We'll look at Psalm 108 today. We have looked at Psalm 106,
107, and now at 108. And I believe there is a continuing
theme throughout these Psalms. Not the same theme, but a continuing
theme. And in the Psalm 106, I believe
it's clearly the mercy of God is clearly revealed. The key
word in that psalm is nevertheless. We see the rebellion of the Lord's
people to Him, and yet the complete deliverance which the Lord brought
to them, not because they deserved it, because they actually deserved
to be destroyed, but nevertheless, The Lord loved them. And then
when we come to Psalm 107, we see the works of the Lord in
the people of God, because it's about them calling upon the Lord. It says, then they cried unto
the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of all
their distresses. Now, why was it that they called
upon the Lord, except that the Lord brought them into distress? You know, because of the nature
of our flesh, we will not seek the Lord until He brings us into
a place of distress. Now, the common concept today
is that you need to come and let the Lord save you so He can
get your life all straightened out and all of that. And it's
a true thing. I believe the Lord does straighten
people's lives out, but He does it by first bringing them to
the end of themselves. This is not some little add-on
thing. Well, if you'll do this, then the Lord will meet you halfway
and y'all will make it to the finish line together. But rather,
the Lord brings His people into the place where they will call
unto Him. And when they call upon Him,
He will hear them. And that is the theme of Psalm
107. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children
of men, because this is the work of God. You know, people, often
I hear people talk about that they're doing the work of God.
Well, you can't do the work of God. I mean, God can do the work
of God. All you can do is whatever the
Lord's pleased to work in you by His mercy and according to
His grace. That is the work of God, but
it's not you performing it, it's Him. And He is that one who works
in His people both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And
then we come on over here to Psalm 108. And I believe the
theme of this Psalm is the triumph of the Lord. So we've seen his
mercy and his grace, and then we see the power of his working
in his people, bringing them to a place of repentance. And
then in Psalm 108, we see the triumph of the Lord in treading
down all of his enemies. And so we had read Psalm 107
last week, we're gonna read 108. This is a song or psalm of David. O God, my heart is fixed, I will
sing and give praise, even with my glory. Awake, psaltery and
harp, I myself will awake early. I will praise thee, O Lord, among
the people, and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations.
For thy mercy is great above the heavens, and thy truth reacheth
unto the clouds. Be thou exalted, O God, above
the heavens, and thy glory above all the earth, that thy beloved
may be delivered, save with thy right hand, and answer me. God
has spoken in his holiness. I will rejoice. I will divide
Shechem and meet out the valley of Sukkoth. Gilead is mine. Manasseh is mine. Ephraim also
is the strength of mine head. Judah is my lawgiver. Moab is
my washpot. Over Edom will I cast out my
shoe. Over Philistia will I triumph.
Who will bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me into Edom? Wilt not thou, O God, who hath
cast us off, and wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our host? Give us help from trouble, for
vain is the help of man. Through God we shall do valiantly,
for he it is that shall tread down our enemies. Now the Lord, in his work in
our behalf, has triumphed gloriously. We read about that in one of
the Psalms. It says, the Lord hath triumphed
gloriously, the horse and the rider hath he thrown into the
sea. Now one thing that stood out in the minds of the children
of Israel and should have stood out more strongly and should
have if they were not corrupt in their heart, even as we, they
should have when thinking back on the Red Sea and the opening
of the Red Sea by the Lord, that one incident of all other things
should have been that which would have caused them never to have
strayed from the Lord. I mean, the horse and the rider
hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord triumphed. And of course,
we read about that in Psalm 106, as the Lord said, nevertheless,
having done that, nevertheless, the children of God rebelled
against him. They murmured against him. They
didn't think that he would deliver them. And yet, he did do that. And he did tread down their enemies. And we see it over and over again
as they went into the promised land. And the Lord calls them
to triumph. I mean, there's no way that an
army without battering rams and without any equipment, so to
speak, to wage war other than hand instruments that they had
should have been able to have taken the walled city of Jericho. I mean, it was an impregnable
thing. There's no way they could have
