We're going to look at Psalm
105 today. Much that's in this psalm is
kind of a continuation of that which Brother Al was speaking
about to us earlier. As the Lord in His wisdom and
purpose caused the nation of Israel to wander in the wilderness
for 40 years, but not one step that they took was outside of
his purpose or could they have gone any other way? Because he
ordained these things. And I was thinking as, you know,
they moved from place to place over 40 times in 40 years, And
this must have seemed kind of pointless to them at the time,
as they would probably just get settled in a place. I mean, you
know, a year passes by pretty quickly. Now, when you're a young
kid, it seems like the years drag on forever. But the older
you get, the shorter that they seem. And a year in one place
is not very long. You'd just about be getting all
the boxes unpacked and time to pack them up again. Now, of course,
they probably didn't have a whole lot of boxes to pack, but the
tabernacle and the moving of that was quite an undertaking,
I'm sure. And so all of these things, have
a purpose in the purpose of God, as Brother Al pointed out, and
as the Scriptures say, that the Lord didn't cause these things
to happen to them for their sake. Now, there was an application
of all the things that happened that were no doubt for their
sake, but these things were written Not for them, but for us, that
we might learn from them. And of course, one of the things
that I see in this constant putting up of the tabernacle and taking
it down is spoken of in the book of Hebrews, that in the offering
that they made every year, there was a continual remembrance of
sin. But Christ has come once in the
end of the world. See, this is the end of the world. We're not waiting for the end
of the world. This is the end of the world. That is, this is
the purpose of the world, that Jesus Christ might come into
the world to redeem his people. Now, they lived their lives as
they did randomly as they thought, as men do today. I mean, most
of the things that happen in your life, you figure they just
happen. I mean, you know, we know that
God is sovereign and He ordains all things to come to pass according
to the good pleasure of His will, but nonetheless, as we go through
every day of our life, we think that these things just kind of
happen and this could have happened or that could have happened or
this, that, or the other. But the Lord has a purpose in
all these things, and those things that happened could not happen
any other way according to His ordained purpose. But they happened
unto them for the purpose that He might teach us the redemptive
work of Christ. And so that in these constant
tearing down and taking up and doing all those things that they
went through, day after day, year after year, think how monotonous
that must have been for the ones that ministered in the tabernacle.
I mean, you know, some of them, their whole job was just to clean
the ashes off of the Think about doing that every
year, every day of your life. I mean, you're doing the same
thing over and over, over and over. Why? Because the Lord would
teach us that nothing that men can do can take away sin. Because
tomorrow, guess what? You've got to do the same thing
all over again. I mean, it's just a continual
thing. And they were constantly putting
up the tabernacle, taking down the tabernacle, going from one
place to the other, offering the sin offerings year after
year. And this could never make the
comers there too perfect, as the scripture says, because in
them is but a remembrance of sin every year. Well, we've got
to do it again next year. This will last for a while. But
you see, when Christ came, he did away with all of that. For
He has offered Himself once in the end of days for our redemption. And for the redemption of His
people in every age, even those who were the Lord's people among
the nation of Israel who wandered in the wilderness in some parish
there. But all of that was unto that
purpose. All right, in Psalm 105, We're
going to read it. Psalm 105, O give thanks unto
the Lord. Call upon his name, make known
his deeds among the people. Make known his deeds among the
people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto
him, talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in His holy name. Let the heart of them rejoice
that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord in His strength.
Seek His face forevermore. Remember His marvelous works
that He hath done, His wonders and the judgments of His mouth.
O ye seed of Abraham, his servants, ye children of Jacob, his chosen.
He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the
earth. He hath remembered his covenant
forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which
covenant he made with Abraham in his oath unto Isaac, and confirmed
the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting
covenant. saying, unto thee will I give
the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance. When they were
but a few men in number, yea, very few, and strangers in it,
when they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom
to another people, he suffered no man to do them wrong, yea,
he reproved kings for their sakes, saying, touch not mine anointed,
and do my prophets no harm. Moreover, he called for a famine
upon the land. He break the whole staff of bread.
