This is a psalm of God's sovereignty,
showing God is sovereign, and how He is to be worshipped, and
how He is to be praised. It says there that verse 2, that
He is a great king over all the earth, not over just a little
of it, not over just Here our part of it, but over all the
earth And I tell you in down in verse 7 it says that again
for God is the king of all the earth You see God is the creator
He's Lord of all the earth God said he himself, you know, he
said the earth is mine and the fullness thereof This belongs
to him. He just lets us live on it for
a little while and gives us an appointed part in it, gives us
a little place to live for a while. But He's the Creator and Lord
of all the earth. And all men, all men since He's
the Creator, all men since He's the one that gives us our life,
our movement, our being, gives us our very being, gives us every
breath. All men everywhere owes Him their
faith and their obedience. They owe it to Him. They ought
to gladly give it. They ought to thankfully give
it. They ought to every day, every
day, get up and say, I've blessed God that made me. I'm going to
do by His grace the will of His who made me and gives me my very
life and being. You see, when we say sovereign,
that means He's the Supreme. He's the Supreme Being of the
whole universe. The universe, beloved, and the
universe is in Him. All things that are, are in God. And He has all authority over
heaven and earth. And I tell you, the Scriptures
tell us without a shadow of a doubt that He does according to His
will. His will. In the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, and no man can stay His hand
or say unto Him, What thou doest. And I tell you, beloved, look
over here in Psalm, I'll just show you something. It says,
Oh, for the Lord Most High, that's where we start in verse two,
for the Lord Most High is terrible. He's a great king over all the
earth. And that means that he's king
over everything. Look with me over in Psalm, Psalm
136, just 135 I mean. Look at here in Psalm 135. Quote
this scripture so many times, but look at it. Talking about
God being sovereign. 135 in verse 6. Verse 5 says, For I know that
the Lord is great, and that I, Lord, is above all gods, whatsoever
the Lord pleased. That did He in heaven, and in
the earth, and in the seas, And all deep places. You reckon that
covers it all, don't it? That covers it all. Let me show
you another one. Over here in 1 Samuel 2. Talking about God. He's the one.
He's the sovereign. Everything that we have. Everything
that somebody has. 1 Samuel chapter 2. that everything
that this world, and I, you know, folks, they just don't like the
idea of God being sovereign. God having control. God, He,
you know, He's the one that gives life. Everything that happens
in this world, it's ordained and decreed by God Himself. There's
no doubt about it. He's the King, the great King
over all the earth. And we'll see some other things
about Him. And it's said here, down in verse The Lord killeth. The Lord killeth. He may use
a second cause, but this thing of life and death is of the Lord.
You reckon we're here because God willed us to be here? He
has appointed our days, He said they know, He said of the sparrows,
He said the sparrows are sold for two parts, and you're worth
more than all the sparrows in the world. Talking about His
people, He said I take such mind to carry you and watch over you
in such a way that I'll number the hairs of your head. I've got you, and I pay close attention
to you. And then he goes, listen, the
Lord killeth and the Lord maketh alive. He's the one that brings
life into this world. He's the one that quickens the
dead and trespasses their sins and gives them life. He bringeth
down to the grave. And he brings up from the grave.
One of these days, they said, we'll turn around and we'll say,
oh, death, where's your sting? Oh, grave, where's your victory?
And then he goes on, the Lord makes poor. That's one thing
the government's always done. People say, well, we've got to
help the poor, we've got to help the poor, we've got to help the
poor. I tell you, the government's the ones making them poor. They
don't have to do anything. Listen, our Lord says you'll
always have the poor with you, and the scripture says the Lord
maketh poor. The slobber, he just slumbers
on the bed and he turns over one side and turns over again
and says, well it might wind might blow today, I ain't gonna
sow nothing. Might rain tomorrow, ain't no
sense in plowing nothing. And that's what they do. But
look what he says, and he maketh rich. If you got anything, God
make you that way. And he brings low and he lifts
up. The Lord does all that. The Lord does all that. Let me
show you another in Deuteronomy. I'm establishing here that God
is sovereign and I know you know that and I know you believe it.
