if you would, to Psalm 145. Psalm
145. I'll be preaching from this psalm
today and tonight. This morning we'll look at the
first seven verses and Lord willing tonight we'll briefly look at
verses 8 to 16 and then we'll finish off the psalm looking at verses 17 to 21. Now
this psalm He's called the psalm of praise.
Psalm 100 is also called the psalm of praise. And we see here that this is David's
personal psalm of praise. David's personal psalm of praise. David shows a strong desire to
praise our great God. He shows a strong desire to praise
him, to magnify him with praise. In his desiring to do this, we
will see through this psalm the reasons why he desires to greatly
magnify Elohim, his God. And he speaks of the goodness
of God. First of all, he speaks of the
greatness of God. Then he speaks of the goodness
of God. And he speaks of the graciousness of God. And then
he speaks of the great righteousness. of our great, holy, sovereign
God. Now think of this, the greatness
of God, Christ as God manifest in the flesh, the goodness of
God, Christ is manifest in the flesh. The graciousness of our great
God, we see that in Christ manifest in the flesh. And the righteousness
of our sovereign God, Without Christ weaving that coat of righteousness
when he lived on this earth, we would not have any acceptance
before God. So keep that in your mind. It
also speaks all about Christ. And how do we know that this
is David's personal expressions? Well, we'll see the words, I
will, throughout the psalm. In verse one, we see, I will
extol thee, my God, O King, and I will bless thy name. I will
do that, David says. I will do that. In verse two,
we say, every day will I bless thee and I will praise thy name. In verse five, we see, I will
speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty. And then in verse
21, the last verse of the psalm, my mouth shall speak the praise
of the Lord. So this is David's personal song
of praise to Jehovah. And we will see as we go through
this, this is true of every born again blood washed child of God.
This is true of every believer. So this is very personal to David.
We're getting a glimpse into the heart of a man after God's
own heart, which is every true believer.
Every true believer. We will see that not only is
this personal for David, but again, for we who are born again,
blood-washed saints. as we sing these words from our
own lips in praise. We may not say exactly what David
says here, but oh, it comes out of our heart. The same thing
he says here. So we see then in the first seven
verses, as well as the closing verse, that David uses a variety
of expressions to proclaim the greatness of God. Marvel at these
words. I will extol thee. I will bless
thy name every day. will I bless thee. I will praise
thy name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly
to be praised. One generation shall praise thy
works to another. I will speak of the glorious
honor of thy majesty." Right down to the last verse, from
the first verse right down to the last verse. David speaks
of the greatness of our God. Not only does David praise God
in his heart privately for the greatness and the goodness and
the graciousness and the righteousness of our great God, but we see
here he does it publicly too. He does it publicly as well.
This is a psalm to be sung in worship. And again, we might not say the same words,
but we'll go through this and we'll see that this is words
from the heart of a believer. words from the heart of a believer.
As we contemplate how great our God is, his sovereign, almighty
power, David sang this privately and sang it publicly. He wasn't
ashamed to let people know who his God was. And he let folks
know. David is moved, of course, by
the Holy Spirit of God to pen these words, too, remember that.
So this is privately from his heart, but he's moved by the
Holy Spirit of God to pen these words. They're recorded for us,
for our learning. The Holy Spirit of God made David
pen these words to sound forth the praise of his heart. Sound
forth the praise of his heart. And we will see that he praises
the most holy God. We are to sound forth just like
David, the goodness of God, the greatness of God, the righteousness
of God, and the graciousness of God. Why? Because he's great. And he's greatly to be praised.
And he alone is worthy of our praise. No one else is worthy
of our praise. Not even ourselves. See, that's
the opposite of what man says, right? Man, you worship yourself
in the natural man. You might not say that, but people
do. But God's people, from a born-again
heart, speak of the greatness of our God, the graciousness
of our God, the righteousness of our God. in the goodness of
our God. So David's amazed when he speaks
in verse 5 of the glorious honor of thy majesty. He's lost in
contemplation of the majesty of the Lord. He's just in awe. You ever read the scripture and
just being in awe over a verse you read? Just sit there and
think upon it, though. Meditate on it. Let it sink deep
into your heart. Think upon it the whole week,
even if it's just one verse. People are like, I've got to
read all these chapters and all these verses. I've got to listen
to all the, no. If you listen and read one verse
and get understanding out of it, you're going to get so much
out of that. It's good to read. It's good
to read a couple chapters, three, four chapters, five chapters.
