Psalm 65. To the chief musician,
a psalm and song of David. Praise waiteth for thee, O God,
in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed. O thou
that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come. Iniquities
prevail against me, as for our transgressions thou shalt purge
them away. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell
in thy courts. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. By terrible
things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God, of our
salvation, who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth
and of them that are far off upon the sea, which by his strength
setteth fast the mountains, being girded with power, which stilleth
the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult
of the people. They also that dwell in the uttermost
parts are afraid at thy tokens. Thou makest the outgoings of
the morning and evening to rejoice. Thou visitest the earth and waterest
it. Thou greatly enrichest it with
the river of God, which is full of water. Thou preparest them
corn when thou hast so provided for it. Thou waterest the ridges
thereof abundantly. Thou settlest the furrows thereof. Thou makest it soft with showers. Thou blessest the springing thereof. Thou crownest the year with thy
goodness, and thy paths drop fatness. They drop upon the pastures
of the wilderness, and the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with
flocks. The valleys also are covered
over with corn. They shout for joy. They also
sing." Now this is indeed a song of praise unto the Lord, and
he certainly is worthy of praise. In fact, that's how David begins
the psalm, saying, Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion. Now, that seems kind of an odd
way to say it, but I think there's a couple of things that we learn
about that. Number one, Praise waiteth for
God in Zion. Zion is the kingdom of God. Zion's often spoken of as the
heavenly Zion. There's an earthly Zion. And
there's a Zion in general, which is the general consideration
of the kingdom of God and his purpose unfolded, whether it
be in the earth or whether it be in the heavens. But praise
waiteth for God in Zion, because the Lord is designed the earth
for His glory. And we don't ever need to lose
sight of that. Sometimes men kind of just put that to the
side and they think that God just kind of created the world
and He's just kind of, you know, doing some things. Maybe He just
made it and then He's just kind of letting it go on its way and
wants to see what will happen. But the fact of the matter is
that the Lord designed every aspect of the world, the earth
and all of its inhabitants And all of the events that have transpired
from the beginning, every one, never been an event that ever
occurred in the earth from the very beginning that has not been
ordained and purposed by Almighty God unto the glory of His name. And as we understand that all
of those things that He has made, He made for His glory, that He
might be praised. The Scripture says He is a jealous
God. Now, jealousy is a bad thing among men, isn't it? I mean,
we're not to be jealous. Why? Because we don't have any
grounds to be. But you see, God does because He's full of glory.
And it all belongs to Him. And whatever He says is the way
that it is, whether men like it or they don't. And so, you
know, often men say, well, God is good. And what they mean by
that is they say, well God is good because He does good things. But no, God is good. And it doesn't
matter if men think it's a good thing or it's a bad thing that
happens, God is good. Because all that God does is
right. He's right because He's God.
He's not right because He does right. See, a lot of times people
want to sit in judgment of God and they say, well, if God does
this, He'd be wrong. No, God can't be wrong because
He's God and He will do according to the good pleasure of His will.
Praise waiteth for the end time. And so there is a praise that
is ordained of God, that is all praise is ordained by God to
be brought forth in the people and we wait on that praise. Now
you know often men think that they can just praise God. In
fact, you hear that term a lot, people will say, praise the Lord.
And usually they're saying praise the Lord when something that
they was wanting to happen, happens. And then they say, praise the
Lord. And that's good, I mean, I'm not against anybody praising
God for anything if indeed it is true praise, but often, Men
think that they can generate praise when things go good, but
then what happens when things don't go so good? I mean, is
the praise to God to be any less? Praise waiteth for thee in Zion.
You see, praise is that which is ordained by Almighty God.
And the people who praise the Lord, i mean general generally
genuinely praise the lord or the most blessed people on earth
because the scripture says that god inhabited the praises of
his people what a glorious thing you know when we are moved to
praise god that's a blessing i mean when the lord moves within
our soul to give him honor and glory and praise and What a greater
blessing can there be to the sons of God than to be able to
bring praise unto Him? He is worthy of it. Praise waiteth
for thee, O God, in Zion, that is, in the kingdom of God. Because
it is, though all the creation is ordained to bring praise unto
God, it is specifically in the redemption of those people whom
the Lord loves with an everlasting love, that that praise is manifested
in its main glory. Because the Lord will be praised
in the redemption of His people. And that is why He sent His Son
into the world to save sinners, is that He might be glorified
forever. Praise waiteth for thee, O God,
in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed You know, how often, and everybody's
done this, you don't need to say, well, I never did that,
because you have. How often have we vowed, well, I'll never do
that again? Or, you know, I'm gonna do this,
or I'm gonna do that, you know? And those are empty vows in many
cases, but unto God the vow will be performed, because Jesus Christ
is that one who has sworn that He will present that people whom
the Father gave to Him spotless. He prayed, Father, I pray for
them that Thou hast given me out of the world. He said, You
loved them and You gave them to me and I have lost none. What a glorious thing. He has
performed the vow. He said He would redeem His people.