Look in Deuteronomy 32, 39. Oh, look what he says about himself. He's the great king over all
the earth. He said, I create evil and I
create good. I create light and I create darkness. They say He creates evil. He
creates what men call evil. And don't go well with somebody,
don't sit well with them. He says, now look here in verse
39. See now, that I, even I, am He, and there is no God with
me. I kill and I make alive. I woo
and I heal. Neither is there any that can
deliver out of my hand. I don't want to be delivered
out of it. I will stay right there. Stay right there. Now
look back over in our text. And it says here, Oh clap your
hands all you people, shout unto God with the voice of triumph,
for the Lord most high is terrible. He's a great king over all the
earth. Let me tell you something about
kings. Kings, now there's no kings the way they are today,
but kings rule by royal proclamation. They don't call their subjects
around and say, what do you want me to rule today? How do you
want me to rule today? You want me to rule this way,
that way, and another way. The kings rule by royal proclamation. They made a decree, they made
a proclamation, and they sent heralds out to tell everybody
in the kingdom what the king's will was, what the king's decision
was, what the king said to do. And that's why Herod said, when
our Lord Jesus Christ was born, he sent out, Herod did, everybody
got to come to where they was born at so they could be taxed.
And that's why they went back to Bethlehem so Christ would
be born in Bethlehem. He sent a decree out, everybody's
got to be here to be taxed. And so you see kings rule by
royal proclamation and you think God's going to stop for one minute
and ask counsel of anybody how he's going to run his world,
how he's going to run our lives? Would you ever, has it ever entered
your mind since you've known God that you would say, I would
rather, you know, if I had my brothers, I'd rather you do this
for me and do that for me and work this way and that way. Would
you dare question God and tell Him how you want Him to order
your life? Oh no, you wouldn't think about
it. But look what else he is. Not only has he raised a king,
but he's sovereign in judgment. Look in verse 3. He shall subdue
the people under us, and nations under our feet. Now he's talking
about Israel here, and all the people, all the enemies of Israel.
They're not all of our enemies. It says here, He should do the
people under us. All the nations, all the enemies.
Everybody that was against Israel, everybody that's against the
Lord's people. He should do them under us. Every one of them will. Then he says, the nations under
our feet. And I tell you, I was reading
a thing today that a man started in 1934 and he didn't finish
until about the 1950s or maybe around the late 50s or something
on the history of the world. And he come to this conclusion
that 34 nations that were powerful, powerful nations at one time
cease to exist and have no you can take Babylon, great Babylon
and he says he prays nations of earth Babylon is a desert
right now Syria where they had God slain
85,000 Syrian soldiers in one night 85,000 in one night by
an angel You can't even find out where
the Assyrian army was. And you can go all over, and
all over, Greek, Roman, all of them. And he said, he said, do
nations. And one of these days, if the Lord tells you he's coming,
they're going to say, wasn't there a place called America
once? Wasn't there a place where they
had religious freedoms and freedom of the press and they just slept
and slept and slept and slept and slept until one day they
woke up and America was gone and somebody else from some other
country took over? And that's what's going to happen
one of these days. But God's sovereign in judgment and His
judgment, when He messes judgment, just stand back because it's
going to happen. God may make a judgment that
it'll take a hundred years for that judgment to come to pass.
Just because God don't make it happen, it's going to happen
today, that don't mean the judgment of God is not coming to pass. Ain't that right? He made this
judgment 435 years. He told Abraham, he said, your
children are going to serve another country and serve another master
for 435 years. And then I'll go get them. And
435 years passed before God done anything. Do you know how many
generations passed away in 435 years? And God's judgment It's obvious
that His judgment is going to be done. And I bless His name. I bless His name. That as far
as judgment for me goes and for you goes who are in Christ, We'll
never face the judgment. Our nation may face judgment.
