Well, good evening. If you would,
open your Bibles with me to the book of Revelation. Revelation
chapter 19. We will not have a service next
Wednesday in preparation for our meeting the following weekend. There are food sign-up sheets
in the nursery and a sign-up sheet out in the vestibule. I
apologize for it being a little late. I try to normally get those
things out earlier. It's just the way it turned out
this time. Janet told me don't worry about it. Our ladies are
pros. It'll be all taken care of. But it's kind of my job to
worry about it. So sorry. All right. Revelation chapter 19. We'll
read the first eight verses. Our message this evening is going
to concern praising the Lord every day continually. Here are
folks who have been able to do it. Revelation 19 verse 1. And after these things I heard
a great voice of much people in heaven saying, Alleluia, salvation
and glory and honor and power unto the Lord our God. For true
and righteous are his judgments. For he hath judged the great
whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication and hath
avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again they said,
Alleluia. And her smoke rose up forever
and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell
down and worshiped God, that sat on the throne, saying, Amen,
Alleluia. And a voice came out of the throne,
saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear
him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice
of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and
as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and
give honor to him, for the marriage of the lamb has come, and his
wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine
linen is the righteousness of saints." We'll end our reading
there. All right, Sean, you come lead us in a hymn. Would please turn to song number
40, Great is Thy Faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness, O
God my Father. There is no shadow of turning
with thee. Thou changest not, Thy compassions
they fail not, As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be. Great is Thy faithfulness, great
is Thy faithfulness, morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed, Thy hand hath
provided, Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto thee be. Summer and winter and springtime
and harvest, sun, moon, and stars in their courses above, Join
with all nature in mammoth old witness To Thy great faithfulness,
mercy and love. Great is Thy faithfulness, great
is Thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies
I see. All I have needed Thine hand
hath provided, Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. Pardon for sin, and a peace that
endures, Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide, Strength
for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings all mine
with ten thousand beside. Great is thy faithfulness, great
is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies
I see. All I have needed, thy hand hath
provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord,
unto me. Okay, if you would now turn to
page 442. Praise Him, praise Him. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus,
our blessed Redeemer! Sing, O earth, His wonderful
love proclaim! Hail Him, hail Him, highest archangels
in glory! Strength and honor give to His
holy name. Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard
His children. In His arms, He carries them
all day long. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. For our sins He suffered and
bled and died. He our rock, our hope of eternal
salvation. Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the
crucified. Sound His praises, Jesus, who
bore our sorrows, Long unbounded, wonderful, deep, and strong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus,
our blessed Redeemer. Heavenly portals, loud with hosannas
ring. Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever
and ever. Crown Him, crown Him, prophet
and priest and king. Christ is coming over the world
victorious. Power and glory unto the Lord
belong. Praise Him, praise Him. Tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him. Ever in joyful song. Alright, if you would open your
Bibles now with me to Psalm 145. Psalm 145. Our brother, Aaron Simpson, was
in Columbus today having stem cells harvested from his blood. I'm sure that was not all that
pleasant to begin his treatment for this, which is also going
to be highly unpleasant, but we want to keep him and his family
in our prayers. Alright, Psalm 145. I will extol
thee, my God, 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 the Lord,
and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. 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. They shall
abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness and shall
sing of thy righteousness. 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. All thy works shall praise thee,
O Lord, and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak
of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power, to make
known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious
majesty of his kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. The
Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth 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 thine
hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord
is righteous in all His ways and holy in all His works. The
Lord is nigh unto all, all them that call upon Him, to all that
call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of
them that fear Him. He also will hear their cry and
will save them. The Lord preserveth all them
that love Him, but all the wicked will He destroy. My mouth shall
speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless His holy
name forever and ever." Thank God for His Word. Let's bow together. Our God and our Father, we bow
in Thy awesome, majestic, holy presence. We bow So thankful
that we can bow before a throne of grace. The sinful men and
women like us can call you our father. And father, we have met
here this evening with a desire to hear a word from thee. Father,
we beg of you that you would speak to us through your word
tonight. Enable us to see by faith the
Lord Jesus Christ. Enable us to hear a word from
Thee and believe, believe on our Savior and to rest fully
in Him. Father, let Your name be magnified
in this place tonight. Enable me, Father, to proclaim
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ clearly and simply in the power
of Thy Spirit. Father, enable Your people to
hear and to rejoice. And let us leave here with one
accord, praising the name of our God and our Savior. Father,
we thank you for this place. We thank you that you've given
us a place, that you've preserved it, where we can meet together
and hear your gospel preached, sing your praises, gather together
with our brethren and worship thee. Father, we pray that you
would preserve it. Preserve this as a place of your
glory, your gospel. for our good, for the good of
our children, the good of the next generations. Father, keep
this a place where poor sinners can come and hear the Savior,
find mercy and grace. And Father, we thank you for
the blessings of this life. How richly and abundantly that
you've blessed us. And Father, we beg your forgiveness
for ever murmuring complaining and ever being ungrateful, not
thankful. Father, forgive us, we pray.
