It is good to speak to you again
today. And we continue to meet by way of the internet I think
this is our fourth Lord's Day that we've done this, and it's
going to be several other Lord's Days before we can meet together
again. But at least we can meet together
like this, and it makes us even more appreciative of those opportunities
that God willing we will have when we can gather together as
a congregation and worship the Lord together in spirit and in
truth. If you have difficulties with
receiving the broadcast by sermon audio, also keep in mind you
can go to Facebook. and go to the church website
and Facebook or YouTube in case you lose the signal. I'm going to begin the service
today by reading the last of the Psalms, Psalm 150. This is a magnificent piece of
work the Spirit of God gave to, I suspect, David to write. But it is, we're instructed to
praise Jehovah. In fact, we find 13 times in
this psalm we're instructed to praise our God. And it's kind
of interesting that in this psalm we're told how he is to be praised. And we're also instructed for
what reasons He is to be praised and where He is to be praised,
and those who should be praising Him. So may God enable us this
morning to worship Him and praise Him. And I'm sure you're aware
of the fact that this statement, "'Praise ye the Lord,' is literally
hallelujah. And this is how the psalm begins. And this is also how it ends. Well, you read with me as I read
it. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God
in His sanctuary. Praise Him in the firmament of
His power. Praise Him for His mighty acts.
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with the
sound of the trumpet. Praise Him with the psalter in
the heart. Praise Him with the timbrel and
dance. Praise Him with the stringed
instruments and organs. Praise Him upon the loud cymbals,
and praise Him upon the high-sounding cymbals. Let everything that
hath breath praise the Lord. And then that word, Hallelujah,
over praise ye the Lord. That's a blessed psalm, isn't
it? It's a good way to begin service
this morning. Let's bow our heads together. It is with thanksgiving, our
Father, that we draw near to you through the sacrifice and
the glorious person of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that
we have access into the Holy of Holies. And we go in to fellowship,
O God, through Christ Jesus. and we can stay in your presence
because we've been made the righteousness of God in the Lord Jesus, our
Savior. Our Father, we thank you that
you are God indeed, and the governor of the nations, and all things
are under your dominion, and all things are under your control.
We thank you and bless you that you're the God of creation, and
you're the God of divine providence, and you're the God of our great
salvation. It is only fitting that we should
render praise unto Jehovah. And Lord, we seek to do that
today. I ask for each of the ones who
are watching as well as the few of us who are gathered. Lord,
that you would speak to us by your Spirit. Lord, these are
unusual days, to say the least, in which we live. We recognize
the hand of providence in all that is going on. And Lord, you're
sending forth this virus. It is having a tremendous effect
upon, well, everything. And it has no effect upon our
relationship with God. We're safe in the Lord Jesus.
He is indeed our shelter in the time of storm. We rejoice in
Him. And though others about us are
fearful, and certainly all of us are being cautious, yet Lord,
we know that you're with your people, and you're working all
things together for our good. For you have yourself called
us according to your purpose, and you love us with an everlasting
love. And so, let us be at peace. Let us be restful in the Lord
Jesus, our Savior. Lord, the Savior said to his
disciples, my peace I give unto you. And we ask that he would
give that same sort of peace to each of these, your people. We ask that you would hedge us
about, protect us, those of our congregation, their families. Father, we ask that you would
be protective of all of us and of our loved ones if it would
please you. That is, be protective of us
physically. others, our dear friends, our
brethren and sisters in the Lord Jesus, these who watch, others
who are your dear children. Lord, we all commit ourselves
to your care and we're thankful we're safe in your everlasting
arms. and we hide under the shadow
of your wings, and there we find shelter from every storm, and
there we're close to your heart, and nearer to you we certainly
cannot be, for we're in the person of our Lord Jesus. We're hidden
in Him. Thank you for the blood of redemption. Thank you that you have put away
all of our sins by the sacrifice of the cross of Calvary. Oh,
what a glorious Savior is ours and how we long to trust Him
more fully. He has shown Himself multitudes
of times to be most trustworthy and Lord forgive us when we're
fearful and forgive us when we doubt and forgive us in times
of unbelief and we shall always rejoice and be thankful that
though we are unfaithful and that's to our regret Yet you
abide faithful still. We lean on you, O our God. We're thankful you're our father. And you have adopted us into
your family. And even now, we are the sons
and daughters of God. speak to those who are sick,
hedge them about, and Lord, strengthen them, if you will. Our dear ladies
in the nursing home, Lord, we pray that you'll encourage them
and lift their spirits. So thankful for all of our congregation. Lord, we, perhaps we took for
granted the times that we met together, and now we miss them
so much. And we ask that if you would,
you would remove the scourge upon our nation as quickly as
you're pleased to do so, that once again, we may gather together
and enjoy each other's fellowship and then join our hearts in the
worship of our God. Lord, forgive us for our sins.