And we may suffer in the judgment of the nation. We may suffer
in the judgment of our politicians. We may suffer judgment economically. But we'll never suffer judgment
from the hand of God for our sins. When a country suffers,
its subjects suffer. Is that not right? And look what
else, not only is He sovereign in judgment, look here, He's
sovereign in His sovereign grace. Look here in verse 4. Oh, I love
this right here. Brad brought such an outstanding
message on God chose us. He said, He shall choose our
inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob, whom He loved. He's sovereign in judgment. But
then turn the other side around. Listen to this, He shall choose
our inheritance for us. God chose our inheritance and
you know what our inheritance is? It's the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. It's his righteousness. It's
his salvation. And we have an inheritance incorruptible
that don't never fade away reserved for us in heaven. Oh listen,
we have a Jesus, He chose our inheritance for us. He chose
us in Christ and Christ to be our inheritance and us to be
inherited of Christ. And oh, listen to what it says
here also. And He chose our inheritance
for us through the excellency of Jacob, whom He loved. What
makes Jacob excellent? He called him one place a worm,
called him another place a supplanter. And here he calls him Jacob,
the excellency of Jacob, whom he loved. Oh, they say, well, when Jacob,
you know, he just loved him. Right where it says, you know,
that Jacob loved Eve before either children were born, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
him that calleth, that the purpose of God might stand according
to election. They said Jacob had a love, did
he still have a hate? People want to try their best
to say that just means he liked him less. If words mean anything,
it means that God hated him. And not only that, but you know,
say God don't have anything to hate. He does. He said he hates
the workers of iniquity every day. And I say, you know, God cannot
love righteousness without hate and sin. He can't love light
without despising darkness. You see, whatever God is, and
everything that's opposed to Him, God has to be against Him. And oh, that's what He is. He
chose us. Salvation is of the Lord. And
you know where election starts? It starts in predestination.
You know that? Election starts in predestination. God whom he foreknew, foreknew,
had an intimate acquaintance with, an intimate knowledge with. He said whom he foreknew, then
he also did what? Predestinated. Predestinated
in what? To be called. And not only called, to be justified. And then to be glorified. And
no wonder Paul said, what shall we say at the end of these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us? Now you know why
you called? God foreknew you. God chose your
inheritance. He chose your salvation. Salvations
of the Lord. And He chose us and He loved
us just like He loved Jacob. Oh, listen, according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
behold Him without blame before Him in love. Having predestinated
us to what? The adoption of children. Why
did He do that? To the praise of the glory of
His grace. Why? He has made us accepted
in the beloved. Oh, listen. Let me tell you something
about God. Look down at verse 5 now. We
see Sovereign. He's God. He's the Great King
over all the earth. He went up, and listen, and He
said in verse 5, and He's worthy of our praise. Look what He said,
God is going up with a shout. The Lord with the sound of a
trumpet God's gone up with a shout. Went up with a sound of this.
You know, and the way He's going to come, the Lord Jesus said
He's going to come back the same way. When the Lord shall be seen
with a shout. And He went up with a shout. And oh, beloved, He went up with
the sound of a trumpet. Oh, they made music to Him as
He went up. And He's worthy of our praise.
Oh, He's going up with a shout. Oh, when He ascended into glory,
when our Lord Jesus Christ ascended His throne and received back
into glory, you know that the saints of God, you know that
the angels of God, all the elect angels, they begin to rejoice.
And I tell you what, beloved, He went up with the sound of
a trumpet. Went up with the sound of a music. And I went up with
all the pomp and that that a king ought to go up with. And maybe
Psalm 47 gives us five descriptions of praise to God. Five descriptions
that chose us to praise God. First of all, you do it with
joy, being full of joy and being exuberant. Look what he says
there in verse 1. He said, Oh, clap your hands
all you people. Just clap your hands. All you people, shout unto God
with the voice of triumph. I heard an old, old story, how
a Savior came from glory. Oh, victory, oh, victory, oh,
victory in Jesus. And I tell you, you should go
shout unto God with the voice of triumph. God always makes us to triumph
in Christ. We never, ever lose. You know,
when we're in public, when we're in public, what you are at home
privately and what you feel privately and what you feel late in your
bed at night or what you go through in your mind and what you go
through, I know God help you. But when we're in public, And
if we do this more at home, if we would shout unto God with
a triumph. He has saved us. He has caused
us to triumph. We are never ever defeated. Never defeated. We don't say
the devil's got power over us. We don't say the flesh has power
over us. There's nothing has power. God
always causes us to triumph in Christ Jesus. And when we're
in public, we ought to always act like we're just fixing to
fly away. Don't you think we ought to act
that way? And we'd do a heapside better if we'd done that privately
too. Oh my. And I tell you, I remember
Lord, when he went up with a shout, he's going to return with a shout. Sound of a trumpet too. And then
not only is worship joyful, but it's reverent. Look what he says
there in verse 2. For the Lord Most High is terrible.
