Psalm 78. This is a rather lengthy
psalm, 72 verses. I want to read it and
then as the Lord gives us a mind to see what the Lord would say
to us. This is a mask of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my
law, incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open
my mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings of old, which
we have heard and known and our fathers have told us. We will
not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to
come the praises of the Lord in his strength and his wonderful
works that he hath done. For he established a testimony
in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded
our fathers, that they should make them known to their children,
that the generation to come might know them, even the children
which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their
children, that they might set their hope in God and not forget
the works of God, but keep his commandments. and might not be
as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a
generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit
was not steadfast with God. The children of Ephraim, being
armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. They
kept not the covenant of God and refused to walk in his law.
and forget his works and his wonders that he had showed them.
Marvelous things did he in the sight of their fathers in the
land of Egypt, in the field of Zion. He divided the sea and
caused them to pass through, and he made the waters to stand
as an heap. In the daytime also he led them
with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire. He clathed
the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as out of great
depths. He brought streams also out of
the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers. And they
sinned yet more against him by provoking the Most High in the
wilderness. And they tempted God in their
heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against
God. They said, can God furnish a
table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock that
the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed. Can he give
bread also? Can he provide flesh for his
people? Therefore the Lord heard this and was wroth. So a fire
was kindled against Jacob and anger also came up against Israel.
because they believe not in God and trusted not in his salvation. Though he had commanded the clouds
from above, and opened the doors of heaven, and had rained down
manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven,
man did eat angels' food, he sent them meat to the full. He
caused an east wind to blow in the heaven, and by his power
he brought in the south wind. He rained flesh also upon them
as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea.
And he let it fall in the midst of their camp round about their
habitations. So they did eat and were well
filled, for he gave them their own desire. They were not estranged
from their lusts, but while their meat was yet in their mouths,
the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them
and smoked down the chosen men of Israel, or the stoutest men
of Israel. For all this they sinned still,
and believed not for his wondrous works. Therefore their days did
he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble. When he slew
them, then they sought him. And they returned and inquired
early after God. And they remembered that God
was their rock, and the high God their Redeemer. Nevertheless,
they did flatter him with their mouth and they lied unto him
with their tongues. For their heart was not right
with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant or faithful in
his covenant. But he being full of compassion
forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not. Yea, many a time he
turned his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath. For
he remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passeth
away, and cometh not again. How oft did they provoke him
in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Yea, they
turned back, and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered
them from the enemy. how he hath wrought his signs
in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan. And had turned
their rivers into blood, and their floods that they could
not drink. He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured
them, and frogs, which destroyed them. He gave also their increase
unto the caterpillar, and their labor unto the locust. He destroyed
their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost. He
gave up their cattle also to the hail and their flocks to
hot thunderbolts. He cast upon them the fierceness
of his anger, wrath, and indignation and trouble by sending evil angels
among them. He made a way to his anger. He
spared not their soul from death. but gave their life over to the
pestilence, and smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief
of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham, but made his own people
to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a
flock, and he led them on safely, so that they feared not, but
the sea overwhelmed their enemies. And he brought them to the border
of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand
had purchased. He cast out the heathen also
before them, and divided in inheritance by line, and made the tribes
of Israel to dwell in their tents. Yet they tempted and provoked
the most high God and kept not his testimonies, but turned back
and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers. They were turned aside
like a deceitful bow, for they provoked him to anger with their
high places and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
When God heard this, he was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel,
so that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he
placed among men, and delivered his strength into captivity and
his glory into the enemy's hand. He gave his people over also
unto the sword and was wroth with his inheritance. The fire
consumed their young men and their maidens were not given
to marriage. Their priests fell by the sword and their widows
made no lamentation. Then the Lord awaked as one out
of a sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of
wine. And he smote his enemies in the
hinder parts, and he put them to a perpetual reproach. Moreover,
he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe
of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which
he loved. And he built his sanctuary like
high palaces, like the earth which he hath established. forever. He chose David, also his servant,
and took him from the sheepfolds. From following the youths great
with young, he brought him to feed Jacob, his people, and Israel,
his inheritance. So he fed them according to the
integrity of his heart and guided them by the skillfulness of his
hands. Now that, I wanted to read that
whole Psalm because there's a narrative here that's pretty clear. And
this is the narrative of the state of man in the earth. I
mean, if you want a clear picture of what man is by nature and
how he has brought to the Lord his thankfulness
and his obedience, then read this Psalm right here. And were
it not for the mercy of God, the nation of Israel would have
been destroyed completely. I mean, what could they have
said? What could anybody say? And you
know, it's amazing to me how that notion resides in the heart
of men. We're born with this, that somehow
or other, we're going to make God happy with us. And that we're going to do what
God says and we're going to earn His favor thereby. I would venture
to say that you could ask anybody But unless they are, have been
taught correctly, you could ask them, well, can you earn the
favor of God? They'd say, well, sure you can,
you know, by doing good. I mean, good people are gonna
be, you know, you're gonna, if you do good, you're gonna get
good things. And there's a measure of truth
in that. The problem is, however, and
this Psalm bears it out, that there's none good. No, not one. That's the problem. You know,
he that doeth good and sinneth not is that one whom the Lord will
bless. And some people say, oh, well,
great. But the man that knows himself
to be a sinner, he says, oh, woe is me. Because if that be
true, then I don't have any hope whatsoever. And if you read this
Psalm, it should cause you, by the grace of God, if He's pleased
to give you any understanding at all of it, to recognize that
very fact. Israel, a people greatly and
mightily blessed of God. Blessed more so than any other
nation on the earth. Brought out of bondage. And yet,
they were unthankful. Not only were they unthankful,
but they were outright rebellious against his way. It wasn't that
they just didn't do a few things. They actually went contrary to
the way he had told them to go. And so he begins, Asaph begins
this psalm, and again, we believe these are the words of Christ.
