Let's open our Bibles again to
Psalm 66. I titled the message this evening,
The Source of True Praise. The Source of True Praise. The
opening verses of this psalm tell us that we're to praise
and worship the Lord. David says, at least we think
David's the one who wrote this, make a joyful noise unto God
all ye lands. Sing forth the honor of his name.
Make His praise glorious. Now, what is it that will make
me truly worship and praise the Lord? Not to just go through
the motions, but to truly worship the Lord. We know that's what
we should do. We should worship and praise
the Lord. The Lord certainly deserves our worship and our
praise, doesn't He? But what will make me truly worship and
praise Him? Now, I know this, only God's
people worship Him and praise Him. They're the only ones that
know him. They're the only ones that know his name. If we're
going to worship God, we worship him. We praise him by praising
his name. Well, they're the only ones that know his name. So only
God's people are praising him. Everybody else is worshiping
idols. And when the psalmist says in verse one, all ye lands,
he means God's people, his elect people from all over the earth.
He doesn't mean everybody in the earth. Now, everybody in
the whole wide world shouldn't make a joyful noise under They
should praise Him, but they don't. But God's people do. And they
do because they know God. God's revealed Himself to them,
and they worship Him. And people truly praise the Lord. Now what is it? I want to truly
worship Him. I want to truly praise Him. Well,
let's look at what praise is not. True praise of the Lord
is not just wild show of the flesh that the world goes through.
You know, this screaming and yelling and running up and down
aisles and doing all this stuff to make a show of the flesh is
not praising the Lord. It's praising the flesh now.
That's not praising the Lord. Praising the Lord is singing
honor to His name. To His name. True praise is telling
the character of God's name. We talk about God's name, that's
telling what God's like. When we tell what God's like,
That's praising the Lord. Praising the Lord is telling
about God's holiness and God's justice. It's telling about God's
mercy. That's what she read, and not
for our sake, but for your mercies. That's praising the Lord. Praising
the Lord is talking about his grace. He saves his people by
grace. He saves his people in such wisdom.
God is wise enough that he's both just and justified. God
is so wise, He found a way to be just and justify the ungodly. Now we talk about that, that's
praising the Lord. Praising the Lord is giving the
Lord all the credit, all the glory for salvation, because
He did it all. From beginning to end, He did
it all. From its beginning in election to its end in final
glorification, God did it all. And telling that truth is worshiping
and truly praising the Lord. But what will make me praise
the Lord like that? What will make me, not just,
I know the doctor, I know the right words to say, but what
will make me praise him from the heart? Not just say those
words because I know that they're so, but to praise the Lord from
the heart. Well, if Lord David tells us
what will make us praise the Lord, he tells us two things
that will not make us praise and worship the Lord from the
heart. And number one is this, the raw power, the raw sovereign
power of God will not make men worship him and praise him. Look
here at verse three, what he says, say unto God, how terrible
art thou and thy works. Through the greatness of thy
power, thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. Now we're told to
confess to God that his works are terrible. They're all inspiring. His works that he does towards
the children of men, make us reverence and fear God for His
power in dealing with everything in this creation. God has all
power over us. He has the power to put us in
the dust. He has the power to lift us from
the dunghill and set us among princes. He's got the power to
defeat every enemy. He's got the power to make reconciliation
with those enemies. That's His power. It sounds like
David saying here that God's raw sovereign power will make
his enemies submit to him, will make them bow and worship and
praise him. It sounds like he's saying that,
but I don't know why the translator's translated this this way. That's
not what David's saying at all. This word submit here and in
one other place where David's quoting this song is the only
places I found where this Hebrew word is translated submit. Every
other time it's in scripture, it's translated deceive or to
lie. What David's saying here is God's
power will force men to their knees. Absolutely it will. If you don't believe me, just
find the most heathen person you know and wait till God puts
them in the hospital or puts one of their loved ones in the
hospital in intensive care. Oh, they'll pray, won't they?
