Psalm 68. To the chief musician, a psalm
or song of David. Let God arise, let his enemies
be scattered. Let them also that hate him flee
before him. As smoke is driven away, so drive
them away. As wax melteth before the fire,
so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. But let the
righteous be glad. Let them rejoice before God.
Yea, let them exceedingly rejoice. Sing unto God, sing praises to
his name. Extol him that rideth upon the
heavens by his name, Jah. And rejoice before him. A father
of the fatherless and a judge of the widows is God in his holy
habitation. God sitteth the solitary in families. He bringeth out those which are
bound with chains, but the rebellious dwell in a dry land. O God, when
thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march
through the wilderness, say, La. The earth shook, the heavens
also dropped at the presence of God. Even Sinai itself was
moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel. Thou, O God,
didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine
inheritance when it was weary. Thy congregation hath dwelt therein. Thou, O God, hast prepared of
thy goodness for the poor. The Lord gave the word. Great
was the company of those that published it. Kings of armies
did flee apace, and she that tarried at home divided the spoil. Though ye have lined among the
pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with
silver, and her feathers with yellow gold. When the Almighty
scattered kings in it, it was white as snow and salmon. The
hill of God is as the hill of Bashan, and high hill as the
hill of Bashan. Why leap ye ye high hills? This
is the hill which God desired to dwell in. Yea, the Lord will
dwell in it forever. The chariots of God are 20,000,
even thousands of angels. The Lord is among them, as in
Sinai, in the holy place. Thou hast ascended on high. Thou
hast led captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts for
men. Yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord might dwell
among them. Blessed be the Lord, who daily
loatheth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation, Selah. He that is our God is the God
of salvation, and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. But God shall wound the head
of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth
on still in his trespasses. The Lord said, I will bring again
from Bashan, I will bring my people again from the depths
of the sea. that thy foot may be dipped in
the blood of thine enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the
same. They have seen thy goings, O
God, even the goings of my God, my King in the sanctuary. The
singers went before, the players on instruments followed after.
Among them were the damsels playing with timbrels. Bless ye God in
the congregations, even the Lord from the fountain of Israel.
There is little Benjamin with their ruler, the princes of Judah
and their council, the princes of Zebulun and the princes of
Naphtali. Thy God hath commanded thy strength. Strengthen, O God, that which
thou hast wrought for us. Because of thy temple at Jerusalem
shall kings bring presents unto thee. Rebuke the company of spearmen,
the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the people, till
everyone submit himself with pieces of silver. Scatter thou
the people that delight in war. Princes shall come out of Egypt.
Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God. Sing unto
God, ye kingdoms of the earth. O sing praises unto the Lord. Selah. To him that writeth upon
the heavens of heavens, which were of old, lo, he doth send
out his voice, and that a mighty voice. Ascribe ye strength unto
God. His excellency is over Israel,
and his strength is in the clouds. O God, thou art terrible out
of thy holy places. The God of Israel is he that
giveth strength and power unto his people. Blessed be God. Now, surely a man, by giving
some understanding of spiritual things, cannot read this Psalm
and not desire to fall down and worship at the footstool of the
very God that is described herein. As we spoke last week, or I think
it was last week, here recently concerning the terribleness of
God. God is terrible. Now we don't
use that word like that very much because we think of something
terrible as something that isn't good. But if you think of the
most terrible thing that there is, then you would be describing
who God is in His power and might. Because He is that One whose
power exceeds and overcomes all things to the point that a man,
in describing it, he would have to say, that was terrible. I
mean, because God's ways are not our ways and He does as He
will. Now, there is a measure in which
we delight in that, but then there is a measure in which that
is not a very pleasant thing, is it? I mean, we like to think
of God as a more cuddly, friendly sort of a one, don't we? You know, one He wouldn't hurt
a flea. I mean, He would just tenderly hold us in His arms. And the Scripture does describe
Him in that fashion. But a man can never appreciate
the love, mercy, and kindness of Almighty God until he first
understands that this One who is kind unto all who call upon
His name, this One who does show mercy to the very weakest of
men, this One is He who rides over men. He rides over the earth. And
He causes the lightnings to fall. He causes destruction to come
in the earth. He sends forth darkness. He sends
forth the awful things that men dread. This is that one of whom
we speak. The Scripture says, "...whose
hand cannot be staid." I mean, what can a man do when God is
determined to destroy. What can a man do? Can a man
stop the hand of God? Oh, how foolish it is when men
consider that they somehow or other would be in control of
Him who cannot be controlled. And He is not ashamed to say
that He will do according to His will. David spoke of the
And the heathen, he said, you know they talk about their gods
that they make, hew them out gods of stone and they don't
have any mouth, they can't speak or whatever, but he said, our
God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. There is no limitation with God.