He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant. Whose feet they hurt with fetters,
he was laid in iron. Until the time that his word
came, the word of the Lord tried him. The king sent and loosed
him, even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. He made
him lord of his house and ruler of all his substance to bind
his princes at his pleasure and teach his senators wisdom. Israel
also came into Egypt and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham
or the land of Egypt. And he increased his people greatly
and made them stronger than their enemies. He turned their heart
to hate his people, to deal subtly with his servants. He sent Moses
his servant and Aaron whom he had chosen. They showed his signs
among them and wonders in the land of Ham. He sent darkness
and made it dark, and they rebelled not against his word. He turned
their waters into blood and slew their fish. Their land brought
forth frogs in abundance in the chambers of their kings. He spake,
and there came diverse sorts of flies and lice in all their
coasts. He gave them hail for rain and
flaming fire in their land. He smoked their vines. also in
their fig trees, and break the trees of their coast. He spake,
and the locusts came, and caterpillars, and that without number, and
did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured the fruit
of their ground. He smote also the firstborn in
their land, the chief of all their strength. He brought them
forth also with silver and gold, and there was not one feeble
person among their tribes. Egypt was glad when they departed,
for the fear of them fell upon them. He spread a cloud for a
covering and fire to give light in the night. And the people
asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread
of heaven. He opened the rock, and the waters
gushed out. They ran in dry places like a
river. For he remembered his holy promise,
and Abraham his servant. And he brought forth his people
with joy, and his chosen with gladness, and gave them the lands
of the heathen, and they inherited the labor. of the people, that
they might observe his statutes and keep his laws. Praise ye
the Lord." Now, this particular psalm, at least the first 15
verses of it, can be found almost verbatim in 1 Chronicles chapter
16 as the Children of Israel brought the
ark from the house of Obed-Edom, where it had been stored, back
to Jerusalem. And David, having been chastened
by the Lord in the situation with Uzzah and Ahio, as they designed to bring the
ark of God in a fashion that the Lord didn't ordain for it
to be brought. But they thought it was a good
way. I mean, after all, it was a brand new ox cart. I mean,
built just for that purpose. It had to be acceptable to the
Lord. There is a way which seems right
unto man, but then there are other ways of death. You know,
that which is not ordained by God is not right. It doesn't
make any difference what men think about it. And of course,
we can see that played out in the age in which we live most
clearly. We're fast becoming a nation
without any foundation in truth. Now, there's truth and then there's
truth. Now, we know that there's a general
truth that is set forth in the Word of God that is for everyone. I mean, there's a thing set forth
in the Word of God that is just general truth. I mean, God made
some absolutes. He said things that cannot be
overturned. Then there's the truth that is
only revealed unto the children of God, and a man has to be given
eyes to see it. But there are some things that
God sets forth that you don't have to be given eyes to see
to understand it. Just like you don't have to be
given eyes to see, you don't have to have any spiritual understanding
to look out the window and see the creation of God and know
that the Lord created the heavens and the earth. Now you might
rebel against that, as Darwin did. You might set forth all
manner of theories and stuff to explain those things. But
according to Paul, you cannot deny the fact no man, ever man,
is without excuse who does not fall down and worship God as
the things he sees. Now, we live in an age, which
is fast becoming, devoid of the absolute truths of God, that
one of the things, male and female, created He then. And He made
men and women. And He gave men a role in the
world, and He gave women a role in the world. And those things
are set forth in the Word of God. And it doesn't make any
difference if men come along and say, well, it's all right
for men to be with men and women to be with women and men to be
women and women to be men. I mean, they can say it's right
all day long, but it does not make it so according to the Word
of God. And so the truth of God will
prevail. I mean, the Lord's truth is going
to be known, but it appears that we're headed for destruction
in our nation, as a nation which at one time had laws and things
in place that defined such things as I'm talking about, but not
anymore. You know, those things have been
thrown out the window because there's a way that seemeth right.