done it. I mean, it's not like they figured out a way to do
it. But the Lord told them to do something that, to men, seemed
quite foolish. You know, to march around the
city. They'd come back to camp, I'm
sure, and say, well, what is this? What in the world are we
doing? I mean, what's this supposed to do? And I imagine the people
in the city of Jericho, they were just having a big time. Look at them fools out there,
you know, just marching around. But according to the Lord's purpose
on the seventh day, with the shout and the voice of the trumpets,
the walls of Jericho fell. And I have read archeologists
or accounts of archeology. I don't know if this is true
and it doesn't make any difference to me if it's true or not. I
mean, I don't know which way it was, but they claim in the
excavation of the city of Jericho, the ancient city of Jericho,
that it appears that the walls of that city fell outward. Now,
you know, you would think that in a siege and when an army would
come against another, against a walled city, what would they
do? They'd push the walls inward, would they not? If they could
break the walls down, it would be the only thing they could
do. But the Lord caused those walls to fall outward. It doesn't
matter which direction they went, the scripture is nonetheless
true, that the city did fall and the Lord caused the children
of Israel to triumph without the loss of one life. And then, lo and behold, what did they
do? They saw this mighty miracle and the Lord said, don't take
anything. But Achan, he decided, well,
you know, I mean, here's this nice chunk of gold here. I mean,
it would be a shame for me to just go back to the camp without
this. And he put it in his pocket or
backpack or whatever he had. I mean, he carried it with him.
And then when they went up to Ai, the Lord smote them. And they wasn't able to triumph
because the Lord would teach them. that those things that
he says to do are to be done. And so he brought them into distress,
and they cried unto the Lord, and the Lord heard them. And
then he showed them his triumph over his enemies. Now, David
begins this psalm with these words, oh my God, oh God, my
heart is fixed. Now, what did he mean by that?
The word fixed means nailed in a sure place. So when he said
my heart is fixed, he means I have nailed it down. In other words,
that's the place where I have determined to stand. Now, it
is a true thing that the Lord's people are a fickle people. And
if the Lord were to abandon us, we would turn from Him in a moment.
But the glorious thing is that the Lord will not forsake His
own, and He will not depart from His people. According to what
He said, He will bring them unto Himself. And He will cause them,
even in the midst of their own fleshly departures of the mind,
they cannot turn away from Him. Now this is an example of Peter
that is given Peter did indeed deny the Lord, did he not? But
he could not turn away from the Lord, because when the Lord looked
on him, what did he do? He went out and wept. He couldn't
depart from the Lord. Now, it was in his heart to deny
the Lord. It was of his flesh, but the
Lord would keep him. And that's what the Scripture
says, the Lord will preserve those that are his. It's like
Peter had confessed. He said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? That's the words of eternal life. Job said, if He slay me,
I'll trust Him. I mean, what else can we do?
Where else can we turn? We don't have any other place.
Our heart is fixed upon Him because He has constrained us. My heart
is fixed. I will sing and give praise even
with my glory. That is, even with the very best
that I have. that which I value the most,
I will give unto the Lord. Give praise unto Him. Awake,
psaltery, and harp, I myself will awake early. Oh, let all
the earth praise Him. I will praise thee, O Lord, among
the people, and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations. Doesn't matter where I am or
what situation I'm in. You know, you can't The children
of God can't take a break from the Lord, because He won't let
them. You know, sometimes a man might
decide, you know, I think I'm just gonna take me a break for
a while, and I'm just gonna do my own thing. It won't last long
if you belong to the Lord, because He will bring you in a way that
you knew not, but He'll bring you to the place He wants you
to be. My hearts are fixed. because
He fixed them. See, we didn't fix our hearts.
Some people think they've got the power to hold on to the Lord.
Oh, you've got to have faith. Well, you know, we would encourage
the children of God to have faith, but we would encourage the children
of God to know and understand that their faith is the gift
of God. And if we hold on, it'll be because
He gave it to us, not because we caused it to occur. But nonetheless,
we hold on to Him because He causes us to. We want to. I mean, you know, the children
of God don't serve God because they're afraid of what'll happen
if they don't. They serve God because they desire to. They
don't want to do, they don't want to go contrary to His way.