And dear brethren, of those whom he has been given, he shall lose
none. He will perform the vow. O thou
that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come. When I
read that, the verse popped into my mind, it is appointed unto
man once to die, and after this, the judgment. Unto thee shall
all flesh come. Now that's as certain as that
men are born into the world is that they shall die. I was thinking,
reading the other day about Methuselah. And he lived 967 years, I think.
Somebody correct me if that's not right. But anyway, it was
a long time. Oldest man recorded in the Scriptures. But guess what? He died. I mean, he lived 967
years. And he probably would have liked
to have lived 968. But he died. Now, it's interesting
if you look at the chronology of that, is that Methuselah died
the same year that the flood came. Now, I don't know if he
died prior to the flood or if he died in the flood. But he
died in the same year that the Lord sent the flood upon the
earth. No man is going to escape an
appointment with Almighty God to give an account for everything. Now, the glorious thing is, dear
brethren, that some men shall stand before the throne of God
without an advocate. And others, by the grace of God,
shall stand there with one who stands in their room instead.
And he shall give an account for us. And he shall say, Father,
these are those for whom I died, that my blood has cleansed and
they are pure and without any spot. enter thou into the joy
of the Lord." What a glorious thing that all flesh shall come
to Him, but all flesh shall perish without the mercy of God being
bestowed upon them. And you know, that's a message
that we need to be clear with, and we need to declare it in
the earth that judgment is sure. There is mercy with Almighty
God. But that mercy can be found but
in one place. And we know that place is in
the bosom of Jesus Christ. Iniquities prevail against me.
As for our transgressions, I shall purge them away. Now this is
certainly in keeping with what we just said there. Iniquities
do prevail against us. I mean, that overwhelms. The man that thinks he can stand
against his own corrupt heart is a fool. But there are many
righteous men that do. The Pharisee, when he went to
the temple to pray with himself, why did he go? I don't know why
he could have just stayed home. Because Scripture said that he
prayed thus with himself. I mean, he said, you know, Father, You know, I thank Thee, O Lord,
that I'm not as other men. He was wrong. But he was praying
with himself, so it didn't make any difference. But, dear brethren,
you know what a glorious thing it is for the Lord to bring a
man to the place where he knows that his iniquity has overwhelmed
him. As Brother Al was pointing out there in that chapter on
leprosy, it covers us from head to foot. There's no soundness
within us. Iniquities prevail against me,
but as for our transgressions, those that praise God in Zion,
as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. That's
our only hope. Our only hope is not to stand
before God and tell Him what good things we've done, but it
is to stand before Almighty God with the hope that Christ is
our Advocate. That He is that One who has purged
our sin and taken them away as far as the East is from the West.
And then we come to verse 4. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell
in thy courts. We shall be satisfied with thy
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple." Now, who is
the one whom the Lord has chosen? Now, blessed is the man whom
thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee. Now, there
is indeed an application in that. considering the elect of God. But there could be no elect of
God as individuals among the sons of men who were separated
out from among the sons of men if it wasn't for the one whom
the scripture speaks of as the elect. Behold my servant whom
I uphold, mine elect, my chosen. that one who is precious in the
Father's sight, in whom my soul delighteth, I have put my Spirit
upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up,
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed
shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. He
shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail, nor
be discouraged, till he hath set judgment in the earth, and
the isles shall wait for his law. Now a lot of people think
about election when they hear men talk about election, and
sometimes men get this messed up. The election of God is not
eeny, meeny, miny, moe. In other words, when God chose
His people, He did not choose them out of mankind. In other
words, He didn't line up all of the men that He saw on earth
and He said, I'm going to choose that one, I'm going to choose
this one, I'm going to choose that one. No, the Scripture indicates
that we were chosen in Christ. before the foundation of the
world. We were created in Christ before
the foundation of the world insofar as the purpose of God is concerned. And so there has never been in
the covenant of redemption and in the purpose of God A time,
now time is a thing that is necessary for us to consider, but there
is no such thing as time with God. But there has never been
a time, if you want to use that term, when the elect of God have
not been in the elect of God. That is, those who were chosen
in Christ were in Christ. How did they get there? All I
can tell you is God put them there. Now, you know some people
go in great lengths and try to explain all of that, and they
get themselves in trouble a lot of times saying things that they
really ought not to say, because I don't know how all that is.