I mean, there is nothing that is withheld from His hand. or
outside of the realm of his power. Because all things that occur
in the earth occur according to the good pleasure of Almighty
God. Whether they be those things that men delight in or they be
those things that terrify men. Nonetheless, they belong to Him.
Let God arise. Let His enemies be scattered.
Let them also that hate Him flee before Him. Now we talked a little
bit last week about this word let. And that's interesting because
actually there is no word in the Hebrew for let. This is a word that's implied.
And we have to look at the context in order to understand how the word let is used. Now obviously
when we're speaking about Almighty God we cannot There's nobody
who would let God do anything. Now, I often, I hear men speak
sometimes about letting God. Let God be the Lord of your life,
or let God into your heart, or let God. You can't let God do
anything. He's outside the realm of the
letting of men. Men don't let God do anything.
God does as He wills. And so we need to get that thought
completely out of our mind that a man would ever let God do anything. It can't be done. You can't prevent
God from doing whatever He pleases to do. So what does the psalmist
mean, let God arise? Well, actually if you took a
literal translation of this, the word let wouldn't even appear.
It would just be God arise. And He will. in such time as
He is pleased. But you see, by the grace of
God, we have been given a mind and heart, those who would desire
to worship Him, that He may arise. That is our desire. God arise. Not that we're commanding Him
to do it, but because we delight in it. It's a good thing. God
arise. His enemies be scattered. them
that hate him flee before him. And they shall, scripture says,
who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name. All the
heavens and the earth, the scripture says, shall flee away at his
presence. When the Lord is pleased to reveal
himself, the heavens and the earth shall flee away. Just like
before a tsunami hits, I've never seen one. I've seen some pictures
of it happening. And just before the tsunami hits,
the ocean goes out. And the dry ground, or not dry,
but at least the bare ground appears for a long distance. But then comes the flood. And the Lord often does that
as he prepares men to seek him. He causes a barrenness to come
upon them. And he brings his, he comes in
like a flood as we, the Grace Gazette this week is from that
scripture, when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Lord
shall lift up a standard against him. Well, the Lord often comes
in like a flood as well. And his flood can't be stayed.
Just like the Egyptians found out when the Lord caused the
Red Sea to close in upon them and destroy them. Let God arise,
let His enemies be scattered, let them also that hate Him flee
before Him. They shall go away, but they
shall not escape, even though they flee. from his presence. As smoke is driven away, so drive
them away. As wax melteth before the fire,
so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. Now we've said many times, you
know, we're numbered among the wicked. But yet by the grace
of God, we're caused to magnify the justice of God. Now some
people We don't believe that would be a good thing to say,
let the wicked be destroyed, because, well, you mean, you're
asking for us to be destroyed? Well, we do recognize this, that
if God indeed does destroy us, would he not be right? I mean,
would we not be as Job who said, though he slay me? Yeah, well,
I trust him. He didn't say, I'm going to get
mad if God slays me. Why? Because he knows he deserves
to be slain. And so it is a recognition of
the justice of God when we recognize that hell is the just dessert
of the wicked. So let the wicked perish at the
presence of God. May wicked men be destroyed. but let the righteous be glad.
