Psalm 146

Q: What does the Bible say about praising the Lord?

The Bible calls for heartfelt praise, as seen in Psalm 146, where the call is to 'Praise ye the Lord' from the innermost being. Psalm 146 begins with the exhortation to 'Praise ye the Lord,' indicating the importance of genuine praise that comes from the heart and soul. This is not mere lip service; true worship involves a sincere engagement of the whole being with God. Throughout the Scriptures, we are reminded to select our words carefully and worship from our innermost selves, as seen in David's encouragement to bless the Lord with our soul.

Q: Why is praising the Lord important for Christians?

Praising the Lord is crucial because it acknowledges His sovereignty, grace, and the blessings He bestows upon us. Praise is essential for Christians as it reflects our gratitude and recognition of God's sovereignty and grace. In Psalm 146, David emphasizes the importance of praising God 'while I live,' recognizing that our very existence and spiritual life are sustained by Him. Every breath we take is a gift from God, and hence, our praise is a response to His mercy and love. Furthermore, true praise strengthens our faith and helps to remind us of our relationship with God, as it shifts our focus from ourselves to Him and His works.

Q: How do we know that God is in control of our lives?

We know God is in control because Scripture teaches that He has ordained our lives and times according to His will. The assurance that God is in control of our lives comes from the clarity of Scripture, which teaches that all our days are ordained by Him. In Psalm 146, David reflects on how our very existence is dependent on God's will. Similarly, Job affirms that God has set limits on our lives that we cannot exceed. Scripture consistently asserts that God has a predetermined plan for each of His children, which includes our spiritual awakening and calling to faith in Christ, emphasizing His sovereignty in the details of our lives.

Q: What does it mean to trust in the Lord rather than in man?

Trusting in the Lord means relying on His power and promises instead of the frailty of human leaders. Trusting in the Lord rather than in man emphasizes reliance on God's enduring strength and faithfulness compared to the frailty of humans. Psalm 146 cautions against placing confidence in leaders who are ultimately powerless when faced with life and death. Man, at his best, is still mortal and fragile, as his existence relies on God's breath. This scriptural principle encourages believers to anchor their hopes in God, who is steadfast and eternal, rather than in the shifting sands of human fallibility.

Q: How does God show His care for believers?

God shows His care by providing for our needs and ensuring our righteousness through Christ. God's care for believers is vividly depicted in Psalm 146, where He is portrayed as one who helps the oppressed, feeds the hungry, and opens the eyes of the blind. This depicts both physical and spiritual provision, highlighting that God's promises and grace sustain us. For those in Christ, we are deemed righteous because of His sacrifice, which is a reflection of God's unending love and mercy. Furthermore, as believers, we have the assurance that God will never forsake us, as He regularly guides and preserves us amid life's challenges.