We ask that you'll be with us now as we continue the service. And as the word goes forth, Lord,
we ask for liberty, we ask for strength and ability to set forth
that which you've given to us. And may all of your children
be blessed today. Father, magnify your great name. Magnify the name of our Savior. And indeed, as the psalmist said,
it is our goal to praise the Lord in our hearts and in our
spirits. These things we ask in the name
of our Savior and for His sake. Amen. Not what my hands have done Can
save my guilty soul Not what my toiling flesh has done Can
make my spirit whole Not what I feel or do can give me peace
with God. Not all my prayers and sighs
and tears can bear my awful load. Thy work alone, O Christ, can
ease this weight of sin. Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within. Thy love to me, O God, not mine,
O Lord, Then bring me up this dark unrest
and set my spirit free. Thy grace alone, O God, to me
can pardon speak. Thy power alone, O Son of God,
can this sore bondage break. No other work, save thine, no
other blood will do. No strength, save that which
is divine, can bear me safely through. I bless the Christ of God, I
rest on love divine, and with unfaltering I call this Savior mine. His cross dispels each doubt
I bear in his tomb. Each spot of unbelief and fear,
each lingering shade of gloom. I praise the God of grace. I trust his truth and might. He calls me his. My God, my joy, my light. Tis He who saveth me and freely
pardoned gives. I love because He loveth me. I live because He lives. Thank you, Susanna. That song
was written by a brother many years ago, and I put it in the
bulletin this week, and I always appreciate the writings of Horatius
Bonar. And if you want to receive the
bulletin, and you don't receive it now, then you can contact
the church office, and we can send it to you by email. or we can actually mail you a
hard copy, and you can get the bulletin. I still put a song
in each week, and I felt led to put that one in this week,
and it's in our black folder, so those of you of our congregation
would perhaps recognize it and I appreciate Susanna reading
it for us or singing it for us this morning. Well, I want to
begin in Luke this morning, and if you would, go to the last
chapter of Luke, Luke chapter 24. Now, I'm not going to give
much of an introduction of this portion of Scripture because
I referenced it. It hasn't been too many services
ago. But you'll recognize this, our
Lord Jesus has appeared to his disciples. He has eaten with
them to indicate to them that he was indeed real, that he had
risen. This is the one who was sacrificed
according to the purpose of God for his own. and he has been
raised again, and now he is revealing himself to many of his followers. But I just want to focus in on
verse 44, and then I'm going to take you back to the Psalms. This is what he had to say to
them. Luke chapter 24. Verse 44, and
he said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto
you. Or literally, this is the fulfillment
of exactly what I told you was going to happen. He often spoke
of his death, of his sufferings, of what the religious leaders
would do to him. and that then after his death
he would be raised again. So he says, all of the things
that have happened, these are the words that I've spoken to
you while I was yet with you, and he ministered to them for
nearly three years. And he says, these were the things
that were written in the Law of Moses. And of course, that
would be the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Among the Jews, that was the
first division of the Old Testament, generally referred to in the
scriptures as the Law of Moses. And then he says, and in the
prophets. And of course, that's the second
and the largest portion of the Hebrew Bible. And then he says,
and in the Psalms, the Psalms. And then he says, concerning
me. You know, when we think about
the Psalms, and of course we've been in Psalm 91, if you've been
following the last few messages, you've been dealing with Psalm
91, and though I'm not going to go back to that this morning,
I will go back to it this evening. But as we look at the Psalms,
and there are 150 of them, and of course the Psalms is the largest
book of the Bible, it's like a rich, gold mine. It's full of much truth and grace
concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. Evangelical truth and I say full
of it. It's all the truth of God and
it presents to us the gospel of the grace of God and our Lord
Jesus. Now certainly the Psalms express
the personal feelings and experiences of all the children of God. And
we often relate to the psalmist and we go to the psalms in times
of difficulty, times of sorrow, times of death. We go to the
psalms and we get from the psalms much needed comfort. and instruction and peace that
God gives us, whatever our trials may be, whatever our difficulties
may be, we can find an appropriate passage in some portion of scripture
in the Psalms. But here's the main thing about
the Psalms. They set forth our Lord Jesus. There's no question of what they
deal with our experiences, and we can relate to David, or Asaph,
or Moses, or whoever the writer happens to be. We can be very
appreciative of the things that they have to say, and they speak
much peace to our hearts, but mainly, the Psalms speak to us
of our Savior. It reminds me of the words of
John chapter five, when the Lord Jesus said, these are they, talking
