This is a psalm of David. He's
called the sweet psalmist of Israel. And he begins the psalm
by saying, praise ye the Lord. That is a commanding statement.
This is not an invitation to praise the Lord. It's not a request
that we honor our God. This is a great command. We're always commanded to honor
God. We're commanded that we do not
honor the flesh, but we honor the great three in one. We honor
the God who chose us unto salvation. We honor the God who redeemed
us by his sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. We honor the
one, the Holy Spirit, who took the word of truth And He planted
that seed in our hearts and He prepared our hearts to receive
the good seed of the Word of God. And He quickened us and
gave us faith to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ and to see
that in Him all salvation is to be found. Salvation is not
by works. It's not by the labors of the
flesh. Salvation is of our God. When Israel stood at the shore
of the Red Sea and the Egyptians were behind them and the Red
Sea in front of them and they were at their wits end, Moses
said to them, just stand still and see the salvation of the
Lord. And they did. And the Lord delivered
them without any effort on their part They never raised a hand against
the Egyptians. The archers never shot one arrow
at the Egyptians. Those who had spears didn't use
it to defend themselves. They stood still according to
the word of Moses, and they watched as God miraculously split the
Red Sea in two. And all of Israel went through
on dry ground. And when the Israelites were
leaving on the far side of the sea, and the Egyptians were hastening
in their effort to catch up with the Israelites, God closed the
sea around them and they drowned. Who saved them? God saved them. Who delivered them? God delivered
them. Who rescued them? God rescued
them. And as it was with their physical
salvation, so it is in our spiritual salvation. We don't lift one
little finger. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Therefore, this Psalm that David
wrote, he instructs us to praise ye the Lord. Praise ye Jehovah. And it's interesting that as
the Psalm begins, so the Psalm ends. Did you notice that? The
last words of Psalm 146 are praise ye the Lord. And then the next
Psalm begins with, Praise ye the Lord. And Psalm 147 ends
with, Praise ye the Lord. And then Psalm 148 begins with,
Praise ye the Lord. And it ends with, Praise ye the
Lord. And Psalm 149 begins with, Praise
ye the Lord. And it ends with, Praise ye the
Lord. And Psalm 150 begins with, Praise
ye the Lord. And it ends with, Praise ye the
Lord. Mr. Spurgeon said of these last
five Psalms, he said, these are the high peaks. that bring to
conclusion the longest book in the Bible. And in ending this
Psalm, the Lord would have us to remember always to give all
praise and glory and honor unto our God, to Jehovah who saves. For he alone is worthy of praise. I call this hallelujah. Because literally that's what
the words praise ye the Lord mean. It means celebrate God, glory
in God, boast only in the Lord. That the end of Jehovah, J-A-H, that's our God. And you know,
the sad thing about it is, while as Gentiles, hopefully we respect
the name of God, the Jews wouldn't even write or say the name of
Jehovah. That's how much respect they
had for the name of Jehovah. But let me say this about Gentiles. Unfortunately, many times Gentiles
drag the name of Jehovah through the mire. And they use the word God or
Jehovah or praise ye the Lord in a flippant way. I bet you've been around people
and something happened, well, praise the Lord. Be careful how you use the Lord's
name, lest you be found taking his name in vain. The name of
God is to be spoken with reverence, with great honor, with respect. Oh, for a heart full of worship
and full of praise and adoration for the Lord of glory. He says there in that first phrase,
praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. You say,
is the Spirit of God telling us what to do? Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. He's telling us to
praise ye. You praise the Lord. You praise
the Lord. And then David says this in the
second verse. Well, let me finish the first
verse. Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise ye the
Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Oh, my soul, let me praise Him
from my innermost being. Our Lord spoke and He was quoting
Isaiah about people who with their lips they honored God,
but their hearts were far from Him. Remember that passage of
Scripture? Don't just honor Him with your
lips. Remember those folks in Matthew chapter 7, the Savior
said, of them many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, honoring
Him with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him. I'll
tell you what Solomon said to his son, my son, give me your
heart. Where is the heart worship? It's
easy to give lip service to Jehovah. It's another thing to honor Him
for my innermost being, from the soul, from the heart. Paul said in Romans 9, with the
heart man believeth unto righteousness. With the heart. From the seat of your affections,
honor God. He says, praise ye the Lord. Don't you praise Him for His
purpose of grace. This whole purpose of salvation
was ordained before the world ever began. In fact, the world
was created as the stage upon which the drama of redemption
was going to take place. Praise Him for His purpose of
grace. Praise Him for the election of grace. I'll tell you this, if God had
not chosen you unto salvation, you would not be a believer tonight.