We're thankful to know that you remember we're but dust. And
Father, you have blessed us, but you've also brought your
people in the time of trouble and trial, and we pray for them. We dare not sin against thee
in forgetting to pray for your people. Oh, we pray for Erin,
these treatments he's getting ready to go through that she
Be with him and Michelle in a special, special way. Use this as an instrument
to healing, we pray. And others, Father, who needs
you, you know the need of each one of your people. We pray you'd
comfort, that you'd heal, that you'd lead and guide and direct.
Now, Father, again, let us forget about all the goings on in this
life and give us an hour where we can worship Thee. Hear of
our Savior and learn more of Him. In His precious name we
pray and give thanks. you Once my soul was astray from
the heavenly way And was wretched and vile as could be But my Savior
in love Gave me peace from above When He reached down His hand
for me When Christ Jesus reached down for me When He reached way down for
me I was lost and undone without
God's precious son and he reached down his hand for me. I was near to despair when he
came to me there and he showed me Then he lifted my feet Gave me
gladness complete When he reached down his hand for me When Christ
Jesus reached down for me When he reached way down for
me I was lost and undone Without God's precious Son When he reached
down his hand How my heart does rejoice when
I hear His sweet voice. In the tempest to Him I then
flee. There to lean on His arms, safe
secure from all harm, Since He reached down His hand for me. When Christ Jesus reached down
for me, When He reached way down for
me I was lost and undone Without God's precious Son When He reached
down His hand for me I was lost and undone Without
God's precious Son When he reached down his hand Well, hang on to your seats. That put
me in the mood to preach. I hope that puts you in the mood
to hear. I've titled our message this evening, Praising the Lord
Every Day. As you go through the Psalms,
you see that many of them have titles. You read it's a Psalm
entitled the Psalm of David or a Psalm of Degrees, a Psalm for
the sons of Korah. This is the only psalm entitled
David's Psalm of Praise. It's a psalm of pure praise.
As I began studying this this week, I found this psalm to be
very fitting. Very fitting to me personally.
It spoke powerfully to my heart. It convicted me. It instructed
me. It caused me to worship. It caused
me to praise. I hope it will for you this evening.
But this is what came to my mind when I first read this psalm.
A psalm of pure praise. You know, we all want and we
need many things. There's a lot of things that
we just want. There are a lot of things we need. We need the Lord
to give us. We can't have anything unless
He gives it. There are folks right now that are so sick and
hurting, they need healing. They need the Lord to do that.
Folks in a quandary, They need direction. They need the Lord
to show them the way to go. They need provision. They need
the Lord to deliver. They're in such a trial. A lot
of times in Scripture, the word trial means a tight, confined
space. They're just in a tight space.
They need the Lord to deliver them. They can't get out. We
need mercy and grace and forgiveness constantly. I know I do. I know you do too. And I want
to be very clear here. There's absolutely nothing wrong
with asking the Lord for those things. He told us to ask Him. We should ask Him. What else
would a beggar do but ask? Ask the Lord. But this is what
I'm talking about right now. This is what I fear about myself.