I want you to open your Bibles
with me back to Psalm 146, which Brother Paul read for us
a few moments ago. You know, we're familiar with
several of the psalms. Most of you are familiar with,
I suppose, more than the other psalms. Psalm 23, the Lord is
my shepherd, I shall not want. You could recite it. This psalm is one that's been a blessing to
you for a long, long time. Psalm 23. And you know it. You're familiar with it. You
can call it yours. And then Psalm 100. I think that
was one of the first ones I learned as a lad. Make a joyful noise
unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before his presence with thanksgiving." Remember that
when we learned it in vacation Bible school. And it's kind of
a familiar psalm to you. You call it your own. And then
Psalm 1, blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of
the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, and sitteth
in the seat of the scornful. His delight is in the law of
the Lord, and in that law does he meditate day and night. You'll
be like a tree planted by the rivers of... You're familiar
with all those, aren't you? Well, I hope when I get through
this morning that Psalm 146 will be added to your repertoire,
and that you'll find in it some of the delights that you find
in these other psalms. Look at it with me. Psalm 146.
The first words we see here, praise ye the Lord. Praise ye
the Lord. Oh, how often the Scripture says,
praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. All the way
through the Psalms we run into this statement, praise the Lord. Well, now I want you to notice
it doesn't say here, say praise the Lord, it says, Praise the
Lord. It doesn't say, you say, praise
the Lord. In other words, what I'm asking,
does this mean that in order to praise the Lord, in order
to give him glory, that I've got to use these particular words? Praise the Lord. Do I have to
use those particular words? Praise the Lord. You know, that's
what the religious world is doing today. Praise the Lord. bless
the Lord, hallelujah. These people use these words
over and over and over and over and over again until they almost
have become rather flippant and meaningless. Don't you think
so? Well, praise the Lord. Well, praise the Lord. But I
see—this doesn't say, say, praise the Lord. It says, praise ye
the Lord. I think that that these words
in many places have become bywords. You know what a byword is? That's
what you use when you're pausing to consider what you're going
to say next. In other words, it's a word that
you use when you're trying to think what to say. Like, you
remember Mr. Reagan, when he was president,
somebody would ask him a question, he'd say, well, well. You know why he was doing that?
He was trying to pause while he thinks of something to say.
Mr. Nixon, who was president, would
say, now, I'm going to make this perfectly clear. He said that
all the time. I'm going to make this perfectly
clear. What he's doing is he's using that word while he's thinking
what he's going to say. And many people today use the
word you know. You know. And that's a byword. You say that word because you're
reaching for something to say. When I was pastor in Chattanooga,
Tennessee, Darcy will remember this, we had a man, Charlie Stanifer
was his name, and his byword was, as a matter of fact, as
a matter of fact. You'd say something to him, he'd
say, well, as a matter of fact, and what he's doing is he's trying
to get something to say. And that's what these preachers
and religious people are doing. Now, I'm not being overly critical,
I'm simply saying that to use these words, well, praise the
Lord, well, praise the Lord, well, praise the Lord, as a byword,
as a word to fill in a space is not pleasing to God. That's
just not pleasing to God. You know, the book of Solomon
writes in Ecclesiastes, when you come before the Lord, he's
saying, select your words carefully. Select your words carefully,
for God is in the heavens and you're upon the earth. So be
careful how you use the name of the Lord. Be very careful.
If you're not careful, you'll find yourself taking his name
in vain. And God will not hold him guiltless
to take his name in vain. So what he's saying here is,
praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. And true
praise is not really lip service at all. What it says here, look
at the next line. Praise ye the Lord. Give God
the glory. Bless the name of the Lord. Praise
the Lord, O my soul. Now that's where praise comes
from. What is the soul? Well, the innermost
being, the heart of man, the mind of man. It's the real me. Praise the Lord. Bless the Lord,
O my soul. David said in Psalm 103, bless
his holy name and forget not all his benefits. It's a heart
worship. It's a soul praise. You know,
our Lord Jesus Christ condemned those people who praised him
with their lips while their hearts were far from him. You know what
he said? He said, these people praise
me with their lips and their hearts far from me." So let's
be careful that our hearts are engaged in worship, and our hearts