But you get, some folks, they read 10 chapters, but they don't
retain anything. Just feast on the majesty, the
glorious honor of thy majesty. How do we learn? Well, we learn,
I'm gonna hit on that tonight, we learn by thinking about things,
by continuously thinking about it. And that's how we are to approach
the scriptures, to meditate upon these things through the week. So David thinks of the power
of God, the majesty of God. He speaks of the majesty and
might of the Supreme One. Then he turns his thought to
divine goodness. Look at verse seven, Psalm 145, verse seven. He turns from the thoughts of
the majesty of God and the greatness of God to the goodness of God. Look what it says in verse seven
there. They shall abundantly utter the memory of the great
goodness. It's not just goodness. It's
great goodness. I ask you who are born again
child of God, has God not been good to you? Has he not manifest
his great goodness to you in and through Christ Jesus our
Lord? He has, hasn't he? He has. And shall sing of thy
righteousness. Well, we know Christ is the righteousness
of God, because in the gospel therein is the righteousness
of God revealed, and that's Christ. That's Christ Jesus our Lord.
So may we meditate through the week. After we hear this message,
may we meditate on the goodness of God, on the greatness of God,
on the righteousness of God, and on the graciousness of God. As we go through this week, just
think about these things. Read this Psalm again. Find a
verse that just speaks to your heart and just read it. Put it
to memory. Write it to your heart. My, there's
so much in this psalm about the greatness and the goodness of
God. And as we think of his goodness, we're praising the Lord. There's
no way you can think of the goodness of God and not praise him. There's
no way. Now there's so much other things
in this world that our minds get caught up in, isn't it? When
that happens, bring your thoughts to the goodness of God, and your
lips will be filled with praise to Him. I guarantee you it will. If you're a born-again believer.
Now, if you're not a born-again believer, you won't be filled
with praise. But if you're a born-again believer, your lips will be filled
with praise. Your heart, you don't even have
to utter anything. Your heart will be filled with praise. Filled
with praise for God, over the goodness of God, over the mercy
of God. Look at verse nine. The Lord
is good to all. Just think of this. The Lord
is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.
All his works. Let's go back to verse one. David's psalm of praise is the
heading. So it's a personal psalm of praise
for David. And how do we know? Look at the
first words. I will extol thee, my Elohim. That's the Hebrew
word there for God, Elohim, the Mighty One. O King. He's the King of Kings. And remember, who's saying this?
Who's saying this? King David. He's an earthly king,
isn't he? And he knows all about power,
he knows all about dominion, and he's saying, my king. My
king. O King, only one, no other one,
only one, O King, singular. And I will bless thy name forever
and ever. So note in here in verse one,
David is God's king in Israel, adores God, is king of kings
and Lord of lords. And this is very personal here
because notice the words here, my Elohim, mine, my Elohim. When I read that, and read the
name that he uses here, oh my, my heart was soaring, because
he's my Elohim too. He's my, and if you're a believer,
he's your Elohim. Isn't that wonderful? He's the strong and mighty one,
my Elohim, mine. Cry of every born-again believer.
We see how personal it is here for David. My Elohim, my God,
my God. Again, is this not the cry of
every born-again, blood-washed believer? God is my God. God's
my God. He's my Savior. He's my Redeemer.
He's mine. And it's all according to the
grace and mercy of God. Think of that. David cries this
cry, my Elohim. Which again means the strong
and mighty one. Mine, by the grace of God. By the mercy of God. He's mine. He's mine. And it's all according,
think of this too. It's all according to his absolute
sovereign will. Hallelujah. Now does that not
fill you who are born again believer? Does that not fill your heart
with praise? We don't have to verbalize anything, do we? Oh
my, he's mine! By the grace and mercy of God.