I fear my prayers being filled with petition much more than
praise. I fear that. A prayer that that
way... Prayer has to be all about the
Lord who grants petition, doesn't it? But just now to me, too much
asking for what I want and what I need can make my prayer be
about me. And there's just got to be a right balance here. But
a prayer of praise, that must be all about the Lord. It has
to be, doesn't it? If it's a prayer of praise, it
has to be all about the Lord, and that's good for us. It's
good for us just to praise Him, just to thank Him without ever
asking for one blessed thing. And this psalm instructs us on
that, on truly praising the Lord and telling us reasons to praise
the Lord every day. Now this psalm begins with the
words of Christ our Savior. Look at verse one. Now, every believer praises the
Lord. Of course you do. You praise
the Lord. You bless the Lord. You worship the Lord. But do
you do it every day, forever and ever, like it says here?
I think not. No, every day we ask for things,
don't we? But do you praise the Lord every
day, forever and ever? This can only be our Lord Jesus
Christ speaking. He praises the Lord every day,
forever and ever, eternally. And He encourages His people
to praise the Lord. He shows us why it is we should
praise the Lord every day. The Lord teaches His people to
praise Him, to bless Him. And we're to teach the next generation
to praise Him. Look at verse 4. One generation
shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty
acts. And we're to teach the next generation, now I'm interested
in this, what are we teaching? What are we teaching? the next
generation about the Lord. By our teaching, by our words,
by our doctrine, and by our actions, what are we teaching the next
generation? What are we to teach them about praising the Lord?
What are we to say to each other and teach each other about praising
the Lord? Well, I see four divisions in this psalm that teach us about
praising the Lord every day. These things fit our everyday
life. Now, here's the first one. We
praise the Lord for his character. We praise the Lord for who He
is. First of all, we praise the Lord
because He's God. Look at verse 1 again. It says,
I will extol thee, my God. Our God is the creator. He created everything that is.
He's the giver of life. He's the sustainer of life. He
owns this whole universe. He created it just by speaking.
He owns it and He rules it at His pleasure. By His will, He
rules it. He is the infinite God, and we're
just specks of dust on his earth. He's the eternal God, and we're
just creatures of the dust, very temporary creatures. So the only
relationship we can have with God, and we're not talking about
a God, an idol that men made up. I'm talking about Almighty
God. The only relationship that we
can have with Him is one of bowing in the dust and worshiping Him
and praising Him He's just so far above us, that's all we can
do is praise Him. We praise the Lord because He's
King. Now that's His office, He's King,
but that's His very character, to be King. I will extol Thee,
my God, O King. Now God is the King over us. I don't know if past generations,
I like to think about the founding fathers of this country and the
things that they wrote and the kind of the way that we think
that they saw the world from things that they wrote. It seems
like that they recognize there's a sovereign, there's a God over
them. Maybe they didn't. I don't know.
Maybe that's a romanticized Sean Seguin that said, no, they didn't.
My generation lost it. I mean, if anybody ever had it,
I don't know where we lost it, but somewhere between there and
here, my generation has lost this. We're so full of ourselves.
And boy, this would fix a lot of problems if we'd start out
right here. God is king. He's king over us. He rules over us. And He does
as He pleases. We can't influence Him. He does
as He pleases. He does His will and His will
alone. And the heart of true worship,
the heart of true praise, is acknowledging God's kingship
over us is right. It's right that He be king and
I be the beggar. That's right. That leper, Matthew
chapter 8, he was up there in that mountain. He must have heard
what we call the Lord's Sermon on the mountain. And that compelled
him to come to the Savior. He came and Scripture says, worshiped
Him. Before the Lord ever did anything
for him. For he knew that the Lord would do anything for him.
He came and he worshiped Him. The Syrophoenician woman, the
Lord insulted her. He acted like He was just going
to send her away. He said, it's not right for me to give the
children's bread to dogs like you. And Scripture says she came
and worshiped Him. before she had any indication
He would do anything for her. She came and worshipped Him.
