice fellow, but
he's gone. He's in the presence of Christ.
No, that's worth shouting about. Our lives are tales told. We're
going to be soon forgotten. Soon forgotten. like a flower,
cut down and gone. And nobody's going to remember
us. They're going to be hard-pressed to think about us. The days of our years, verse
10. The days of our years are three
score years and ten. That is seventy. Owed by reason
of strength. What strength? God gives us strength. His strength. They be four score
years? And one of the men, I asked this
in a study a while ago, but Adam lived 930 years. After the flood,
man lived about 400 years. Moses lived 125 years, I believe. But Moses said, suddenly is it from here on out. maybe 80, 70. And if you live 70 or 80 years,
look at verse 10. It says, if you do live that
long, yet those years, the strength of those years, is there any
strength? No, it's labor and sorrow. Labor and sorrow. Talking about
those old years. I immediately thought of Ecclesiastes 12, where it says,
oh, remember the days, remember the Creator in the days of thy
youth, before the what? Can you quote it? The evil days
come now. Evil days. Why do all the old
folks talk about the good old days? Because there's no real pleasure
in old age. Oh, no. There's no real pleasure in old
age. Listen to Ecclesiastes 2. It says there's labor and sorrow
in those days. Labor. What's labor? It says
the grasshopper's a burden. It's a labor just to sleep, isn't
it, Charles? Just to sleep. Just to go to
sleep. And if you sleep five hours,
an older person will tell you this. Maybe Charles doesn't have
this problem, but most do. If they sleep four or five hours,
they think they've got a good night's sleep. Labor. And sorrow. Sorrow. There's a story of a
man over in 2 Samuel. I don't have time to read it
to you, but an old man that David said, come, let's take you with
us. I want to take you with an 80-year-old man. Come on. I want
you to go with us. He said, I can't enjoy anything
anymore. He said, I can't. I'm not going
with you. to Jerusalem, or what it was. He said, I don't need
to go down there. I can't taste anything, can't
eat anything, can't taste it, can't have any fun anymore, any
pleasure anymore. He said, I'm just going to stay
right here and die. What he said, labor and sorrow. Soon cut off, we fly away. Verse
11, who knoweth, who knoweth the power Who really knows the
power of God's anger? Huh? Even according to thy fear,
so is thy wrath. Who knows the power of God's
anger? You know, the fear that we have
is not enough. The fear that we have of God
is not enough. We preach, I ought to preach
trembling right now. out of tremble when we read this
word, shouldn't we? Who knows his fear, John? If
we knew his fear, we wouldn't let a word pass, would we? Tell
me that again, Frank. Tell me that again. Tell me that again. Listen to this. Listen, we've
read this so many times. Hebrews 12, it says, See that
ye refuse him not him that speaketh? For if they escape not who refuse
him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we
turn away from him that speaketh from heaven, whose voice then
shook the earth. And now he hath promised, saying,
Yet once more I shake not the earth on him, but also the heavens.
And this word yet once more signifies the removing of those things
that are shaken, as of things that are made. Things which cannot
be shaken may remain. Therefore we receiving the kingdom
cannot be moved, yet let us have grace whereby we may serve God
acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a
consuming fire." There's not one preacher in a
million that preaches a God like that,
isn't there? Who knoweth? Teach us to fear the end night,
our hearts to fear thy name. So, here he begins his prayer
here. Now, thinking about those things,
thinking about who God is and the brevity of our life, we've
got something to pray about, don't we? Huh? Oh, that'll make you pray more
than, oh, God is good, God is great. God is great, God is good.
Now we thank him for our faith. in meditation of who he is and
what he's like and the brevity of our life and the certainty
of facing him, what are we going to pray for now? What are we
going to ask now? Well, Moses asks for us. As that prophet,
the Lord Jesus Christ, they said to him, teach us to pray. So
the prophet Moses teaches us now. All right, look at verse
12. teach us to number our days. I don't say next year, the Lord
willing, no, days. I remember, and you, some of you young people
I remember this well. I remember when I was 15 years
old. The day I turned 15, I made me a little calendar. 365 days on it. 365 days until I turned 16. And
got my driver's license. And I have a little calendar
on my wall in my room stand that I marked off every day. I wake
up first thing. Boy, I'd check off every day.
numbering those days until I got my license. Teach us to number
our days till we're with him. One more
day. I'm closer. One more day. I was numbered until my sixteenth
birthday. Teach us to number our days till
our real birthday. They were born into his presence.