Terrible. You know what that word terrible
means? That means that you to stand in awe of Him. Have a reverence
from Him. Have an awe filled with Him.
Oh, he used to be worshipped for joy, yes, but also reverence
and filled with awe. Look over here in Psalm 2 with
me just a moment. 2 and verse 11. I think I put it in the bulletin
a few weeks ago. Daniel Parks down there where
he's at in St. Croix, he called the library
to check on something in the library. And he was talking to
the librarian and he called her miss or missus. She said, I'm
reverend. I'm missus reverend Sosa. He just kept telling her,
calling her missus. She said, I'm reverend. She's
a preacher. I'm reverend. Five times she
said, I'm reverend. Didn't want to be called missus,
didn't want to be called librarian. And he finally told her, there's
only one reverend in this world and that's God himself. And he
hung up on her. I wouldn't go to that library
and do nothing. Would you? Walk in there and
say, I heard there's a worm in here calling herself Reverend. A maggot, a grasshopper. There's only a holy and Reverend
is his name. And I tell you what, I don't
know if you all remember this or not, years and years and years
and years ago, down at the old building, Jack Shanks came down
here to preach one time. And he preached out of NAM and
the Lord is good and has his way in the world. And he preached
God in such a way, so high and so terrible in judgments, so
terrible in his sovereignty, And so good, that I'm telling
you what, when he got through, nobody in that building made
a move. It felt like God Himself was right there. And you could
feel that, almost feel His presence in an unbelievable way. I don't know if you all remember,
I remember it, it was something. And I've been in a service or
two like that. I was in a service one day and Brother Henry was
preaching. over in Cherokee and oh he preached God in such a
way and me so low and man so low and God so high that I wanted
to get under the bench God was so high and holy I wanted to
hide and oh my and that's why he said
you know he is reverent and often look what he said here in verse
11 of Psalm chapter 2 of the second Psalm serve the Lord with
fear And rejoice with trembling. Rejoice with trembling. Oh my. And then let me go back over
here. So worship, you know, be joyful. Clap your hands. Shout
unto God with the voice of triumph. And worship is joyful. Then worship
with music. Look what he said in verse 6. Sing praises to God. Sing praises
to God. Sing praises unto our King. Sing
praises. Sing praises, what are we going
to say today? Well, whatever it is, we're going
to praise the Lord with it. And our music, our music, our
music must always go along with our message, always go along
with what the Bible teaches. Must always do that. And all
sing praises, and God gave us a song to sing. Saint praises
unto God for His glory. Saint praises unto God for His
grace. Saint praises unto God for His
forgiveness. Saint praises unto God for His
goodness. Saint praises unto God for His
holiness. Saint praises unto God for His
longsuffering. Saint praises unto God for His
patience. Saint praises unto God for His
keeping power. Saint praises unto God for a
thousand things. I'll tell you, it makes me feel
good to see people that you think that's really, really weak and
God comes and gives them strength. Oh, we say, God, we're going
to sing a song to you for your sovereign mercy. We're going
to sing a song unto you because you loved us and called us with
a holy calling before the foundation of the world. We're going to sing praises unto
you, Lord, because you gave us a place to live, you gave us
the gospel, you gave us everything we have, and everything we know
you taught us. Oh my. Thank you. We sing praises that,
Lord, we can hear the gospel and know the joyful sound when
we hear it. Oh, God gave us a song to sing.
And then look what else he says. Not only worship joyfully, Worship
with reverence and worship with music and praises. But worship
thoughtfully. Look what it says in verse 7. For God is the King of all the
earth. Saying you praises, listen to
this, with understanding. With understanding. We're not
going to get up and sing some songs that ain't going to honor
God. You know, you can't worship God. You can't sing the right songs
unto God if you don't have the right knowledge of Him. Is that
not right? That's why they sing songs like,
build my cabin next to Him, in the corner of Glory Lane. That's
why they say, you know, Lord lift me up and put me on higher
ground. That's why they sing these old sorry songs, you know,
build my mansion next door to Jesus. Because they don't have no understanding.
