We're gonna be looking in Psalms
again. Psalm 113. Praise ye the Lord. Praise, oh
ye servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord
from this time forth and forevermore. From the rising of the sun and
to the going down of the same, the Lord's name is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations
and his glory above the heavens. Who is like unto the Lord our
God who dwelleth on high, who humbleth himself to behold the
things that are in heaven and in the earth? He raises up the
poor out of the dust and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill.
that he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his
people. He maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be
a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the Lord. Of course, as we've pointed out
in the last several Psalms that have all begun with praise ye
the Lord, That is a blessed privilege that is given to the children
of God, not just to say those words, but to have a desire in
our heart to do that. You can teach anyone to say those words. You can teach
anybody to sing songs. This is one of the things that's
happened in our world today, especially in the religious societies
of today. is that men often learn little
catch phrases and things, little songs and things that they get
implanted in their mind, and it's not necessarily a bad thing,
just that itself. But if the only place that the
praise of God finds a place to take root is in our mind, then
we have missed the mark. What we desire is that the praise
of God and the desire to praise God will take root in our heart.
So that when we say, praise the Lord, it means more than just
a simple phrase that people say. That becomes a common thing. So praise ye the Lord. Now this
is an exhortation. It is a requirement of God's
people to praise the Lord. Now we say it's a requirement. Christ has met all of the requirements
that we have to make us have a proper standing with God. So
we're not saying, when we say it is a requirement of God's
people, we don't mean that it's something they have to do. Now
Brother Al's been ably going through Now the book of Deuteronomy
and the reiterations of the law that the Lord gave to Moses,
as he was speaking some there this morning, and there's a word
that's in that, in the last verse, I believe
it was, that you read, or maybe it was right close to the end,
but it's the word if. And the promise of God was to
the children of God, if, they would keep those commandments.
Now, if is a small word as far as language is concerned, but
it is a huge word when it comes to the matter of considering
whether or not a man can be justified before God by the law. And the
short answer is he cannot. And why can he not? It's because
that word if. The Lord said, do this and live.
But if you don't do this, if you disobey, then you shall die.
Now what the law was given to us for is not to hold out the
possibility that we could be made just before God by that
law, but to cause us to recognize that we could not. Because you
see, the if is the key word there. The scripture over in the New
Testament in the book of Hebrews says that the law could never
justify men because it was what? Weak through the flesh. See,
the law requires for men to keep it. And that's the very problem
that man has, that he cannot keep it. He will not keep it.
It's not in his nature to keep it. He will go contrary to it. And so apart from Having one
who fulfilled that if for us, we would perish. But we praise
the Lord because he is the one who is the Lord of the if. You
see, he has fulfilled the law. He said to the Pharisees, I didn't
come to overturn the law, but to fulfill it. And he did, and
it's jot and tittle. Every minute part of the law,
the Lord Jesus Christ absolutely fulfilled. Every requirement,
everything that is necessary unto the acceptance of the people
of God into the presence of the Lord is found in that which Jesus
Christ has done. So when we speak about the requirement
of the people of God to praise Him, we're speaking about it
from the standpoint of the fact that we exhort the sons of God
to praise Him. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. Praise the Lord. He's worthy
to be praised. But it's a glorious requirement.
It's a requirement that men eat food. But it's a glorious thing,
is it not? Now some of us think it's more
glorious than others, as you can tell. But that is a requirement. I mean, a man's not gonna live
long, is he, if he doesn't eat. But oh, what a joyous thing it
is. to eat good food. I mean, that's a glorious thing.
And what a glorious thing it is to praise the Lord. It is
a requirement. It's necessary for the people
of God to do it. You won't be able to, the Lord,
when Nehemiah read the word of God to the, or he didn't necessarily
read it all, but as those men read the word of God to the people,
and the scripture says that they began to weep. when the law of
God was read to them. Now, why did they begin to weep?
Because they realized how much they had disregarded it, how
far from it that they had come. The Lord brought them to repentance.
