Bibles again tonight, Psalm 145. Psalm 145. Psalm 145. This morning we looked
at the first seven verses of this wonderful Psalm. We saw
the greatness of our God, the greatness of Elohim, the greatness
of Jehovah. The two names that are used in
the first verse there. I will extol thee, my God, Elohim,
O King, and I will bless thy name forever and ever. Actually
in verse three it is, great is the Lord, which is Yahweh or
Jehovah, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable,
unsearchable. Truly, truly, our God is a great
God. He's the one true living God.
And all things submit to his absolute authority. Whether they
acknowledge it or not, they all submit to his authority, the
forces of evil, evil men hurl themselves in vain at our great
God. And he will grind them into powder.
The scriptures declare this of our great God. Jesus saith unto
him unto them. Did you never read in the scriptures
the stone which the builders rejected? The same is become
the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and
it is marvelous in our eyes that speaking of Christ, he's the
stone laid down by God. He's the sure foundation. Brother
Roy, in our devotion before service tonight, the message that we
read about was The Sure Foundation by Octavius Winslow. If you can
get a hold of it, it's dynamite. It was one of the most joyful
things to read, just about how he's a sure foundation. There's
no wavering in our great God. He's the one sure foundations.
And it says, he goes on to say in Matthew 21, therefore say
I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given
to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever
shall fall on this stone, that being Christ the cornerstone,
shall be broken. But on whomsoever it shall fall,
it will grind him to powder. God is no one to be trifled with.
He's absolutely sovereign. So let's read our first seven
verses again. Psalm 145 and keep in mind the
greatness of our God the goodness of our God and the graciousness
of our God and I will read it with the Hebrew names for God
within the verses It's David's psalm of praise. As I mentioned
this morning, it's a personal psalm of praise. And David writes,
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, I will extol thee, my
Elohim, which is the mighty one in Hebrew. O King, and I will
bless thy name forever and ever. Every day will I bless thee,
and I will praise thy name forever and ever. Great is Yahweh, or
Jehovah, and greatly to be praised. and his greatness is unsearchable.
You can't plumb the depths of his greatness. One generation
shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty
acts. I will speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty. Our God
is a majestic God. He's a sovereign God. And of
thy wondrous works, man shall speak of the might of thy terrible
acts and I will declare thy greatness. They shall abundantly utter the
memory of thy great goodness and shall sing of thy righteousness.
Again, our great God is great and he is greatly to be praised
by our lips, by the lips of his people. He alone is worthy of
our praise. There's no one else who's worthy
of our praise except for our great God, Jehovah, because he
alone has delivered his people. He's delivered his people. He's
delivered us from our sin. Christ is God incarnate in the
flesh. He delivered his people from their sins. He also delivered
us from the law of God. He delivered us from the law
of God. And he delivered us from his great wrath against our sin. Never forget that. And when Christ
went to the cross, he bore our sins. But our wrath that was
due us fell on him. Holy. Holy. my oh my the sinless one dying
for sinners so what a wonderful merciful savior is the lord jesus
christ and this is why his people sing of his greatness this is
why we sing of his greatness and as we go through this week
let us ponder this wonderful truth the greatness of god now
We'll read verses 8 to 16, and we'll pause for a few verses
here and consider a few things in these verses. In this psalm,
we now see verses 18 to 16, we see the tender mercies of God.
We see the tender mercies of God proclaimed by David. Now,
David has tasted that the Lord's gracious. He's tasted that the
Lord's gracious. He knows the graciousness of
God, just like, remember I said to you, this could be the praise
of all believers, because we've tasted of the graciousness of
God. We speak of his mighty acts.
We've experienced, God's people have experienced the grace of
God in Christ. I can't tell you about something
I've never experienced. Henry used to say, a man can't
tell someone about a place they've never been. But if you've been
there, you could tell someone about it. So God's people tell others about
the greatness of God, because we've experienced it in our lives. We've experienced it in our lives.