Both of them were acknowledging His kingship over Him. And they
were going to beg Him and wait on His will, wait to see what
He would do. That's the heart of true worship and true praise.
God is King. He's King over me and over mine. God's the sovereign. I'll tell
you what that means. Something my generation has lost
This means, since God's the sovereign, that means you and I do not decide
what we're going to do with Jesus. No. Christ is King. He's King. And we wait and see what He's
pleased to do with us. We wait and see what His will
is to do with us. And I tell you this, whatever
He does with us, whether He save us or whether He damn us, whether
He heals us or He makes us sick, whether He makes us rich or whether
He makes us poor, whether He makes us happy or leaves us sad.
Whatever it is He does with us is right. It's right because
God did it. Just plain and simple. Now saying
that and meaning that and believing that, you know what that is?
That's praising the Lord for who He is. That He's King. And
we praise the Lord for all of His attributes, His characteristics.
Verse 2 says, Every day will I bless thee, and I will praise
thy name forever and effort. Now we praise the name of the
Lord because the name of the Lord describes His character.
God is merciful. Scripture calls Him the God of
all mercy. He's merciful. He is just. Scripture calls Him, says His
name is the Just One. Our God's character is holy and
pure. His name is the Holy One of Israel.
And He's gracious. This Holy One of Israel, the
Just One, is gracious. Scripture says He's the God of
all grace. His name is Jehovah. God, my Savior. The Lord with
us. His name is Jehovah Sikhenu.
The Lord, our righteousness. If we have any righteousness
at all, it's Christ. His name is Jehovah Jireh. The
Lord will provide. He will provide everything. that he requires of his elect.
He provides it. His name is Jehovah Raphael,
the Lord who heals all of our spiritual diseases. His name
is Jehovah Raya, the Lord our shepherd. He's the good shepherd
who laid down his life for the sheep. He's the great shepherd
of the sheep who goes out and finds every one of his lost sheep.
He finds them where they're at, puts them on his shoulder, and
brings them all the way home. He's the Lord our shepherd. He's
Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our peace. When we fell in Adam,
we declared war on God. Christ is the Lord our peace,
who made peace for us by the blood of his cross. His name
is Jehovah Shema. The Lord is there. He's there. He's always there with his people. It's my heart's desire to praise
that holy name, to praise that precious name. That describes
the character of our Savior. Then we see the Lord is gracious
in His just character. Look down at verse 17. The Lord
is righteous in all His ways and holy in all His works. Everything
He does is righteous and holy. And here is Him being righteous
and holy. The Lord is nigh unto all them
that call upon Him. to all that call upon Him in
truth. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him. He will
also hear their cry and will save them. The Lord preserveth
all that love Him, but all the wicked will He destroy. Our God
is so gracious. He saves everyone who begs Him
for mercy. Everyone. And He's right to do
it. And He's just to condemn the
wicked when He does it. He's just and gracious. Then
we praise the Lord because he's great. And we're so small. Verse three says, great is the
Lord and greatly to be praised. And his greatness is unsearchable. Now, God is great. God is not to be figured out.
He's so great we can't figure him out. He's not to be figured
out. God is to be worshiped. He's to be loved. He's to be
believed. He's to be praised. God is to
be trusted. He's to be trusted because He's
great, and everything He does is great. Everything He does
is right and good, and He's to be trusted because He's God.
God is great in every conceivable way. He's great in mercy and
grace. He's great in His justice, in
finding a way to punish every sin. He's great in His holiness. He's great in His wisdom. He
found a way to be both just and gracious, to punish every sin
and save the sinner. Oh, He's great in His wisdom.
He's great in His power. There's no case too hard for
Him. And everything He does, everything He does is great. Everything. And all we can do
is praise Him for it. See, we don't have to understand
what the Lord is doing. to be able to kneel before him
in worship and praise his name. And David sums up the Lord's
character in verse five. I will speak of the glorious
honor of thy majesty and of thy wondrous works. The Lord's character
is full, full of glorious honor and majesty. The words mean there
he's full of dignity and beauty. And all of his works, The Lord
himself is full of beauty, full of dignity, and all his works
are the same. They're full of glory and honor
and majesty because that's the Lord's character. You and I have
no honor and no dignity, but the Lord does. And all we can
do is praise him for it, for who he is. All right, number
two, we praise the Lord for his mercy and his righteousness. Verse six, and men shall speak
of the might of thy terrible acts and I will declare thy greatness."