But Nehemiah said, well, don't weep. This is not a time for
weeping. He says it's a time for joy, because the joy of the
Lord is your strength. And that is, for the people of
God, the place of greatest joy is when they can praise the Lord
most especially in an unfettered manner. Now we have We are fettered
by many things. We're fettered by what will other
people think of us or this, that, and the other. We're fettered
by our own inabilities and whatnot. But it is a joyous thing for
the people of God to praise the Lord. It's a beneficial thing,
a necessary thing. Praise ye the Lord. Praise, oh
ye servants of the Lord. Now especially, I believe it's
true that all of creation should praise the Lord, but it is especially
the privilege of the servants of the Lord, that is the people
of God whom He's called out of darkness into light to praise
Him. Praise Him, ye servants of the
Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Now isn't that a glorious thing,
the name of the Lord? Now that word, For name there
is the same word that Noah named his first son. First son was named Shem. That's
the Hebrew word there is Shem. And it is that designation. of the Lord. Now the Lord has
revealed Himself in many ways. He revealed Himself to Moses
in the burning bush. He said, I am. He revealed Himself
down through the ages by many names. When we see in the scripture
the capitalization here of the word Lord That word in the original
Hebrew language is Yahweh, Jehovah, as we would pronounce it in general
terms. Praise the name of the Lord. Praise the designation, the authority. See, the name, The name of the
Lord is His authority. If you do something in the name
of the Lord, then you're doing something in that, in His authority. As if we do when the, when a
A policeman arrests another man. He's not doing so in his own
name. He's not coming there because
he has some power, but he's deputized by the greater authority and
he comes in the name of the law. Stop, in the name of the law.
Not my word, but the name of the law. And so when we come
here and consider What he says here, praise the name of the
Lord. Now as we said, the Lord has
revealed himself by many names throughout the scripture. But
we do find this, and we are a privileged people to live in an age when
the Lord has completely revealed himself. See, The Lord has, from
time to time, revealed himself, but he's always had a veil. Remember
when Moses passed, when he asked the Lord to see his glory? The
Lord didn't show him his glory. He said, Moses, he says, I'm
gonna hide you in a cliff to the rock. And when I pass by,
he says, I'll let you see my backside. He said, no man can
see my face and live. Now the glorious thing is that
the Lord has now revealed himself unto men. The light of the knowledge of
the glory of God has been revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. And so he has a name. The angel spoke it unto Joseph said thou shalt call his
name, his authority, his place, that thing that sets him apart
from all others, thou shalt call his name what? Jesus. For he shall save his people
from their sins. And that word Jesus, which is
in the Hebrew the same word as Joshua, but that word literally
means Jehovah is salvation. And so the Lord has revealed
himself in the person of Jesus Christ. And we can see him. Now we've not seen him with these
eyes. But the disciples, they said,
we've seen him. And we're testifying to you of
the things we've seen. And the Lord said so to Philip,
did he not? And he said, Philip, have I been
so long time with you? and you've not known me when
he said show us the father he says he that has seen me has
seen the father so you see the lord has revealed himself by
his name he's given him a name the scripture says which is above
every name that at the name of jesus every knee should bow and
every tongue confess now men often picture that and brother
al alluded to it there a moment ago Men often picture men all
confessing Christ in the glory of that final day when men are
brought to that place. And they would assume that that
means, or some would assume that means that all men are gonna
be brought to worship Him with a glad heart. That's not what
it means. Now the children of God will
indeed praise him with gladness, but there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth among those who are set against him as his
enemies, who will not worship him, but they are forced to worship
him. They're forced to recognize that
he is the Lord of lords and king of kings, even though they hate
it. Now the Pharisees, you see, were actually brought to that
place and they hated him, and they crucified him, but they
could not overturn him. And that's the same picture that
we have of when Christ, when every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall confess, only those given the privilege of knowing
him shall praise him with a glad heart. All men shall praise him,
but not all men shall do so with gladness. They shall do so in
bitterness. They shall look on him whom they've
pierced, and they shall wail, because they shall see him as
he is, as that Lord of glory, which he's already revealed himself
unto his children that he is. See, we don't have to wait to
find out who the one is who rules and reigns in the army of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth. Nebuchadnezzar spoke
of him, but he didn't really know who he was, did he? But
you see, he's taught us who he is. He's revealed His name and
it is a blessed name. It is that glorious name. There's
no other what? Name under heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved. Not another one. It's the name
of Jesus Christ. He is that one who has come. Blessed be the name of the Lord
from this time forth and forevermore. It is indeed. He has an eternal,
He inhabits eternity. You know, we are, and he kind
of touches on that in a moment. The scripture says that the Lord
inhabits eternity. That is, that's His place of
dwelling. Now you and I, are finite creatures. I mean, we can do whatever the
Lord has set for us to do in this world, but we're in a time
frame. We can't escape it. I mean, you
can't get out of time, can you? You're just a creature of time.