So David is going to speak here by inspiration of the Holy Spirit
of God. And remember, privately he proclaims
these truths, but now publicly he's putting them into song.
And we can see ourselves filled with praise for our great God
as well. When we consider his greatness, the greatness of our
God, when we consider the graciousness of our God, when we consider
the tender mercies of our God, It'll lead the redeemed heart
to praise him. It fills us with praise, just
as it did David. Look what David pens here in
verse eight and nine. Yahweh is gracious. That's a
statement of fact. He's gracious. He's gracious
to us in full of compassion. Slow to anger. and of great mercy. Now we may show mercy to someone,
but we never show great mercy. God is showing great mercy to
his people. And then it says, Yahweh is good
to all. Jehovah, same word, Jehovah is
good to all. And his tender mercies are over
all his works, all his works. The Lord is gracious. it says
there he's gracious Jehovah is gracious Yahweh is gracious now was it not in such terms
that the Lord revealed himself to Moses turn if you would to
Exodus chapter 34 and let's read verses 5 to 8 our Lord Jehovah
is Elohim revealed himself to Moses
as a merciful God to his people a merciful God to his people
Exodus chapter 34 verses 5 to 8 and The Lord again, that's
Jehovah that's Yahweh descended in the cloud and stood with him
there and proclaimed the name of the Lord and the Lord passed by him and proclaimed
the Lord the Lord God merciful is not our great King the Lord
Jesus Christ merciful to us is not God showing mercy to his
people in Christ merciful look at that merciful and gracious
gracious he shows us grace long-suffering long-suffering I was thinking
about that how long-suffering God was with me before he saved
me and how long-suffering he still is with me oh my he's long-suffering and
look at this an abundant and goodness in truth keeping mercy
for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression in sin he forgives
it forgives his people's transgressions in sins in Christ and the redeemed heart says he's
so merciful to me he's so gracious I cannot speak of his greatness
because my heart is overwhelmed with the fact that he's forgiven
me of all my sins and all my transgressions in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ and look at this and will by no means
clear the guilty Oh, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children, upon the children's children, unto the third and
to the fourth generation. And Moses made haste and bowed
his head towards the earth and worshipped him. He worshipped. He was eaten dust. Oh my. But what a gracious God. keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sins. It says, by no means
clear the guilty, but the believer is guilty before God, not in
Christ. In our natural state, we're guilty
before God, but not in Christ. Not in Christ, glory be to his
mighty name, not in Christ. We have all the sins and iniquities,
all of them forgiven. What a merciful God. What a merciful
God. Turn, if you would, a couple
chapters over, actually one chapter over to Exodus chapter 33. Oh,
He's gracious. Do you know He's gracious to
the just and to the unjust? He's gracious to the just and
the unjust. He has the rain fall upon the just and on the unjust. He's merciful to all His creation. He's full of goodness and generosity.
He treats his creatures with kindness and his saints, though,
with favor. As I was studying for this, something
that kept popping out through Robert Hawker and through John
Gill and through several other commentators, Spurgeon, was God's
people are the favored ones. Now, we know that we don't deserve
to be the favored ones. But that was something that they
kept bringing forth. The elect of God are the favored ones.
God is showing mercy and favor to us. Undeserving as we are. Undeserving as we are, because
what we deserve is, we don't deserve mercy, do we? We deserve
wrath. But God is showing favor to his
people. Favor, and there's nothing in us that would recommend us
for favor. Quite the opposite. So his words
and his ways, his promises, his gifts, his plans, his purposes
all manifest his grace or free favor in Christ Jesus to his
chosen people. And we see in verse eight that
he is full of compassion and how that's manifested in and
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Jehovah's goodness and mercy
and compassion to fallen sinners in Christ is manifest his goodness
manifest his graciousness i ask you has not jehovah in jesus
proclaimed his name and made all this goodness pass before
us we who are his people are like moses over here in exodus
chapter 33 verses 13 to 17 look at this you know noah found grace
in the eyes of the lord we see here that Moses finds grace in
the eyes of the Lord. You know, I found grace in the
eyes of the Lord. You know, if you're a believer,
you found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Oh, it's wonderful, isn't it?