Now David says here, I'm going to tell people about the Lord's
terrible acts. And those terrible acts are acts
that cause awe and reverence. And it also means this, you know,
it could cause us awe and reverence, the greatness of his mercy, the
greatness of his grace, the power of his blood. But it also means
this, works that display the Lord's power to make people afraid. to make people afraid. But look
what David says here in verse 7. While people could see these
things and be afraid, look what he says. They shall abundantly
utter the memory of thy great goodness and shall sing of thy
righteousness. Now David says here that God's
people shall speak of God's great goodness. And you know what God's
great goodness is? It's His sovereign mercy to sinners.
That's what the Lord told Moses. Remember, Moses saw all the miracles
in Egypt. He led Israel out of Egypt through
the Red Sea. He'd seen all the miracles. He'd
seen these mighty acts that would make men afraid of God. He'd
seen those things. And then Moses, he knew there
was something else. He said, God show me your glory.
And God said, I will. I'll make my goodness, my goodness
to pass before you. I'll proclaim my name before
you. I'm going to tell you what I'm
like. My name tells you what I'm like. I'll proclaim my name
before you. I'll make my goodness known to
you. And my great goodness is this, my sovereign mercy and
sovereign grace. Nobody deserves it. Everybody
deserves damnation. But Moses, I'll be gracious to
my will be gracious. And I'll show mercy on whom I
will show mercy. That's God's sovereign mercy.
And God said, That's his greatest glory. That's his goodness. His
goodness is his sovereign mercy to his people. Now, nobody can
possibly mistake what God told Moses there. I'll be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. I'll show mercy on whom I will
show mercy. What God's telling us is God
will be gracious and he'll be merciful to whoever he chooses. And he'll pass by everybody else.
And it'll be right when he does it. It would be right because
those people he passed by, that's what they deserve because they're
sin. I mean, they're sin, they're rebellion against God. That's
what he deserves. And whom he chooses, he'll be merciful to
them. He'll be gracious to them. And when he is, David says, God's
people are going to sing of that. They're going to sing of his
mercy and his righteousness and his righteousness. See what everything
God does is right. When God shows mercy, It's right. He makes it right for Him to
show mercy to His sinful people. I'll tell you how He made it
right. God made it right for Him to show mercy to poor sinners,
the sinners He chose to save. He made it right for Him to show
mercy to them by charging their sin to His Son at Calvary. And then fully punishing Him
for it. Punishing Him, putting Him to death for that sin. And
the death of Christ, the perfect substitute The perfect Lamb of
God, His death put away the sin of God's elect so that it does
not exist anymore. His blood washed them white as
snow. His blood washed their sin away
and made them white as snow. So now it's right for God to
be merciful to them because He took their sin away. He paid
for their sin in righteousness and justice and made it right
for Him to show mercy to His people because His justice has
been satisfied. and the death of the substitute.
Now, if you can't praise God for that, for His mercy and His
righteousness, shown together in the death of Christ our substitute,
then you don't know Christ. You don't know God. That's the
only explanation for it. All of God's people praise Him
for this joining of this God's character, His mercy and His
righteousness. And oh, the mercy of God. His very character is merciful. Verse 8, David says, The Lord
is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy. Now, I told you Sunday that every
time in the Psalms that David speaks of the Lord's compassion,
every time, I think it was five times, every time he talks about
the Lord's compassion, he says the Lord is full of compassion,
full. Here's one of those times. The
infinite God is full of compassion for sinners. He's full of it
because His character is merciful and His mercy is great. God is always just. Everything
He does is just and right. But He's slow to anger. He's
slow to anger. He doesn't have to be slow to
anger. God could be quick to destroy every sinner, but He's
not. He'd be right to do it, but He
doesn't do it that way. God's slow to anger because His character. is of great mercy." And I'm so
glad, aren't you? Hearing of God's character, His
character is of great mercy. He's slow to anger and of great
mercy. Doesn't that make you want to
come to Him? He's slow to anger. He's full
of compassion. Why wouldn't a sinner then want
to come to Him, begging Him for mercy? Peter said in 2 Peter 3 verse
15, he said, account that the long-suffering of our Lord is
salvation. Now you account that the fact
that the Lord is slow to anger is salvation. That's the only
way sinners like you and me can be saved. The Lord's slow to
anger. He's slow. He puts up with us
a long time. He's long-suffering. And He's
great in mercy. Thank God His very character.