They'll bow down and pray. They'll go on their knees. They'll
go through that motion. God's sovereign power can put
a man on his knees, but that's not what makes us worship from
the heart. Being forced to your knees does not mean that you've
surrendered at all. Not at all. All that means is
somebody stronger than you has forced you to the ground. I watched
a movie recently about an American prisoner of war in Japan and
those Japanese soldiers or whatever you call them, they run that
POW camp. They beat that man with sticks. They forced him
to his knees. He couldn't stand up. They forced
him to his knees, but he never submitted. I mean, he just had
a will of iron. He never submitted. That's what
David's talking about here. God's raw power can put a man
or woman on their knees, but it doesn't mean they surrendered
in the heart. Now, God's people, they love. to hear about God's
sovereign power over all things. Don't we just love reading what
Nebuchadnezzar learned about God's power? God showed Nebuchadnezzar
who's in control, didn't he? And we love to read that. That's
just such encouragement and comfort to us. And Paul, look over there
at Philippians chapter two. Paul tells us one day every knee
will bow. Every knee will bow. Philippians
chapter two. Verse nine. Wherefore, God also
hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every
name, that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of things
in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. And by God's grace, one day the
believer is going to bow, bend the knee and bow. Lovingly and
willingly bow the knee and bow in the heart and confess Jesus
Christ is Lord. Oh, he's Lord, he's Savior over
all. That same day, the unbeliever's
gonna bow. He's gonna bow the knee because
he's got no choice. God's just sovereign power will
force him to. Paul mentions here things under
the earth. People in hell honor God. Right now, people in hell
honor God. because they can't do anything
else. Just like a prisoner in jail. You can put that prisoner
in jail. Charles Manson, how many years
has he spent in jail? They put him in jail. He didn't
kill anybody else, did he? He didn't organize big killing
sprees and stuff like he did. But it's only because they forced,
they confined him. It's only because they just exerted
their power over his will to keep him in a little cell. His
heart wasn't changed. And that's what David is saying
here back in our text in verse four. God's power will put a
rebel upon his knees, but it won't make him worship from the
heart. He says in verse four, all the earth shall worship thee
and shall sing unto thee. They shall sing to thy name.
That's what Paul said in Philippians. One day, every knee is going
to bow. Every knee is going to bow before the Lord Jesus Christ.
Some will bow in worship because they love him, because they want
to. Some will bow because they have to. They're going to be
forced to the ground by God's overpowering will and power. But that will to make us bend
the knee will not change the natural heart. And the example
David uses here is Pharaoh and God's power that he showed in
Egypt. Look at verse five. He says, now come and see, come
and see the works of God. He's terrible in his doing toward
the children of men. He turned the sea into dry land.
They went through the flood on foot. There did we rejoice in
him. Now you know how it was, the
children of Israel, God sent Moses down there and told Pharaoh,
let my people go. Pharaoh said, I'm not going to
do it. Who's your God? That I should obey his voice. And God, every
time he'd send a plague, every time God would display his absolute
power over everything in creation, send this horrible plague upon
Egypt. What happened every time? Pharaoh
would call Moses and Pharaoh would say, Oh, Moses, I'm sorry. This time I'm going to let the
people go. This time I'll let the people
go. And as soon as the plague was lifted by the same almighty
power of God, Turn the water into blood, the frog, the lice
off. Nobody but God's power could send it and nobody but God's
power could take it away. When God by his power took it
away, what happened? Pharaoh would harden his heart.
And that cycle just kept continuing, kept continuing, didn't it? Until
one night God passed through Egypt and he killed every firstborn
in Egypt that was not under the blood of the Passover lamb. God
came and killed Pharaoh's firstborn. I mean, just what a stake through
the heart. Horribly painful that must have
been. And even God killing all those firstborn did not change
Pharaoh's heart. Oh, for a while he let him go,
didn't he? For a while he thrust him out. But just like every
other time, he changed his mind and he got his army together
and he chased after Israel to the Red Sea. He was going to
bring them back into slavery. make it worse for them than ever. God caused a pillar of cloud
to come between him and Egypt, between him and the Israelites.
On this side where Pharaoh was, a total darkness, they couldn't
see a thing. Over there where the Israelites were, there's
light. And Pharaoh watched as God in untold power parted a
sea. made the water stand up in walls. That seabed, how many years had
been covered with water? It's so muddy and thick and Israel
passed over on dry ground. They got their feet dusted crossing
the Red Sea. Pharaoh watched that. He watched
God's power to do that. And then that cloud went away.