It's overwhelming, isn't it? It's overwhelming. And Norm and
I were talking this week, we cannot with our finite minds
grasp these truths. That's why we just fill with
praise and want to sound out. My Elohim, he's mine. And every
believer can say that. And think of this, the Lord's
royalty, King David, the Lord put him in place, the Lord's
royalty, King David arouses our loyalty, arouses our loyalty. Our spirit, the Holy Spirit in
us is moved to magnify Our great God, my God, my. And David brings forth the absolute
sovereignty of God here because he's an earthly king. He knows
what it means to be king. He knows what it means to rule,
to have a dominion. He knows that. And here is King
David exalting the king of kings and the Lord of lords, exalting
him in praise. Now, the psalmist has extolled
his Lord many a time before, and we see he's continuing to
do so here, and he will do so in the future in his life. And
you know what? He's doing it right now in glory. He's praising God right now in
glory. Forever. He said forever. That's only
by the mercy and grace of God, eh? Forever. See the word extol here in the
Hebrew, it means to rise up, to lift up, to lift up, to lift
up, to be exalted. It indicates that something is
literally raised up. It's used often of God being
exalted, and this is amazing. It describes a presentation of
a sacrifice. Oh my. Turn, if you would, to Leviticus,
Leviticus chapter two. We'll just look at something
here. We'll read verse nine of Leviticus
chapter two. The same Hebrew word used for
extol here is used in the meat offering as the words shall take,
shall take. Leviticus chapter two, verse
nine. And the priest shall take, same
Hebrew word. Here, raise it up. Here, raise
it up. Here, she'll take same Hebrew
word used for extol from the meat offering, a memorial thereof,
and she'll burn it upon the altar. It is an offering made by fire
of a sweet savor unto the Lord. Our Lord offered himself up. He offered himself up in our
place, in the place of his people. My, oh my. Let's go back to this
wonderful psalm Says, I will extol thee, my Elohim, O King,
and I will bless thy name forever and ever. We see here that David continues
to speak of his heartfelt devotion and adherence to Elohim by, again,
the pronoun my. He publicly acknowledges Elohim, and then he uses the
title King. He goes on to declare the greatness
of our God, the goodness of our God, the graciousness of God,
and the righteousness of God all through this psalm. And note
the latter part of verse one, David proclaims that he will,
we see here, he's gonna exhaust himself in praise. He's going
to spend himself in praise. And he says, I'll do it forever.
Look what he says. And I will bless thy name forever
and ever. Oh my. He's blessing his name
right now in glory. He blessed his name while he
was here on earth. He blessed his name when he sang this psalm. Oh, and by grace of God and the
mercy of God, we'll praise his name forever and ever. And note, David uses the word
blessed not merely for variation of sound, but also for a deepening
sweetening of the sense of his praise to our great and glorious
God. He's gonna bless his name. Not just cry out his name, he's
gonna praise him. He's gonna bless his name. This
is heartfelt affection for Elohim. Heartfelt affection. He praises
his name from his heart privately again and publicly in song here.
And this is true of all believers in Christ. As we grow in the
grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, words cannot express
how we feel about our Savior, can they? There's praises in our heart
that just, we can't express them with words. Is it so for you? I know it is for me. I feel like
my words are so insufficient sometimes to explain the greatness
of our God, the gloriousness of our God. And David declares that he will
offer every form of praise through every form of existence. He says
forever, which has no end, right? And then he adds another ever.
You know what that does? That forbids all sense of a close
to his praise. There will be no close to David's
praise for our great God. And you know, for the born again
believer, there'll be no close for our praise for our great
God forever. We'll be thanking the Lord for
his blood which cleanses us from all sins. Deeper than that stain
is gone. Oh, some people say, oh, I'm
too much of a sinner to come to Christ. He never cast anyone
away who's come to Him. There's never been a case too
hard for our Lord, has there? No, He cast 5,000 demons out
of a man. And each believer says, He saved
my soul, He can save anyone He pleases to save. He's able to save to the uttermost
those who come to Him. Those who come to Him. And our
prayer is that God, by His grace and mercy, if you do not know
Him, would draw you to Him. Oh my. So David forbids all idea
of a close to his praise. And again, think upon you who
are born again blood washed believer, washed in the precious blood
of Christ. Our praise of God to our great God will be as eternal
as God is. Do you know that? He's eternal. We'll be with him
who is eternal. He who is eternal has saved us.