are engaged in sincerity, and our hearts are engaged in true
praise before we put our lips in motion. It's a good idea. Before we begin
to say things, just as we'll praise the Lord, we'll praise
the Lord, we'll bless God, we'll bless Jesus, just hold on. That's all. But, you know, actually,
the Lord is praised and glorified without a word. You remember the story of Hannah,
how that she was childless. God had closed up her womb, and
she wanted a child so bad. And she went with her husband
to worship. And she was sitting after they'd
eaten and drunk, and she was sitting out beside herself, probably,
on the steps of the place of worship, and Eli, the priest,
observed her, and she was sitting there, and her lips were moving,
but she wasn't saying anything. And he walked up to her and said,
Woman, you're drinking too much, you're drunk. Oh no, she said,
I'm not drunk. My heart is heavy before God,
and I'm crying out unto God. There she was, praying, glorifying
God, seeking the Lord, bringing forth before God her supplications,
and she wasn't saying a word. So this is what I believe David
is saying here. You praise the Lord, and you
praise Him from your heart and from your soul and from your
innermost being. And let your praise not be just
for the ears of men, but let your praise be for the presence
of God. Isn't that right? That's what
he's saying there. And actually, you know, in Romans,
the Scripture says that we pray with groanings which cannot be
uttered. I think sometimes my most desperate
prayers and most meaningful prayers, and probably the one the Lord
hears, are those that I don't speak out loud. Groanings which cannot be uttered.
Actually, I can't praise God as He ought to be praised. And
sometimes I find when I try to use words to praise God, the
words are just so empty, aren't they? Just so hollow. They just don't fit His majesty. And so if you can't, you say,
well, I'm not a person of words. You don't have to be to praise
the Lord. You have to be a person of faith. and of heart and of
gratitude. I thank God. That's praising
the Lord. Thank you. All right. Second
verse. While I live, I'm going to praise the Lord. While I live,
I'm going to praise the Lord. I'm going to praise my God while
I have any being. Well, let me tell you this. I
have every reason to praise God while I live because it's by
His will that I do live. I'm going, here's what they,
David says, while I live, and I believe his first, his first
meaning is while I'm living. While I'm walking this earth,
while I'm enjoying my family, my loved ones, and my children,
my friends, and the worship of the Lord, and the good things
of God, I'm going to praise Him while I live, while I have any
being, I'm going to praise God because it's by His will that
I am living. What does the Scripture say? In Him we live and move and have
our deeding. In Him we live and move and have
our deeding. Actually, Job said in Job 14,
he said this, he said, the number of my months are with the Lord.
He has set my balance. My days, the number of my days
are with God. He has set my bounds. I cannot
pass. God has decreed the day of my
birth. He has decreed how many days
I'll spend upon this earth. And He has decreed the day of
my death. It's already determined in the
will and purpose of God. It's by His will I'm living.
So I have every reason to praise Him, don't I, while I live? Because
it's by His will that I do live. And while I have any beard, But
now, secondly, I believe David's saying this, I have greater reason
to praise God if I live spiritually. Don't I? I have greater—I have
every—let everything that hath breath praise the Lord, because
it's by His will you have breath. Somebody says, well, Christians
ought to worship God. Everybody ought to worship God. Some might say, well, Christians
ought to thank God. Everybody ought to thank God. It's by His
will that you got up this morning. Even the folks out yonder walking
around, you know, who have no regard for worship or the preaching
of the gospel, it's by God's will that they're walking around.
It rains on the just and the unjust, and God makes it rain. But I have greater reason to
praise Him if I live spiritually, because it's by His will that
He chose me. Turn to Ephesians chapter 1 just
a moment. Don't leave Psalm 146 now. Let's turn to Ephesians chapter
1. It's by His will that I've been
chosen to life, spiritual life. Like Brother Paul quoted in the
Sunday School lesson this morning, our Lord said, You didn't choose
me. I chose you. I thank God that I'm here this
morning, but I thank God I want to be here. It's not only by
His will that I'm here, it's by His will that I want to be
here. You know, most folks don't want to be here. Thank God I'm enjoying what I'm
hearing. I enjoyed that Sunday school lesson. I was blessed
by it. I got some notes I'm going home and preach. You know why
I enjoyed it? He gave me, he gave me the will
and the capacity to enjoy it. There was a day when this young
man who stood before you and taught the lesson this morning