It's absolutely wonderful. Look, look what it says here
in Exodus 33, 13. Now, therefore, I pray thee,
if I have found grace in thy sight, Show me now thy way, singular
there, note that, thy way, singular, that I may know thee, that I
may find grace in thy sight and consider that this nation is
thy people. And look what the Lord says to
him here. And he said, my presence shall go with thee. Do you know God's presence is
with every one of his people while we're here on this earth?
Scripture says he's an ever present help in trouble. He's ever with
us. Look at this, I love this, too.
If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up. Hence, don't
let me go anywhere where you don't go before me or with me.
Lord, that's what Moses is saying right there. That's the cry of every believer. For wherein shall it be known
here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is
it not in that thou goest with us? In the fact that God goes
with us, it reveals that we found grace in God's eyes? So shall
we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are
upon the face of the earth. See, God's people are separated
from all the people. We live amongst them, but we're
separated. We're called. We're an ecclesia,
which means in the Greek called out assembly. And that calling
comes from God, the Holy Spirit. We're born again. Look at this,
look at verse 17. Oh, my, what a verse to write
to your heart, because this is true of every born again, bloodwashed
believer. Yahweh Jehovah said this I will
do this thing also that thou has spoken look at this for thou
has found grace in my sight and I know thee by He knows us by name because we're
engraved in the palms of his hands I Because he chose us from
before the foundation of the world. Look at this, though, this is
true of all of God's people. For thou has found grace in my
sight. Unsought after grace, unmerited
grace, grace, grace, grace, marvelous grace, wondrous grace. Therefore, the people of God,
our lips are filled with praise as we contemplate this wonderful
truth that we have found grace in the eyes of God in Christ. In Christ, in Christ alone. Because
he's redeemed our eternal souls with his precious, precious blood,
we find grace in the eyes of the Lord. Because he chose us
in Christ before the foundation of the world. We've found grace
in the sight of God, and He knows us by name. He knows us so intimately that
even the hairs of our head are numbered. That's how intimately
the Lord knows us. Therefore again, our lips are
filled with praise and honor for our great God. We desire
to praise him because we've been taught that he alone is worthy
of our praise. I know I've repeated that several
times, but it's true. He alone is worthy of the praise
of his people. We don't praise one another.
No, why would we do that? No, we're sinners. But we praise
the great one, don't we? We praise Jehovah. We praise
him because he alone is worthy. never forget that in God is a
fullness in a sense not known among men there is a fullness
in Christ that's not known among men in this fall and it is all fragrant
with sympathy for for human misery for for the fact that his people
are born dead and trespasses and sins and he's so moved with
love for his people that he leaves the glories of heaven and comes
to the sin-cursed world and dies in the room in place of his people
purchasing their eternal souls glory to his name why because
we found grace in his sight and he knows us by name Oh, the Lord is full of compassion.