He became a man. died on Calvary's cross for us.
And our praise to Him will be eternal. That's why, and this
is, remember, this is inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. He's
the true author of these words. David's just, David's just singing
what's in his heart, what's coming out of his heart. But the Holy
Spirit is the true author of these words. Oh my, you understand now, we
get a little glimpse of why the Lord's, or why it says in scripture
that I have not seen nor ye heard the things that wait for we who
love Christ that are coming. We can't even imagine it. To
praise our God forever and ever and ever and ever, and there's
no end to that? Oh, it's glorious, isn't it? David's so carried away by his
praise to our great God. He's so heartfelt of praise. Look what we see in verse two.
He repeats this great truth. Every day will I bless thee.
Remember, it's personal. Every day will I bless thee.
And I will praise thy name forever and ever. He just repeats. He's
so overwhelmed. He's so overwhelmed at the thought
of the greatness of God. And his heart is so full of praise
for God that he repeats it again. And again, this is only by the
grace and mercy of God. No other reason. And note every
day, he says, whatever the character of the day, whether it's good
or bad, whatever comes, whether it's good or bad, whatever the
circumstances or conditions during that day, David resolves to continue
to glorify God. Oh, may our great God give we
who are the people of God grace and strength to be like our dear
brother David here. Oh, when we think of the mercy,
God's mercy and grace towards us in Christ Jesus our Lord,
and we who are the people of God, the people of his chosen,
we'll have abundant cause each day to praise him. And we do,
we have abundant cause every day to praise the Lord. We don't
always see it, do we? Like Sister Carolyn texted me
this week, we see through a glass darkly, don't we, Sister? We
see through a glass darkly while we're here. But then, face to
face, my oh my, my oh my. So we have abundant cause every
day to praise our great God, for praise in his mighty name.
Now look in verse three, we'll see David speak of the greatness
of our mighty God, the greatness of Elohim, the greatness of Jehovah. The word Yahweh is Jehovah, the
self-existent one in the Hebrew as well. But the word used there
for Lord is Yahweh, but again, it means the self-existent one,
Jehovah. So we see David speak of the
greatness of our mighty God, the greatness of Elohim, the
greatness of Jehovah. He says, great, great is Yahweh,
and greatly to be praised. And his greatness is what? Unsearchable. Look at that. You can't plumb it. You can't
plumb the greatness of God. Oh my. And the word great there
in verse three, it's an adjective in the Hebrew meaning great. That's what it means, great. His greatness though is unsearchable. You will never find an end to
the greatness of God. Isn't that wonderful? And He's
the one who saved us. He's our God. The word there
for great in the Hebrew emphasizes the importance, size, and significance
of something or someone. So we see the Holy Spirit has
David Penn unsearchable. So it speaks of this greatness.
And in the Holy Spirit has him, Penn, is unsearchable. This word is used to attribute
theological importance in various ways to things of great significance. Is our God one of great significance? It speaks of such things as God's
great acts of redemption. emphasized his great and awesome
things. The same Hebrew word is used
in Psalm 71.9. Turn there if you would. The
same Hebrew word is used in Psalm 71.9. And then put your finger in the book
of Job. Job chapter 5. So Psalm 71.9 and Job chapter
5. It speaks of the vastness of
our great God. The vastness of Him. Look at this, the same Hebrew
word is used for great here in Psalm 71, 19. Thy righteousness
also, O God, is very high. Who has done great things? O God, who is like unto Thee? And He has done great things,
hasn't He? He spoke the world into existence
out of nothing. He parted the Red Sea so that
the Israelites walked on dry land. And He had it close about
the Egyptians, destroying the enemies of God. And in the greatness, when we
who are God's people think of the greatness of God, we think
of the great redemption that we have in Christ Jesus, our
Lord. And the fact that the Great One,
God incarnated in the flesh, obtained eternal salvation for
us by the giving of His own life. Is it any wonder then that God's
people are filled with praise and that we want to speak about
the greatness of our God? Is it any wonder? My. He's awesome. He's incredible.