He says, give ear, O my people, to my law. Now there's no shortage
of those that talk about keeping the law. You can ride around
the community and every now and then you'll see pasted up in
somebody's yard or on a car tag or something, they'll have the
Ten Commandments up there. And you know the Ten Commandments
are a wonderful bit of truth. But the sad thing is that many
paste up the Ten Commandments and look at them in order to
say, well, we're doing that. But you know, every time that
you see the Ten Commandments, you ought to hang your head because
they bear witness against you every time you read them. I'm
not opposed to the Ten Commandments being posted up in places. You know, they put them up on
monuments and stuff. I don't have any objection to
that. The objection I have is when people say, well, we're
doing pretty good. You know, here's our community. We got
the Ten Commandments down on Court Square. I mean, you know,
what better place could you be? Where could we have a better
place to raise a family than someplace where they got the
Ten Commandments? out here on a granite pillar. I mean this is just a testimony
to our uprightness and what a wonderful community we live in. That's the error. There's nothing
wrong with the law. The law is good. Paul said it's
holy, it's just, it's right. Which of the Ten Commandments
can you disregard? Which one of them has ever been
cast out? They're good. These things are
good. But there's a law that we desire
that's not written on pieces of granite. It's not written
on paper. But it's that law which is written
in the heart. And that's the law. that we desire
to be given. Give ear, O my people, to my
law. David said, Thy word have I hid
in my heart that I might not sin against thee. And the only thing that will
subdue sin in the heart of man is when God writes his law upon
their heart. and they shall not teach every
man his neighbor know the Lord for they shall all know me from
the least to the greatest because you see the work of the Spirit
of God in a man is to write the law of God upon his heart to
give him a desire to walk in the way of God and uh... you know as we come along in
this and we're not going to probably have time to get there but I
want to kind of skip ahead here And look here at verse 7. Now he says, you know, incline
your heart, your ears to the words of my mouth. And then he
says over here, and he says you need to teach these to your children. Now it's a good thing to teach
children the word of God. It's a good thing for them to
memorize the Word of God. It's a good thing to set these
things before our children. That is a good thing. But what
is a better thing is for those who are going to be teachers
to set an example in a love for these things rather than just
a knowledge of them. is good for a man to have knowledge
of the Word of God, but it is a better thing to have a love
for it. And only the Spirit of God can
cause that to occur. You know, a man can't love a
woman unless God gives him love for a woman. Now he can act in
a loving fashion, but it's only God that can cause that to come
to pass. It's the same way with with the
Word of God. Only as the Lord gives a man
a love for it, a delight in it, can he actually be those that
keep the Law of God, because this is what he says, that they,
he said you should teach these things, that they might set their
hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. Now, the way that the Spirit of God
works in the children of God is not to bring to mind their
works and what they're doing. Now, a lot of times people say,
well, you know, you need to be doing this, or you ought to be,
if you were a Christian, you'd really be doing this. And you
need to work on this, and you need to get you a book and read
on it, and it'll tell you how to do this. and how to be, you
know, an obedient child of God and all these things. But it's only as the Lord teaches
a man not to forget His works. Paul said He works in us both
the will and to do of His good pleasure. And dear brethren,
if we're ever going to walk in obedience to the Word of God,
it's going to be because of the work of God in us. Now, some
say, well, you don't need to talk too much about that because
you'll give people the wrong idea because why, they'll just
think that they can just go off and do whatever they want to.