about the scriptures, these are they that testify of me. And
this is true of the Psalms. And I just, I sat down and just
made a listing of the blessings of the Psalms in setting forth
our great Redeemer. Now, I'll give them to you very
briefly. I don't have time to make any comments on them. This is a message in itself,
but it will just be the introduction to this message he set forth
as the great creator. Psalm 102, 25. Of old thou hast
laid the foundation of the earth. And then it sets forth his incarnation,
Psalm 40. He said in verses seven and eight,
lo, I come. And of course, you'll recognize
these words, because they're also quoted in Hebrews chapter
10. He says, lo, I come. In the volume
of the book, it is written of me, I delight to do thy will. Oh my God, thy law is within
my heart. And then we see in the Psalms,
he's the son of God. Psalm 2 verse 7, the father said,
thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And then this
one who is our savior in his manhood, he was absolutely perfect. And we see that right from the
beginning of the Psalms in Psalm 1.1. Blessed is the man that
walketh not in the counsel of the wicked, nor standeth in the
way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scoffers or the
scorners, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on
his law he meditates day and night." This is our Savior. Now
indeed, this is what we endeavor to do, but we don't always meditate
upon the, the things of God, the person of God, and the attributes
of God, and the character of God. And we don't always walk
in the counsel of the Lord. We walk sometimes in the counsel
of the wicked. We shouldn't do that. But our
Lord Jesus, he's the perfect man. See, this is what qualified
him. At least this is partial the
qualification of him being the savior. He's the perfect man.
But also the fact that he's the son of God. And then we find
in Psalm 69 and verse four, he was hated without a cause. They
hounded him all of his life. We find in Psalm 69 again, he
came to render honor to the law of God. Psalm 69 verse four says,
then I restored that which I took not away. And we know he was
very keen always to do the will of God and to glorify God. Psalm 69 in verse nine, the zeal
of thine house hath eaten me up. And you'll remember in the
second chapter of John, when our Lord was in the temple and
he turned over the money changers tables, the disciples remembered
that portion of scripture from Psalm 69. The zeal of thine house hath
eaten me up. And then, of course, we know
he set forth in the Psalms as being crucified. Psalm 22 and
16, they pierced my hands and my feet. And we know he finished
salvation as it is also set forth in Psalm 22. Do you remember
how Psalm 22 began? I'm sure you do. My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? And then we get all the way to
the end of the Psalm, in the 31st verse, it says, and they
shall they shall come and declare His righteousness unto people
that shall be born, that He hath done this," or literally, that
it is finished. It begins with His words of agony
upon the cross of Calvary, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken
Me? And it ends with His words of
victory. It is finished. And then it speaks
of his resurrection, Psalm 16 and verse 10. Thou will not leave
my soul in hell, nor suffer thine a holy one to see corruption. And you'll recognize that passage
of scripture because this was what Peter used on the day of
Pentecost in Acts the second chapter. And then we read of
His ascension, Psalm 24, of course. When the King of glory entered
into heaven, the words echo out, lift up your heads, O ye gates,
and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. And then there's his exaltation
and his enthronement. Psalm 2 verse 6, God said, I
have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. Christ is the head
of the church. He's been exalted because he
finished the work of redemption. As it says, the Lord said unto
my Lord, this is out of Psalm 110, set thou at my right hand
until I make thine enemies thy footstool. And then we find out
in the Psalms he's the object of worship, and he's the object
of our confidence and trust. Psalm 2 verse 12, kiss the son,
lest he be angry with thee, and ye perish from the way, when
his wrath is kindled but a little. Now listen to this part. Blessed
are all they that put their trust in him. Do you trust him? You see the Psalms, the Psalms
right, the second Psalm instructs us to trust Christ Jesus and
blessed, forever blessed and favored, highly favored, are
those who trust the Lord Jesus. He's the foundation rock of our
salvation. You get your concordance and
you look at how many times the word rock is used in the book
of the Psalms with reference to our Lord Jesus. Like Psalm
62 and verse 6, He only is my rock and my salvation. He is
my defense, I shall not be moved. Psalm 118 in verse 23, the stone
which the builders refused has become the headstone of the corner. And this is the one, this Savior,
our Lord Jesus, he's the one who effectually draws people
unto himself. Psalm 110 verse three, thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power, thy power. and he's the one who makes his
people righteous. Psalm 45 and verse 13. I love this, it says, the king's
daughter is all glorious within, for her clothing is of wrought
gold. You see, we're made the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus. And then judgment belongs to
him. This is set forth in the Psalms.
