I will extol thee, O Lord, for
thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over
me. O Lord my God, I cried unto thee,
and thou hast healed me. O Lord, thou hast brought up
my soul from the grave, thou hast kept me alive, that I should
not go down to the pit. Say unto the Lord, O ye saints
of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness,
for his anger Endureth but a moment, in his favor is life. Weeping
may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. And did
my prosperity, I said, I shall never be moved. Lord, by thy
favor thou hast made my mountain to stand strong. Thou didst hide
thy face, and I was troubled. I cried to thee, O Lord, and
unto the Lord I made my supplication. What profit is there in my blood
when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? Shall
it declare thy truth? Hear, O Lord, and have mercy
upon me. Lord, be thou my helper. Thou
hast turned for me my mourning into dancing. Thou hast put off
my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, to the end that my
glory, they may sing praise, To thee, and not be silent, O
Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee forever. Now, here in this 30th Psalm,
the title of it is, A Psalm and Song at the Dedication of the
House of David. David wanted to build a house
for the Lord. The Lord told him that his son
Solomon would. But David built him a big house
made out of cedar. beautiful house, great house,
and he dedicated the house, and so this is the song that he sung
at the dedication of his house. And the first thing I want you
to notice about this is that it's a song of salvation. David
talks about salvation through here, all the things that God
had done for him. If you look through here and
see how many times where it says, Thou hast, Thou hast. He said
in verse 2, Thou hast healed me. Thou hast brought my soul
up from the grave. Thou hast kept me alive. And
down in the sackcloth it says, down in verse
11, Thou hast turned my mourning into joy. Thou hast put off my
sackcloth and girded me with praise. So thou hast. He attributes
everything that's done to God doing it. He did it. David. The only thing he has to think
about, and this is why it's a song of salvation, because look what
he says in verse 6. He began to be very self-righteous
and very proud, and began to trust in himself, and he said,
In my prosperity I said I shall never be moved. Well, now, when
we're feeling good, and we're feeling strong, and everything's
well, and everything's right, all the cows are fat, everybody
in the house is healthy, and money's in the bank, and it's
secure, and cars are running just right, and all the sun's
shining on us, it's easy for us to say, in my prosperity,
I said I shall not be moved. But prosperity don't last. Just
as sure as you're up, you're coming down. Just as sure as
you're in. One can see life is not static.
Life is not just the same way all the time. And so David jumped
up and said, Oh boy, things are going so well for me. Look at
my house and all things is going. The king now sitting on my throne
and oh, I'm just never going to be moved. But look what he
said in verse 5. For his anger endureth, it says
in the margin, his anger endureth a moment, but a moment, but a
moment. And thank God that's all it lasts,
is a moment. And it's just a moment for us.
His anger's always toward the wicked. His anger is a moment,
just a moment. And then he turns right around
and says in his favor is life. He may be angry, And He made
me that just for a moment towards me because I said I shall never
be moved. But in His favor is life. In
His grace is life. In His presence is life. And
I may cry for the night. The joy cometh in the morning.
And let me say some things about the night. The night brings its
own troubles with it. Anybody that knows what long
nights are about and you know, and this is a fact this I'll
just give you some facts if you got it If you got a cold your
cold gets worse at night If you got a fever it gets worse at
night if you got a cold it gets worse at night And if you got
troubles when you go to bed at night, they're magnified at night
If you got fears, they're magnified the night brings with it his
own troubles and he says now weeping may go on all night long
and And you may endure that weeping, you may endure those troubles,
you may endure those fears and those doubts and those anxieties.
You may endure the devil coming and telling you that there's
nothing to you, that you're going to end up lost just as sure as
anything. But then, but wait a minute, sun's going to come
up. Just as sure as night come along,
the sun's gonna come up, and you know what comes up with it?
