Psalm 148. And as all of these last five
psalms begin, Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens. Praise him in the heights. Praise
him, all his angels. Praise ye him, all his hosts.
Praise ye him, sun and moon. Praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens,
and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the
name of the Lord, for he commanded, and they were created. He hath
also established them for ever and ever. He hath made a decree
which shall not pass. Praise the Lord from the earth,
ye dragons, and all deeps. fire and hail, snow and vapor,
stormy wind fulfilling his word, mountains and all hills, fruitful
trees and all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things
and flying fowl, kings of the earth and all people, princes
and all judges of the earth, both young men and maidens, old
men and children. Let them praise the name of the
Lord, for his name alone is excellent. His glory is above the earth
and heaven. He also exalteth the horn of
His people, the praise of all His saints, even of the children
of Israel, a people near unto Him. Praise ye the Lord. Now, if anyone should ever wonder
what the occupation of men in the earth is to be, this is it. is to praise the Lord. And that
should occupy our mind and heart. That is to be the activity that
we are to be about is praising the Lord. Now, the corruption
that dwells within us would take that from us. And it is only
as the Spirit of God is pleased to work in His people to do that,
that such will be the case. Because man by nature, and when
we say by nature, we mean by his fallen nature, that is where
he is because of sin. The Lord created man upright,
but he has sought out many inventions. And the inventions that he sought
out is anything that has to do with not praising the Lord. His
intention is to go away from the Lord by nature. And so it
is with us. And we have a sinful flesh that
dwells with us and will till the day that we die that is averse
to praising the Lord. Now, it is not averse to religious
praising of the Lord. You know, it is a common thing
in our society to hear people say, praise the Lord. You hear
it all over the place. But what Lord are they praising? Now that would be a question
for another day, perhaps, as we go into that. But because
somebody says, Praise the Lord, does not mean they are praising
the same Lord that you are thinking of. Because when the psalmist
says, Praise ye the Lord, he is talking about the absolute
God. He's talking about the God who
rules in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth. There's none that can stay His hand or say unto Him,
What doest thou? So if somebody says, Praise the
Lord, but they don't have Him in mind, then can it be the same
Lord that we would praise? I think not. And so, praise ye
the Lord doesn't mean the same thing to all people. But it does
mean the same thing to all those who are true worshippers of God,
the true God. There is only one. He has revealed
to us in this book who He is, what He is like, who He loves. He said it over and over and
over again. And so when David says, Praise
ye the Lord, the Lord he is talking about is the one who is the absolute
God. And that is the only Lord who
is worthy of praise. even though men might say those
words in another fashion. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens. Praise Him in the heights. I
mean, is there a place that you could go that He's not to be
praised? Every place that a man can find
himself, he is to praise the Lord. Praise Him from the heavens.
Praise Him in the heights. Then He says, Praise ye Him,
all His angels. And then notice He says, Praise
ye Him, all His hosts. Now the Lord is surrounded by
a multitude of creatures that He made of His own hand for His
own purpose. And oftentimes men get thinking
that we are His creatures, we are His creation. Well, we are
a minor part of His creation. Now a very important part because
it is man that the Lord has seen fit to magnify the glory of His
grace through His redemption. And so man does have an important
place in God's creation, but he's not the sum total of it.
Because the Lord is surrounded, he has many angels. Now the angels
are those who are sent by the Lord to perform a task. The word angel literally means
a messenger. It was the angels that the Lord
sent to tell the shepherds of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord sent angels throughout
the Scripture for various reasons. An angel appeared unto Joseph.
And in the book of Revelation, an angel appeared unto John.
And John was going to fall down and worship him. He said, Don't
worship me. He said, I've just been sent here to tell you something.
Worship the Lord. So the Lord does have many angels. People, it's amazing how religiously
oriented we are about such things as angels, but men, they have
this picture of what angels look like. You've all seen the pictures.