is to be merciful to sinners. Now look at verse 9. The Lord
is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. Now everything God does, every
work that God does is good. And there is a sense that God
is good to all and that He gives us air and sunshine and water
and food and a beautiful creation to live in. But that's not what
Dave is talking about. Every work that God does is done
for one purpose. He says here, His tender mercies
are over all of His works. The thing that's guiding all
of His works in creation, all of His works of providence is
His tender mercy. All of God's great acts are done
for one reason, to show mercy to His people. That's why God
does everything that He does. God created the world. He spoke
and said, let there be light. He spoke and said, let the dry
land appear. He spoke and said, let the animals
appear. You know why God created everything
in six days? You know why God did that? He
put man in it. He created this beautiful garden.
He put man in it, knowing full well Adam would fall. You know
why God did that? For this reason. So when Adam
fell and ruined his whole race, God could show mercy. That's
why God did that. Every act of history has been
governed by our God in His goodness. His goodness. To bring God's
people to the place of mercy. Everything. Everything that goes
on all over the world that we don't know about, don't understand,
don't see how the puzzle's fitting together. And everything in our
lives. Every individual thing in our
lives. Whether it makes us happy or makes us sad. Whether it's
painful or pleasant. Whatever it is, God's doing it
to bring his people to the place of mercy. That's why God does
everything that he does. I'm telling you that ought to
make us praise the Lord. His mercy. And mercy is the heritage
of all of God's elect. Verse 14. The Lord upholdeth
all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.
God upholds all of his people, his people who are fallen. They're
fallen in Adam. They fell in Adam. They rebelled
in Adam. They became dead in Adam. But God upholds them because
God's merciful. Even when we fell in Adam, God
upheld His people and did not destroy. Oh, He thrust Adam out
of the garden, didn't He? The earth brought forth thorns
and thistles to Him, made work hard for Him for the rest of
His life. Adam eventually died. Oh, Adam paid the price. But
God didn't destroy him immediately because He was upholding His
people who had come through Adam's wounds. He upheld them. God raises
beggars from the dunghill. The law has put a burden on them.
It put a burden and made them bow down. Bow down with the burden
of the law. The burden of sin. The filth
of their sins. Left them in the dunghill. A
dunghill is just a trash heap. That's all there was. Just a
trash heap. Just throw them in the trash heap. Filthy dunghill. And God's merciful. He reaches
down and lifts those beggars up from the dunghill. makes them
His sons and daughters. He sets them His table. They
come to God's table and there's a seat just for them. You know
why God does that? Why does God lift the beggar
from the dunghill? Because God's merciful. And God's people praise
Him for it. We should remember that every
day, shouldn't we? Alright, here's the third thing.
We praise the Lord for His kingdom. We praise the Lord for His rule
over everything. Now we already said God's God,
he rules over everything, but here we're specifically talking
about God's rule over his people. Verse 11, they shall speak of
the glory of thy kingdom and talk of thy power to make known
to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty
of his kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom and thy dominion endure throughout all generations. Now
this psalm begins by identifying God as King. I'll praise Thee,
my God, I will stole Thee, O my God, my God, O King. God is King of kings and Lord
of lords. He rules over everything. But
here Dave is talking about a specific kingdom. God's kingdom of grace. The kingdom of His dear Son.
The God of all grace has to have a kingdom of grace, doesn't He?
It's a heavenly kingdom. It's not a kingdom of this earth.