In the heart and the mind, I mean, in the inward man of the heart,
this old flesh is continually trying to get us to go the wrong
way. Be thou exalted, for thy mercy is great above the heavens,
and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds. Now that's about far
as we can go, isn't it? Because I mean, if you go further
than the clouds, pretty soon you'd run out of oxygen. But
the truth of God goes as far as man can go. And I don't know
how far they claim now that when they went to Mars or wherever
that this machine that they got up there made oxygen on Mars. And so they're all excited about
that and how we can all go to Mars. Well, you know, I don't
know what we'd do when we got up there because if you look
at the pictures that they brought back from Mars, why would anybody
want to go there? I mean, you know, there's nothing
there. Not a tree in sight. I mean, you know, it don't look
like a very habitable place, but man, in his folly, will always
think that he can do something that he can't. So I don't know
if the Lord would have men go to Mars or not. I think he made
the Earth to be inhabited, is what Scripture says. So I don't
believe he made Mars to be inhabited. But I don't know. Scripture doesn't
say anything about Mars, but it's got plenty to say about
the Earth. And the Lord calls men to have a reign in the Earth. because of him. See, Adam, he
had reign over the earth. He gave man that power. And so it is that he put us here
for that purpose. Be thy exalted, O God, above
the heavens, and thy glory above all the earth. Now, most men,
they pursue religion because of what it will afford them in
the earth. You know, you used to, not as
much anymore, but you see a lot of signs that says, you know,
you need to go to the church of your choice. And you need
a little religion. And the idea is, well, you need
that religion because it'll help you in this world. And I don't
have any doubt that the teaching of morality and the things that
are taught in the scriptures as far as the principles of godly
life that are taught in the scriptures are a good thing. But that's
not the truth of God insofar as the extent of it. Now, most
people would be satisfied just to have a little morality lesson
every now and then and pat one another on the back and say,
well, you know, you're doing a good job, you're serving God
and just be faithful in all these things and do good things in
the earth. And they're happy with that.
But it says, David said, be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens
and thy glory above all the earth. See, the worship of God is not
just something to do to benefit men in this world. I mean, men
think that... You've heard this phrase before,
there's a God-shaped blank in every man. Have you ever heard
that? You know, that man's got to have
God or he's gonna... Well, no, the natural man hates
God. He doesn't have a God-shaped
blank in him. Now by the mercy of God, God
is pleased to call His people unto Himself and to constrain
their hearts unto Him and to desire His glory. But until that
happens, a man can't desire His glory. Remember the woman at
the well? She asked the Lord what religion
was best. He said, well, you know, you
Jews say we ought to worship down there in Jerusalem, and
we believe our fathers have always taught us to worship up here
in Samaria, in this mountain. And the Lord said, woman, you
don't know what you're talking about. He said, the hour cometh
and now is when the Father would have men to worship him in spirit
and truth. And that's what it is that would
move David to say, be thou his altar, O God, above the heavens
and thy glory above all the earth. Because that's our aspiration
is to exalt the name of the Lord our God. He's worthy of praise. That thy beloved may be delivered,
save with thy right hand and answer me. God has spoken in
his holiness. I will rejoice and I will divide
Shechem and meet out the valley of Succoth. Gilead is mine. Manasseh is mine. Ephraim is
the strength of mine head. Judah's my lawgiver. Moab is
my washpot. Over Edom will I cast out my
shoe. Over Philistia will I triumph. Who will bring me into the strong
city? Who will lead me into Edom? Now, As we read those, those
were the lands, many of them of the children of Israel, some
of them of the heathen. But the Lord is setting forth
the extent of his triumph. He said, Gilead is mine. Manasseh
is mine. That is the lands that belong
to them. Judah is my lawgiver. Remember
the Lord said, or when the Lord gave Isaac, not Isaac, Jacob,
the prophecy to give to each one of his sons, he said to Judah
that a lawgiver would not depart from thy feet until Shiloh come. He says here, Judah is my lawgiver.
Well, who is the one who came from Judah? It's the Lion of
the tribe of Judah. He is the lawgiver. And it is
under his law that we desire to walk. But he says here that
Judah is my lawgiver. And he said, Moab's my washpot. Now Moab was the land of the
Moabites. That was Ruth was a Moabite.