Why? Because God made you. And so you are a creature of
time, but God is not a creature of time. Time has no bearing
on Him. He is eternal. And that is the
essence of His holiness, that which sets Him apart from His
creation. That's why the Scripture says
men cannot look upon Him. We can't grasp Him. He said,
My thoughts are above your thoughts. My ways are higher than your
ways. You don't have any idea. I mean, we don't have any concept
of eternity, but yet God, that's His dwelling place. He's eternal
from this time forth and forevermore. But the privilege of the sons
of God is that, as the scripture says, that in the ages to come. Now, does God age? Does He get older? No, He is,
you see, He just is. But you and I, see, we'll always
be creatures of time in the sense that there's always an unfolding
of time to us and ages to come. See, that's the only way we can
describe that unending place of being in His presence. Now,
in one sense, it can be described unto men as being eternal. in
that in so far as we can go but in reality our existence is a
time existence and always will be because of the fact that what
we are and separated from him as who he is that one who is
eternal we live because he lives you see he lives because he lives
he is life scripture says that he gave to Jesus Christ to have
eternal life The only one. From this time forth and forevermore,
from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the
Lord's name is to be praised. There's never a time when the
Lord is not worthy to be praised. As again, Brother Al brought
out, being able to praise Him in the morning, when we wake
up, and in the evening when we lay down at night. from the rising
of the sun to the going down of the same, His name is to be
praised. The Lord is high above all nations
and His glory above the heavens. Now, you know, it's a sad thing to me, but sometimes
people equate patriotism that is a affinity for the nation in which
they live to a form of godliness. Now insofar as the Lord has put
us under the authority of governments then we owe an allegiance under
those governments that the Lord has put us under. But patriotism
is misplaced effort if it is not that which springs out of
a desire to glorify Christ in all things. In other words, for
men to wave the flag as if the flag is some sign of righteousness
as is in the minds of many uh... i think and unfortunately as
i see it there are those who they harken back to the founding
of our nation and they say oh well we were founded on godly
principles and i wouldn't argue with the fact that that many
of the principles which undergird our system of government and
our constitution and all those things are indeed based in biblical
principles. Those things are true, but that
doesn't make us as a nation to be a people that worship and
serve God. I mean, it's pretty obvious to
me that that would be actually the opposite because we have
departed from the ways of God. I mean, our society is at odds
with the Word of God. And so it is foolish to think
that uh... we are somehow as a nation have
some special standing and we're just gonna continue on because
of our godly ways i'm surprised god hadn't destroyed us up to
now i mean i i you know it's amazing i remember leonard ravenhill
wrote a book one time called sodom had no bible and in that
that uh... the uh... In the, what do you
call it, the preface to the book, I think it was in the preface
to the book, he said, and of course he meant this I think
in the proper way, he said that if God doesn't destroy, America
for its disregard of the Word of God, then he would have to
apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. Now, we know that God doesn't
have to apologize to anybody for anything, but the point he
was making was that when we look at Sodom and Gomorrah, who were
just an ungodly people and the Lord destroyed them for the wickedness
of Sodom, and our nation as a nation is basically in the same position
that they were. So, you know, why should God
spare us? But yet we've got all these talk
show pundits and whatnot going around saying, oh, well, you
know, God, we've got a special place and God and he's gonna
protect us and all this stuff. Well, I'm sure that if we're
preserved, it'll be because God does it, but it won't be because
we deserved it. And it'll be in spite. of all
that we have none. So we need to be mindful that
the Lord is high above all nations. He raises up nations and He puts
them down. Now the Lord showed Nebuchadnezzar
that, and He showed him the truth of those whom the Lord puts in
places of office in those nations. I mean, you know, we think of
them as these high people. He said He sets over these kingdoms
the basest of men. Or should we be surprised when
politicians do wicked things? No. You know, the Lord told us
that's the way it was going to be, so we can see it played out
in our eyes. His glory is above the heavens. Think about that. I mean, you
know, when you look at the heavens and you think of the wide expanse
of all that you can see, and you think of the glory and grandeur
of such an expanse, and yet the glory of the Lord is above the
heavens. He made the heavens. I mean,
the heavens aren't anything to Him. He's above all of that. Who is likened to the Lord our
God who dwelleth on high? Now does he dwell? I mean, can
you go high enough to find him? I mean, in this existence, can
you get in a rocket ship? Is it capable one day that men,
if they keep progressing as men think they're going to, and he
just gets capability to just go anywhere he wants to go, can
he ever find God? No, the scripture says that men
can't find God. It's impossible. Because he dwelleth
on high. And on high is above the place
of men. And then listen, look at this
though. he dwelleth on high, who is like
unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high, who humbleth himself. He condescends. He doesn't have
to. There's nothing that binds him
to. He doesn't do so because his creation's worthy of it.