Man, well, it just doesn't seem right. You know, it seems like
that it would be better if we did it this way. And men will
always be that way. They'll always run contrary to
the way of God, apart from the grace of God, to restrain them.
I mean, the only thing that's ever kept anybody on the straight
and narrow ways is the grace of God, the mercy of God, whether
that was the mercy of God bestowed unto salvation or whether it
was the mercy of God that just hedged about to keep men from
destroying themselves. I mean, you know, why don't we
just kill each other every day? We would if it wasn't for the
grace of God. I mean, that's our nature. There's
nothing that holds us back. We say, oh, well, I'd never do
that. Well, you just haven't been turned loose yet. Because,
you know, you do whatever, there's no end to what you would do.
Pray that the Lord never lets you find out what you'll do,
because all men by nature will run to the most corrupt state
that they can be in if God does not restrain them. And so, I
don't know how I got off on that, but. Well, so anyway, the beginning
of this psalm is, he begins, oh give thanks unto
the Lord. Now, Who would that not be written
for? I mean, you know, we know the
Lord has an elect people that he has loved from the beginning. He created them for his own purpose
to manifest their redemption in the earth. We know that. But
there's some things written in the Bible that's written for
everybody. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord. There's not a man on
the face of the earth. that shouldn't fall down on his
face and give thanks to God. I mean, how did he draw breath? How did he get food? How did
he know anything? How did he know to come in out
of the rain? I mean, how did he know that? I remember One
of my mama's sayings about people she didn't have much confidence
in their mental abilities said, he didn't have sense enough to
come in out of the rain. The Lord gives men sense enough
to come in out of the rain. And he's the one that causes
all things to come to pass. But nonetheless, oh give thanks
unto the Lord. Call upon his name. Make known his deeds among the
people. We often hear men talk about
doing the Lord's work. Have you ever heard anybody saying,
well, he's doing the Lord's work, or we need to do the work of
the Lord? Brethren, you can't do the work
of the Lord. Ain't nobody more into this world that can do the
work of the Lord. Because the work of the Lord,
he does his own work. He doesn't need anybody to do
his work. Now He does give men the privilege
sometimes of performing a task which He sends them to do. But
they're not doing the Lord's work, they're doing the work
that God sent them to do because nobody can do the Lord's work.
He works alone. He doesn't need anybody to help
Him. And so, we speak about the deeds, His deeds. See, when we
preach the Word of God, we're not preaching to stir men up
to do various things. What we're seeking to do is to
exalt the name of the Lord and magnify what He has done. See,
when we think about, when you read the Bible, There's a lot
of people in the Bible that did a lot of things, but the book
is not given to us to record for us what they did. Now we
gain from reading what they did, but that's not why it's given
to us. It's given to us so that we might remember what He did. And that's what the psalmist
says. Remember His deeds. Make known His deeds among the
people. Sing unto Him. Sing psalms unto
Him. Talk ye of all His wondrous works. Oh, what a glorious thing to
be able to declare the wondrous works of the Lord. Most especially
the wondrous work that Jesus Christ has performed in the redemption
of sinners. Now that's a glorious work. See, Paul said, God forbid that
I should glory save in the cross of Jesus Christ. And he said,
I won't preach anything but Christ and Him crucified. Why? Because
he would speak of the Lord's wondrous words. That's the work
that he's performed and that's what we will rejoice in. Glory
ye in His holy name. Let the heart of them rejoice
that seek the Lord. You know, the concept of seeking
the Lord in the minds of some is that it would be possible
for a man to seek the Lord and not find Him. But the scripture
indicates that if a man seeks the Lord, he will find Him. Why is that? That's because the
Lord's the one that causes a man to seek the Lord. And the Lord's
not playing games with people. He doesn't cause a man to seek
the Lord only to turn him aside and say, huh, no, you can't come.
No. When the Lord, when a man's seeking
the Lord, now I'm not talking about a man following some religious
pattern or something somebody told him. I'm talking about a
man who stirred in his heart and soul to seek the Lord. He
needs the Lord. See, not he doesn't need religion.