Now, how did they get to be righteous? See, here's where the big difference
comes in between those who trust in the things that Scripture
teaches and trust what the nature of true righteousness is and
the desire of the heart. This is where these things meet
together. Let the righteous be glad. Now, does he mean let those
that go about in their own righteousness, those that call themselves righteous,
those that walk according to some moral code and they point
out to men how righteous they are and how if they'd walk in
this way they would be righteous. Is that who he's talking about?
No, the righteous are those who were made righteous. In the same
fashion in which, as Brother Al pointed out, the Lord made
coverings for Adam and Eve in the garden. That was their covering. Christ
is our righteousness in that same fashion. We couldn't provide
it. We didn't have anything. I mean,
here we are standing naked before God. What can we say? Men say,
well, God looks on our heart. Well, that's a terrible thing,
brethren. You better tremble when you consider God looks on
your heart. Sometimes I hear people say,
Oh, well, you know, God looks on my heart. Well, He sure does. And I'll tell you what, that
ought to cause you fear and trembling when you consider that. When
God does look upon your heart, He knows the nature that you
have. But by the grace of God in His
mercy and kindness, He draws men unto Himself. Let the righteous
be glad. Who are those that will be glad?
It's those that rejoice in the righteousness of Christ. Let
the righteous be glad. We're not glad because we say,
Lord, we're righteous and we want you to destroy all them
terrible people, especially them old Democrats. We want you to
get rid of them, you know. No. We're righteous because of
Christ and no other reason. And if we got what we deserved,
we'd all be destroyed. But let the righteous be glad.
We are glad in the mercy of God that visits men in His kindness
and draws sinners unto Himself and shows them that they are
unrighteous and that their only righteousness is that which is
from Him. So let the righteous be glad,
let them rejoice before God. Oh, what a privilege it is to
rejoice before God. You know, we sing these songs
sometimes, and what a blessing it is to sing the songs of Zion. Because even, you know, whenever
sometimes we're beat down in our own mind and overcome by
our own sinful ways and we doubt and fear as we look at ourselves
that we could even be numbered among the children of God, yet
it is our great rejoicing to come together and sing as if
we are. the children of God. Isn't that
a glorious thing? And just if only for a few minutes
we just forget about the fact that well maybe we're not the
children of God. We rejoice that we are. Let the
righteous be glad. It's a good thing for God's people
to praise Him. Why? Because He reminds us, you
see, that it's not us. It's not anything having to do
with us. But it's having to do with Him.
let the righteous be glad, let them rejoice before God, yea,
let them exceedingly rejoice." Now we sang a moment ago, and
I wanted to point this out, because this is common, but it's a very
big error in the thinking of men. We sang a song there a moment
ago, I don't remember which one it was, but it had the phrases
in there that we were going to walk on the streets of gold. That's a common thing. How many
streets are in heaven? But the scripture does speak
of a street, does it not? There are not multiple streets,
but there is a street of gold. And that street of gold, dear
brethren, is not any gold like you and I have ever seen. Because
the scripture says that it was as clear as glass. Now, have
you ever seen any gold that was as clear as glass? Like apples
of gold and pictures of silver. Have you ever seen that? No,
what is that? It is just beyond the comprehension
of men. But there is a street of gold.
But that street of gold is Christ. It's not a street that men are
going to walk on in a literal sense, but it is that which points
to Christ. It is the way unto Him. He is that street of gold. Let them exceedingly rejoice
in Him. Sing unto God. Sing praises to
His name. Extol Him that rideth upon the
heavens. He makes His messengers to be
as those angels of fire. He's that one that sends forth
those whom He would send with power. Extol Him that rideth
upon the heavens by His name, Jah, and rejoice before Him. Now this word right here only
appears one time in the Scriptures, and this is it. by His name,
Yah. You won't find that anywhere
else. And what is that? That is His name. It literally
means Jehovah. It is that word, but you see,
the Hebrews often would not speak, I mean, they spoke the name Yahweh. But they didn't use that name.