And if he is full of compassion, which we know he is, then what
an ocean that compassion is. I've been to the ocean a couple
of times. I've seen the Pacific and I've seen the Atlantic. And
they're just like, you want to get a taste of an ocean, just
go to our Great Lakes. We're so blessed to have the Great
Lakes here. They're like an inland ocean. You don't even have to
travel to the Pacific, the Atlantic. Just go to the Great Lakes and
just look and see the vastness. See that big freighter that goes
by become a little blip as it gets further out. Until you can't
see him anymore. It's so vast, isn't it? Well,
our Lord's compassion is a vast ocean that cannot be measured. An ocean of compassion. Why do
we say that? A great ocean of compassion. Why do we say that? Because our
God is a great infinite God. Therefore, his compassion is
great. His mercy is great. His righteousness is great. His
holiness is great. His goodness is great. His graciousness
is great. Then we see he's slow to anger. Even those who refuse his grace,
yet he's long-suffering. When men do not repent, on the
contrary, they go from bad to worse. He's still averse to let
his wrath flame forth. He doesn't send his wrath forth
right away, does he? He's patient, long-suffering,
and oh, how long-suffering he is with his people. We can look back on our lives
before the Lord saved us, and even after, and go, oh my, the
Lord is so long suffering with me. So long suffering with me. Even after we're saved, we still
sin, don't we? Again, and again, and again,
to our shame. And yet, we are totally forgiven
in Christ. Why? because we found grace in
his sight. Oh, it's incredible. It's absolutely
incredible. So what can we do but praise
his name? Look at the next few verses here. We see that God's
people will praise his name for his greatness. Again, his graciousness,
his goodness, his chosen blood-bought people. And this goodness and
graciousness is manifested to us. Look at this in verse 10.
All thy works shall praise thee. Yahweh and I say it shall bless
thee and then look at verses 11 to
13 we see the greatness now of God's kingdom spoken of this
is a kingdom that has no end this is a kingdom of unmeasurable
power great power because it's the kingdom of our great God
look at this it says here in Psalm 145 verses 11 to 13 They shall speak of the glory
of thy kingdom, God's kingdom, and talk of thy power, immeasurable
power, great power, to make known to the sons of man his mighty
acts, God's mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.
Look at this in verse 13. Thy kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. Look
at that. Thy kingdom, God's kingdom, is
an everlasting kingdom. And thy dominion endureth throughout
all generations. I like to read history books.
I like to read history books. Look at this. Now, we read in
history books of great kingdoms, don't we, which were in the past.
I like reading Roman history a little bit. Find out what went
on in Rome with the legions. And oftentimes we like to read
books about history. And we read in these books, these
history books about great kingdoms of this world. There was the
Great Kingdom. Great Kingdom they had. Extended
all the way to India, they said. Then there was the Egyptians.
They had a mighty kingdom in the Old Testament. Then there was the Roman Kingdom.
Oh, it extended across parts of Europe into Britain, and in
parts of Europe into Germania, down into Asia. My, it was a vast kingdom. Then there was the Persians. Then there was a Babylonian kingdom.
And Genghis Khan was raised up. And you can go all through the
ages of these kingdoms that were raised up. But where are they
now? Where are they now? Well, we have a few runes left,
don't we? We have a few runes left. But they have no power now. They
have no hold on anyone. They have no influence on anyone
anymore. They did for a time. They did
for a time that God allowed. They had great influence for
a time. But where are they now? Well, they were removed by the
great King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He raised them up for
his purpose. And then he removed them. Then
he removed them. Now, as the centuries have passed,
new empires have risen, and some empires have fallen again. Now
we have what's called superpowers. Same thing. Great nations. Scripture calls them great nations.
They're just powerful nations. Raised up as God has allowed
them to, for his purpose and for his will. And when his purpose
and will is finished with any country in this world, it'll
be removed. Remember Gaddafi? We used to
hear about him a lot in the 70s and the 80s. Gone. Saddam Hussein, we used to hear
about him all the time in the 80s and the 90s. Gone. Gone. Oh, my. My, oh, my. So kingdoms rise,
empires fall, all according to the will and purpose of God.
And note in verse 11, though, that God's people will speak
of a great kingdom of God, the great kingdom of God. We'll also
speak of the power of our great God, And verse 12 brings forth
that God's people will proclaim the mighty acts of our great
God, of the majesty of his kingdom. And this kingdom, though, is
an everlasting kingdom. Kingdoms of this world rise up
and fall and vanish. But our Lord's kingdom is supreme
over all the kingdoms of this world. And look what it says
in verse 13. Thy kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom. Everlasting kingdom. And thy
dominion, his dominion, his power, what? Endure throughout all generations. Remember today we looked at the
generation aspect? How God's people are chosen generation,
chosen out of our generation? Well, God's kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom. It's not changed. And it never
will. He will never abdicate his throne.