They're these creatures dressed in white and they've got these
big wings behind them. You know, that's just a common
thing. And so the average person, if
they think of what an angel looks like, they have the picture in
their mind of the ornament on top of the Christmas tree that
he's sitting up there and that's what an angel is. Well, that's
not what an angel is. In fact, in many cases, an angel
can be a human being. The angels of the churches spoken
of in the book of Revelation, I don't believe those are heavenly
creatures, but I believe it's talking about men sent to minister
unto those to teach them and through these messages were given
unto them. So an angel is a minister of
God. An angel is one sent by God. Now, there are angelic creatures
who are set apart from men and they are not men. The Lord spoke
of them. He said the angels don't take in marriage or give in marriage
because they are those who are heavenly creatures. They are
outside of the realm of the necessity of such as that. But even the
angels, the Scripture says, they are to praise the Lord. That is their purpose. is to
praise the Lord in this going forth and doing the things that
He has sent them to do. But then he says here, Praise
ye Him, all His hosts. Now who are the hosts of the
Lord? The word host there literally means an army. It means a multitude. Now you remember when Gehazi
was trembling in fear because, I forget, the king had sent a
message out to Elisha and told him that he was going to come
over there and get him and take him and kill him. And Gehazi said, Oh, what are
we going to do? And Elisha prayed and he said,
Lord, open his eyes and he might be able to see. And his eyes
were open and around the hills, all surrounding them, was this
great band of the hosts of God, the heavenly host. It was those
that were sent by God. And so whether these are angelic
creatures or they are some other form of creature, I don't know. But I do know this, that regardless
of what kind of creature there is in the world, under the world,
outside of the world, occupying the realms of space or whatever,
they are commended to worship the Lord. Praising Him sun and
moon, praising Him all stars of light, even the very inanimate
objects that the Lord has made are made for the praise of the
Lord. Praise Him, ye heavens of heavens,
and ye waters that be above the heavens." Now that's an interesting
phrase. Praise ye Him, ye heavens of
heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. Now when we
read, and as Brother Al went over this over in the book of
Genesis, It says that the Lord made a firmament in the midst
of the waters, and He separated the waters which were above the
firmament from the waters which were below the firmament. And
what did He call the firmament? Heaven. Now I want you to just
think about that for a minute, what he said there. You know,
sometimes things get lost in the language. Now some people
have said, some scholars have looked at this and they believe
that what he's just describing, that he made the heavens in layers
and that there were waters above it and all this kind of stuff.
I don't know. I don't know, but I know this,
this right here, would indicate to me that there is waters above
the heavens. Now I don't know what heavens
he's talking about, if he's talking about the heaven that we see
and then the clouds that are up in the stratosphere and what
other spheres there are up there. I'm not sure about that. But in keeping with what he says,
if it literally means what it says in the book of Genesis,
that The heaven was created in the midst of the waters and the
earth was made in that firmament. And if that be the case, if that
literally is what that means, if nothing is lost in the translation
of the Word, that there are waters around the whole thing that we
can see, that we can't see. That's just another thing, but
regardless of that, regardless of how that is, I'm not certain
about it, and I certainly wouldn't make it a doctrinal matter, but
I certainly understand that there are things about creation that
we have no way of knowing what they are. And wouldn't it be
an amazing thing if where we are right now is completely surrounded
by water And as far as the eye can see and the telescope can
look, they can't see to where that water is, but perhaps it's
there. I don't know about that, but
I know this. The waters that be above the
heavens, if that's talking about the clouds and the rain clouds
and the moisture that's up in there, if that's what it is,
it doesn't make any difference. It is. that which is to praise
the Lord. Let them praise the name of the
Lord, for He commanded and they were created." So here is clear
evidence that it does not matter where a man is at or whatever,
if he has been created, then he is to praise the Lord. Now
that is actually the reason why man has come up with the theories
of evolution, and other explanations for the creation of man. Because
you see, man hates, in his fallen natural state, he hates the praise
of God. And if he can figure out some
way to explain this other than God created it, He commanded
it and it was done, then he is not bound in any way to praise.