Over in Job chapter 5, verses 8 and 9, we see here Speaking, Job speaks of his greatness
as well. I would seek unto God, and unto
God would I commit my cause, who doeth great things. And unsearchable, look at that,
there's that word again, unsearchable. Marvelous things, look at this,
without number. You know, the scripture says
that if all the books were written, or if all the things were written
about what Christ did on this earth, and just when he was on
this earth, scripture says the whole world couldn't contain
all those books. Just to the things he did while he was here. Let alone all the marvelous works
of providence, sovereignty, how he raises up one kingdom, to
have his gospel go forth, pulls down another. My, oh my. What a great God. He alone is
worthy of our praise. Job 9 verse 10 says this, who
doeth great things past finding out. He does such great things
that our finite minds cannot understand. the wondrous great
things that he does. We can't even grasp it, beloved
of God. Over in Exodus, turn if you would
to Exodus chapter 15. Exodus chapter 15. This word
is used to describe the might and greatness of God's arm, which
brought Israel out from Egypt. Now this Hebrew word is translated
great 413 times in the Old Testament. It's used a lot. Because our
God is great. And he's greatly to be praised. 413 times it's translated great
in the Old Testament. And it brings forth that God's
presence and character and power, counsel, compassion, and mercy
are described as great. Great. Look at this, Exodus 15,
16. Fear and dread shall fall upon
them by the greatness of thine arm, by the power of God. And they shall be as still as
a stone till my people pass over, O Lord. And that's Yahweh. Till the people pass over, which
thou has what? Purchased? Oh my, every one of
God's sheep whom he purchased shall make it home. There will
not be one left behind. Not one. Just as he brought those
Israelites out of Egypt, he brings his people out of spiritual bondage.
Out of the Egypt of this world. This world is a picture of Egypt.
We're treading through it, aren't we, while we're here. He's gonna
take us home one day. And we're gonna praise Him forever
and ever, just like David proclaimed, forever and ever. Oh, what a great God we have. Now, we could spend months and
years on studying the greatness of God, because He alone is worthy
of our praise and worship. And when you ponder His attributes,
His mercy, His righteousness, His greatness, His graciousness,
His holiness, you quickly realize that there's no part of Jehovah's
greatness which is not worthy of great praise. He's worthy of great praise.
No chorus is too loud, no orchestra too large, no psalm too lofty
for the praising of the Lord of hosts, and his greatness is
unsearchable. We see right here, oh my, his
worth far exceeds our praise. His worth far exceeds our praise,
and excellent are all his deeds. Everything he does is excellent.
And when we meditate upon the greatness of God, we shall quickly
find ourselves surrounded with unknowable wonders. We'll just
find ourselves in a deep water, like Brother Joe likes to say,
deep water. I remember one time, Joe and
I were talking about the Trinity, and Brother Joe got going into
some real deep, I said, I'm drowning, Brother! Slow down! Oh, my. And if you start to think
about the greatness of our God, you'll find yourself in deep
water. Deep water. It leaves us in utter awe, and
it'll lead us to sing praise. It'll lead us to sing praise
to our great and glorious God, from a redeemed heart, in adoration
to our great God. You know what, not all the minds
of the centuries can suffice to search out the unsearchable
riches of God. Not all the minds of all the
centuries can even come close to searching out the unsearchable
riches of God. And there's been some geniuses
in this world, hasn't there? No, no one even comes close.
No one even comes close to search out the unsearchable riches of
God. He's past finding out, the scripture says. And then He reveals
Himself to us, and the little bit we know, we're just like,
oh my Lord, this is amazing. Right? It is. It's incredible. And He's worthy of all our praise.
He's worthy of all our praise. Now let's look at verses four
to six. We see the believer in Christ
will proclaim Christ to our generation. Remember, we're a chosen generation.