A lot of people seek religion. People seek it every day. And
they're satisfied with it. A lot of folks are fairly, fairly
well satisfied with their religion. I mean, they're not looking for
anything else. I mean, they can go to church
every Sunday and they can hear somebody tell them something
they like to hear and maybe they get encouraged and pat it on
the back or whatever. But what we're talking about
here is a man who's stirred in his mind and heart to know himself
to be a sinner and be in need of the mercy of God. As David
confessed before the Lord, he said, Father, against Thee and
Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight. Now he
was seeking the Lord. Because you see, he understood
what his sin was. His sin wasn't just some bad
things that he did, but his sin was that which was an affront
to God. And such a man as that is the one who's brought to be
a seeker. See, when a man knows himself to be lost, Then he'll
start to seek the Lord, because that's the work of the Spirit
of God in him, to convince him of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Seek the Lord in his strength.
Seek his face evermore. Remember his marvelous works
that he hath done, his wonders and the judgments of his mouth. the judgments of God. You know,
the judgments of God has reference not simply to the pouring out
like of judgment on Sodom, that was a judgment of God, or the
pouring out of the judgment of God on Egypt, but the judgment
of God is upon the earth. And all of the things that He
does are done in judgment, that is, in justice. Those things
that the Lord does, He doesn't do frivolously, but He does it
according to His justice. Now, the justice of God is not
always, doesn't jive well with what men think of as justice,
because you see, God chose mercy. Men are not merciful creatures.
You know, I'm often amused at people that think they're more
merciful than the Lord is. You know, they look at some tragedy
that happens in the world and they say, oh, well, why did this
happen? Well, I can't give you a reason
why these things happen. But I know one thing, that the
mercy of God is greater than any thought process that any
man could ever come up with, and how foolish is it for a man
to sit by and seek to put himself in a higher place than the Lord
in looking at how something occurred or why it occurred. You know,
that's just, again, that's just the depraved nature of man, the
rebellion of man against God. Because His mercy is greater
than any thought process that any of us have ever had. But
His judgment is true in the earth. Now, when the judgment of God
falls upon the earth, who would be able to say, Lord, that's
not right? And so when anything occurs in
the earth, a tragedy like these people, you know, getting shot
randomly around as we think randomly, but the Lord ordered their birth,
He ordered their death, He ordered all those things to come to pass.
And who can say anything? Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? It's impossible for a man to complain about those
things. But the Lord's way, His judgment,
the judgments of His mouth are good. All the things that the
Lord brings upon the earth, whether it be what we might call a good
judgment or a bad one, It is nonetheless a good thing. O ye
seed of Abraham, his servant, ye children of Jacob, his chosen,
he is the Lord our God, his judgments are in all the earth. He hath
remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to
a thousand generations, which covenant he made with Abraham
and his oath unto Isaac, and confirmed the same unto Jacob
for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying
unto thee, will I give the land of Canaan the lot of your inheritance. Now we know that the Lord promised
a literal, physical, land to be given to Abraham. He said
he was going to do it, and then to the children of Israel, and
that was fulfilled. I mean, we're going to read about
it soon, I suppose, as we continue looking in the Scriptures there, as the children
of Israel came into that promised land. They possessed it, just
like the Lord told them that they would. Now they thought
that was it. In fact, a lot of people still
think that's it. I mean, a lot of people think that the kingdom
of God is a place that you are, that which is promised unto Israel
is what they think of as Israel, is a place that you can draw
out on a map. But the promise that the Lord
gave to his people Israel, that he gave to these natural people
Israel, was but a type and foreshadow of that greater kingdom which
he manifested in Jesus Christ. And so, when Paul speaks about
it, he said, to Abraham and his seed were the promises given. not seeds as of many, but as
of one, even Jesus Christ. So He was given the promise,
that is, remember what we said about these things all being
written for our sake. Now see, the Jews, they thought
these things were written for their sake. They weren't written
for their sake, they were written for our sake. What do we mean,
our sake? We're talking about those who, by the grace of God,
have been brought into the kingdom of God, revealed in Jesus Christ. You see, those things, those
promises are in Christ. Even from the very beginning,
even though He caused them to be played out in natural time,
so men could see that they did indeed possess those lands, in
like fashion Jesus Christ has possessed the lands of the heathen. Is that not what we read in the
2nd Psalm? It says, Ask of me and I will
give thee the heathen for thine inheritance. I mean, the Lord
Jesus Christ has been given men from every nation, kindred, tribe,
and tongue on the face of the earth. They belong to Him. They're
of His people. And so, His kingdom is without
end. And so, as we read here about
this covenant, some people get, they stop too soon. There was
a covenant, there was a natural thing that the Lord promised
Abraham and they possessed it. They took that. They had that. I mean, what right did Israel
have to go, did the nation of Israel have to go over there
and take that land from all the Moabites and the Perizzites and
all that stuff? I mean, what natural right did
they have to do that? None. I mean, as men speak, any
more than I've got the right to go over to your house and
take your house away from you. I didn't have any natural right.