didn't enjoy what he did. Isn't that right? God gave me. Look at Ephesians 1 verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as He chose us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. that we should be holy and without
blame before Him. In love, He predestinated us
to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will. It's not by my will that I live,
it's by His will that I live. That's right, it's by His will
that I was chosen, it's by His will that Christ died for me.
When Christ came to this earth, was made of a woman, made under
the law, that he might redeem us, when he went to the cross
and died, when he was buried and rose again, it was all by
the will of God, the Father. He said, Lo, I come to do thy
will. In the volume of the book, it's
written of me, to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first,
that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified. once for all by the offering
of Jesus Christ, God's will. Old David said, I'll praise the
Lord while I live. While I have any being, I'll
praise Him because it's by His will I have a being. It's by
His will I live spiritually. It's by His will I love Christ.
It's by His will Christ died for me. It's by His will I'm
born again. Did you know that? Turn to John
1 and listen to this. John chapter 1. It's by His will
that I was born again. Oh, I know we men have a will. Their will's in bondage. Christ
said, You will not come to me that you might have life. But
I do know this for certain, God's will shall be done. I'm taught
to pray, Thy will be done. In John 1, listen to this, verse
11. He came unto his own, his own received him not, but as
many as received him. Did you receive him? Thank God. To them gave he the power, the
privilege, right to become sons of God, even to them that believed
on his name. Do you believe on his name? There's
no period there, is there? That's not the end of that sentence.
He's going to tell you how these people came to receive him, how
they came to believe him. why they received him while others
didn't, why they believed him while others didn't. While he
came to his own, his own didn't receive him, the Jews, but you
did, the Gentiles. Listen, verse 13, which were
born, not of blood, that is, not of fleshly inheritance, not
because their mother and daddy were Christians. That's not the
reason they were born. They were born not of blood,
not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man. They
were born of God. Now back to our text. So while
I live, I'm going to praise the Lord. I'm going to give Him the
glory. I'm not just going around saying
these little flippant, meaningless words. I'm going to really, from
my soul, thank God and praise God and bless God that I have
any being, that I have life, that I have eternal life. And
let me tell you something. One of these days, I'm going
to really praise one of these days, this tongue's going to
be cut loose. This heart is going to be able
to say what it really wants to say. When I gather with the redeemed
in glory, and I stand with those ransomed by the blood of Christ,
I'm going to praise Him like He ought to be praised. He's
going to enable me to do it. and wash me from my sins in his
own precious blood, unto him who made me a king and a priest,
unto my God, to him be the glory, both now and forever." I'm going
to praise him. All right, look at the next line.
Now don't, he says here in verse 3, don't put your trust in princes.
What is, what are these princes? Leaders, men of power and prestige
and influence. Don't put your trust in princes,
nor even in any man, in the Son of Man, in whom there is no help. That word help is salvation.
In whom there's no salvation. When are we going to learn this?
When are we going to learn this? People go to church because of
a man. People quit churches because
of a man. People go to worship because
of a man. people go to different denominations because of a man.
I'm telling you this, it's not the man, it's the message. That's
what's important. It's not the person preaching,
it's who's being preached. A man and a woman drove by a
church one day, and she said to her husband, she said, Who
preaches there? He reprimanded her lovingly and
said, My dear, the question is not who is preaching there, the
question is who is being preached there. That's the issue. Don't put your trust in man. Don't put your trust in men.
Don't put your trust and your hope and your confidence in leaders. Put your confidence and trust
in the Lord Jesus. There's no help. Now men, I want
to set an example. I want to be a blessing. I want
to be strong, I want to lead our people in the worship of
the Lord. But don't ever forget this, man at his best state is
altogether vanity. In Philippians 3 verse 3, Paul
said this, there are three marks of a believer, true child of
God. Three marks. Number one, he worships
God in spirit. He worships God in spirit, not
in form and in ceremony, in ritual, but in spirit. His heart is knit
to Christ. He loves Christ. He can save