And if he had not chosen me unto salvation, I wouldn't be preaching
this glorious gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. I'd
still be wrapped up in the self-righteous weeds and contamination of free
willism. Look at us now. Look at us. We're
believers. We seek to honor God. We don't
come in here bragging on the flesh. We don't count, see how many
we've got. We don't seek to get more in
here next Sunday than we had last Sunday. We're not into all
that. The world's into that. Well, what are we all about?
Honoring our God. That's what we're all about. We praise Him for His election
of grace. We praise Him for His redeeming
grace. Thank God He redeemed His people.
He didn't try to, He did. The work of our Savior upon the
cross of Calvary was not an effort. It was a successful labor done
for the glory of the Father and for the salvation of His people. We praise him for his redeeming
grace. He put me in good standing with
God. Of course we gonna brag on him.
Of course we gonna glory in Christ. We praise him for his regenerating
grace. I was lost, he found me. I was
dead, he quickened me. I was blind, He gave me sight.
I was deaf, He gave me hearing. I was lame, He gave me the ability
to go to Him because He drew me and then I followed Him. We praise Him for His sustaining
grace. Others have made professions
of faith and they've left. They've gone. They forsook the
Lord. How come you're still here? How
come you still believe Him? How come I'm still believing?
Others seemingly stronger and more knowledgeable of the things
of God, they've left the truth. How come we're still believing?
How come we still love sovereign grace? How come we still love
to talk about the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that effectually
redeemed us? I'll tell you why. Because He
keeps us. We're kept by the power of God. And I'll tell you, we praise
him for his teaching grace. He gave us a teachable spirit. And we praise him for his abiding
grace. He abides with us always. I praise
him for his correcting grace, don't you? I do, I praise him
for his correcting grace. And I praise Him for His sanctifying
grace, for I am sanctified in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I
praise Him in advance for glorifying grace. I'm not there yet. I'm not glorified yet, but I
praise Him. It's a sure thing. I praise Him. In Psalm 22, verse 23, ye that
fear the Lord, praise Him. Praise him. All ye the seed of
Jacob, glorify him and fear him, all ye seed of Israel. I admonish
all of you who know the sweetness of the gospel, those who know
the love of Christ, those who have experienced the forgiveness
of sins and the imputation of righteousness to you. I admonish you. Praise you, the
Lord. Praise you, the Lord. I read
today, one writer said, in heaven, this is the way it will be. When
one hallelujah ends, another one will commence. I like that. When one hallelujah ends, another
one will commence. The highest anthems ever sung
on earth or in heaven are those that praise and honor and extol
the glories of our God and King. Now watch this, that last three
words of verse one, oh my soul. Now the preacher is preaching
to himself. He says, praise ye the Lord.
He says, praise the Lord. Oh my soul, let me not be negligent
to praise the Lord while I'm commanding you according to the
Scriptures to praise the Lord. Let me not, let me not fail to
do what the Scripture commands you folks to do. Notice what David says in the
latter part of verse one, he says, I will sing praises unto
my God while I have any being, while I'm alive. I say don't, don't put any confidence
in people, put confidence in the Lord. Look what he says in
verse three, put not your trust in princes, people who are in
authority, nor in the son of man in whom there's no help, People put their hopes and their
confidence in a president, both sides. When a Democrat's in office,
there are people who put confidence in him. Oh, things will be different
now. Things will be a whole lot better now. And then a Republican
gets in, things going to be better now. Don't put your trust in
any man, because men come and go. And most all the men that I've
seen that have any authority at all, they're exalting themselves
and they're not exalting our Lord. Don't put any confidence
in men. The arm of the flesh will fail
you and that's your arm and the arms of everybody else too. There's no helping man. Oh, this
man or that woman, the senator, the representative, whoever,
they'll help us all. They can't give you the kind
of help you really need. And the help we need is help
in the heart, in the soul. Look at the fourth verse. His
breath. Goeth forth, he returneth to
his earth. You notice that it says his earth?
Because we came from the earth and we're going back to the earth.
His breath goeth forth. Let me tell you something. I'll
tell you how close you are to eternity. You're one breath away. That's right, you're one breath
away. I called my sister this morning
in Virginia, and one of my mother's sisters passed away yesterday
in Hillsville, Virginia. And she hadn't been feeling good,
had some kind of, I don't know, bladder infection or something,
took her to that little hospital there. You probably know where
that's in Hillsville. You all do too, I'm sure. And
the examiner gives some medicine. She said, I'm hungry. They said,
OK, we'll go get you a sandwich. Went to get her a sandwich. And
when they came back, she was dead, 85. She drew her last breath. I do
not know her state before God. I talked to her years ago. I
don't know. None of my business. but you're
a breath away from eternity. Our breath goes forth. For you
see, every breath we breathe is a gift from God. Don't you
take life for granted now. Your heart beats because God
keeps it beating. Your mind works because God keeps
it working. That precious blood goes through
your veins, your arteries and capillaries and so forth and
so on because God keeps it flowing. And when He says it's time for
your days to end, you'll draw your last breath and that'll
be it. His breath goeth forth and He returneth to the earth.