But you see, when God said, when God's judgment was that I've
made this land for you and you are going to inhabit it, then
that judgment is correct, is it not? Because the Lord would
destroy those other nations in His purpose. Why? Because they
were good folks just trying to do right? No. because he would
manifest his judgment upon the wickedness of men and they were
destroyed because God ordained that they be destroyed for their
wickedness. There's no man that's ever been
or ever shall be destroyed by the hand of God who will not
be destroyed but for his own wickedness. A man cannot say,
Lord, I'm innocent. I didn't do anything. Would you
bring in all this? Now, you know, as kids, we always
used to wonder, well, why'd I, you know, why'd I get that whipping?
Or this or that? I didn't really do anything.
Well, now, you know, we really did know why it was, didn't we?
We just didn't like the whipping, and so we was kind of trying
to justify ourself in our own mind. But the Lord's judgment,
now oftentimes, maybe our fathers and mothers, they might have
chastised us for the wrong thing. They never chastised us too much
because there was plenty of stuff we got by with that we should
have got a whipping for. So really, if you add it all
up and you think of how many whippings you got versus how
many whippings you should have got, you're way better off with
the ones that you got than the ones that you should have got.
But the Lord's judgment is always unto righteousness. He judges
righteously. And so when He gave that land
to the nation of Israel, it was their land. Now they didn't work
for it. They didn't do anything. They
didn't plant. It seemed like we sang a song
here a while back and it talked about the fact that they ate
figs off of the fig trees that they didn't plant. And they ate
grapes off of the vine that they didn't graft. I mean, they didn't
do any of these things, but all those things were made ready
for them by the hand of the Lord. Why was it theirs? Because God
made it theirs. Now why should we inherit the
kingdom of God? Except for the same reason, the
Lord made it ours. We didn't earn it. We didn't
do anything that would have caused God to say, well, I think I'll
reward them. Now, I know that today the vast
majority, unfortunately, of the preachers that you hear will
tell you about God rewarding you for doing a bunch of stuff. But the Lord said, when you've
done everything that I've told you to do, then you can count
yourself to be an unprofitable servant. I mean, you've not done
anything. You can't do more than what you
should do. See, it's impossible to gain
favor with God through the efforts of your flesh. The Lord hasn't
ordained it to be so. He said, I will give the land
of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance. It's yours. Now, the people,
the Moabites didn't think it was, did they? They didn't like
it a bit. When they were but a few men
in number, yea, very few and strangers in it. The Lord said,
I didn't choose you because you were greater than any other people. He said, but I loved you because
I loved you, because it seemed good in my sight. They were very
few strangers in it. When they went from one nation
to another, from one kingdom to another people, he suffered
no man to do them wrong. Yea, he reproved kings for their
sakes. Now, when he says he suffered
no man to do them wrong, it doesn't mean that men didn't fight against
them. What he means is they weren't
able to destroy them. They couldn't overcome them.