They normally referred to Him as Elohim. Which we find in the
scripture, when it says, let God arise, it's Elohim arise. Elohim is the Supreme One. He's the God above all gods.
You see, men have always had gods of all sorts. The scripture says that He's
the God of gods. He is the Elohim of the El. See, Elohim, El is a word for
God, and Elohim is the Supreme God. And so it is that Nebuchadnezzar, when he was brought
to his senses... See, Nebuchadnezzar believed
in many gods. In fact, he said that, you know,
when the Egyptians came to him, or not the Egyptians, The Babylonians,
the magic men, when they came to tell him of this one Daniel
who could interpret dreams, they said, the spirit of the holy
gods is with him. See, they believed in gods. They
believed in the spiritual thing. You hear people talk about the
spirituality. I mean, everybody in Hollywood
is spiritual. You know, they talk about being
spiritual. Oh, he's so spiritual. And all
of this. Well, men are spiritual. There
is a sense in which men are spiritual in that they do believe in gods
of many things they cannot explain. That's true. But what Nebuchadnezzar
came to understand was not just that there were many gods, but
he said the Most High ruleth in the army of heaven. and among
the inhabitants of the earth. And there's none that can stay
his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? Because you see,
the gods he was used to dealing with was kind of under his control. They were like those that David
described. They could kind of do with them
what they want. Isn't that the way that God is today in the
minds of most? He's kind of a manipulative god. I mean, you've got to get him
to do what you want to do. If you need something, you just
call on him and he'll do it. Get yourself in a bind, well
just, God's right there. He's waiting on you. He's hoping
that you'll do something for Him. But no, He said the Most
High. The Elohim. That One who is singular. That One who appeared to Moses in the burning bush. And Moses said, well who am I
going to tell Pharaoh who he believes in all these gods, who
am I just going to go down there and tell him, well, God said
this, he'll say, well, which one? Say, you talking about Osiris? Which one are you talking about?
He said, you go tell him, I am that I am. And that also can
be translated as, I will be that I will be. He's the first and
the last. You see, that's the one whom
Moses came to Pharaoh. He said, the true God, Elohim,
that one who's above all gods, that one before whom all the
gods shall fall down and worship, for He is the God. Isn't that
what all the people said when Elijah was on Mount Carmel and
he had the fire came down and licked
up the, and the fire was so hot that it licked, the scripture
says, licked up the water that was in the trench around the
pyre that they put up there. And the people said, the Lord,
He is the God. He's Elohim. Jehovah is Elohim. He is the most high God. And
so this one here, of whom we speak, that rideth upon the heavens
by his name, I will be what I will be. I am the first and the last.
And rejoice before him. We do rejoice before him. What
a glorious God he is. And whether He does anything
you ever want Him to do, He's still a glorious God, and we'll
worship Him. Though He slay me, yet will I
trust Him. We've got no other choice like Peter. When the Lord said, Peter, all
these other people ain't leaving me. And they did, see? You know,
if you're going to judge The truth of what a man is preaching
by how many people follow him, then you'll have to turn away
from the Lord Jesus Christ because he didn't gain followers. He
lost them. I mean, he had a bunch of folks
following him in the beginning, did he not? I mean, they was
all coming, but as he kept teaching the truth of the word of God,
they said, these are hard Zions. We don't like this. We're getting
out of here. And he turned to his disciples,
he said, well, are you gonna leave also? And Peter said, Lord,
to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And you see, by the grace of
God, he is the one that teaches men that there's one who rideth
upon the heavens, whose name is Jah. Jehovah is salvation. He is that one before whom we
shall rejoice. A father of the fatherless and
a judge of the widows is God in His holy habitation. A father of the fatherless, He's
the one that helps the weak, those that can't help themselves,
those who are orphans, those who cannot find anyone to take
care of them. the widows, the judge of the
widows. That is, not that he sits in judgment upon the widows,
but he takes up the widows' cause, because he is that one who is
full of mercy to all who call upon him. He is God in his holy
habitation. This is where God dwells. He
said, He inhabited the eternity, and then it says, and with him.