Psalm 1, 6, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment. Psalm
9, verse 8, he shall judge the world in righteousness. What
does that remind you of? The words of the apostle when
he spoke in Athens on Mars Hill, and he talked about Christ Jesus
being the one who will judge the world in righteousness. And
then Psalm 68 verse 23 says, thy foot shall be dipped in the
blood of thine enemy. So here's what the Psalms do. They present to us the Lord Jesus
as the great Creator. So this means He's from everlasting. And in the Psalms, David and
Moses and Asaph and Solomon, and if there are any other writers
of the Psalms, and I forget them, but it's the Spirit of God, takes
us from before the beginning of time establishes our Lord
Jesus as being the everlasting God, from everlasting to everlasting,
thou art God, he establishes that, and then he takes us all
the way into the eternity in the future, and says that he's
the judge of all men. And right in the middle it presents
to us, especially in Psalm 22 and Psalm 69, it presents to
us that event of all events, the substitutionary death of
our Lord Jesus Christ. The little wonder then that the
Savior said, and the Psalms concerned me, and you begin to break open. You know, I've listed these things
that have to do with our Savior. And I've tried to do it. I'm certainly accurate in the
scriptures that I've quoted to you. There are many, many more
scriptures that I could give to you, but can you imagine what
it was like for those disciples when the Lord Jesus broke open
the word of God to them and he said, here I am set forth in
the Psalms. And he started undoubtedly right
from the first, of the Psalms and goes all the way to the end.
He's the man who's blessed. Blessed is the man who's the
perfect man. He doesn't walk according to
the wickedness of the world. And he goes from that all the
way to the end of the Psalm. Praise ye the Lord. From beginning
to end, they're all of our Lord Jesus, all of the Psalms. Oh, how absolutely instructive
and thrilling it must have been. For his disciples, as they see
him, and he says to them, you touch me and see. A spirit doesn't
have flesh and bones as you see me have. Do you have anything
to eat? And then as they ate, he began
to break open for them the bread of life. And he set forth himself. from the first five books of
the Bible, from all the prophets and from the Psalms. And I don't
know how long that service lasted, but I'm sure they were on the
very edge of their seats as the Savior made himself known from
the Old Testament scriptures. And of course, we know there
are a multitude of other passages that I don't have time to go
to. He's the shepherd. He's the shepherd of the sheep
in Psalm 22. He's the good shepherd. I'm the
good shepherd. I lay down my life for the sheep. Psalm 22 is about the death of
the shepherd. Psalm 22, Psalm 23, I should
say, is about the great shepherd. He ever lives. Yes, in Psalm
22, he's pictured as laying down his life as the good shepherd
for the sheep, but he didn't stay dead in Psalm 23. David
said, the Lord is my shepherd, he's alive. And he ministers
to me and he ministers to all of his sheep. And he's the chief shepherd,
Psalm 24, who's coming again. Now of the Psalms, we know this,
there are 150 of them. And the word Psalm in the Hebrew
means song of praises. And each one is indeed, there
are 150 songs of praises. And this is exactly what you
see throughout the Psalms, the praise of our God and Savior,
the Lord Jesus. And many years ago, back in Old Testament times. The rabbis
apparently divided all of the Psalms into five books. Now here's
the title of this message, The Five Books of Psalms. That's
the title of this message, The Five Books of Psalms. And they broke the Psalms down
into these five books for instruction for the children and also for
the adults. When one of the rabbis or the
priests would meet with the young people, they would say, now this,
perhaps it's a semester, we're going to be studying book one
of the Psalms. And those students would know
immediately he's talking about Psalm 1 through 41. Or they might say, one of the
rabbis might say to the congregation, for our studies in the next several
Sabbath days, we're gonna be studying book number two of the
Psalms, and that would be Psalm 42 through 72. Or they might say, we're going
to be studying Psalm 73 through 89, Book 3. Or Book 4, Psalm
90 through 106. Or maybe Book 5, Psalm 107. through 150. This is the way
the Psalms were broken down into five distinct books. Now some have said that the first
book, Psalm 1 to 41, that's the Davidic Psalms. And that's what
the rabbi said, although David wrote more than that, but that's
how they break it down. The book one, the Davidic Psalm. The second book, Psalm 42 to
72, the Levitical Psalms, having more to do with offerings. and
that sort of thing. Book 3, 73 to 89, that's the
Psalms in the time of King Hezekiah. Book 4, Psalm 90 through 106,
that's the Psalms before the captivity. That's before they
went into captivity. And then book five, Psalm 107
to 150, those are the books, that's the Psalms after the captivity. Now, in each of these five books. And this is what I've been studying.