He will never be removed from his throne. He's ever all-powerful
in his kingdom, in his dominion, endureth throughout all generations.
You just say forever. Forever. All those other kingdoms
I mentioned, they were great in the eyes of man, weren't they?
They say that the hanging gardens of Babylon, people would just
be in awe of those. In awe. Where are they now? Gone. The great wonders of the world
that man built, that some of these empires built, where are
they now? Well, there's ruins of them, isn't there? There's
ruins of them. Kingdoms have vanished from the
face of this world. And so what a contrast we see
between earthly kingdoms earthly kingdoms, Greece, Rome, and the
kingdom of God. What a contrast we have put here
before us. What a contrast. Again, our God
has a great kingdom, an everlasting kingdom. And we see in verse
13, it endures throughout all the generations of man. It'll
never change. Again, we saw the connection
of the generations in this morning's message and the fact that God's
people are chosen out of every generation. But note here that
God's dominion, it's brought forth here as well, is a kingdom
that shall never end and it shall endure throughout what? All generations. All generations. When we're gone,
if the Lord tarries, there'll be another generation raised
up. What's our cry, though, right
now? Even so, come quickly, Lord, isn't it? Oh, Lord, come quickly,
if it be your will. Brother Travis and I were talking
at lunch, and he brought out how God's great power is over
the smallest of his creation. Think of this. This was a great
point he brought out. the greatness of God, which I was talking about
this morning. And he brought this out. This was marvelous.
He said, our great God's power is over the smallest of his creations,
things that we cannot even see, things that we cannot even see
with the naked eye. Think of this virus. You can't
see it, can you? They could see it in a microscope, but you can't
see it. Things that we cannot see with
the naked eye, to the greatest things we can see with the naked
eye. When I mentioned the moon last night, that's what triggered
his thoughts. He thought, wow, God is over
all. His dominion is over all things
invisible and things we can't even see, to all the greatest
thing that we can see, the sun, the moon, and the stars. His dominion's over it all. Over it all. Everything we see,
visible and invisible, which speaks of the angels, he has
full dominion over them. His dominion, Brother Travis
went on, his dominion is all held together by the word of
his great power. By the word of his great power. Now, let's look at verses 14
to 16 here. We see how everything is reliant
on our great God. Everything is reliant on our
great God. This is bought forth in these verses here before us,
verses 14 to 16. The Lord, Jehovah, upholdeth
all that fall and raises up all those that be bowed down. The
eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat in
due season. Thou openest Thy hand and satisfyest
the desire of every living thing. When the believer in Christ thinks
of God's greatness and His goodness and His provision for all creation,
what can we do but perpetually praise our great God? As children look to their parents
for all they need, so do the creatures of this earth look
to God. Look to God, the all-sufficient
provider. We see here that thou openest
thine hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. Oh, they wait, and God gives
us. They wait, they wait, and then God gives us. Is this not
the life of the believer in Christ? Do we not just wait on the Lord?