You know, isn't it an amazing thing that that's exactly what
the Spirit of God causes to come to pass. in children of God. He calls them to want to do the
things of God. He calls them to delight in the
things of God, to want to walk in that way, for it to be the
thing, not this thing over here, oh, we've got to measure up to
it, but no, rather it is that which the works of God have brought
to pass, that they might set their hope in God, because brethren,
there is no other hope. I don't have any hope whatsoever
in one of you in here. I expect to be disappointed by
every one of you. That's a funny thing to say.
I mean, that doesn't sound real good. But I expect that you would
not ever live up to my expectations. But I know this, that I won't
live up to my own expectations. I'll disappoint myself every
day. But oh, I know this. that I'll never be disappointed,
or can I possibly be ashamed of that which Christ has performed
for me and does daily, called to come to pass? For who maketh
thee to differ from another, and what hast thou that thou
hast not received? Now if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory in it, as if thou hadst not received it? So what a glorious thing it is
that we might set our hope in God by his grace and not forget
the works of God, but then what does he say? But keep his commandments. Now if you had asked the Pharisees
if they kept the commandments of God, they would have answered
in the affirmative. And what they meant by that was
the law said thou shalt not steal, And they certainly did not steal
from anybody. The law said, thou shalt not
commit adultery, and they certainly were abiding by that, walking
in that way. They kept the law in that way.
And most people, when they think about keeping the commandments,
that's what they mean. That's why they can ride by the
courthouse and they can read them down there and say, well,
I've done all that. And they can feel pretty good about themselves.
Old Pharisee, when he went down to the temple, he said, Lord,
I thank Thee that I'm not like other men. I mean, he even gave
thanks, did he not, that he was keeping the Ten Commandments.
I mean, he was walking in them, he said. And so while, if you'd have asked
the Pharisees if they kept the commandments of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ said, you have not kept my law. What do you mean
we haven't kept the law? Well, we've done every one of
these things. The rich young ruler came to the Lord. He said,
well, Lord, all these things have I done for my youth. And the Lord looked on him, Scripture
says, with compassion. He looked on him and he loved
him and he said, one thing thou lackest. Now, many people think
that what the Lord said to him was, this is the one thing you
lack, go and sell all that you have and give to the poor. In
other words, if you had done just this one more thing, you'd
have been all right. But no, that wasn't what he was
telling him at all. No, what he was doing was he was causing
the law to come down upon this man's heart to show him what
he was by nature. And this young man went away
sorrowing. Now some say he went away sorrowing
because he didn't want to give up his riches. I don't believe
that's what happened at all. I don't know. I mean, I don't
know the outcome of what happened. But it appears to me that he
went away sorrowing because the Lord broke his heart. And He
showed him that he was not a righteous man. That had he been a righteous
man, he would have done what the Lord said. There. So he didn't keep the commandments,
but he tells us to keep his commandments. What does that mean? It means
to hold on to the truth of God, to keep it, that it might be
precious to us. Because the only way that a man's
gonna walk in the pathway and way of God is that these things
are precious to him. No other way that it can occur. And this is the work of God.
Oh, that he might perform that work in us today. He might make
us a people that love his word, that love his way, and that walk
in it. And we won't have to prove it
to anybody. You know, so I remember, you know, when I was a young
man and a young believer, I kind of thought I had to go about
to prove you know, being, I was a follower of Christ. And I even sometimes looked down
my nose at those I thought wasn't really trying hard. You know,
they ain't quite measuring up to my standard here. But oh,
when the law came, sin revived, and I died. Because as the Lord's
pleased to unveil your wickedness to you, You can see more clearly. You know, we're like an onion
when the Lord brings us to Himself. And we start off as this big
onion. And the Lord peels off that first
layer, and He shows it. And a man repents, and he's sore
for his sin, and he goes along. The Lord keeps peeling those
layers off. See, Job, he had had quite a
few layers peeled off of his onion, but he came face to face
with the Lord in the end of the book, and he said, buddy, he
said, I need it all peeled away. Lord, I want you to just take
it all right down to the core. Paul said it. He said, I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. Dear brethren, oh that the Lord
might work His work in us, because if He doesn't, we're of all men
most miserable. We'll be just like the Israelites.
And we might follow Him for a season. And you know, we might be religious
and make a show But it's only as the Lord works His work in
us that we are drawn unto Him. And that we will then keep His
commandments, that these things will be precious. Put them on
like a garment. I'm not talking about the Ten
Commandments. I'm talking about the Word of God. I'm talking
about the whole thing. Oh, that He might peel away our
layers and show us what we are.