I was actually studying again from Psalm 91. And as I'm going
to do this evening, I was looking back at Psalm 90. And I noticed that Psalm 90 begins
Book 4. And then that got me interested
in these books. And this is what I have discerned,
that as you go through all of the Psalms and you go through
these five books, they list for us or present to us distinct,
five distinct things about our Savior. Now remember, He's the
one we're looking for. And like I've said before, I
know that the experience of the Psalmist They certainly minister
to us in our times of need and times of tribulation, persecution,
sorrow, death. When we're on our deathbed, we
get a lot of comfort from the Psalms, but mainly they're speaking
to us of our Savior. Now let's look at these and I'll
be brief with them because I'll have to be. Book one. This is Psalm 1 through 41. And
by the way, let me also throw this in for you. Of these five
categories, each ends with amen or hallelujah. That's how each
of the books end. They end with amen, that is,
so be it verily, this is the truth. or praise ye the Lord,
which is hallelujah. What about book one? This is
Psalm one through 41. Well, this book tells us the
Lord Jesus is with and beside his people. He's with us and
he's beside of us. And I think one of the key Psalms
in this, if you would go to Psalm 23. Psalm 23, where David writes
of the shepherd and he reminds us that he's with us, he's beside
of us. You'll notice here, he says in
verse one, the Lord is my shepherd, Jehovah my savior. He's my shepherd. I've already said he's the good
shepherd who gave his life for the sheep. He's the great shepherd
whose blood was the blood of the everlasting covenant. He's
the chief shepherd, as Peter says, who will come again and
receive us unto himself. And David says, the Lord is my
shepherd. Therefore, I shall not want. I shall not lack anything. I lack nothing. I've got everything
in Christ Jesus. He is made of God unto me. Wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. I am complete
in Him. He says, he makes me to lie down
in green pasture. Well, how does he do? In what
way does he do that or by what means does he do that? Well,
he's with us. He's with us. He's not a shepherd
who's way off. He's a shepherd who's with us,
and He makes His sheep to lie down in the green pastures of
His Word. And when it says He makes us,
it shows His sovereign authority. And he leads me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. He saved
me. That's what David's saying. He
leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil for thou art with me. That's the theme of this first
book. He's with me. He's with me. Listen, He was
forsaken by God. That's the previous Psalm. He
was forsaken by God because He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree. And God poured out His wrath
on Him. He was forsaken and now our Savior,
He is with us even in the valley of the shadow of death and He
will never forsake us. The shepherd will never leave
nor forsake his sheep. Thou art with me. That's what
he says. He's right there beside of you.
You who are the sheep of his pasture. You who love him. You who believe him. You who
have been effectually brought into the fold of salvation. You
who beheld his glories. you who've trusted Him, you who
see in Him the very glory of God, and you come to see that
by His substitutionary sacrifice, God made you whole, God made
you righteous. He's your shepherd, and wherever
you are, whatever you're doing, even if you're on your sickbed,
He is with you. He's beside of you. Now, notice
how book one ends. Go over to Psalm 41. Psalm 41.