And you'd think God's power would make Pharaoh turn around and
hightail it back home, didn't he? But he didn't. Right in after
him, he went. God drowned him and all his army
in the Red Sea. And they never did repent, did
they? They never did submit, even though they saw God's power,
they never did submit. And I tell you what's worse,
seeing God's raw power didn't even make Israel truly worship
the Lord, did it? Oh, they rejoiced. They rejoiced
when those walls of water fell in on Pharaoh and his army. And
in just days, they were murmuring against Moses saying, you never
should have took us out of Egypt. We're going to go back. They
saw God's raw power. It didn't change their heart
either. And all but two of them over the age of 20 died because
of unbelief in the wilderness. So even though they saw the raw
power of God, it didn't change their heart, did it? And knowing
that nobody can stand before God's power, that won't make
us repent and worship and praise God. Verse seven, he ruleth by
his power forever. His eyes behold the nations,
let not the rebellious exalt themselves. After Israel left
the Red Sea, how many nations did they destroy? So they went
in and possessed the promised land. All kinds of them. And after a little while, Nobody
was surprised when Israel showed up, were they? Everybody knew
Israel's coming and they're going to defeat us. Nobody, they heard
all the stories. They knew what was going to happen.
They heard how God had miraculously defeated all those enemies, all
those kings, all those mighty armies. Move back at Joshua chapter
two. The spies got there to Jericho
and Rahab told them, we've heard about you. We've heard about
you and your God. We know you. Joshua 2 verse 9. She said unto the men, I know
that the Lord had given you the land and that your terror has
fallen upon us and all the inhabitants of land faint because of you.
We've heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for
you when you came out of Egypt and what you did to the two Kings
of the Amorites that were on the other side of Jordan, Sihon
and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these
things, Our hearts didn't melt. Neither did there remain any
more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord your God,
he is God in heaven and above and on earth beneath." Now, they
all knew that. They all knew they had no way
to stand up against God's power, yet none of them surrendered.
Rahab's the only one. Nobody surrendered. Nobody bowed. Nobody worshiped. They all just
exalted themselves until every last one of them died under the
hand of Joshua. Now, God's people, they love God's sovereign power
over all things. But that doesn't make, that's
not what, we love it. We love to hear about it. We're
just, oh, it's so comforting to us. But that's not what makes
the heart of God's people truly worship and praise him, just
like it doesn't the rebel. All right, here's the second
thing. God's power in trials, God's
power in sending a trial and in delivering his people from
it. That won't make the natural heart worship and praise the
Lord. Now, believers do what he says here in verse eight.
Oh, bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise
to be heard. We who believe God, we do bless our God. We know
he is the one that sent the storm of trial our way. And it frightens
us, it knocks us around, but we know He's the one that's sinning. Only God has the power to do
it. And we find that God has the power and the wisdom to send
the exact right trial at the exact right time at the exact
right intensity. We praise God for that. We know
this is what He does. for his people to strengthen
and try our faith, to wean us away from the world. We do blessing.
And then the Lord does what he says here in verse nine, which
holdeth our soul in life and suffereth not our feet to be
moved. The Lord holds the lives of his people during the storm.
He holds them safe in the storm, the trial that he sinned. Now
the storm will batter them, but it's not going to destroy them
because God holds their life. The storm will shake us all around,
but God and His power will not let our feet move off Christ
the rock. See, it's God and His power and His wisdom. He's the
one who brings the trial. And He's not doing it to punish
His people. No, their sin has already been
punished. In Christ our substitute, God
does not send trials to punish the sins of His people. God sends
the trial to try the faith of His people, to increase their
faith, so that they learn to depend more upon Him. We talk
about increasing our faith. God didn't send a trial just
so your legs are strengthened, your body is strengthened, so
you can stand up against more trials. No, what He teaches you
in the trial is how weak you are, so you'll depend more upon
Him. That's an increase of faith.