the Lord Jesus with the Apostle Peter. You know all things. You
know I love you. And it's not the candles burning
or the stained-glass windows or the steeple reaching to heaven
or all the form and processional. He worships God in spirit. Down
there at his service station, he worships God. Out there on
the assembly line making the material, he worships God. Out
there on the creek bank fishing, he worships God. In the kitchen,
thank God I got dishes to wash. Thank God we got—somebody says,
I had to cook supper. Thank God we got something to
cook. A lot of places don't have it. He worships God. You see
what—he worships God in spirit. He doesn't have to go to Mass
to worship God. He doesn't have to go to a certain
place, time, Christmas, Easter, Resurrection Day, all that. He
worships God. Every day is God's day. Lying
on his pillar at night, he thanks God for the pillar of the Lamb,
that his family's in their sleep and safe. He just worships God
in spirit. Secondly, he rejoices in Christ
Jesus. He doesn't rejoice in his decision,
he rejoices in Christ's work. He doesn't rejoice in his duties
and doings for God, he rejoices in God's doings for him. He rejoices
in Christ. His hope's not in Christ, Christ
is his hope. See what I'm saying? Christ,
He rejoices in Christ. He rejoices in His deity. He
rejoices in His incarnation. He rejoices in His righteousness.
He rejoices in His blood. He rejoices in His exultation. He rejoices in Christ, in His
righteousness, in His sanctuary. Just rejoices in Christ. And
then, thirdly, He has no conflicts in the flesh. In His, in yours,
in religious leaders, princes, or anybody else. My uncle used to say, folks don't
expect much out of me and I don't usually disappoint them. I don't intend to quit this worship
because somebody follows. Because I wasn't trusting him,
I'm not surprised. Not long, just a few weeks ago,
another preacher left his wife divorced his wife, left his children,
and I mean a man who's supposed to pray sovereign grace and quit
his church and walked off. You say, doesn't that devastate
you? For him it does, and for his church. But it doesn't surprise
me, because he's a man. That's what he was when God found
him. That's what he will be when God, he stands before God, just
a man. And if he's not in Christ, he'll perish. He'll judge you
in Christ or by Christ. That's what you told us a while
ago. I want to be in Christ. And I'm sorry, and I'm shocked,
but I'm not surprised. I tell you, if it wasn't for
His grace, I'd fall every day, wouldn't you? If one sheep of
Christ should fall away, I'd fall a thousand times a day.
I don't keep myself, He keeps me. It's by His grace I am what
I am. Why are you what you are? It's
by His grace. And if he ever turns you loose,
you're a goner. Like Scott says, you're gone,
Jesse. So don't put any confidence in
flesh. You've got a wonderful pastor
who loves Christ, who loves the gospel, who loves you. That's
evident. Stand with him, stand behind
him, stand for him, support him. If he fails, stand for him anyway.
Just expect it. Isn't that right? And that goes
for everybody here. Help us. Lord, hold me up or
I'll fall. Don't you put confidence in the
flesh. He says that to you. Don't you put your trust in princes,
leaders? I tell you this, if you put too
much confidence in a man, God will make him fall. I'm telling the truth. God will
make him fall because God's not going to shag his clothes with
his children. They're not going to let you. Don't put folks on pedestals,
because God has a way of knocking that pedestal down. Regard them. Give honor to whom honors do,
tribute to whom tributes do. Recognition whom recognitions
do. Thank God for one another. But always remember, we are what
we are by the grace of God. Don't you put in confidence in
the flesh. And I tell you why. In verse four he tells you why.
Because he said his breath goes forth. In other words, every
person, every man, is so frail and so impotent, for want of
a little air, he'll die. You think about how small air
I took a breath. But you know, I couldn't live
without that breath. For want of a little heir, he
dies." That must be an awful frail Christian. If want of a
little heir will destroy him. And that's what he said, don't
you put your trust in him. He's weak, he's frail, he's impotent. All God has to do is cut his
heir off and he'll die. And what's the second thing?
And he returns to his earth. His what? His earth. It doesn't
say the earth, it says his earth. Why does it say his earth? Because
he came from it, and he's going back to it. It's his dust, he's
made out of it. You know what I own, Joe? A hole
in the ground. That's my hole. I came from that
hole, I'm going back to that hole. And that's the only place
I got any influence. I don't have any influence anywhere
else but that hole. It's my earth. I'm going to make
a contribution to it one of these days. I'm going to add some dust
to that hole. That's all. You can't trust me. I can't help you. I can't help
myself. Listen, in that very day his
thoughts perish. When he dies and goes back to