The nation of Israel triumphed because the Lord caused them
to triumph. And from time to time, He caused them to have
to lick their wounds. But He did that for their benefit,
did He not? So that they might not fall into
that place again. Saying, touch not mine anointed,
do my prophets no harm. Now that's what the Lord says.
He reproved kings for their sakes. He said, you better not mess
with Israel. Now that made the kings of the
earth mad, did it not? I mean, who do these people think
they are coming in here trying to take our land? Well, we'll
show them. The Lord said you better not. But they did, they
tried to, but the Lord destroyed them for it. Just as He often,
we see that same thing carried out throughout the Word of God.
Moreover, He called for a famine. Now, these things here, is going
to recount, and this is, I said that this psalm is in, can be
found in the first 15 verses of 1 Chronicles, is it 1 or 2
Chronicles, I don't remember, but anyway, 16th chapter 1 of
1 Chronicles. But then this other part here
is not there. But nonetheless, this is a Psalm
of David, and I don't know why all of it's not there. I don't
know if it was added later or what it was. But nonetheless,
here it is for us, and it's about all of the things that came upon
Egypt as a result. of the Lord's judgment. Moreover,
he called for a famine on the land. He break the whole staff
of bread. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold
for a servant. Now in Joseph, Joseph's kind
of singular character in the scripture. There's nobody else
like him, but just like all of those people whom the Lord raised
up, to be deliverers for the nation of Israel, we can see
Christ. And we see Christ in Joseph. He was sold, the scripture
says, for a servant, even as the Lord Jesus Christ was sold
for 30 pieces of silver. He was cast out by his own brethren,
even as the Lord was cast out by his own brethren. He went
into the wilderness. I mean, he went into a land that
was not his, and he was tried, was he not? The scripture says
that the Lord learned obedience by the things which he suffered.
He was tempted in all points like as we are. Think about Joseph,
all those years that he spent in prison. I mean, he didn't
know why the story was gonna turn out, did he? See, we look
at things like that and we say, yeah, old Joseph, he knew that
things was gonna work out. No, he didn't know things was
gonna work out. He probably figured that's where he was going to
die. It was right there. And the Lord left him there,
and through a long, arduous process, finally brought him out of that
prison house. And so, the Lord Jesus Christ,
He suffered for our sake. He became a prisoner in that
respect. I mean, the Lord, He was not
under any compulsion to do the things that He did other than
the compulsion that He had to do the Father's will to come
into the world to be the Redeemer of His people. And for the joy
that was set before Him, He endured the cross. Joseph was a man who
rose to power in the land of Egypt. The Lord Jesus Christ
rose to power in the earth as well. Now Joseph, he died in
Egypt. The Lord Jesus Christ died in
Egypt, but the difference was between Joseph, Joseph gave charge
to the children of Israel and said, when you come out, take
my bones with you. But when the Lord Jesus Christ
died, he triumphed over death and he gathered up the bones
of his body and he raised them from the dead of his own accord. And he didn't need anybody to
take him out of Egypt, but he took himself out of Egypt and
he arose. And that's really the whole basis
of what we preach. Because brethren, apart from
the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then nothing else that we could
tell you about what Christ did would really amount to much.
A lot of people have died in the behalf of other people over
the years. I mean, the Lord said that that
was so. Sometimes men will die for other
men. Men sacrifice their self in wars
and stuff like that for other people. Men lay down their lives
from time to time to help other people, people that they love.
But the Lord Jesus Christ, he didn't remain in that place of
death, but he arose. And it is upon that basis that
we have hope. Therein is our hope that Christ
is a risen Savior, a Redeemer, that He ever lives to make intercession
for those that come unto God by Him. He's not there before
the throne of God on His knees praying, but He's there at the
right hand of the Father with five bleeding wounds that he
bears, received on Calvary. They, poor effectual prayers,
they strongly plead for me. The intercession of Christ is
in his person, in that which he's accomplished in our behalf. He is the safe, and may we ever
be given eyes and mind to call upon him, to seek him while he
may yet be found.