An increase of faith is an increased knowledge of how weak I am and
how much I depend upon Him. That's why Paul said, when I'm
weak, then am I strong. Because when I'm weak, then I
lean more upon the Savior. And His strength carries me.
His strength supports me. God sends the trial to make His
people more valuable and more beautiful. Look what He says
in verse 10. For thou, O God, hast proved us. Thou hast tried
us as silver is tried. God lights that fiery trial to
burn off the draws of these people, to make them more beautiful and
more valuable. Now, how as a believer, how do
we become more beautiful because of these trials? Well, I'll tell
you this. The less we depend upon the flesh
and the less we talk about the flesh and the more that we depend
upon the Lord, the more valuable, the more beautiful, there's nothing
uglier than talking about the flesh. There's nothing good in
it. Oh, but the more we depend upon
the Lord, the more we talk about His strength and His glory and
His mercy, the more beautiful we are and the more valuable
we are. We're more valuable the less we walk by sight and the
more we walk by hope. We're more beautiful, more valuable
that way. A believer becomes more valuable
when the dross is burned off and we learn more about the Savior
and we learn to talk less about ourselves and more about Him.
That makes a believer, more beautiful, more valuable. And even though
the trial hurt, the believer can praise God for it, can't
he? For the results of it. But don't ever be mistaken about
this. Here we're talking about God's power and God's sin in
this trial. Don't ever be mistaken about this. It's God who sends
the trial. The devil didn't do it. It wasn't
bad luck that did it. It wasn't men that did it. It
wasn't evil men. It was God that did it. Verse 11. Thou broughtest
us into the net. Thou laid affliction upon our
loins. Thou hast caused men to write over our heads. It wasn't
men that came in and conquered us. You caused them to do it.
We went through fire and through water, but Thou broughtest us
out into a wealthy place. See, God did all that, didn't
He? He did all that to accomplish His purpose, to burn off the
dross and make His people more valuable and more beautiful.
God's the one who brought the trial. In His appointed time,
He brought an end to it. And He brought His people safely
through it. That's what they're saying at
the end of verse 12. You brought us through the trial into a wealthy
place. You brought us into a wealthy
place. And if you look at the map, there's no other way to
get there other than through the trial, you see. And you brought
us through it. You brought us to this place.
And God's people praise you for it. So verse 13, he says, I will
go into thy house with burnt offerings. I will pay thee my
vows, which my lips have uttered, and my mouth has spoken when
I was in trouble. I will offer unto thee burnt
sacrifices of fatlings with the incense of rams. I will offer
bullets with goats. Now trials and troubles, you
know, just trials come to God's people for a specific reason,
for God's purpose. But trouble comes upon everybody. You can't go with nobody, I don't
care who you are, nobody goes through this life without trouble
and heartache and sorrow. And that has two different, vastly
different effects on people. Trials bring a believer closer
to Christ. Because it makes us depend more
upon Him. It makes us depend more upon His strength. We've
got no other strength but His, so we run to Him. We've got no
other refuge, so we run to Him. Trials cause a believer to draw
closer to Christ. But trial, trouble, heartache
cause the unbeliever to go away. Trials cause the believer to
come to the Lord. to worship Him, to worship around
the sacrifice of Christ. We don't come to worship because
we think, well, if I come to come to service, God will take
this trial away. And we don't come, just come to service because
God just delivered us from this trial. We've come to worship
because of the sacrifice of Christ. Whether I'm in the heat of the
trial or God's brought me into the wealthy place, either way,
we don't worship God because of the state of our bodies. We
worship God through the sacrifice of Christ. These sacrifices that
David talks about here, the picture, the sacrifice of Christ, how
he put our sin away. See, trials drive the believer
to Christ, whereas it does the opposite to the unbeliever. Trials
force the unbeliever away from Christ. Remember the parable
of the sower, the stony ground here, the thorny ground here,
and the good ground here. Well, that stony ground here heard
the gospel. The seed came, he heard the gospel. And oh, he
got real excited about it at first, didn't he? But as soon
as the heat of tribulation came, he quit. Because he didn't have
any root down deep in the ground. See, they'll quit. The unbeliever,
trouble and trial comes. Like any soldier in foxhole,
make a bargain with God. God, if you get me out of this,
I'll never miss a sunny service. I'll quit smoking, drinking,
cussing, and chewing. I'll start living better. I'll
start giving more. And the moment the trial is over,
they might pay their vow for a while. I got to give them credit.