And such is the way of the flesh. For he commanded, and they were
created. He hath also established them
for ever and ever. He hath made a decree which shall
not pass. He has established the things
that he has created, and they cannot pass. Now that does not
mean that they cannot pass in his decree. But it means they
cannot pass without His decree. So that you can't die, nobody
can kill you, nothing can happen to you until such time as it
fulfills the purpose of Almighty God. Nothing can get around that. The Lord has set your bounds
that you cannot pass. It doesn't mean that you can
just not go any further than that. It means that that is the
bound that you have and the Lord has directed it. And so it is
that all things which He has made a decree shall come to pass. Now some people seem to doubt
that some of the things the Lord has decreed would come to pass. The Scripture says that the Lord
shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Now that is a decree that he
has made. He will be satisfied with such
travail as he has expended. Now there are those that tell
us that the Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood for some and he
will be disappointed. when he looks and sees that there
are some that did not avail themselves of it. That is a lie. That is
not of the Spirit of God. Because the Lord shall see of
that which He has done, and He shall be satisfied. And if it
is His decree that He shall be satisfied, then we can be sure
that He has set the bounds. of those for whom He has redeemed. And they cannot pass. They cannot
be diminished, nor can anyone add to it. Praise the Lord from
the earth, ye dragons in all deeps. Dragons in all deeps. Dragons. Have you ever seen a
dragon? I've never seen one. But there are creatures on earth
that are called dragons. Now, I don't know what exactly
the psalmist had reference to, if he's talking about the Komodo
dragon, as Al spoke about there, or if he's just talking about
creatures that, some creature they call dragons. You know,
there are strange creatures in the earth that are being discovered
every day. And there are creatures that
are no longer in existence. So I don't know exactly what
he meant. But I do know this, that whatever it was he said,
let them praise the Lord, ye dragons, in all deeps, the deep
places. I was just reading the other
day about they went down, somebody had gone down to the bottom of
the Marianas Trench, which I suppose they claim that's the deepest
place on Earth. I don't know how they know that,
but they say that it is anyway. And they went down to the bottom
of this, and they found a fish down there that they never had
seen before. Isn't that amazing? I mean, man
thinks that he knows everything. I mean, he's seen everything.
He's got it all figured out. And yet here he found a fish
that had never been seen before. Nobody could believe that this
fish existed. Now one exists that they don't
know about. How many others exist that they
don't know about? But regardless of how many, see
every one of those fish are created unto the praise of God. And that
should be, you know, when a scientist It comes down to the bottom of
the Marianas Trench and he sees that. The first words out of
his mouth should be, Praise the Lord. But I bet it probably wasn't. And he probably said, Oh, well,
now isn't that a peculiar sign? I wonder what that is. But you
see, when we see the creation of God, it should move us, and
I believe it does move the children of God in whom the Spirit of
God is, to praise the Lord for the wonders. of that which He
has done. Mountains and all hills, fruitful
trees and all cedars. So there are mountains and hills. A mountain is a big hill and
a hill is a small mountain. Mountains and hills, fruitful
trees, those that bear fruit that we might eat, and all cedars,
those that are planted for the purpose of growing to make lumber,
to build houses or whatever they are used for. All plants do not
have the same purpose. Some plants are for food. Some
plants are for clothing. Some plants are for shelter.
But it does not make any difference what they are for. The Lord is
to be praised. Beasts and all cattle, creeping
things, and flying fowl, kings of the earth and all people,
princes and all judges of the earth, both young men and maidens,
old men and children." Now when I was growing up, I used to think
that praising the Lord and really being interested in spiritual
things, that was something for the old people. I mean, I figured
I had plenty of time if I was going to get involved in all
that, but that was really for the old people, going to church
and all that. That would be more suited for
the old people because they didn't have anything else to do anyway.