Wait, and wait, and wait on the Lord. No wonder David's so full of
praise for our great God. He knows that God is his savior,
his provider, his protector, his all in all. He knows that
God provides for all his creation. Remember again, as I mentioned,
he has the rainfall on the just and on the unjust. God's people are like a flock
of sheep. And we stand and wait for the Lord as our great shepherd,
and all our eyes are fixed upon him, looking to receive fruit from
him. And he'll never disappoint us. He'll never disappoint us,
never. He feeds us in the green pastures
of his word. Oh, that's where he feeds us,
green pastures of his word. The Lord of heaven feeds his
great flock both by day and by night. during every moment of
time and in every generation because his kingdom his kingdom
is a great kingdom it endured throughout all generations
oh my now let's look at verse 17 where we see that our great
God is righteous in all his ways He's righteous. Now, we're unrighteous
in all our ways, but he's righteous. It says, the Lord, Jehovah, is
righteous in all his ways. That's a statement of fact. It's
not up for debate. He's righteous in all his ways. And then it says, and holy in
all his works. That's not up for debate either. That's a statement
of fact. We've seen the greatness of our
God bought forth in verse 3 of the psalm, and the great goodness
of God bought forth in verse 7, and the great graciousness
of our God bought forth in verses 7 to 16, in the provision of
his people and all of creation. And now we see that our great
God is righteous in all his ways. Righteous in all his ways. This
speaks of his great righteousness. God is righteous in all his ways,
and he's holy in all his works. God is righteous, and this righteousness
is brought nigh to his people, in and through Christ Jesus our
Lord. Christ loves his people. He's a teneth of us. He's a teneth
of his people. He knows them. Remember with
Moses, he says, I know you by name. He knows them. He guards them. He protects them. He blesses
them. He keeps them. And God's people are blessed
in Christ forever and ever, who is our righteousness. Turn, if
you would, to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. Look what's
brought forth here by Paul. Romans chapter 1. Verses 16 and 17. Romans 1, verses 16 and 17. Paul pens to the believers at
Rome. He says, for I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God. Again,
that's dynamite, the dynamite of God in the Greek. unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the
Greek. Now look at verse 17. For therein,
that's in the gospel of Christ, this is why it is absolutely
paramount that the gospel be preached and proclaimed, always. Look, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed, from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just, and we're only made just in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ, the just shall live by faith." Shall live by faith. And this righteousness of God
revealed from faith to faith is revealed by way of showing that it's not
obtained by faith. This righteousness is not obtained
by faith, it's given to us. It's a gift of God, just as faith
and repentance are. The whole and sole cause of the
believer's justification before God, which means just as if I
never sinned, the sole cause of our justification
before God is the Lord Jesus Christ in Him alone. And this righteousness of God
is not revealed from works to faith, is it? No, it says here,
from faith to faith. And as Christ is the sole great
object of God-given faith, true God-given faith, Christ is the
sole object of that. So all the life and merit of
faith are solely based upon Christ and him alone, in his person,
in his blood and in his righteousness. Righteousness is secured by Christ
for the believer, and it's received by faith. In order for you or I, if you're
a born-again, blood-washed believer, in order for you or I to be accepted
by God and justified before God, We must become righteous. You know, the saints in glory
are no more righteous than God's people while we're here on this
earth, because we're all clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
Isn't that wonderful? That's wonderful, isn't it? That's absolutely
wonderful. And we cannot obtain salvation
anywhere but in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed. How? By the preaching of the
gospel. And this righteousness is not
known or understood by the light of nature. You can't learn it
by going out in the woods and looking. Even though you can
see that someone made this all, this righteousness is not revealed
in nature. But it's revealed in and through
the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ by God
the Holy Spirit, ye must be born again. You must be. You must be. So we see then that the righteousness
of God, which is Christ, is the theme of our Thanksgiving. Oh my, without Christ, The tender
mercies of God will be stripped of all their preciousness. It is because we have a right
to salvation in Christ that our heart is filled with praise and
adoration to our great God. Look at verse 18. Jehovah is
nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon
him in truth. We see here that our God is near
his people. He's near his people. This is
not only by his omnipresence, but he cares and watches over
his people always. He's ever at the side of his
people. We are never left alone to battle
through this world. The believer is never left alone
to battle through this world. You know why? Because the scripture
declares, the battle is the Lord's. He goes before us. Just like
he went before the Israelites, and he comes behind us, just
like he came right behind them. And his presence is ever with
us, ever with us. My, what a great God we have. And this wonderful, great favor
is not for those who are strong in the Lord. No, this is for
every one of his saints. Some people think, well, boy,
he's a strong Christian. We're all weak. We're all weak. This favor from God is for all
believers. And praise be to God, the weakest
saint to the strongest saint. We all need our great God. We all need him. You may be strong
in one place where I'm really weak. I may be strong in one
place where you're really weak. But we all need God. We're all
poor, needy, bankrupt sinners. And our great God is an ever-present,
a very present help in trouble. Look, it says, to all that call
upon him in truth. Now, there are many who has made
formal prayers and false professions in this world that will never
bring them into communion with our great God. To pray in truth,
we must have a true heart. We must be born again by the
Holy Spirit of God. We must come before our God humbly.