But I do know this, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the Lord chose
a people in Christ who is His elect. and that His elect who
were chosen in Christ can't be separated from His elect who
is Christ. Now that's a glorious thing and
if you think much on that, that'll just blow your mind, but it's
a glorious thought to consider that there cannot be any separation
between those whom the Lord has loved and those whom He has redeemed
forever. What a glorious thing. Oh, the
grace of God! How can we imagine it? How can we consider it? How foolish
it is for men to think that God has chosen His people based on
anything they have done. You know, that's usually, that's
the stand-by thing, isn't it? I mean, well, yeah, we believe
in election. It's all according to God's foreknowledge.
He knew who would believe and who wouldn't, and He chose them
based on that. Well, that's foolish. Because
that's not being chosen in Christ, that's being chosen in themselves. We're not chosen in ourselves,
chosen in Christ. What a glorious thing. Blessed
is the man whom thou choosest, and causes to approach unto thee.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who's approached
unto the Lord? Huh? Can you approach unto the
Lord? I mean, can you just say, well,
we're going to go up and see God? No, there's one man, the
elect of God, who has approached unto God. He's come into the
very presence of Almighty God, because He is God. He's pure
and righteous. He hath not lifted up his soul
unto man, let him not be sworn deceitfully. Blessed is the man
whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee, that he
may dwell in thy courts. Now listen to this, he says,
we, he said, blessed is that man, but then he said, we, we
shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house. See, we, were chosen
in christ we'll be satisfied with what he's done goodness
of his house what we have to do it not playing in the world
all in his hands even of our holy temple who is who is the
temple of god and he's been pleased to dwell
with his people as That church, which is the fullness of Him
that filleth all in all. Now brethren, these things, you
know, people say, well that's too complicated. No, that's not
complicated at all. That's simple. What's complicated
is when men try to figure it out. That's what's complicated. It's pretty simple. God chose
a people in Christ. And He loved them with an everlasting
love. and they are complete in Him, and He has been pleased
to say that He is complete in them. They are the fullness of
Him that filleth all in all. What a glorious thought! What
a wondrous thing! By terrible things and righteousness
wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation, who art the confidence
of all the ends of the earth and of them that are far off
upon the sea. Now surely, of course this is
not speaking about the Lord being the confidence of every individual
in the earth, but it's talking about those who are in Christ. He is that one in whom they have
confidence. He is the God of our salvation,
who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth. From every
kindred, tribe, and tongue in the earth, the Lord has a people
that belong to Him. The whole earth is covered with
the glory of God. There's not a place where the
glory of God is not known by those whom He would call according
to the good pleasure of His will, the confidence of all the ends
of the earth and of them that are far off upon the sea. You
can't get away from the Lord. Even old Jonah, he was upon the
sea. I mean, he was riding along and
he was in rebellion. against the Lord when he was
riding along in that boat. But you see, the Lord knew right
where Jonah was and loved Jonah. And he saved Jonah. And he used
Jonah to typify the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You know, isn't
it amazing when you read the script, the Bible is a rogues
gallery. I mean, you know, you think about
all your heroes and stuff, they're all, you know, people that just,
oh, they just got a stellar record, you know, they never anything
happened to them, but the heroes in the Bible, they're not like
that. They're people that were wicked men, people that went
about doing the wrong thing. Because you see, the glory of
the gospel of Jesus Christ is that he is the savior of sinners.
He's not saving the righteous. He said, I came not to call the
righteous. Because you see, when he gave
the parable of the 90 and nine, he said he left the 90 and nine,
he left the 99 to go and get the one that was on the hill. So he said, the righteous, they
don't need repentance. See, most people in the world
don't really think they need to repent. They think they can
reform. They think, well, you know, I
can just change a few things. I'm not doing just exactly right
like everything I do, but I can change it. But no, the Lord said
to Nicodemus, before Nicodemus ever asked the question, I can
imagine he ever wondered what the question Nicodemus was gonna
ask was. It was probably something along
the lines of what the rich young ruler said. He said, we know
you're a teacher sent from God. And then he was probably going
to say, but what can we do to inherit eternal life? The Lord
stopped him. He didn't even let him ask the
question. He said, Nicodemus, except a man be born again, cannot
see the kingdom of God. And so it is. It never has changed. Which by His strength saitheth
fast the mountains. Now, I left off one thing I was
going to say about terrible things in righteousness. Will thou answer
us? You know, the works of God are terrible. We don't use that
word in that way, but we probably ought to because the Scripture
uses it that way. You know, there's a song we sing
sometimes that says, and awful is the place with Christ within
the doors. And it is a terrible thing. The Scripture says our God is
a consuming fire. It says it's a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God. It's a terrible thing. It's full of awe. It causes us
to tremble. It was not a light thing. His strength sets fast the mountains
being girded with power." Now we think of the strength, we
look at the mountains and we think of the grandeur of them. And the Lord would use the mountains.