I mean, you know, they were just old. I mean, that was what you
were supposed to do. And I also used to think that
when you got old, you would start thinking more about the Lord,
just because you were old. But that's not true, is it? Because
if the Lord doesn't change a man's heart, he'll be harder the older
that he gets. He gets more hardened in his
way. And he has less concern for the things of God the older
that he gets than he does. That's why the Scripture says,
Remember now thy Creator and the days of thy youth before
the evil days come upon you. Because men think that whenever
they get into the state of being old, they'll be relying more
on the Lord. But no, the older that you get,
the more likely you are to rely on the doctors and the pills. Whatever will stretch your life
out for another few years. I read this thing the other day.
They said that now they've discovered ibuprofen. They've done these laboratory
tests on mice, and they increased the lifespan of mice by about
10 or 12 percent by giving them regular doses of ibuprofen. Well,
you know, I imagine people will go out now and start Ibuprofen. Why? Because they want to hold
on to just a little bit more, but that's the natural way, is
it not? I mean, the natural body is looking
for one more breath. We don't know how many more breaths
we've got, but we sure want the next one, don't we? It's like a fellow, I remember
hearing one time he said, he told a fellow how old he was,
he said, how old are you? He says, I'm 94. And the guy
looked at him and said, man, I wouldn't want to be 94. He
said, that's because you ain't 93. Because you see, that's the way
that it is. The natural man, he's grasping
for this life. And apart from the work of the
Spirit of God to constrain a man to spiritual things, he won't
be constrained to spiritual things because he gets older. He'll
be less likely to be constrained because he'll be looking for
other things that might just give him one more breath or might
give him one more day or whatever that it is. But it's young men,
old men, maidens, children. Whoever it is. You see, a man,
a child is never too young to seek the Lord. And the Lord is
pleased by the work of the Spirit of grace to cause children to
seek Him. Some children are awakened at
an early age to seek the Lord. Some are old men when the Lord
sees fit to bring them out of darkness into light. Let them praise the name of the
Lord, for His name alone is excellent. His name alone is excellent.
Now when something is excellent, what does that mean? It means
it can't get any better. That's right, if something is
excellent. Now I've eaten a few things that I thought were excellent,
and then Later on I ate something and I thought it was even better
than that. So what is excellence? I don't
know exactly what, if we can achieve or come to something
and find out, but I know what excellence is. But I know this,
that excellence resides in the Lord. And that's what He said. His name alone is excellent. He's high and lifted up. He's
worthy to be praised. His glory is above the earth.
and the heavens. Now it's a wondrous thing to
look at creation and see all of the unfoldings that are around
us and see the things that God has done, the mountains and the
hills and the valleys and the forests and the oceans and the
creatures that are in those things. That's a wondrous thing. The Lord's glory is not in those
things. The Scripture says His glory
is above those things. I mean, these things are surely
the Lord is to be praised. He just got through saying, Let
everything praise the Lord. But He said, My glory is not
in that. He said, My glory is above the
heavens and above the earth. Moses asked to see it. Remember
what the Lord said? Moses said, Lord, that I could
see thy glory. He said, Moses, thou canst not
see my glory. No man can see me and live. But
he said, here is what I am going to do. He says, I am going to
make all my goodness pass before thee. And I am going to hide
you in a cliff of the rock. And when I have gotten completely
by you, He said, then I'm going to let you see my backside, because
no man can see the Lord in them. Now what do we learn from that?
Well, we learn, number one, that when the glory of the Lord, as
far as the man is concerned, according to what the testimony
of the Lord is, is His goodness, the goodness of God. Now we talked
about that a week or so ago. Most men when they talk about
the goodness of God, they mean, they talk about that and they
think about that when everything is going great. I mean they just
got that promotion. You know, they got a big raise,
or they made a bunch of money off of this deal or that, or
things happened. You know, somebody they loved
was sick and they got better, and they said, Oh, God is good.