Joy comes with it too. And in the margin it says, singing
comes in the morning. You get up in the morning, you
hop down that way, but you start singing. Oh, I saw a wayward
traveler, and gathered time is glad. And I'll tell you, tattered
garments glad. And you know you get to thinking
about that? Boy, you get to thinking this way it was and now we're
going palms of victory, palms of victory. Now, I'm going to
go back up here and start and try to deal with this whole Psalm. First thing David says up here,
I will extol thee, O Lord, for thou hast lifted me up and has
made my foes to rejoice over me. Now, our David said that
thou hast lifted me up and has not made my foes to rejoice over
me. And David said, I'm going to
extol me. What he means, I'm going to thank
highly of you. I'm going to thank honorable
of you. I'm going to speak well of you. I'm going to praise you. I'm
going to bless you. I'm going to honor everything
there is about you. But as you know, others may despise
you. Others may blaspheme you. Others
may murmur about you. Others may complain about you. But I'm going to extol you. I'm
going to extol your name. I'm going to say you've got a
name that's above everything. I'm going to say that your name
is sure and steadfast and profitable and saving and powerful. That
your name is your character. And I'm going to extol your character.
Who's a God like unto thee? Who's a God like unto thee in
magic? Who's a God like unto thee in
faithfulness? Who's a God like thee in grace?
Who's a God like thee in mercy? Who's a God like thee to show
love? Who's a God like thee that can pass by one and save another? Who's a God like you? And they
said, well, happy is the people who ask the God of Jacob for
his help. And so he said, and I'm going
to extol you because you lifted me up. You lifted me up. You picked
me up and lifted me up. You put me on the throne. You
put a crown on my head. You made me king. You, you're
the one that done it. And then look what he said, and
has not made my foes to rejoice over me. And I tell you what,
bless his holy name that he has not caused our enemies to rejoice
over us. Oh, he's not let the devil rejoice
over us? Just the other night, I was thinking
of something, and a voice came to my head and said, the devil,
the devil is so powerful that there's no telling what he can
do to you, not just to me. And I said, he can't do nothing
to me. Because I've been redeemed by the blood of Christ, and Satan
has been defeated. And they keep talking about He's
going to be loose for a thousand years. If He's not loose now,
you tell me. Well, I'd hate to be here when He is loose. But
I'm telling you, He said He's not made my foes to rejoice.
He's not made our spiritual enemies to rejoice over us. He's not
made sin to rejoice over us. He's not made the devil to rejoice
over us. And a thousand things that is
our enemies, He will not let them rejoice over us. I've defeated
all you foes. He's the strong man armed who
spoiled that strong man's armed castle and destroyed all of his
goods and set him free. He ain't going to let his foes
rejoice over us. No, no. I tell you, we got lots
of people that would rejoice, but has not made foes to rejoice
over us. Thank God that he's not done
that. There's lots of folks that would just rejoice. if we compromised
our message. Lots of folks would rejoice if
somebody fell away. Lots of people would rejoice
if you gave up the gospel. Lot of people would rejoice if
you fell flat on your face. But oh, and that's why I said,
I'm going to extol you because you've lifted me up. And then
look what he said. And then he said in verse 2,
O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. Now
listen, you know, he said, Thou hast healed me. What did he heal
him from? You know, we got a thousand spiritual diseases. We're morally
diseased. We got a thousand spiritual diseases.
Let me give you a few of them. Pride, what an awful spiritual
disease that is. Self-righteousness. Unbelief. Bragging. Self-trust. blind ambition, self-glory, and
oh, and he's the great physician, and he has healed us. of all
these diseases. And I tell you now, beloved,
pride is a detestable thing to us. Self-righteousness, oh, my
soul. I know we still got plenty of
it, but oh, we loathe it. We despise it. We despise unbelief. We abhor these things because
He come and healed us of these spiritual diseases and healed
us of this heart, you know. By His stripes we're healed.
Now, there's a lot of people, let me say this for a minute.
Some folks believe that when Christ died, that there was healing
in his atonement. That when Christ died, they say
that by his stripes were healed. That there was healing in his
blood, healing in his atonement. Well, if there was healing in
his atonement for physical ailments, physical diseases, then not one
for whom he died would ever get sick. Now you think about that. So it's spiritual diseases that
he came to put away. Christ himself suffered. suffered
the just for the unjust. And then preachers come along
and tell you, you suffer because you ain't got enough faith. That
Jesus don't want you to suffer. That you ain't got enough faith.
If you lived better and lived right and had more faith, and
trust the blood of Jesus, you wouldn't be in that condition.
But I'm telling you, our Lord Himself suffered for our sins,
not for our bodies. suffered for our sins in his
own body on the tree. He was the just for the unjust.