Some of them pay their vow for a while, but it won't last. It won't last. Because they built
a shelter for a storm in the storm. They built it while the
storm was going on. And as soon as the storm is over,
they abandon their shelter. I was in a hurricane one time,
and we evacuated to a hurricane shelter. Middle of the night,
had to go down to this hurricane shelter, and I wasn't real thrilled
about it. But while there's 110 mile an hour winds going on out
there, I was awful glad to be in that hurricane shelter. I
mean, I was real glad for it. And Sean, the moment that wind
quit blowing, I left that shelter, and I never went back. That's
what David's talking about here. They come, they say they'll pay
their vows. They will for a while, but it won't last. But now the
believer will. The believer will pay their vows. I have sworn faith to the Lord
Jesus Christ. I'm going to worship him. I'm
going to praise him whether I'm in good times or bad. Whether
I'm on a mountaintop or in the valley, I'm going to worship
God. I'm going to praise him. I'm
going to seek him. See, believers are thankful that
God's the one that's in control. I'm thankful. God's the one.
He's in control of everything. It's a matter of trials. God
controls when it starts. He controls the heat of it. He's
got just the right... He doesn't just put His people
in the fire and walk away. No, He sits right there controlling
the heat of it so it doesn't get too hot. It just burns off
just the right amount of gas. And He controls the end of it.
He knows when time's up and He controls the end of it. Now,
if we didn't trust God's power, and God's wisdom in those things,
we'd quit too. I mean, really, we would. If
it wasn't for that, we'd be just like the stony ground here. If
it wasn't for faith God gave us, that he didn't make our hearts
good and prepared and give us root down deep in Christ, if
he didn't do that, we'd quit too. And we're thankful. But that's not the main reason
for praise and worship of the Lord, because the real reason,
heart worship, You know, the worship and praise that's real
from the heart. Well, it doesn't have anything
to do with the flesh. It doesn't have anything to do with the
state of the flesh. It has to do with the heart. So here's the
third thing. We truly worship and praise the
Lord for what he's done for our soul. Look what David says in
verse 16. Come and hear. Come and hear. All ye that fear God and I will
declare what he hath done for my soul. Now come and hear. Now earlier, these other two
times, he said, come and see, didn't he? Come see God's power.
Come see the things that God's done in the earth. But now he
says, come here, because faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. Isaiah told us, come here, hear,
and your soul shall live. Our Lord told us if we hear him
speak, we shall live. Come and hear. Mercy enters in
at the ear of God. It's not because of what we see.
It's because of what we hear. Our souls can't be saved by what
we see, because faith cometh by hearing. Now, you all know
the old saying, seeing is believing. If I see it, yep, I can't deny
it. No, that's true. But spiritually speaking, it's
not true. Spiritually, it's not seeing is believing. Spiritually,
it's hearing is believing. That's how we're convinced. It's
by hearing that God give us a hearing ear. But if we're going to hear,
we're going to hear from some man preaching. We're going to
hear from somebody, a testimony of somebody, but who the Lord
is. Now, all of us aren't preachers, certainly, but every believer
can do exactly what Dave is talking about here. Come in here. Let me tell you what God's done
for my soul. Come in here. Let me tell you
how God saved me by his grace and the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't
that what our Lord told that former demoniac to do? You know,
the Lord, nobody could tame him. He's a wild man living up there
in the cemetery. And the Lord went out in a word.
Drove that legion out. And those folks came back for
the first time they could ever remember. There sat that man
clothed in his right mind. They saw the power of God. You
know what they wanted the Lord to do? Leave. I looked at them
and said, Lord, I want to go with you. These folks are crazy. I don't want to stay with them.
And Lord said, no, no, don't go with me. You go home to your friends and
your family. Here's what you tell them. You
tell them I'm home because of the great things that God has
done for me. And he had compassion on me.