his earth, that's when his thoughts, his plans, his programs, his
ideas, his big glowing things he's going to do, they all go
right down with him. Oh, go right that way. Don't
put any confidence in him. All of his ideas and plans and
great things he's going to do, they just perish when he perishes.
That's right. But verse 5, listen. Oh, happy,
good, gracious, alive, blessed, happy, joyful is that man, that
woman, who hath the God of kingdom for his help. Now, that's a happy
verse. I want you to turn to a verse
of scripture in Jeremiah. Jeremiah, I want you to look
at this. Jeremiah seventeen. Jeremiah seventeen. Verse five. Jeremiah seventeen five. It says here in Jeremiah seventeen
five, Thus saith the Lord God, and I've got a big circle around
these verses and got them underscored. Thus saith the Lord God, Cursed
be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his honour,
and whose heart departeth from the Lord." To trust a man, you've
got to depart from the Lord. Isn't that right? You can't trust
God and mammon. You've got to separate yourself
from Him to look to a man or listen to And that man that trusts
a man is going to be like the heath. You know what a heath
is? It's a little old rolling shrub, a desert shrub, just dry,
parched, no leaves, no fruit, just a little old shrub. Fight
that beside heath. It's a shrub. It's like the tumbling
weeds out west. It's got no root. Good wind. He's like the heath in the desert.
He'll not see when good cometh. He shall inherit the parched
places in the wilderness, and a salt land not inhabited." That's
all that man is. It trusts in the flesh, makes
the arm of flesh his strength. Look at verse 7. Bless is the
man that trusteth in the Lord, whose hope the Lord is. He is
my hope. Christ is my hope. He'll be like
a tree. He's not a little old shrub blown
by the wind in the desert. He's like a tree planted. Where? By the water. By the water. His roots reach down into the
stream, and that spreadeth out her roots for the river, and
shall not see when the heat cometh. That old oak tree, y'all have
a little drought around here, and all little old shrubs dry
up, and the grass dries up, And that old tree planted by that
river over there just stays green because his roots are clear down
into the water, down there into the water table. That's the believer. And like you was talking, Paul,
there's dry times come, and that hot time comes, and the heat
comes, and the trials come, and all these things. But my trust
is not in me or you or anybody. It's in Him. My roots are in
Christ. Listen, "...her leaf shall be
green, and shall not be careful in the days of drought, neither
shall cease from yielding fruit." It's going to go right on fire
and fruit in the water. Oh, I tell you, Happy is that
man that, back to my text, Psalm 146, that hath the God of Jacob
for his help. Let me tell you something here.
Let me pause and say something. Our God is called the God of
Jacob, and believers are called the sons of Jacob. How many times
have you read that in Scripture? Sons of Jacob. Sons of Jacob.
Sons of Jacob. Well, that's not talking about
the natural sons of Jacob. It's talking about spiritual
sons of Jacob. Just talking about believers in Christ. They're
sons of Jacob. Why are they called sons of Jacob?
I'll give you five reasons. Five reasons why we're called
sons of Jacob. Number one, God chose Jacob. He said, The children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God, according to election, might stand not of
works, but of him Somebody said, you mean God loved
you before you was born? Yeah, if he hadn't, he wouldn't
have loved you after he was born. After he got a good look at you,
before you was born. Not only did he choose Jacob,
he loved Jacob. The next verse says, Jacob have
I loved, Esau have I hated. The third reason why you're called
sons of Jacob, God chose you, God loved you. You see, here
is love, not that we loved him, he loved us. We love him because
he loved us. We're called sons of Jacob because
God met Jacob at Bethel and revealed himself to him. God chose you
and loved you, and it wasn't until you were 20, 21, 22, 30,
40, so on, until he met you and said, all right, I'm your God,
you're my child. You met him at Bethel. That's
where he met God. God revealed himself to Jacob.
The latter, remember? And then fourthly, you call sons
of Jacob because he provided for Jacob and kept him and brought
him back always to Bethel. No matter how far Jacob strayed,
God bring him back, bring him back, bring him back, bring him
back. He said to Jacob, go back to
Bethel, go back to Bethel. And I'll tell you this, if you're
God's child, you'll stumble, but you'll come back. You'll
fail, but you'll come back. You'll get your feelings hurt,
but you'll come back. You can't stay away from the water. You
can't stay away from the food. You can't stay away from the
family. You'll come back. You may get upset, but you'll
come back. One evidence that you doubt God's child is when
you don't come back. John said they went out from