I believe He put the mountains in the earth to remind us. of
such things as that, just like I believe He put the valleys
in the earth to remind us where we're at. He's the God of the
mountains, and we're the people of the valleys, you see. And
so they set fast the mountains, being girded with power, which
stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and
the tumult of the people. The Lord's able to still. the
seas and all the troubles of life, even as, you know, we have
the illustration of him stealing the sea when the disciples were
in the boat. They also that dwell in the uttermost
parts are afraid at thy tokens, that is the signs of the Lord's
power. When the lightning strikes. How
many people, when lightning strikes, just walk on just like uh... nothing happened you know lightning
pops over there and you just go on about your business like
nothing happened I never met anybody I mean most everybody
jumps back and they think about man I need to get over here under
this shelter as if being under that shelter would be any help
to you You know, if God be pleased to send forth his power. They
that dwell in the uttermost parts, those are outside the realm of
the knowledge of God. They are afraid at thy tokens.
Thou makest the outgoings of the mornings and the evening
to rejoice. Thou visitest the earth and waterest
it. Thou greatly enrichest it with
the river of God, which is full of water. Thou preparest them
corn when thou hast so provided for it. And you know, when the
Lord is pleased to bless the earth, it is a wondrous thing. And when I mean bless the earth,
I'm talking about in natural ways. See, there's not anybody
that lives in the earth that hasn't tasted of the goodness
of God. Not anybody. I mean, everybody
has. Now, it may have been for a fleeting
time, but everybody, If they've ever had any reason to have any
sort of happiness or enjoyment in anything in the earth, it's
because of the mercy of Almighty God, not because of anything
they did. And so it is that the Lord, He
visits the earth and waters it. And the fowls of the air and
the creeping things on the earth, they all get their meat from
him who's pleased. As he said, not even a sparrow
falls to the ground except by the Lord's purpose. Thou preparest them corn when
thou art so provided for. I thought about when I was reading
that of Hosea. and how the Lord instructed Hosea
to love a woman who was very unlovely. I mean, a very unfaithful
woman. A woman whom no one would pick
as a wife, but the Lord told him, go down there and take a
wife of the whoredoms of this land. And so he did. She was very unfaithful to him
in their marriage, but he was never unfaithful to her, because
he brought wine and corn and left it on her doorstep. And
she thought that it was her lovers that were bringing her this wine
and corn. She didn't know, but it was always
Hosea who did that for her. And so it is that the Lord is
pleased to bring wine and corn, even to the unthankful of the
earth. But he most especially would
bring that unto his people, that they may turn and praise him.
Praise waiteth for thee in Zion. Thou crownest, well let me see,
I skipped a verse here. Thou waterest the ridges thereof
abundantly, thou settlest the furrows, thou makest it salt
with showers, thou blessest the springing thereof. Speaking about
the blessing that's generally upon the earth, but in every
blessing that's generally upon the earth, there's a specific
blessing to the sons of God. Because you see, the greatest
blessing that we have is knowing from whom our blessings come.
You see an old, even a dog, he knows that his master's gonna
feed him. Now cats, they're kind of a different
nature. They kind of don't care what
you do. They'll eat the food, but then
they might turn their nose up at it and walk off, and they
might come back later and eat it, you know. But even a dog
will be thankful to be fed. And how unthankful men are by
nature except the Lord makes us thankful. But when he makes
us to be thankful and to consider who it is from whom our blessings
come, what a blessing that is. See, there's a blessing in the
blessing of being able to praise and thank him. Thou crownest
the year with thy goodness and thy paths drop fatness, abundance. They drop upon the pastures of
the wilderness, and the little hills rejoice on every side.
There's not a place in the earth where the Lord does not shower
his mercy continually. The pastures are clothed with
flocks. The valleys also are covered over with corn. They
shout for joy. They also sing. Because the pastures
are clothed with flocks. Now, who are the flocks of God?
sheep. He came for the lost sheep of
the house of Israel. He said to the Pharisees, ye
are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know
them and they follow me. And his flocks cover the pastures
and he leads them in and out and they find pasture. You know,
except that a flock of sheep have a faithful shepherd, they
would starve to death. Because if they were shut up
unto themselves, they'd never be able to go in and out and
find pasture. He's the door of the sheep. He's the door that lets the sheep
in, and he's the door that lets them out, according to the good
pleasure of his will. But the flocks of God are those
which are led in his pastures, and the valleys are covered over
with corn. The valleys, the low places.
Even in the darkness of the valley. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, yet the Lord has put corn there
for his flocks to feed upon. What a glorious thing. Because
even when we think that we're forsaken, it's in those times
that the Lord is pleased to minister to us his greatest comfort. Because
you know when we're not in such a state as that, we're not really
appreciative of comfort. But it's when we need comfort
that he gives comfort. What a glorious God we serve.
They shall shout for joy and they also sing. Shout unto God
with the voice of triumph. He is our God and he reigns forever.