You know, pride is a falsehood. Pride is a falsehood. So the
believer in Christ comes humbly before our great God. We're bought
before our God humbly. We're humbled before him. And
then we earnestly pour out our hearts before him. And this doesn't
just happen when the Lord saves us. This continuously happens,
doesn't it? And then we always take sides
with God against ourselves. We always do, because we know
how sinful we are. The God of truth cannot be nigh
to a spirit of hypocrisy. This he knows and he hates. Neither
can he be far removed from a sincere spirit, since it's his work which
has been done in that heart. The work of the Holy Spirit of
God, God will never forsake. He'll never forsake the work
of his own hands. With that in mind, let's read
verses 19 and 20, where we see that God hears the cry of his
people, and he preserves them. He preserves them that love Him.
But the wicked, they have a day of reckoning. They have a day of reckoning,
the wicked do. They may think they get away with things in
this world. They have a day of reckoning. Look at this. Psalm 145, verse
19 and 20. He will fulfill the desire of
them that fear Him. That's God's people. And fear
there is irreverent. It's a reverent fear. It's not
a slavish fear. It's a reverent fear. It's being
in awe of who God is in the Hebrew. He will fulfill the desire of
them that fear him. He will also hear their cry and
will what? Save them. The Lord, or Jehovah, preserves
all them that love him. Why do we keep on keeping on
when things come against us that would normally destroy us? Because he preserves us. He preserves his people. Preserves
all them that love him. But the wicked will he destroy. Note in verse 19, it says, he
will fulfill the desire of them that fear him. Again, that's
a reverent fear. Those who reverence his name. those who reverence his will,
those who reverence his providence. In a regenerated heart, only
desire is what a holy God can give. And so its desires is filled
out full out of the fullness of the Lord. And it says, he
also will hear their cry and will save them. Again, we see
the nearness of our God to his people. He's ever with us. He will work out our deliverance
according to His will and purpose. He will listen to our cry and
save us. Again, as I mentioned earlier
this morning, He will do it personally. He'll not trust His people to
the angels. He'll personally watch over every
one of us. Oh, that's good, isn't it? that
our great God not only saves us, but he watches over us. He does it personally. He will
personally hear the cry of his people and he'll save them. Then
in verse 20, our great God preserves them that love him. So we see
this wonderful truth bought forth so clearly in these words, the
Lord preserveth all them that love him. He will. He keeps his people by his love,
and by his mercy, and by his grace. And they keep loving him
by his grace. Oh, my. By his power, by his
mercy. And note the progression that's
brought forth. And notice the progression that's brought forth
in these verses, these two verses we just looked at. We know they're
the favored ones of God. They're the elect of God. First,
they fear him. They fear him in reverence. They
fear him in reverence. Then they cry out to him. Then
he saves them. Then he secures them from all
danger, preserving them by his almighty power. It didn't get
any better than that, does it? And this is all done by Elohim,
the mighty God. Mark the number of alls in these
later verses of the psalm. In each of these, God is all
in all, but all the wicked will he destroy. Wickedness is an
offense to our great holy God. Therefore, those who are determined
to continue in it must be weeded out. Wickedness cannot be tolerated
in the presence of a perfectly holy God. And then think of how favored
we are, we who are the people of God, because we're born into
this world dead in trespasses and sin, dead in wickedness and
sin. Think of how the elect of God
are the favored ones of God, because they're clothed in the
perfect, spotless righteousness of Christ. Therefore, and only
in Christ can we be in the presence of our great, holy, In the presence of the Holy One,
in the presence of the God of all righteousness, in the presence
of Elohim, in the presence of Jehovah, all by the grace and mercy of
God. Let's look at the last verse
here. Psalm 145, verse 21. My mouth shall speak the praise
of the Lord, Jehovah, and let all flesh bless his holy name
forever and ever." Whatever others may do, David
brings forth here that he will not be silent. He will not be
silent. He will not be silent in the
praise of Jehovah. Others may speak upon different
topics and different things of this world, and he says, His
topic is fixed. He will speak of the greatness
of God. He will speak the praises of
Jehovah. He will speak of his mighty acts.