us because they were not of us. If they had been of us, they
no doubt would have come back. That's right. You know the fifth
reason you're called son of Jacob? He changed Jacob's name. He said
to him that night, what's your name? You wrestle with the Lord,
you remember? And the Lord said, what's your
name? He said, Jacob. No more, he said. You know what
Jacob means? Chief, supplant, crook. No more. He said, you are now Israel,
a prince of God. A prince of God. Oh, the man
that has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the
Lord his God. Well, why? Why? If I can't trust
man, why should I trust the Lord? Look at verse 6. He made the
heavens. And he who made the heavens can
make you fit for heaven. That's right. You can trust him. He made the heavens. And he said,
I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go prepare a place for
you, I'll come back for you, because I prepared you for that
place. I'll tell you another reason to trust Him. He made
the earth, and He who made the earth can feed me. He made the
streams. He made the vegetables. He made
the fruits. He made the earth. He can sustain
me on this earth. Man can't. God controls the rain
and the drought, and God controls the seasons, and God controls
the snow and the wind. He made the earth. I'm walking on this earth in
the hands of Him who made it. So I can trust Him. Look, He
made the sea. I'll tell you one thing. Have
you ever watched those programs that take the film underwater?
The underwater is the mystery. There's so many fascinating things
under the sea. All those fish and growths and
plants and everything under the sea. You look on top of the sea
and you don't see all that that's underneath there. All those mysteries. He's the God of mysteries. He
can solve them all. And I'll tell you this, your
life is full of mysteries. You look at it now, you don't
know what's underneath and what's going to happen and all these
things. But I tell you, He knows. He made the sea. He controls
the unseen. That's right. Read on. And all
that therein is, and He keeps truth forever. Now man, man can promise you, but all
kind of circumstances will keep him from keeping that promise.
And that's the reason when I left Joe's last night, I appreciate
what I heard. And I don't hear everything.
These old ears are getting dim and all. But I said, I'll see
you in the morning. He said, the Lord will. That was the last thing I heard
you say. It just came over through the
night air as we walked towards the car. And I said, I'll see
you tomorrow. He said, the Lord will. And you
meant that. Because, you know, I'll say,
I'll see you tomorrow, and I may not. I don't have any control
over that. But He keeps truth. He has control. You know why He knows what's
going to happen? Because He makes it happen. That's right. He keeps truth. He keeps truth. Our God does with His Son, with
His covenant, with His promises, with His Word, with His people. Whom do you trust? Whom do you
trust? We had a lot during the campaign
said about whom do you trust? Well, I'll tell you this. I don't
trust myself or anybody else. I trust Him. I trust Him. Because He said, He that hath
begun a good work in you, he'll finish it. He's going to keep
truth. Keep truth forever. All right,
listen. Verse seven. Who hath executed judgment for
the oppressed and giveth food to the hungry. Now in closing,
the last three or four verses, the name of the Lord is used
six times. Now, see that word, the Lord, it's capitalized, capital
L, capital O, capital R, capital D. When you see that in the Scriptures,
it's always Jehovah. Isn't that right, Paul? Jehovah,
Jehovah, Jehovah, the Lord our God. Martin Luther said one time,
I want nothing to do with Elohim, with an absolute God. I want
to do with God, my Savior, in the person of Christ. Now remember
that. You want to do, you want to have
to do with Jehovah, God my Savior. Isn't that right? God my Savior.
God my Savior. His name throughout the scriptures
used Jehovah, and then there's always a name put after it, Jehovah
Nisa, Jehovah Rapha. Jehovah Shalem, Jehovah my peace,
Jehovah who provides, Sidkenu, my righteousness, Jehovah Rea,
my shepherd. Jehovah is my shepherd. Jehovah
is my righteousness. Jehovah is my peace. And here
he says what the Lord will do. First, verse seven says, the
Lord, he looses the prisoners. He sets the prisoner free, free
from the law, free from the curse, free from the condemnation. Verse
eight, the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. He opens the eyes. The one that made the eye opens
the eyes. He gives sight and enables us to see His glory in
the face of Christ. Look, the Lord raiseth them that
are bowed down, whether bowed down in spirit or bowed down
in body. The Lord will raise—or bowed
down in death, He'll raise them. The Lord loveth the righteous.
Are we righteous? In Christ we are. Terry, in Christ
I'm righteous. With his spotless garments on,
I'm as righteous as God's Son. And he loves me because I'm in
Christ. Out of Christ, there's nothing about me to love. God