Look at verse 13. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. Don't you bless him for the fact
he's with you and he's beside of you. Blessed be the Lord God
of Israel. I'll utilize his name. I'll praise
the name of Christ Jesus. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and amen. So be it. And then we get to book two,
Psalm 42 through 72. And here, the theme, I believe,
is set before us in Psalm 68. Psalm 68. And here is the theme
of this book two. Our Lord goes before us. He goes before us. Just like God said to Israel
concerning the angel of the covenant. He said this to Israel as they
came out of Egypt. My angel, he will go before you. He'll go before you to prepare
all things for his people. Look at Psalm 68. Look at verse
seven. Oh God, when thou wentest forth before
thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness, Selah."
Think of that. He went before them. He's paving
the way for them. They're not without a guide.
They're not without a leader. He went before them and he goes
before you, clearing out the obstacles. bringing whatever
He deems necessary into your path. He puts it there. It may
be health, it may be sickness, whatever it is, trial, trouble,
tribulation, peace, joy, whatever it is. He goes before His people
and He puts it in our path. Notice, when thou didst march
through the wilderness, He marched through the wilderness and we're
in a wilderness journey ourselves and we follow Him. Verse 8, the
earth shook. The heavens also dropped at the
presence of God. Even Sinai itself was moved at
the presence of God, the God of Israel. Thou, O God, didst
send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance. When he was weary, thy congregation
hath dwelt therein. Thou, O God, hast prepared of
thy goodness for the poor. The Lord gave the word. Great
was the company of those that published it. that publish the
gospel, that publish the good news. The Lord is with us, and
He goes before us. He went before us into death. He died for our sins according
to the Scriptures. He went before us into the tomb. He went before us out of the
grave, before us, and He's gone back to heaven. He told His disciples
that He was going away. He said, I go to prepare a place
for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I'll come again and receive you unto Myself. I'm
going. And He who went to die for us
and who arose for us, He's gone ahead of us to glory as our forerunner. That's what the writer of Hebrews
says. Jesus, our forerunner, has entered in. He has staked
a claim to heaven in our name. He's the one who goes before
us. Why, he went before us preaching the gospel. The very first thing
that's said of him in the Gospel of Mark is, he went forth preaching
the gospel, and as he went forth preaching the gospel, we follow
him. That's what I'm doing today,
preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and others of God's
servants doing exactly the same thing. He went before us. And notice how book two ends,
Psalm 72. Go to Psalm 72 and verse 17. You'll love this. Psalm 72, 17,
His name shall endure forever. His name shall be continued as
long as the sun, and men shall be blessed in Him, not out of
Him. and no blessings out of him,
men shall be blessed in him, and all nations shall call him
blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the
God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things, and blessed
be his glorious name forever, and let the whole earth be filled
with his glory. Amen and amen, so be it. Let Christ be glorified, and
all the saints of God say amen, And amen. And then we get to
the third book. The Lord continues to speak.
And the Spirit of God writes of Christ Jesus, and this sets
forth his works, his works on our behalf. There's several verses
I could give you. Let me just read them to you
quickly. Psalm 73, 28. I give you several verses here,
we'll just touch on them. 73, 28. But it is good for me
to draw near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord
God that I may declare all thy works. Psalm 74, verse 12. For God is my King of old, working
salvation in the midst of the earth." Isn't that what he did?
Didn't he work salvation in the midst of the earth? Didn't he
come down here to seek and to save his people? Is his name
not Jesus? He shall save his people from
their sins. That's the work he came to do.
Look at Psalm 75 and verse 1. Unto Thee, O God, do we give
thanks. Unto Thee do we give thanks,
for that Thy name is near, Thy wondrous works declare." Oh,
we declare His work of making everything creation, His work
of ruling everything providence, but especially that work of salvation.
Look at Psalm 77. Psalm 77, 11 through 12. Psalm 77, 11 through 12. I will remember the works of
the Lord. He says, surely I will remember
thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy
work. I'll talk of all thy doings. We don't talk about our doings
because our doings, though we're to be obedient, we seek to be,
though we do good works, we seek to do them, but our doings aren't
worth speaking about. Our doings aren't worth noting. Our works aren't worth drawing
any attention to. But we do meditate on all God's
work, all the works of Christ Jesus. For his was a work of redemption.