who is of a broken and a contrite heart. God dwells in eternity
and with those who know themselves to be sinners. What a glorious
thing. The eternal God, that He would
take up habitation with sinners. You see, that was what the Pharisees
accused Christ of in a bad way. They said, this man, he's a friend
of sinners. What they didn't understand because
they didn't think themselves to be sinners, was that that
was a good thing. See, Christ is the friend of
the fatherless and the widows and those who cannot help themselves,
who know themselves to be worthy of destruction. God said, If
the solitary and families, he bringeth out those which are
bound with chains, but the rebellious dwell in a dry land. That is,
God said, If those who are as orphans, those who are solitary,
those who don't have any kinfolks. You know, that would be a bad
thing for a person in life, and there are people who are basically
have no close family or whatever around them, don't know who their
mother and father are, and they're just cast off in the world. I've
often thought what a lonely thing that would be. But you see, the
Scripture says as those, that's actually how a sinner is in this
world, the fatherless, those who are solitary. I mean, Peter said that we're
strangers and sojourners in this earth. We don't have anybody
in this world. I mean, when you go out in this
world, you can't find a place where you can lay your head in
comfort. And if you can, then you are
evidently a friend of the world, because dear brethren, God's
people can't find a place of solace among the men of this
world. But the Lord does indeed set
the solitary in families, does He not? He brings His people
together. And one of the things that John
speaks about is he says that here by here we may know that
we love God because we love the brethren. See he has put us in
families. He's caused us to love one another
in Christ. We have a common bond. And so
He does indeed set the solitary in families. He brings out those
which are bound with chains. He sets the captives free. Is
that not what He said when He said, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me to deliver the captives? Now the Jews, they were looking
for somebody to set them free from Roman oppression. They thought
that, but if we could just get out from under these Romans,
we'd be free. Well, they didn't understand what it was that had
them bound. And the Lord said, I didn't come to set you free
from the Romans. In fact, the Romans destroyed
the Jewish culture in 70 AD. I mean, that was the whole thing.
I mean, the whole thing was brought down to nothing. But the Lord never departed from
those whom He loved. And He called to Himself. He
brought those who were bound out of chains. He did that liberally. Remember the old guy that was
They were demon possessed and they had wrapped him up with
chains and locked him up because he would go crazy and go into
town and no telling what he would do to people. And so they bound
him up with chains, but the Lord set him free because he cast
out the devil from him. And so it is that the Lord does
set His people free. He bringeth out those which are
bound with chains But the rebellious dwell in dry land. Those that
will not have this God to rule over them, they dwell in dry
land. They don't know it's dry. You
know, you take somebody that lives in the desert, they get
used to it, don't they? They don't know they're in a
dry land. But oh, you know, you bring one of them and put him
in a in a place where it's a land flowing with milk and honey and
he said, well, wait a minute, look at this, this is pretty
good. I didn't know. And so it is that those that
are rebellious, they do dwell in the dry land. They're happy. Aren't they? I mean, they're
having a good time. I mean, you take a man who's outside of Christ,
he's all right. He's not bothered. See, the things
that bother you, they don't bother him. He thinks something's wrong
with you because you're troubled over your sin. And he says, well,
he doesn't see sin in the things that you see sin in. He doesn't
understand. He's in a dry land. He's having a good time. Because he's in rebellion against
Almighty God. And the only thing that makes
him any different from us is the grace. and mercy of God,
who called us out of that. Because we'd be right there in
the midst of them. Even as Paul said he, by the
grace of God, was shown the way that he was going, though as
far as men was concerned it was an outwardly righteous place,
but it was full of dead men's bones. O God, when thou wentest before
thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness, say,
Law, the earth shook. The heavens also dropped at the
presence of God. Even Sinai itself was moved at
the presence of God, the God of Israel. Oh, remember when
the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai and gave the Lord Moses
There was a fire that burned in that mountain. Scripture says
that they couldn't even touch the mountain lest they be destroyed. See, men think that they can
just find God anytime they get ready. Well, one day when I've
got everything else taken care of, I'll start seeking the Lord. I used to think that when I was
a kid, that all the old people were just seeking the Lord. I
mean, you know, I'd see some old white-headed person, they'd
be sitting there in church, and I'd be thinking, oh man, you
know, they're just communing with God. I mean, it's just,
you know, that's just all you gotta have, just get old and
everything. It'd be all right. I didn't understand
then what I know now. The hearts of men don't change
with age. Age doesn't change a man's heart.