cannot love an unbeliever. He that believeth not on the
Son, the wrath of God abideth on him. God loveth the righteous. If God could love men out of
Christ, He'd be an unholy God, because that'd be an unholy love,
wouldn't it? He loved the righteous. The Lord preserved the strangers.
We're strangers in this world. We're just passing through. He'll
preserve you. You know something? I said this
to our congregation recently. They talk about recessions and
depressions and all these things. I've been pastor 41 years now. I'm on my 42nd year, same church. And the people have been there.
God's brought in a good congregation of people. I have never in 41
years ever seen a believer begging bread, doing without. Never have. I don't expect to. Never will. Oh, we fret and fume and fuss,
don't we? We wonder where our next meal's
coming from. It's going to come from where
the first meal came from. My Lord, why do we do that? Why don't we trust Him? I've
never seen God's seed begging bread. I've never seen Him when
they didn't have a roof over their head and clothes on their
back and food on their table. He will provide. He says, I'll
preserve the strangers. Listen, He'll relieve the fathers
and the widows. Now, the way of the wicked, He's
going to turn upside down. Now, you expect that if you're
not a believer. He's going to turn you inside
out, upside down. But the Lord will reign forever,
even the Lord thy God who is high unto all generations. So,
praise the Lord. And that won't be just that little
flippant, well, praise the Lord, well, praise the Lord. It'll
be under God, under my breath, under my soul, from my soul.
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. I read something
the other day, and I close with this. I wrote it down. I thought it
was in most circles, and it'll be more. It's unfashionable
nowadays to believe the old gospel of the shed blood of Christ.
Modern culture has altered the Bible and religion until there's
no real atonement left. Blood makes us atonement for
the soul. People today are too intellectual.
They're too advanced. the too self-righteous to helplessly,
hopelessly look to the cross of Christ. But as for me, like
the harlot Rahab, I once again tie the scarlet line in the wind. I believe in the real, literal
substitution of the Lord Jesus Christ, who died Jehovah God
to adjust for the unjust, that he might bring me to the Father.
And in the midst of a thousand new Gospels in 1992 that aren't
worth the breath it takes to preach them, I hold boldly to
the Gospel of God, the Gospel of His sovereign grace, the Gospel
of Isaiah, which says, He was wounded for my transgressions,
He was bruised for my iniquities. And my dear friends, the blood
that maketh atonement for the soul, tie the scarlet line in
your window like Rahab of old and rest in Christ. If no one
sees the scarlet line, God sees it. If no one else is pleased,
God is. At midnight in the land of Egypt,
nobody saw the blood on the door. It was dark, but God saw it. And He said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. Praise the Lord. Oh, my soul. I get saved all over again every
time I preach the gospel. I had one fellow say, after I
finished preaching recently, he said, I wish you'd have asked
for mourners. I'd have been the first one down. To trust him
all over again. Praise the Lord for the gospel
of his redeeming grace. All right. Thank you. Let's sing hymn number 37 and
close it. Number 37. Sing a couple
of verses of this. Sing the first and last verses.
And after we sing, while we're singing that last verse, we go
back there and greet the people while they go out. Stand with
me. Let's sing first and last verses
of this great hymn. O Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder consider all the worlds Thy hands have made, I see the
star, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe
displayed. Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art Then sings
my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Fourth verse. When Christ shall
come, this shout of acclamation, and take me home. So shall be my home. Then I shall bow in the full
adoration, And there proclaim, Thy God, how great Thou art. Then sings my soul, the Savior
of me. Thou reign Thou alone, Thou reign
Thou alone. Then sings my soul, the Savior
of me. Towering now, towering now.

Psalm 146

What does the Bible say about praising the Lord?

Why is praising the Lord important for Christians?

How do we know that God is in control of our lives?

What does it mean to trust in the Lord rather than in man?

How does God show His care for believers?

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Psalm 146

What does the Bible say about praising the Lord?

Why is praising the Lord important for Christians?

How do we know that God is in control of our lives?

What does it mean to trust in the Lord rather than in man?

How does God show His care for believers?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

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