They don't have no understanding at all about God. So if we're
going to sing praises and we're going to worship God, we've got
to worship with some understanding. Understanding who God is. Understanding
who we are. And that's why I said let's not
enter into His presence with the thanksgiving and thoughts
of a fool. Be swift to speak and slow to
speak and swift to hear. Oh, that's why our Lord, you
know that woman at the well, she said, our fathers worshipped
here on this mountain. And you say Jerusalem's where
everybody's supposed to worship. Our Lord says, time's coming
when you're going to worship here on this mountain, and that
time's coming, they ain't going to worship in Jerusalem either.
You're going to worship God in spirit, you're going to worship
Him in truth, For the Father is going to seek you out and
He is going to teach you and He is going to make you understand.
Then that you are going to worship in spirit and you are going to
worship in truth. You can't worship Him any other way. And oh my! She said, I understand that when
the Messiah comes He is going to tell us everything. Just like
what you said. She said, I am. I am. And oh listen, in worship
and praise is to be universal. Look what He said here in verse
9. The princes of the people are
gathered together. It says in the margin, or voluntary
of the people are gathered under the people of the God of Abraham. All the people that was with
Abraham and the people of the God of Abraham, they all gathered
together. To do what? To worship God. To praise God who sits upon the
throne of His holiness. And I tell you, worship and praise
is universal. The princes of the people that
got with the people of Abraham, and God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, and God of Jacob, and no Abraham, God of Abraham. The
God who came to Abraham called him out of the area of Chaldees.
Called him from his idolatry. Called him into a land that he
said he never owned a foot of it. Threw out his strangers and
pilgrims. And then he gave him a promise.
He said, I'm going to give you a seed. I'm going to give you
a son. He said, and in that seed, you can make you the father of
many nations. There will be people that will
call you their father from the heavens and on the ground of
the sea. And he said, how can that be? He said, I don't have
no children. And he had a son. Supernatural birth. Promised
child. And through that seed, the Lord
Jesus Christ came. And Abraham now is a father of
many nations. Father of Ishmaelites. Arabs. Father of the Jews. And father of all who believe.
We walk in the footsteps of our father Abraham. And then look
what it said here, last of all. He is greatly exalted. He is greatly exalted. Can we exalt and praise God enough? Can we exalt Him high enough?
Look in Revelations 11 with me, just a minute. Can we exalt God
enough? Can we preach Him high enough? And we exalt Him, and you know
if we exalt Him, if we exalt Him in our thoughts, exalt Him
in our prayers, if we exalt Him in our lives, exalt Him in our
words, exalt Him in our worship, it's because He worked that in
us to do it. Greatly exalted. Look in Revelation
11, 15. And the seventh angel sounded,
and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms
of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his
Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. That's greatly exalted,
isn't it? That's what you call greatly
exalted. Oh my, oh I love the gospel. Love God and His sovereignty.
Let's bow our hearts together. Our gracious, gracious Father.
Oh great and glorious God. You said You're the great I Am. And You kill and make alive. You make poor and You make rich.
If you bring down to the grave, you raise up from the grave.
And Lord, there's none that can deliver out of your hand. And
we're certainly, bless your holy name, that you have put us in
your hand. We're in the hands of our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, in the hands of God, our Father. And
Lord, help us all in our thoughts, in our thoughts, in our hearts
and our homes and our words and our prayers to exalt you and
magnify you and always speak highly, highly of you. Never
belittle you. Never bring you down to any way
like unto a man in any way. Never attribute anything to you
that's not God-like and Christ-like Sovereign in His power and glory.
God, as these dear saints have gathered here, they've worked
hard today. They've had a full day. And I know they're tired.
And I pray that you, and I thank you for them coming out. And
I pray you to strengthen them in their bodies. Bless them in
their homes. Bless them in their going out
and their coming in. And their getting up and their
going down. Lord, we're your children, and we look to you
for everything. We bless you in Christ's name.
Amen. Amen. 549. I think that's what I want. I think that's what I want. Does that do God be the glory?
$449, ain't no $549. Yeah. Well, $500,
ain't no $559 or something. Oh, ain't you grateful God.