She came from there and the Lord was descended out of that lineage. Moab's my washpot. He said, I'll
wash my hands there. He said, that's the place, he
says, I'll use Moab. Overeat them while I cast out
my shoe. Also in the book of Ruth, we
have the illustration of this. Because that was the custom in
that time, was to put, hand the shoe, if you wanted this piece
of property and the other person was willing to sell it to you,
you gave them your shoe as a gift. as a token of that you would
buy that. The Lord said that eat them or
overeat them while I cast out my shoe. That is, I bought it. It belongs to me. The Philistines,
they were the enemies of God's people, yet the Lord said, I
bought it. It belongs to me. Ask of me. Remember in Psalm
2, the Lord said, ask of me and I will give thee the heathen
for thine inheritance. And he cast over his shoe, it
belongs to him. Even those heathen lands that
are in the earth. Who will bring me into the strong
city? Who will lead me into Edom? Edom
was the land of Esau. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. Yet even out of Edom, even out
of Esau's descendants, the Lord has a people. Because out of
every kindred, tribe, and tongue on the face of the earth, the
Lord will draw his people unto himself. There are no limits
to that. Will not thou, O God, who has
cast us off Now, you ever felt cast off? You know, when things
don't go like you planned, things don't turn out like you want,
and you're disappointed, you have that feeling, don't you?
Well, the Lord's cast us off. Well, the Lord never casts off
His people. Now, He brings them down. Now,
was Jonah cast off when he was in the belly of the whale or
the fish? No, he wasn't cast off, but if
you'd asked him, are you cast off, he'd have said, man, I've
had it. I mean, this is the end. I'm done for. I mean, there ain't
no coming back from this. I mean, do you think Jonah really
thought that this was a temporary situation? No, he knew, he said,
this is it for me. And he cried out, salvation. is of the Lord. And the scripture
says immediately the fish was at the land and he vomited Jonah
out. Now that's an amazing thing,
is it not? The Lord will not cast off His people even though
He'll bring them to the place where they feel cast off. Why? So that He might show them His
triumph over all of their enemies. O God, go forth, wilt thou not
go forth with our host? Give us help from trouble, for
vain is the help of men. And what can a man do for you,
really? I mean, you know, doctors, they're
good. I'm glad there's doctors. But
you know, there comes a time when a doctor can't do a thing
in the world for you. I mean, he can be the smartest
doctor on earth, but there's a time when a doctor can't help
you anymore. But the Lord, He is our helper,
even though men cannot do it. And the things that men need
the worst and the most, men cannot give it to them. Men need faith,
but it's impossible that one man should give another man faith.
Only the Lord can give a man faith. And the glorious thing
is, when the Lord gives a man faith, nobody can take it away.
You know, if I talk you into believing something, if I talk
you into believing that Jesus Christ is the Savior, if I talk
you into it, another man can come along later and talk you
out of it. Because vain is the help of men.
Men can't do that for you, but the Lord can give a man faith. And He does give men faith. And
when the Lord gives men faith, nobody can take it away. Like Peter said, Lord, where
are we going to go? I mean, what are we going to do? Lord, we
can't do anything but trust You. It's not in the ability of men
to do that. But by the mercy of God, the
kindness of the Lord to His people, He draws men to Himself. Vain
is the help of man. Through God we shall do valiantly,
for He it is that shall tread down our enemies." Now we won't
be boasting of our victories. A lot of times men like to recount
their victories. You know, you see these guys,
they get inducted into the Hall of Fame in some sport or something
like that, and they think back on all their victories, and they
think on, you know, all those things that they did and all
of that. But our victory is in Christ. He's the only one who's a member
of God's Hall of Fame. Do you realize that? Now the
Lord does, indeed, He speaks of those who were faithful men
in the scripture. But they were faithful men because
the Lord caused them to be faithful. He worked in them, both the will
and the do of His good pleasure. And they triumphed in Him, for
He it is that shall tread down our enemies. And dear brethren,
that's our hope when we face the last enemy. The last enemy,
as the scripture says, is death. But the Lord's already gone that
way. And he has triumphed over death. Death, where is thy sting? O
grave, where is thy victory? The Lord is our victory. He's
that one who has tread our enemies down and has triumphed. And so
we see the mercy of God, we see the work of God, and we see the
triumph of the Lord Jesus Christ for us.