And watch this, in that very day his thoughts perish. In that
very day, all the things that a man or a woman plan to do,
that's it, they perish. Unfulfilled dreams, unfulfilled
designs, unfulfilled purposes. I tell you, God has decreed the
end of your days, just like He decreed the beginning of them.
And when you reach the end, that's the end for you and for me. In that very day, all of our
intentions, all of our well-laid plans and purposes, they're gone. No wonder we read in the Scriptures,
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might. Do it now. Is there somebody
you need to hug? You need to hug them now. If
there's somebody you need to say, I'm thankful to God for
you, you ought to say it now. Because there's going to come
a time when you will have spoken your last word. Me too. In that
very day. His thoughts perish. Watch this,
verse five. Happy is he, blessed is he, highly
favored is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose
hope is in the Lord his God. That's a blessed man. Because
when you breathe your last breath, If you have the God of Jacob, the God who chose him, the God
who redeemed him, the God who sustained him, the God who loved
him, Paul wrote and he said, God said, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. He that hath the God of Jacob,
who loves him and redeems him, That man's happy. You may not
have everything in this world you'd like to have. That's all
right. You don't need everything you
think you need, nor do I. But I sure need the Lord Jesus
Christ, don't you? I'm nothing without Him. I'm
a poor, bankrupt beggar. I got nothing to offer Him. Yet
He has blessed me with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places,
and He has blessed me with all those blessings before the world
ever began, before I even knew anything about them. That person is blessed. Well, is this God? Is this God
able to sustain us and save us forever? Well, let's see here. Look at
verse 6. He's the Creator, which made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all that therein is. And He's faithful, which keepeth
truth forever. And He's the Just One, which
executeth judgment for the oppressed." The law of God oppressed me,
demanding perfection, and I couldn't produce it. Satan oppressed me,
and I'm no match for him. But my God executed justice for His oppressed people. He
sent His Son into this world. And he paid a debt he didn't
owe except by imputation. Imputation means there's a charge
to him. And you know what he does? He
gives food to the hungry. He makes us to hunger and thirst
after righteousness, and then he fills us with it. And then watch this. The Lord
looseth the prisoner. We were held captive by the law
of God. We're held captive by Satan at
his will. But our mighty Redeemer, Jehovah
who saves, the Lord Jesus Christ, he looseth the prisoners. You'll
notice the ETH, that means he's continually doing that. He continually
makes certain that we remain liberated and free. What does the Lord do for us
still? The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind. Yet you who are
the people of God, isn't the Lord still opening your eyes
to truths in the word of God? We're still learning. We got
a long ways to go. And the Lord raiseth them that
are bowed down. First of all, He humbles us.
He shows us what we are. He shows us we're sinners. And having caused us to bow down
before Him, then He raises us up in Christ Jesus. Why does He do that? Because
the Lord loves the righteous. He loves His people. It's a continual
thing. He says in verse 9, the Lord
preserveth the strangers. I was a stranger. He took me
in. I didn't know him, but he knew
me. I wasn't looking for him, but
he was looking for me. You see, the Lord helps the helpless. He relieveth the fatherless and
the widow. But the self-righteous and the
arrogant, the wicked, one of these days he's going
to turn their world upside down. And everything that brought them
joy and everything that brought them happiness will be taken
away. What makes you happy? I mean,
really, gives joy to your heart. Actually, a better way to ask
it, who gives you joy? Who makes you happy? I'll tell
you when I'm the happiest. I'll tell you when I'm the happiest. When I'm amongst the people of
God, hearing about my God and Savior, and somebody's bragging
on Him, that's when I'm the happiest. And I do believe that we're the
nearest to what it's like in glory when we meet together as
a congregation and honor our Lord, because that's what heaven's
gonna be all about, is honoring our Savior. But the way of the
wicked He turned it upside down. Well, how do you know all this
is gonna happen? Because what the last verse says,
the Lord shall reign forever, even by God, oh Zion, and all
generations. So then what are we to do? Praise
ye the Lord. That's a blessed psalm, isn't
it? Oh, it's full of riches, full of the grace of God to us
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Get those black folders out again.
Now I want you to go to page 9.