Now, I'm not saying any of that is wrong with considering the
goodness of God in that. But, dear brethren, God is good
regardless of the circumstance that we're in. Because you see,
the working of the Spirit of God would teach us that it's
not in the things that we like that we ought to praise God for
His goodness. But it's in all things, whether
it's good or whether it's bad. Lord, whatever seems good in
Your sight. You see, that's the place that
the Lord would bring His people is to praise Him. in spite of
what might be happening. Whether I like it or whether
I don't, because I guarantee you that something will happen
to you probably today that you won't like. I just about guarantee
it. Something will happen. And you
can spend a lot of time sitting around worrying about it, or
by the grace of God, you can praise Him and be thankful. And it will be by the grace of
God, because in the flesh we won't. You can't like something
you don't like. And you might not like that,
but I'll tell you this, it is by the grace of God that a man
is brought to praise the Lord, because His glory is above the
earth and the heaven. It's not an earthly thing. You
can't teach a man to praise God. Oh, you can teach a man to say
it, A lot of people learned it. Oh, praise the Lord. Oh, praise
the Lord. I hear it all the time. Oh, praise
the Lord. Well, thank God that if He's
taught you to praise the Lord, praise the Lord. I mean, that's
good. But you know, if you just learn to say that because it's
just a neat thing to say, that's not worth anything. It's a waste
of time. It's the ramblings of the heathen. What's the word that the Lord
used? The vain repetitions of the heathen. That's all that
it is. It's nothing. But to praise the true and living
God, that is something. He also exalteth the horn of
His people. Now this is the heart of what
this psalm is about. He exalteth the horn of his people. Now who is the horn of the people
of God? That's absolutely right. Whenever
you look through the Scriptures and you see the horn mentioned,
it's talking about a seat of powers, talking about one who
has authority. A horn is a symbol of authority.
And so it is that the Lord Jesus Christ is exalted. He said, He also exalteth the
horn of His people. I believe it speaks from this
respect that the Father exalteth the horn of His people. And who
is the horn of His people? The Lord Jesus Christ. Because
the Scripture says that the government shall be upon His shoulders. and of his kingdom there shall
be no end." He is exalted because, you see, all of the promises
that have been made that the people of God benefit from have
not been made to them. See, we didn't get any promises
from God directly. The promises that we have come
to us through Christ. The Father said, Ask of Me, and
I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance. And Jesus
Christ is the horn of His people. He said, I will redeem My people. I will bring them forth. And
the Father said, It seems good in My sight. And He has brought
His people unto Himself, the praise of all His saints. Is
that not true? I mean, isn't Jesus Christ the
praise of all His saints? I mean, can a man be a child
of God? Can a man be walking with Christ
and not praise Him? I mean, can His lips be sealed
and He be indifferent? Can He just be going along and
just have time every now and then to think about the Lord?
I mean, is that the way that the Spirit of God works in His
people? I don't believe that you can find that in the Scripture.
The Lord causes His people to desire to praise Him, to magnify
His name. He is the praise of all His saints,
even the children of Israel, a people near unto Him. You see, the Lord has a people
that He loves with an everlasting love, and He has sent His Spirit
to indwell them, to call them out of darkness and bring them
into light, that they might praise His name forever. And that is
the message of the children of God to the earth, is the exaltation
of Christ. He is to be praised. He is to
be worshipped. Praise ye the Lord. He ends as
He began, because that is coming back full circle. I mean, He
created the world, and then He revealed to us why He created
the world, that He might magnify the one who is the horn of His
people. You see, it is all about Christ.
Everything that the Lord has done has been for the glory of
Christ, that His name might be magnified, that He might be praised,
that He might have glory. And He shall have that glory
in the revelation and unfolding of the redemption of His people
in the earth. What a glorious God we have. He is to be praised. Now the
world can't know anything about that. I mean, you know, all they
can do is praise Him for carnal things, and there's nothing wrong
with praising Him for carnal things, but it's not the It's
not the work of the Spirit of God that calls men to praise
Him carnally, but spiritually. The Lord said to the woman at
the well, the Father seeketh such as worship Him in spirit
and truth. And He is seeking out His own because they are
the ones who will worship Him in that fashion.