Peter wrote of that. We're a chosen generation, and
God's people all through the years are a chosen generation. We are in the generation right
now that we're in by the purpose and will of God, and we are chosen
out of our generation. Isn't that amazing? So many people
are left and passed over, and he chooses us out of his generation,
out of each generation. But look what it says here. And
here we see that the praise for our mighty God shall never stop. Verses four to six, Psalm 145. One generation shall praise thy
works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. I will speak
of the glorious honor of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous
works. And men shall speak of the might
of thy terrible acts, and I will declare thy greatness, thy greatness. Now we know that the Thessalonian
believers, in their generation, the word of God came to them
in power. We saw that in our study in 1 Thessalonians. In chapter one, the word of God
came to them in power because they were chosen by God out of
their generation. The word of God came to you who
are a believer when it did, because you're chosen out of your generation.
Isn't that amazing? That's incredible. God has always
had a people. In every generation, he has a
chosen people in every generation. So don't despair. God has a people
even in the generation now of young people. He has a people
in them. We don't know who they are, but he has a people in them.
He does. He has them. Because it said
there, one generation shall praise thy works to another and shall
declare thy mighty acts. One generation to another. Oh
my. So God's always had a people
and he always will have a people in every generation. A people
who are born again by the power and might of God the Holy Spirit.
Now how do we know that to be true? Turn to 1 Peter. Turn to
1 Peter. Chapter one. Or 1 Peter chapter
two. How do we know this to be true?
Well because the scriptures declare this. The scriptures declare
this. And this is what, this just leaves
me in awe. to think that I as a believer
was chosen by God in eternity out of my generation. A lot of people who were better
than me, a lot of people who were smarter, a lot of people who were stronger
than me, but God chose me. And that just leaves me in awe.
Is it so for you? But he did it because he planned
and purposed it, and because his love was set upon us from
eternity. That's one just to sit and ponder
for a little while. And you'll be lost in awe and
praise very quickly. Look at this, in 1 Peter 2, verses
9 to 10. But ye, Peter's writing to born-again,
blood-washed believers, and he says, but ye are a chosen generation. Look at that. chosen, a royal
priesthood made holy by God, and holy nation, a peculiar people,
that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in times
past were not a people, right, by our birth, were sinners by
our birth, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained
mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Now let's go back to Psalm
145 with that in our mind there, where he says, you're a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people,
that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now let's read
those three verses again with that in our minds. One generation
shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty
acts. What do God's people declare?
The mighty acts of the Lord Jesus Christ, what he's done for us.
I will speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty, oh his
majesty, and of thy wondrous works, what wondrous works he's
done in redeeming the souls of men and women. and men shall
speak of the might of thy terrible acts, and I will declare thy
greatness. Amidst all that's going on in
the world, the believer will declare the greatness of God. And it'll be so until the last
sheep is saved. Because God says it'll be so.
Because God says it'll be so. What shall they declare? Well,
the text this morning declares that the people of God will declare
the mighty acts of God and shall declare thy mighty acts. The
generations, the generations shall here unite. Think of that. All the generations unite in this, in declaring the mighty
acts of God. They declare generations from
a thousand years ago who were saved by the Lord declare the
same thing we do. The greatness of our God. Isn't
that amazing? We all unite in this telling
the mighty acts of God which Christ has done for us. And they
make up an extraordinary history, don't they? They make up an extraordinary
history as each generation shall contribute its chapter and all
generations together shall compose a volume of matchless character,
speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that amazing? That is absolutely
incredible. Just like David, we who are the
people of God in our generation shall proclaim the greatness
and the goodness and the graciousness and the righteousness of our
great God. And this is only found in Christ
and Christ alone. God's work of goodness and acts
of power is a subject which all the eras of human existence can
never exhaust. You could speak of the greatness
of God and his mighty acts for your whole lifetime and then
the next believer could speak of theirs all the way back and
never even exhaust the greatness of God. because it's unsearchable. It's
unsearchable. A praiseful heart seems to live
in the people of God through all the centuries. And this is
what every believer in Christ has, a praiseful heart. So let
us in this generation not be afraid to praise our great God. just like our brothers and sisters
did in the past, to praise Him in adoration. All glory to Him,
all power, all might, all honor goes to Him. And He is the same
God throughout all those generations. Same God through all those generations. Oh my, He don't change. He's
the same what? Yesterday, today, and what? Forever. He didn't change. All the glory goes to him. And then look at Psalm 145, verse
7. Look at this. They shall abundantly
utter the memory of thy great goodness and sing of thy righteousness. This is speaking of all those
generations. David himself, too. And all the
generations of born-again blood-washed believers shall abundantly utter
the memory of thy great goodness and sing of thy righteousness. Wonderful, wonderful words here.