Number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Look at that, verse 12. Are you
still with me? That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Apply our hearts
unto wisdom. What is wisdom? Good. Terry is with me. Proverbs
8, Christ is with them. He says this. He says, I love
them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find
me. Remember now thy Creator in the
days of thy youth. Those that seek me early shall
find me. Riches and honor are with me,
yea, durable riches. Righteousness. Durable riches and righteousness. Listen to this. Whoso findeth
me, findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord. Wisdom. Teach
us to remember our days, that we may apply our hearts unto
wisdom, that we may set our affection on things above where Christ
We may apply our heart, O that I might know him when him." Apply
our heart. Lord, and he says that. My son, give me thine heart. How much it says that. How often
it says that in the Scripture. The whole heart. Those that seek
him are the whole heart. They that worship him in spirit,
or the Father seeketh such to worship him with a heart, with
a whole heart." We read that in Psalm 119, didn't we, Sunday
morning? Psalm 119. With a whole heart. They that seek him with a whole
heart. Wholehearted seekers. Assume God seeks to worship him. My son, give me thy heart. O
Lord, make, apply our hearts our affection, our best, our
self, our younger years, until we are too old to matter. Don't give our hearts to the
world and get one hour a week to the Lord. Oh, that they were wise. Moses wrote this in Deuteronomy
32. Oh, that they were wise and would consider their latter end. That's in Deuteronomy 32. Verse
13. Now, return, O Lord. How long? Can you say that? Return, O Lord. I'm watching. Not stars. Let others watch the
stars. I'm looking for the bright and
morning one. The sun. Return, O Lord. How long? The true believer longs for Christ
to come. Longs for it, waits and watches.
The one psalm says, more than they that watcheth in the morning." He or she, the true believer,
is watching and waiting on the Lord. That's what the Lord says. This is the day that the servants
whom the Lord shall find watching or waiting. As a returning father,
little children when their parents and father and mother are gone
for any length of time at all, they're waiting. I remember when
I went to England for You remember that well, don't you? When I
went to England back in, how long has that been? Eighty? Eighty-two. No? Not that long. And it was
more than that. Seven years ago? I was gone for
what, two weeks? Something like that. And when
I came to the back and got off that airplane and came up in
the concourse of that airport, Have you ever seen those commercials
where people would run to greet their loved one? Hannah was only
just a child, just a couple of years old at the time. She grabbed
me and squeezed me and I had to say, honey, you're talking
to me. She said, it was like she, you
have gone, you're gone, you're back, I'm not going to let you
go now. return, O Lord." How long? How long is it going to be? Even
so, can we say with the multitude of the saints in Revelation,
even so, come quickly? He says, I come quickly. What'd
they say? Even so, come quickly, O Lord. But let it repent thee concerning
thy servants, or that is, turn from thy fierce
wrath and anger which should be upon me." I was going to turn
to Psalm 106 and read several instances of the children of
Israel that said, provoking the Lord. It says, provoking him
to anger. And, Terry, they're not one whit
different than we are. Not one whit. Not a bit different. It says they provoked him with
their idols. We have them. Covetousness is
idolatry. We've done everything. We've
sinned worse, Charles. We've sinned against perfect
light. They didn't have a Bible. We've sinned worse. Our sin is
worse. And it says throughout that Psalm
106 that they provoked him. They provoked him. Yet it says,
and I do need to read this one verse. It says, Yet he remembered
for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of
his mercies. I'm going to kill that old boy. justice and anger and wrath should
say, I'm going to, I've had enough. I've had enough of him. That's
what he ought to say, should. Justice and wrath and the laws
that he broke me, countless times, just every day. He no sooner
gets, wakes up, till he's sinning against me in thought, word,
and deed. I, I, remember my confidence. And I'm not going to kill him.
I'm going to love him. That's good, isn't it, John?
I'm not going to kill him. What am I going to do? I'm going
to save him. I'm going to love him. I'm going
to accept him. Verse 14. Oh, here's another thing he asks
for. Seven things here, if you're taking note, and they're easily
seen in these verses. Teach us, he says. Secondly,
he says, return, O Lord. Thirdly, verse 14, O satisfy
us early with thy mercy, or in the morning with thy mercy. And
his mercies are new every morning. O satisfy us. You know, there's some people,
and we're all guilty to a great degree, some more than others, but some
people are just complainers. Some people are never satisfied
with anything. Just never satisfied. Even believers.
I know some believers who just, seems like they're just never
satisfied with anything. They've never learned any contentment
whatsoever. And this right here, they ought
to pray that. Oh, satisfy us with thy mercy. That and that alone ought to
satisfy us. Anything else is gravy. Right?
As far as you say anything aside, have mercy. He hath not, the Scripture says,
he hath not dealt with us according to our iniquity. That's mercy,
isn't it? He hath not. I'm satisfied. That ought to
satisfy us, shouldn't it? Huh? What more do you want? Our
blessing, but above that, our blessings are more than we can
number. And it may, import here, satisfy
us early. Verse 14 may mean that we need
to learn at an early age to be satisfied with mercy. at an early age. Let's dwell
on mercy. Be satisfied with that. Or it's
like the old woman said, all this, and Christ took. And look at verse 14, that we
may rejoice and be glad all our days. Not sad, not mad, not murmuring,
not complaining, but glad all our days. Let's learn earlier
on, at a young age. Yes, Vicki, 42. Young. Let us learn at an early age
to be glad. Because if we're complainers
at 40 or 50, we ain't going to be worth nothing at
60 or 70. You know how when you get older
you get more cantankerous? You ain't got a little grace
to start with. Oh, kill me and put me out of
everybody's misery early on. Isn't this a good prayer, something
to ask for? Oh, satisfy us early. Let us be satisfied early on
with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad. Make us glad, O
Lord. That's the next thing, verse
50. Make us glad according to the days. Make us glad. Listen
to these verses. Listen to these verses. I took the time to look these
up and put them down on paper. Just listen, that's all I'll
ask you. I will be glad and rejoice in
thy mercy. Psalm 31. Thou hast considered
my trouble. Thou hast known my soul in adversities,
and hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You set
my feet in a large room. Have your feet been set in a
large room? Where are your feet right now? Huh? In a large room. Well, I was
glad when they said unto me, Let's go to the house of the
Lord. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous. Shout
for joy. Some of our ladies over down
there have said, Oh, you said something, you preached something,
or I heard something, strictly to where I felt like shouting.