Or he has some obligations. See, some people look at it as
though God has an obligation. to his creation. God has no obligation. It's impossible to make God obliged
to anything. Who humbleth himself to behold
the things that are in heaven and that are in the earth. Now
think about that for a minute. He humbleth himself to behold
the things that are in heaven. Remember when Isaiah had his
vision, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and His train filled
the temples. The Lord humbles Himself to look
upon such as that. I mean, that's a glorious thing. I mean, it's a place, that thing
which is most glorious and beyond the comprehension of men, and
yet the Lord has to humble Himself to simply look upon it. What
a glorious God He is. the things that are in heaven
and in the earth. If he humbleth himself to behold
the things that are in heaven, most surely he would of the things
that are in the earth, which are much lower than the things
that are in the heavens. He raiseth up the poor out of
the dust and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill. Now that
is a part of, or it's the extension of, Him humbling Himself to behold
the things of the earth. He raiseth up the poor out of
the dust. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
the world to raise the poor out of the dust. He came into the
world to lift the needy out of the dunghill. What a glorious
thing. That He may set Him with princes,
even with the princes of His people. He has raised us up together. to sit in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus. And he gave us that privilege,
not because he had regard unto who we are, but because he loved
us, because he loved us. Remember what he told the nation
of Israel? He said, I didn't set my love
upon you because you were greater than other people. He said, I
set my love upon you because I loved you. said, because I
chose you, because you belong to me, that he may set him with
princes, even with the princes of his people. He maketh the
barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children.
Praise ye the Lord. The Lord is able to take away
the greatest sorrow. You remember Hannah when she
prayed unto the Lord, and the Lord blessed her, and He made
her to bear children, even as Rebecca cried out to the Lord. These are the examples that He
gives. He does bless His people. To be a joyful mother of children,
praise ye the Lord. And so it is that we come back
to this exact same place where we began. Praise ye the Lord. I mean, the Lord has done all
these things when he didn't have to do anything. I guess if we
could somehow or other get a hold of people and just shake them,
that would be what we need to tell them. Look, the Lord did
all of this and he didn't have to do anything. He could have
just destroyed everybody. And insofar as what we see, we
think, well, he should have. But he didn't. In his mercy,
he surveyed his creation. And he had mercy on those whom
he had chosen in Christ before he ever created the world. And
so we don't look at the work of the Lord and the salvation
of His people as being something He did after something occurred. But we see that He ordered all
these things to occur in order to bring glory to His name as
He unfolds His grace in the earth. Now that's a glorious thing.
Now there's not a place in that for a man to take any credit. There's not a place for him to
have any place of glory. And that's why men hate it. I
mean, men don't want, they don't want to be told that they don't
have anything to do with being found acceptable inside of God.
It just doesn't seem right. Does it? I mean, gotta be something
for you to do. But you see, when men think that
they can do something to make themselves pleasing inside of
God, they go about to establish their own righteousness. They
say, I've got something. I mean, I know I can bring something
to the Lord. No, you don't have anything.
There's not one thing in the world you can bring to God that he's gonna be pleased with
because you brought it. But He's pleased with His Son.
He's pleased with Jesus Christ. And He's pleased with those whom
He chose in Christ. Because they stand in Christ.
You see, we're accepted with the Father because of the Son.
And that's why we praise His name. We didn't have anything
to do with it. I didn't cause Him to love me. I did everything in my power
to keep Him from loving me. But He loved me in spite of all
of that. What a glorious God we serve. May He be praised. And may we be reminded who He
is day by day, high and lifted up as a train fills the temple.