They show us how the people of God will praise our great God
for his goodness, it says there, and they shall sing of his righteousness. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunge beneath that
flood, lose all their guilty stains. That's Christ. He's that
fountain. He's that fountain. Now in order for us to remember
things, we must observe and we must look intently. A man or
a woman cannot remember what he never knew. We can't speak
of what we don't know either, can we? What are usually the things that
we remember? Well, those things that make
an impression upon us, make an impression upon us. Well, we
hear, we say, I'll write that down. I can't tell you how many
times I said I've written something down. I'm going to write that
down. And what happens if I don't write it down? I forget it. It's gone. It's gone. But for that moment,
I was praising God. Oh my. This is a good thing. It's a
good thing to write things down, but if you really want to remember
things, we must consider and meditate upon those things. To
think upon those things. To allow what is heard to exert
influence upon our hearts. See, if we're just hearers of
the word and not doers, then it doesn't profit us nothing,
does it? My oh my. So let what we hear
exert influence upon our hearts. The first thing toward the praising
of God is a careful observation of His goodness. Now we looked
a lot at His greatness there, but when you observe and you
think upon and ponder the goodness of God, again, it'll cause your
heart to sing praises to Him. And what are we to see in and
through the Lord Jesus Christ? God's goodness. God's goodness. And if you really want to abundantly
praise God, then observe his goodness. Many times we receive
the bounties of providence. Every day we receive the bounties
of providence. But we do not see the hand of
God in them. And we attribute them sometimes
to ourselves. But those bounties of providence
come from our great God. Come from his goodness. Come
from his mercy showing towards us. Oh, his grace is amazing. Look
at verse eight here in nine. Look at how his His love and
his mercy to his people is brought forth in these verses. The Lord
is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all and his
tender mercies are over all his works. How merciful is God with
his people. How long-suffering is he with
us? Before we're saved and even after we're saved. How long-suffering
is he with us? How good is he? He's so compassionate
with us. He doesn't get fed up with us. At all. We can get fed up with situations,
can't we? God doesn't get fed up with us. No. He's compassionate with us. He's slow to anger. Because his
anger is being appeased in Christ. And remember, when you're going
through a trial, God's not judging you. Because our sins were judged
at Calvary's cross. We're going through that trial,
usually to draw us closer to Him. And we're being conformed to
the image of the Son. And we see here in verses eight
and nine that the Lord is gracious. He's full of compassion. This
speaks of Christ, doesn't it? This speaks of Christ. Slowed
anger of great mercy, the Lord is good to all, and his tender
mercies are over all his works. Oh, observe the goodness of God
in Christ. And this will bring you great
joy. It'll cause you to praise his name for his goodness towards
us. Remember, our God is the God
of Sinai, right? He's the God of Sinai. Oh man,
when he thundered when he gave that law, right? But praise be to God, he's the
God of Calvary. He's the God of Calvary too. Oh my. And we who are the people
of God are thoroughly acquainted with ourselves. We know ourselves, don't we?
We know what we are. And now, we who are born again
know a little bit of who he is. And what he is. He's made himself known to us
in the scriptures. He showed us his goodness. And every day, every hour, let
us think upon the goodness of God. Think upon the goodness
of God to you. Think of how gracious he is to
his people. His goodness is so evident and in so many ways that
we cannot even begin to name them. We can't even name them,
how good he is to us. His goodness is seen in creation.
It shines in every sunbeam, every dewdrop. smiles in every flower,
one commentator said, and it cools in every breeze. Earth
and sea and air teeming with innumerable forms of life are
all full of the goodness of the Lord. The sun, the moon, and
the stars say that the Lord is good, and all things on earth
echo that proclamation. You see that moon last night?