He will speak of his graciousness. He will speak of his goodness.
He will speak of his righteousness. He will speak of his mercy. He
will speak of his great love that he has for his people. He will magnify the Lord. in
praise and worship. And he'll do this as long as
he prays. And we know he's doing it right
now in glory. And he'll be doing it there forever,
forever, by the grace and mercy of God. And note also that praise
is no monopoly for one, even though he gave it proclaim these
words, the people of God join in his praise from generation
to generation, don't we? We join in praise with him to
our great God. We who are debtors to the Lord,
debtors to the mercy of God, debtors to the grace of God,
we become singers of his almighty praise. We become singers of
his almighty praise. Man and woman of every race,
condition generation born again by the Holy Spirit of God shall
unite to glorify God turn if you would the revelation chapter
5 last place were turned and we will see this man and woman
of every race condition generation born again by the Holy Spirit
of God shall unite in praise to our great God this is wonderful
I never get tired of reading this passage right here. Look
at this. Revelation 5, verses 8 to 10. And when he had taken the book,
the four beasts and four and 24 elders fell down before the
Lamb. That's the Lamb of God. That's
the Lord Jesus Christ. having every one of them harps
and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the
saints. Verse 9, Revelation 5. And they sang a new song, saying,
thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof,
for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood. Listen
to this. out of every kindred, tongue,
people, and nation, out of every generation, beloved. And has made us unto our God
kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. God's people
will praise his name forever. He will be the delight of our
souls. He's the delight of our souls
while we're here on this earth, and here be the delight of our
souls when we're in glory. Blessed be the Lord for forever
having revealed his name to his people, for having revealed the
Lord Jesus Christ to his people. Blessed be that name as he has
revealed it. Savior, Redeemer, the Lord Jesus
Christ, yea, blessed is he above all, that we can know, think,
or say who has had Christ revealed to them. In the redeemed one's
hearts rejoice in the delight of praising our great God, praising
Him with our mouth, praising Him with our minds, praising
Him with our hearts, praising Him with our lips, praising Him
throughout our mortal existence, And then when we step into eternity,
praising him for all of eternity, all according to his mercy and
his grace. So when the redeemed soul thinks
of these topics which we have looked at today, what can it
do but perpetually praise and bless the Lord? So let us think
upon these wonderful truths this week that we've looked at this
morning and tonight here. Let us think of these wonderful
truths. And may the lips of the redeemed of God praise him. Praise
him. Heavenly Father, we thank you.
We thank you for allowing us to come together tonight and
to look into thy word. Oh, Lord, how wondrous it is
we look at this psalm and see how great you are, how gracious
you are, how good you are, how righteous you are, oh, Lord.
And to think then that you have had mercy upon animated pieces
of dust like we are. You've had mercy upon us in and
through Christ Jesus, and to think that you who hold all things
together by the word of your power are ever watchful over
us, preserving us, keeping us. Oh, how our hearts and our souls
are lifted up in praise to thee, O Lord. and you are so merciful to your
people. Let us ponder these wonderful truths this week that we've looked
at, and may you burn them into our hearts, oh Lord, and may
they bring comfort to God's people, in Jesus' name, amen. you