He was made a curse for us. And so I'm telling you, when
we, he's our Great Physician, and we go to him for healing
of our minds, healing of our hearts, healing of our confusion,
healing of our doubts, healing of our fears, healing of our
confusion, healing of our unbelief, and Lord, when we come to him,
the Great Physician always comes and heals us, and comforts us,
and we feel whole. And then there's what else David
said. I'm going to extol you, oh Lord, because thou hast brought
up my soul. See again, thou hast done it.
Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave. Oh my. What does that mean? That means,
you know what the grave's for? The grave's for dead people.
And God's people, He saved us out of the grave. He saved us
from death. He delivered us from the power
of darkness and translate us into the kingdom of the son of
his love. He says this, delivered me from
the grave, delivered me from that place where men go and they
kick. And what did David say down there?
He says in verse 9, what profit is there in my blood when I go
down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? Shall
it declare thy truth? If I go down there, Lord, and
you save me from the grave, you save me from this death, you
save me from this awful death that I was going to die. And
that's what he does. It's the flesh prophet is nothing. It's the spirit that quickens
and gives life. And oh, and listen to what else
he said. And listen to this. Not only has that brought up
my soul from the grave, that has kept me alive. Not only gave
me life, but you kept me alive. Kept me alive. Kept me alive. And why did he keep him alive?
Listen to what he says here. That I should not go down to
the pit. Down to the pit. I believe that's Genesis 37. Look with me just a minute. I
believe that's Genesis 37. Where they took Joseph and put
him in the pit. And there's all kinds of things
said in the Scriptures about the pit. There's all kinds of
things about going down into the pit.
Look what it said here at verse 23 of Genesis 20, 37. And it came to pass, when Joseph
would come unto his brethren, that they stripped Joseph out
of his coat, his coat of many colors that was on him. And they
took him and cast him into a pit, and the pit was empty, and there
was no water. That's one thing that they always
done with people. They put them in a pit. When
Absalom was killed and slain, they threw him in a pit. Korah
and Dathan, they went down alive into the pit. And the pit is
a place where dead men are put, a place where prisoners are kept,
a place where people that despise you, put you. Jeremiah was put
in a pit. And that's why David said here,
kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit. Deliver him
from going down to the pit, Job said, for I have found a ransom. The pit is a place, the scripture
says that In Revelations 21 it said there
was a pit there and the smoke ascended out of that pit. That
was the devil, Satan and all of his angels were in there.
And all those that were dead in sins, all those whose names
were not in the last book of life, they were in that pit.
And the smoke ascended up and up. But one thing God's people
will never be. They'll never be put in the pit.
We've been saved out of the pit. David said he had to pick my
feet up out of a horrible pit. and establish my going, and set
my feet on a rock, and put a song in my heart." And then look what
he says to his children. David says, now all you saints
gather around with me now. I want all you saints of God. He said, oh listen, I don't want
you to just do this by myself. Sing unto the Lord, all you saints
of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness. Oh, when you remember God's holiness,
remember God's holy is thy name. Hallowed be thy name. And holy,
holy, holy. That's what the angels in the
cherubims cry in his presence all the time. Moses, take off
your shoes. The ground you stand on is holy.