You can just forget about ever setting up an earthly Christian
kingdom. It's not going to happen. It's
just not going to happen. This is a spiritual kingdom.
Our God has a spiritual kingdom and He's populated that kingdom.
The kingdom of His grace, His spiritual kingdom, He's populated
it with a people. Those people were born, fleshly
speaking, in another kingdom. They're born under the rule of
the kingdom of sin, the kingdom of darkness and unbelief. But
God's merciful. He's the king. He does as he
pleases. And he translated those people. He laid his hand. He
reached way down, Isaac. He reached way down. He grabbed
ahold of him. And he translated those people from the kingdom
of darkness and the kingdom of sin, the kingdom of unbelief.
He translated them. He transferred them into the
kingdom of his dear son and their citizens. But God is king over
all. He has the crown rights to do
what He pleases with every son of Adam. If you and I had unrestricted
authority, we'd abuse it tomorrow. Not our God. He has the crown
rights to do whatever He pleases. And it pleased God to be merciful.
It pleased Him to show mercy to His people. It pleased Him
to put His elect into His kingdom. And He did it because He's gracious.
He did it because God has a merciful kingdom. It's the kingdom of
God's sovereign grace. God has sovereignly chose, sovereignly
saved, sovereignly redeemed, sovereignly made righteous, and
sovereignly transferred all of His people into His kingdom by
His will. And I tell you, His people are
mighty glad of it. Because what a kingdom this is.
It's a kingdom of safety and peace because it's established
and protected by the power of Almighty God. And that's what
people in this kingdom talk about. They talk about the power of
God. They talk to each other. They talk about God's power to
save. They talk about His power to
give life. Here's a dead sinner and suddenly
they're living. Here's a dead sinner that can't
see, that can't believe, that can't love, that can't do anything
but stink and suddenly They believe God. They see God. They love
God. Their whole hope is on the Lord
Jesus Christ. What happened? God had power
and gave them life. They talk about the power of
the blood of Christ that cleansed them from all of their sin. They
estimate their sin to be a great mountain, and I'm telling you,
it's even greater than what we imagine. And the blood of Christ
cleanses us from all of that. Washes us white as snow. In this
kingdom, God's subjects, they talk about God's power to keep
them. He had power to save them. He
had power to call them. He had power to translate them
into His kingdom. And He's got power to keep them. If it left
our nature, we'd leave. But no, He's got the power to
keep us. The power to make us willing
to stay. Willing subjects. Willing to
stay dependent on Christ. You know what they talk about
in God's kingdom? Bob, they say everything's right
on schedule. And when they talk about God's power like that,
you know what they're doing? That's praising God. Praising
Him for His power. This kingdom is a majestic kingdom.
It's a holy kingdom. It's a righteous kingdom. Everybody
who lives in it has been made righteous in Christ. Yeah, there's
pearly gates and white walls. I reckon those are real. But
the greatest glory of that place is the Lord Jesus Christ in His
holiness and His righteousness. And second too it is, He made
everybody there just like Him. Holy and righteous. They're all
clothed in the spotless robe of Christ's righteousness. They're
covered in His majesty. Clothed in His beauty that He
put on to Him. And this kingdom is no fly-by-night
operation. It's an everlasting kingdom.
Not only will this kingdom endure forever, God's mercy endureth
forever, but everybody in that kingdom is going to live in it
forever, because God the Holy Spirit, God our King, has given
them everlasting, eternal life. And with God's subjects, when
they talk about the majesty of His righteousness, the wonder
of Christ's righteousness being our righteousness, when they
talk about this everlasting kingdom, they're like Abraham. They're
looking for a city. Oh, there's not one here. There's
nothing here for us. All there is for us is talk about
that place. All there is for us to do here
is talk about where we're going. That's it. And when His subjects
talk about Him like that, about His kingdom like that, you know
what they're doing? They're praising the Lord. Alright, here's the
fourth thing. We praise the Lord for His provision.