By all means, somebody please do before I die. I do up here. Well, somebody
wants, so I'll do it. Somebody's glad. That's what
it says here. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice,
he writes. Shout for joy, all ye that are
upright in heart. Listen to this, Psalm 40, "...let
all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee. Let such
as love thy salvation, say continually, The Lord be magnified. Let Mount
Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad." Psalm 68,
"...let the righteous be glad." Psalm 92, "...Thou, Lord, hast
made me glad." through thy work. I will triumph in the work of
thy hand. I will triumph in the work of thy hand. I will triumph
in the work of thy hand." Psalm 118, "'This is the day
which the Lord hath made. I will rejoice in thee.'" Man! Psalm 126, one of my favorites,
"'The Lord hath done great things for us when in we are glad.'" Make us glad, glad people, according
to the days. Look, this is strange though,
isn't it? Verse 15, William Thou hast afflicted us. Isn't that
strange? Glad under affliction? That sounds familiar, doesn't
it? Didn't Paul say that in 2 Corinthians 12? Our old George and mine in
Didn't David say that in Psalm 119? It's good for me that I've
been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. The Word
of God not will mean a thing to you until you're afflicted. It's just not. He just don't. Nobody is going to learn the
sweetness of God's Word, the certainty of His promises, the
power of His field, the power of His presence, His consolation,
his comfort without affliction. They are our teachers. That's
what Martin Luther, one of them, all of them said it. He said,
I've learned more through my trials than anything else. Make us glad in the years wherein
we have seen evil. The years wherein we have seen
evil, Job said, Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord,
and shall we not receive evil? Yea, whom the Lord loves, he chastens."
Verse 16, there's another, "...let thy work appear unto thy servants."
That's good. appear unto thy servants." What
is thy work? What is his work? What is God's
chief work? Christ. Salvation is of the Lord. Let thy work appear unto thy
servant. Do your work. Perform your work
in me. You who have begun a good work,
perform it. Let thy work appear. Lord, you
saved me. Let me know it. Say unto my soul,
I am thyself. Let me see it. Let others see
it. Make it certain. Make it sure. I want it to be seen. His glory,
look, read on, His glory, His work of salvation unto our children. You're going to shout someday
if little Andrew comes up here and requests baptism. I know
one woman that's going to shout. Huh? Can't you say this in verse
16? Oh, Lord, let Your glory appear
unto our children. Let my son and my daughter behold
Your glory as I've seen it. They're sitting over there, and
they don't see it. They haven't rejoiced in it like
I have. I rejoice, and they're just waiting to get out of here.
Let them see it as I've seen it. Thy beauty in the sanctuary. That's the next thing he asked
for. Let thy beauty, let the beauty of the Lord our God be
upon us. Isn't that good? Let the beauty
of the Lord our God be upon us. What's that? Who's that? That's Christ, his righteousness.
Let it be upon us. Right? Let the beauty of Christ
be upon us. Ezekiel 16 says that, Thy beauty
was perfect through my company. You like that verse. Psalm 45 says, The king's children
are all glorious in their apparel. What's their apparel? A robe
of righteousness, which Christ himself wrought by his own hands. They look like Christ and they
smell like Christ. It's his—we're his workmanship.
Yeah. Well, let it be upon us, O Lord. Let it be upon me. Establish
thou the work of our hands. You see that? It's another thing
he asked for. establish the work of our hands.
Oh, Lord, conform me to your image, which you ordained that
I should be, and establish the work of our hands. These hands, most of my life have been spent,
these hands have been spent in serving me. Oh, Lord. Let these hands, just
for a little while, serve thee. These hands, cleanse them. These
hands are so swift to shed blood, as Scripture says. Cleanse them,
wash them. Who shall ascend unto the holy
hill of the Lord? He that hath clean hands. Strengthen them, these weak hands.
Strengthen the weak hands. These hands that are so weak,
weak to serve. Lift them up, these hands that
are hung low. Lift them up in praise. Teach
these hands to do thy will, to serve thy people. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place.
Thou hast been our dwelling place, Almighty God. And our days are
short. Teach us to number our days.
Apply our hearts to wisdom. Return, O Lord. Satisfy us early
with your mercy, early on. Make us a glad people. Let your
work appear. Save us. Let it show. Let your
work appear on our children. Let the beauty of the Lord Jesus
Christ, his righteousness be upon us. of our hands and I serve as my
prayer for us. Amen.