age doesn't make a man want to seek the Lord, only the mercy
of God. Only the work of the Lord can
change a man's heart. That's the only thing that changes
it. The earth shook, the heavens dropped down at the presence
of God, even Sinai was moved at the presence of God, the God
of Israel. He is the God of Israel. Now
you'll hear in the news and what not about we're
gonna help Israel and all of that and Israel is a country but this is not the Israel that
we're talking about here when these politicians talk about
Israel they're not talking about the Israel of God they're talking
about the Israel of the earth and you know that's that's political
uh... stuff whether you're for Israel
or you're against Israel or whatever But you see, the Israel of whom
God is the God of, is that remnant which He has chosen from before
the foundation of the world. That's the Israel of God. He
is not a Jew which is one outwardly, but He which is one inwardly,
whose circumcision is not of the flesh, but is of the heart. And only the Lord has the scapel
that can perform that circumcision. It's not in the hand of men to
do it, to become those of whom the God of Israel delights in. What a glorious God we serve.
May He arise and His enemies be scattered. And the name of
Jesus Christ, which is a name, the script says, which is above
every name. Now, the Jews, they said the
name Jah is a name which is above every name. Now, we're not talking
about syllables here, but we're talking about a principle. See,
they didn't know who God was. They thought they did. And he
revealed to them himself in a certain measure But the law was given by Moses,
but guess what? Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. God, who at sundry times and
in divers manners spake in times past unto the prophets, hath
in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. And he has a name which is above
every name, He is that one who is the eternal God. He's that
one who's worthy to be praised. And He will be praised. And we've
been given the privilege to know Him. Isn't that a glorious thing?
I mean, to know Him. What a wondrous thing. Now throughout
the next few days, there's a time on earth when when you see or
a little less and less as time goes on but but uh... you you'll hear the name jesus
people will be talking about jesus is in jesus and keep jesus
in christmas and all that kind of stuff i have uh... you know they say
put christ in chris or let's keep christ in christmas well
you know i'm all for for worship and the king who was born in
Bethlehem but uh... you know Christ is not being
in Christmas per se he's in all things he does all things he
doesn't need a celebration that men come up with to worship him
he's worthy of praise we worship him we worship the newborn king
but he never told us to worship Him as an infant, did He? He
only told us the one thing to remember. One thing that He specifically
told us to do. He said, remember my death until
I come again. Oh, that we might remember as
we consider the birth of Christ. And that's a good thing. I'm
glad if men really consider the birth of Christ when they speak
of these things. But if we remember the birth
of Christ, remember this, that He was born for one purpose into
this world, and that was to lay down His life for sinners. He came into the world as a condemned
man. He came into the world with the
burden of sin on Him. When those wise men and those
shepherds, when they looked in this cradle, they didn't have
any idea who this was. They knew he was the king. They
knew this was a wondrous thing. But they had no idea that this
little infant laying there was condemned, even at that point
in time, to die in the behalf of sinners. And he grew in favor
and stature. And he came to the place which was ordained from before
the foundation of the world, and at the appointed hour He
was crucified and slain for our sake. Oh, what a glorious God
we serve. He is indeed the Judge of the
widows and the Father of the fatherless, and He helps sinners
according to the good pleasure of His will. May the Lord help
us.