His was a work of reconciliation. His was the work of restoration. And then look at Psalm 78 and
verse four. We will not hide them, the sayings
of the Lord will not hide them from their children. showing to the generation to
come the praises of the Lord and His strength and His wonderful
works that He had done. His wonderful works. Do you remember,
and I know you do remember, in Acts chapter two, when the Spirit
of God was given and those men went forth preaching the gospel
in languages they'd never studied, the people were amazed because
this is what they said, we do hear them speak the wonderful
works of God. That's what it said. The wonderful
works of God. And oh, there's no work more
wonderful than the work of salvation. Our Lord Jesus was our surety. He received us as a gift from
the Father. And then He came into this world
to incarnate God. made bone of our bone and flesh
of our flesh and He endured all the wrath of men and then all
the wrath of God to save us from our sins. It was His work. How often did
He say, I've come to do the work of Him that sent me. And then
in John 17, He said in His high priestly prayer, I finished the
work. He gave me today. Again in Psalm
78 verse 7, that they might set their hope in God and not forget
the works of God. Verse 11, but they forgot his
works and the wonders that he showed them. Oh, let us not forget
the works of our Savior. And then look at Psalm 86 in
verse 8. 86 in verse 8. Among the gods, there's
none like unto thee, O Lord. Neither are there any works like
unto thy works. This book This third book is
about the continual works of the Savior on the behalf of his
people. And he still works for us. You
remember again in John chapter five when our Lord had healed
the man who was lame 38 years. He healed him and then he went
into the temple our Lord Jesus did and found him. And he revealed
himself to that man. And the man immediately went
out that he couldn't help but tell what he knew. He said, the
man who healed me was Jesus of Nazareth. And then of course,
the Jews were very upset. They were upset because he had
healed this man on the Sabbath day. And they went to our Lord
Jesus and he said unto them, my father worketh hitherto. And
what did he say next? I work. I work. And of course they were upset
because he claimed equality with God. He worked. He worked. And he's still working for us.
Not the work of redemption. Now that's finished. And not
the work of reconciling us to God. That's over. Not the work
of bringing in righteousness. That's been accomplished. But
the work he's doing now is working all things together for good
of his people. Who's doing the working? He is,
the Savior. No wonder this third book of
the Psalms ends in Psalm 89. And I don't have the time to
go through here, but look what he says after relating many things
about our Savior, the Son of David, and the covenant of grace,
and the certainty of the salvation of the seed of the Lord. Look
at verse 52. Blessed be the Lord. Blessed
be God our Savior forevermore. Amen. And amen. And then we get to the fourth
book, Psalm 90 through 106. And here we have the Lord above
all. The Lord above all. Look at Psalm 97 and verse 9. Psalm 97 and verse 9. For thou, Lord Jehovah, our Savior,
art high above all the earth. Thou art exalted far above all
gods. He's high above all things. That
means He governs. That just means He reigns. Look
at Psalm 99 and verse 2. The Lord is great in Zion. Zion, that's the church of Christ
Jesus. That's the church of the redeemed.
And He is high above all the people. He's high above all the
people of the earth. and He's high above all of His
people, and we recognize His exaltation, and we worship Him. Look at Psalm 103 in verse 11. Psalm 103 in verse 11. For as the heaven is high above
the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. This
is the exaltation of our Savior. He's above all. In all of this
current crisis we're facing, never forget, He's above all.
He's above the virus. He's above the leaders. He's
above all. He's directing all things to
the end that He has purposed. No wonder the Psalm closes this
way, Psalm 106. Look at verse... 43. Of the children of Israel, it
says, many times, Psalm 106, 43, many times did He deliver
them, but they provoked Him with their counsel, were brought low
for their iniquity. Nevertheless, He regarded their
affliction when He heard their cry. And He remembered for them
His covenant. It always goes back to the covenant. And he repented according to
the multitude of his mercies. He made them also to be pitied
of all those that carried them captives. Save us, O Lord, our
God, O Jehovah, our Savior, our God, and gather us from among
the heathen. And that's what he's doing by
his effectual call of grace through the preaching of the gospel.
He's gathering us from among the heathen. to give thanks unto
thy holy name and to triumph in thy praise. Blessed be the
Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting and let all the
people say, Amen. Hallelujah. Amen. Praise ye the
Lord. So we have in book one, he's
beside his people, he's with his people. Book two, he goes
before his people. Book three, he's always working
for his people. Book four, he is above all people,
but especially above his people, working as the reigning God.