Job and Abraham said, Who am I to speak unto thee? Who am
but dust and ashes? And oh, when Isaiah saw Him high
and lifted up and saw His holiness and saw His glory, then he cried
out, Woe is me, I'm undone. And so with the remembrance of
His holiness, let's say, and let's give thanks at it, because
we, now listen to me, we're as much saved by the holiness and
justice of God as we're saved by the grace of God. God did
not save us at the expense of His holiness. and His justice. He never set them aside in order
to save us. He upheld His holiness, satisfied
His justice, and at the same stroke saved those that He gave
to Christ in the covenant of grace. That's why justice, justice
cannot demand any more than what Christ gave to them. And if justice
accepted Christ's payment for my sin and your sin, And endure
God's wrath for your sin and my sin. Justice cannot come back
and say, now it's time for you to pay. It cannot do it. God
is holy and God is just. And He cannot demand the same
payment twice. Now man may try to do that, but
God ain't gonna do that. No, no. And then look what He
says in His anger. A moment. A moment. What's a moment? We just had
one. When did you know His anger? Just a moment. Just a moment. Oh and bless His
holy name. In His grace, His life. Thou has kept me alive in His
favor, His life. In His grace is life. For by
grace are you saved. That's what that word favor is,
grace. In His grace is life. And I'll
tell you, you all know this, weeping, weeping, weeping may
endure for a night. And I'll tell you, sometimes
the night is not just a night of darkness. Sometimes it's a
night that goes day after day after day after day. It don't
have to be just a night in and of itself. A night can come on
and last for a season. Last for a while. And it may
endure. And you may endure it. Weeping may endure it. And you
do endure it. And you do endure it. And you
just keep on doing it. But just as sure, when the sun
of righteousness arises with healings in his wings, And he
arises, and that's why he said to his children, he said, when
there's out there fishing, children, if you haven't got any meat,
no! Caught anything, no! And they'd been out there fishing
all night, but boy, when the morning come, they heard the
voice of their master. And joy comes with his voice. And that's why he said, in my
prosperity, I said, I shall never be moved. And that's why God's
chastening hand, this is sure as we start bragging about ourselves
and what we're going to do and how we're going to do it and
we're going to stand on our own two feet. Ain't going to happen. God's fixing to put that hand
on us. And then look what He said in
verse 7. Lord, by Thy favor, by Thy grace, Thou hast made
my mountain to stand strong. What does He mean by His mountain?
He's talking about His home, His life, His whole life, his
children and all, and he says, you've made my kingdom. A mountain also means a kingdom.
And you've made my kingdom to stand strong. And in the margin
it says, settled strength for my mountain. And one of the writers
I was reading today says that he's made his faith to stand
strong just like a mountain. His faith, he made his faith
to stand strong just as a mountain. His faith was strong as a mountain.
And God's got to make our faith. If we have strong faith, God's
the one that makes it strong. He's the one that makes it stand
fast. He's the one that makes it stand up in spite of all obstacles
in its way. And then look what he said. So
when I said all these things about myself, you hid your face
from me. I said, boy, here I got this.
And then God turned around and said, I'm not even going to look
at David. I'm not going to look at him.
I'm not going to look at him. I'm going to turn away. I'm not going to look at David.
I'm not going to look at you. You hid your face. And that troubled
me. Oh my, that's troubling. That
is troubling. And I cried to you, Lord. I cried
to you when you hid your face, and I struggled. Oh, I cried
to thee, O Lord. Who else we gonna cry to? Who
else we gonna cry to? Who else, Dirk, we gonna cry
to? Who else we gonna cry to? As much as I admire doctors and
as much as I admire and thank God for all the medicines and
all the doctors, I don't cry to the doctors, I cry to the
Lord. I don't cry to Mary on Mary's
shoulder, I cry unto the Lord. That's who we cry. I cry to Thee,
O Lord. And unto the Lord I made my supplication. I asked Him. I supplicated Him. And this is what I ask him. What
profit is there in my blood? Well, none, David. Your blood
has no profit in it. It's got sin in it. It's got
Adam's blood in it. There's no profit in your blood
being shed, no profit in your blood dying, no profit in you
whatsoever. No profit in your blood. No profit
in you whatsoever. There's no profit in you, David.
Shed your blood. Just go ahead and shed it and
say, what is there? Prophet is in my blood. There's none when
I go down to the pit. Shall the dust praise thee? Of
course the dust shall praise thee. Shall the dust declare
thy truth? No. No it won't. So hear, O Lord, and have mercy
upon me. Could you ask for anything more
than that? Lord, have mercy upon me. And Lord, be thou my helper. Be thou my helper. And look what
he said. I love this right here. Thou
hast turned for me my morning into dancing. Sitting around
mourning. Mourning, mourning. You know
he said he's weeping through the night. He's mourning. Something's
got his heart hurting. Something's got him going on.
And he said you turned my morning and I went from mourning to dancing.
And he said, you've done that. And then, thou hast put off my
sackcloth. Sackcloth is what they got in
and to humble themselves and to humiliate themselves and to
get before the Lord and judge themselves in God's presence.
He said, you put off my sackcloth and dirtied me with gladness.
You did that. Look what happens over here in
Isaiah 61, just a minute. Oh, listen what he said, you
turn my morning into dancing. I'll tell you that, you know
David, David danced. Remember when he was dancing
for the Ark of the Covenant going into Jerusalem and his wife,
she saw it, Micah saw it, Michael saw it, and she just said, boy,
what a fool he is, what a fool he is. And David out here showing
himself and he's the king of Israel and he's dancing. He went
to dancing, the women shaking them tambourines and everything
in front of him, and David was just dancing before the Lord.