Verse 15. The eyes of all wait upon Thee. and thou givest them their meat
in due season. Thou openest thine hand and satisfieth the desire
of every living thing." Every living thing. Every form of life
on this earth depends upon the Lord for provision. Everything
looks to the Lord for life. If it's plant life, animal life,
fish life, bird life, and human life. You know, we think of humans
as being the highest form of life. We're so much higher than
all these other forms of life. Plant and animal, fish and bird
and so forth. But you know, human beings, fallen
man, is the only form of life that does not know we're looking
to God to provide everything we need. The birds know that. Animals know that. And God keeps
opening His hand and satisfying the earth. But we're not talking here just
about material things. Every material thing we have,
God's opened His hand and gave to us freely, didn't He? But
David's talking about something special here. God's people know
that they look to the Lord for everything spiritual. And you
know what? That's just exactly what a mercy
beggar ought to do. Look to Him to supply our every
spiritual need. And we're a poor and needy people.
We need a great hand to be open to us. Our God's got a great
hand. And it's full of mercy. It's
full of compassion. It's full of righteousness. The
Lord opens His hand. He satisfies the desire of His
people by providing them Christ. Christ is the desire of the believer's
heart. And God opens His hand and He
provides for them. He provides His people with mercy.
and grace and forgiveness. He provides them with love. He
provides them with righteousness by giving them Christ. God's
people are poor and needy. They cry to Him. They look to
Him to provide. He provides His people His very
presence. His presence that goes with them.
His presence to comfort their heart. His presence to strengthen
them along the way. His presence to strengthen them
and encourage them to keep them going until the next generation. Oh, the Lord hasn't come back
yet. Let's make it our business to
tell the next generation. God gives us His presence so
we don't quit. And all of God's elect are satisfied.
When God opens His hand, they're satisfied. Because all they want
and all they need is Christ. Because everything's in Him.
He's everything to them. They just don't need anything
else. So here's the conclusion. Hearing Christ truly praise the
Lord. Hearing Him do that in this psalm.
This is David writing under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is Christ
speaking. Son of David. Reading that makes
me want to praise the Lord every day. Continually. Verse 21. This is my desire for myself
and you too. My mouth shall speak the praise
of the Lord. And let all flesh bless His holy
name Forever and ever. God gave us a mouth. What else
should we do with it? Huh? Praise His matchless name. Praise Him for His mercy. Praise
Him for His grace. Maybe I'll learn. Maybe. Quit
using my mouth to complain. Poor mouth. And ask for everything
under the sun. and use it to praise His name.
God help us. God help us to do it. Let's bow
together. Our Father, with what being that
You've given us, with what faith and understanding that You've
given us, how we praise Your precious name. Oh, we praise
You for Your goodness, Your great mercy to Your people. We thank
You that You've shown mercy and justice and righteousness We
thank you that you've exalted our Lord Jesus Christ above all.
And we thank you that you've put us at his feet, looking up
to him to provide our every need. Oh God, would you be pleased
to open your hand to us and reveal your son to our hearts that we
might praise you more fully. For it's in the precious name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, for his glory and his sake we pray. Alright, Sean. If you would, please stand as
we'll sing song number 495, Unsearchable Riches. O the unsearchable riches of
Christ, wealth that can never be told. Riches exhaustless of
mercy and grace, precious, more precious than gold. Precious, more precious, wealth
that can never be told. O the unsearchable riches of
Christ, precious, more precious than gold. O the unsearchable
riches of Christ, who shall their greatness declare? Jewels whose luster our lives
may adorn, pearls that the poorest may wear. Precious, more precious,
wealth that can never be told. Oh, the unsearchable riches of
Christ, precious, more precious than gold. Oh, the unsearchable
riches of Christ, freely, how freely they flow. Making the souls of the faithful
and true Happy wherever they go. Precious, more precious,
Wealth that can never be told. All the unsearchable riches of
Christ, Precious, more precious than gold. O the unsearchable
riches of Christ, who would not gladly endure? Trials, afflictions, and crosses
on earth, riches like these to secure. Precious, more precious,
wealth that can never be told. All the unsearchable riches of
Christ, precious, more precious than gold.