And then book five, Psalm 107 to the end, he is among his people. He's among his people. Turn to
Psalm 107. Psalm 107. This is... What a marvelous psalm. Here
are four pictures of the redeemed sinners. He's among us, number
one. I give you four things here because
it breaks down in the psalm. Number one, he's among us as
the one who finds the lost. That's verses four through eight. I don't have time to read. You
read them later. Don't read them now, read them
later. But he is among us as the one who finds the lost. Did he not say in Luke chapter
19 when they were questioning as to what was the reason he
went home to the house of Zacchaeus? He said, the Son of Man, He's
come to seek and to save that which was lost. That which was
lost. He's among His people as the
shepherd who finds the lost sheep. Luke chapter 15 tells us that. He finds those who are lost.
And then verses 9 through 15, He's among us as the one who
sets the prisoners free. We're held by the law of God,
which has a just accusation against us. But He came to free us. He's among us as the one who
came to free us. He came right down here where
we live to liberate the captives. to free us from the evil one.
And ultimately to free us from the very presence of sin. But
he did free us from the very penalty of sin. He bore that
awful penalty himself. And then the Lord is among us
as the great physician to heal the sick, verses 17 through 22. And do we not read later on in
this Psalm, he healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their
wounds. He's among us as the one who
heals us. He heals us out as he healed
us. Psalm 53 answers that with his
stripes. We're healed, healed of our spiritual
diseases. And many times he's pleased to
heal us of our physical diseases. So he is among us as the great
physician to heal the sick. And then, fourthly, in verses
23 through 31, he's among us as the one who rescues the endangered
ones. Verses 23 through 31. Let me read verse 25. For he commandeth
and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves thereof.
They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths.
Their soul is melted because of the trouble. They reel to
and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits end. Does that not remind you of the
disciples on the Sea of Galilee? They were at their wits end.
And verse 28, then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble. He
brings them out of their distresses. He makes the storm to be absolutely
calm. And the waves, he makes them
to be still. He said to his disciples, why
do you doubt? And then he spoke to the winds
and the waves, peace, be still. You see, he is among his people. I know the disciples there on
the Sea of Galilee were in that ship, but who was among them? Who was with them? The Savior
was. Now, you can't perish in the
good ship of grace. And you can't perish because
the captain is on board. It's gonna be some storms. There's
going to be some troublesome times for the people of God. But the ship of grace isn't going
down. And the captain of our salvation,
he has the ability, if it's his will, to speak to every storm
in your life and say, peace, be still. And if he's not pleased
to speak peace to the storm, He can speak peace to your heart. And we always want to remember,
He is among us. He's among us. And that leads me to the end
of this book five, back to Psalm 150. Back to Psalm 150. And the very last verse says,
let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the
Lord. Hallelujah. Aren't you glad he
reigns? This is our savior. Let me give
him to you again. The Lord Jesus is beside his
people. He's always near. How near is
he? He dwells in you and you dwell
in him. You dwell, remember our text
in Psalm 91, in the secret place of the Most High. Number two,
the Lord Jesus goes before us. And therefore, he says to us,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Number three, the Lord Jesus
is always working for his people. He's always working. And He's still working. And all
that's going on today, it'll work with everything else for
the good of the people of God. Number four, the Lord Jesus is
above His people, and He's above all things. Oh, He's high and
lifted up. And He reigns over everything. And number five, The Lord Jesus,
our Savior Christ, is among His people. He's among His people
to find us when we're lost, to liberate us when we're prisoners,
to heal us when we're sick, and then number four, to be with
us through the storms of life and rescue us. That's the five books of the
Psalms. And they set forth our Lord Jesus
so beautifully. God help us to trust Him, to
magnify His name. And we'll meet again this evening
at 6.30. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, our Father, for the
privilege to meet together. And thank you for such a magnificent
Savior. Oh, how saturated this entire
book of God is. And as with all the books of
the Bible, so the book of Psalms. And every page, every psalm,
all 150 of them, they magnify our Savior. Yes, they speak peace
to us and the writers of the psalms, they present to us their
experiences, their feelings. With absolute honesty, they made
known to us their heart's desires and the griefs and the pains
that they bear or bore. And we can enter into these things
and we're blessed as we're reminded that the Lord was with them and
so He's with us, but mainly through the Psalms we see our Savior.
Oh, how we worship Him. And our closing words this morning
are these. Amen and amen. Praise ye the
Lord. Hallelujah. For Christ's sake,
amen.