And boy, she looked at him, and God cursed her for that. For
what she said about David, dancing before the Lord. He said, you
turned my mourning, mourning over some lost loved one, mourning
over Absalom, mourning over his sin. I don't know what he's mourning
about, but he says, you turned it into dancing. And then I had
this sackcloth on, and you dressed down, and you took it off of
me. And then you girded me with strength.
Look what he said here in verse 3. Isaiah 61. To appoint them that mourn in
Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes. Oh my, instead of
ashes going to give them beauty? That's what those fellas would
do. They'd build them a big ol' fire and they'd have all these
ashes there and they'd get in their sackcloth and throw that
ashes up on themselves. I had a preacher one time, my
pastor years and years ago in fundamentalism. He had him a
big ol' ash pit behind his house and he'd have sackcloth. He'd
go out there and get in that sackcloth. He shot himself about
a year ago. Blowed his own brains out. And
I tell you what, when God said here, instead of you setting
in ashes, I'm going to give you beauty. You ain't going to have
no ashes on you. You remember how this poor old
dumb cat, when she said, On Ash Wednesday, they all put
a streak of ash on their foreheads. You know, you watch television,
all them politicians, you know they got a streak of ash on their
foreheads. Anchors on television got a streak of ash there. And
they think that's humility. They think that's putting ash
on. God said, I'll give you beauty. Kids, don't forget the ash. I'm
going to give you beauty. I'm going to give you the beauty
of Christ. I'm going to give you the beauties of His glory.
I'm going to give you the beauties of His grace. I'm going to give
you the beauties of His righteousness. And then look what he says, and
the oil of joy for morning, you go to faith today morning, I'm
going to give you some oil, and I'm going to add that oil, I'm
going to pour it on you and it's going to cause you joy. And I'm
going to put on a garment of praise on you for the spirit
of heaviness. Instead of you going around feeling
so heavy, and sighing so much and feeling like you got the
world on your chest and the world on your and you just can't bear
it. He said, I'm going to put a garment of praise on you for
the spirit of heaviness. And then you're going to be called
the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he
might be glorified. Oh my God, I'm going to do that.
And he's already done it. Now look with me back over here
and let me wind this up. This is a And look at this, he said, and
God did all this, thou hast, thou hast, thou hast. That's
the title of the message, thou hast, thou hast, thou hast. Six
different times I believe in this psalm, thou hast. Thou hast
given me life, thou hast kept me alive, thou hast put off my
sacrifice, thou did it, you did it all. And he says you had a
reason for it, you had a purpose for it, to the end in verse 12. This is the goal, this is the
end of it. That my glory, that a vessel that perishes, that's
what he's talking about here, excuse me, that is my tongue
or my soul, to the end that my tongue or my soul may sing praise
unto thee. That's what you've done all this
for, Lord. You did all this to me for the end purpose that I
may, my tongue and my soul may sing praise to thee. To God be the glory, great things
He hath done. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. When I surveyed the wondrous
cross upon which the Prince of Glory died. Oh, to sing praises
unto Him, on and on and on. To sing praise to Thee. And listen,
and not be silent. You don't want me to be silent.
And O Lord my God, and that O Lord my God, he's referred to him
when he says that, O Lord my God, my covenant God. He's talking
about the God of his covenant, the covenant God. When he said
O Lord my God, he said the God who is the covenant God, the
God who chose me and saved me, the God who made a covenant with
me, ordered in all things everlasting and sure, and that's all my salvation. And He said, O God of my covenant,
I will give thanks unto Thee. How long are you going to do
it, David? Forever. May not be able to do
much else, but I'm saying give thanks, can't we? We thank and
give thanks. We can do that. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ, our Lord Jesus, thank you for letting us go through
your word tonight. Oh, what a blessing. Encouraging, strengthening. Blessing
to the hearts of those that's gathered out tonight. Thank you
for coming. This whole cold night, thank
you for the fellowship we've enjoyed in Christ. In His name
we bless you. Amen. wonderful things, and the things
of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory
and grace. Amen. See you Sunday.