Oh, it was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Beautiful. I was out at Brother Neal's and
Sister Joan's last night, and I was amazed at how there's not
much light out there. Here in the town, we get all
this light. But out there, we could see our shadows with the
moonlight. It was incredible. And it leaves you in awe to look
at that moon placed there by the Lord, placed there by him. My, His goodness is everywhere,
beloved. The noblest form, though, of
God's goodness is in the dominion of His grace, in the dominion
of His grace. It began with the goodness of
God in our election. It followed with the redemption
of our eternal souls by the precious blood of Christ, and it continues When we look at the mission of
the Holy Spirit of God, the calling, the adoption, the preservation,
the perfection of his chosen ones, when we look at that alone,
that's where his goodness shines more than any other place. It's magnified. The noblest form
of divine goodness is in the redemption of God's people in
and through Christ alone. And we see again in verse three
that David emphasized the greatness of our God, the greatness of
our God. He says, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.
His greatness is unsearchable. So think about the person upon
whom the goodness of God is bestowed in wonder and awe that God should
be good to any of his people, that God should be good to us,
to we who are sinners. What does it show us? It shows
us the great mercy of God. It shows us the fact that it's
unsearchable. You can't plumb the depths of
it. How he deals with his people, the goodness that he shows us,
the graciousness that he shows us, shows us mercy, mercy to
the guilty. Mercy to the guilty. We're so
deserving of his wrath by nature, and yet he shows his people mercy. He shows mercy to ungrateful
sinners, to those who are redeemed by
his precious blood. And then what do we do? We confess
the greatness of his goodness, don't we? We confess the greatness
of his goodness. Is it so for you? Is it so for
you? The greatness of his goodness
is magnified when we think of the greatness of God. that God
himself should bless his people, that he should come in the form
of human flesh to save his people, that he should send his whole
spirit to dwell in us, that he should be a very present
help in trouble. I know that. Do you know that,
that God is a very present help in trouble? Oh, we do, don't
we? We do. You know, he could have
committed us to the charge of angels, but you know what he
says? No. He says that he himself is our present help. He himself. Just with a word, he could have
committed us to the angels to care, but no. No, Elohim, the
mighty one, says, they are mine. They are mine, and none that
come to me shall perish. None. So think about the goodness
of God this week. Think about the goodness of God. Think about what God has given
you in Christ. I'll close with this. Think about
what God has given you in Christ, a name and a place among his
people. The complete forgiveness of all
your sins. A robe of righteousness which
you are wearing now. Now. A loveliness in Christ Jesus
that you have now. Access to him at his mercy seat
now. A gospel church to come and hear
the gospel preached and proclaimed. while we journey through this
earth. I know for me, and I'm sure it's
for you too who are the born again believers, that we could
never personally tell the greatness of God's goodness to us. And we have nothing to say but
God. is great, and his goodness is great, and his righteousness
is great, and his mercy is great, and his love is great. And it
is in the storms of life that we learn to praise our God, isn't
it? It's in the storms of life that we learn to praise our God,
that we learn to extol him like David did. When we realize, by the grace
of God, the pit we were in, and He took us out of that, and He
set us upon the rock, and that rock is Christ. That rock's Christ. We have a sure foundation, don't
we? And by the mercy and grace of God, every believer can say,
I'm gonna praise Him forever. because God said it was so. Praise
his mighty name. Heavenly Father, we thank you
again for your great grace, your great mercy, which you have shown
your people, your people in and through Christ alone. We glory,
we glorify your name, we magnify your name, we praise your name,
oh Lord. And we, you know, You know our
hearts, you know how we feel about the Lord. And you know
that our words don't even express what we feel inside, but yet,
you know, Lord, you know us, you know what, but dust. And
we praise you and thank you, we who are your people, all we
thank you for your mercy, your great mercy, your great love,
your great goodness, your great righteousness, which we have
in and through Christ alone. May we think upon these things
which we've heard tonight or today. May we think upon these
things. May we ponder them through this
week. Write them to our hearts, oh Lord. We love you because
you first loved us. In Jesus' name, amen.