You go home and tell them that. Now come, let me tell you. I
was a rebel, a rebel against God. I heard of salvation in
Christ, but I would not come. I would not choose Christ, but
God chose to save me anyway. Come let me tell you how I was
born dead in sin, and Christ came and gave me life. He died
so I could live. He died the death that I deserve
so I could have His life. Come let me tell you about my
sin debt, a debt I could not pay, and Christ had compassion
on me. He came and took my place and
paid my debt in full with His lifeblood. Come and let me tell
you, I was lost. I wasn't trying to find my way
home, but I could have found it if I wanted to. And Christ came
where I was and found me, picked me up and carried me all the
way home. Come, let me tell you how I couldn't keep the law.
God required I keep it, but I couldn't keep it. And Christ came in my
flesh. my representative and kept it
for me and made me righteous, made me what God requires that
be. Come, let me tell you how I would not and could not come
to Christ. But God made me willing in the
day of his power and he drew me to Christ so I couldn't stay
away from him. See, come, let me tell you what
God's done for my soul. That's praising the Lord. That's
worshiping the Lord. And the reason for it is all
what God's done for my soul. In verse 17, here's the cry of
praise. I cried unto him with my mouth and he was extolled
with my tongue. I found so much comfort in that
verse in the last couple of days thinking about preaching tonight. There is a way for Almighty God
to be extolled with the tongue of a man. That's what I prayed
for tonight, that he would be extolled through the tongue of
a man, through the preaching of the gospel. David extolled
him not by preaching, but by crying out to God for mercy.
The only thing he knew to cry, Lord save me. And David said,
when I cried like that, my tongue extolled the Lord. Now how can
simply crying out for mercy, how can that extoll and magnify
the Lord? I'll give you a couple of reasons.
Number one, when we beg for mercy, we extoll, we praise the Lord. God said his greatest glory is
showing sovereign mercy to sinners. We beg him, Lord, have mercy
on me. That's extolling his greatest glory, showing mercy to sinners.
Lord, don't save me because I did anything good, because I didn't.
Save me because of your mercy. You promised you'd show mercy
to sinners. Would you have mercy on me? That's
extolling, praising the Lord. We come to God in Christ because
I can't come any other way and be accepted. That's extolling
the name, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father is well
pleased with His Son. And we come the way God told
us to come in Christ. We honor Him. We extol and praise
Him. And we cry out for salvation,
for mercy. We extol God. Because when we
beg for mercy, we put God in His proper place. And us in our
proper place. That He's God and we're the helpless
beggar, the dependent beggar. He's the Savior and I'm the sinner
completely dependent. I can't get Him to save me. I
can't do anything to control or move the situation. I can't
move the needle a bit. I'm completely dependent upon
Him to save me. That's extolling and praising the Lord. Remember
that Syrophoenician woman whose daughter was so grievously vexed?
She took her place at the feet of the Master and wouldn't leave.
I mean, He insulted her. She wouldn't leave. And he said,
great is your faith, be it unto thee as you will. That centurion,
he's somebody. He's got a servant at home, grievously
ill. I mean, this man's somebody.
He came to ask the Lord to heal his servant. The Lord said, all
right, I'll come, I'll heal him. And the centurion said, no. He took
his proper place before the Savior. I'm not worthy that you come
into my river. Speak the word only, my servant will. And the
Lord said, I've not seen faith like that in history. He blessed
him. That centurion blessed by having
full confidence in the word, the power of God's word. And
we cry out to God like that. We have stole all the attributes
of God. And here's something else, another
way we've stole. Tell people what God's done for
us. The time made me holy. Verse 16, he says, verse 18, excuse me, verse 18.
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. But
verily God hath heard me. He hath attended to the voice
of my prayer. Now we know the holy God cannot
and will not hear the prayer of a sinful heart. He cannot
accept us in our sin. He's too holy to even look upon
sin. The heavens aren't even clean in his sight. But David
said, the Lord did hear my prayer. He did accept me. So evidently
there is a way that a heart can be made without sin. And I can
tell you how that happens. When God gives a new heart. God
gives a new holy heart, a heart that he'll accept. And the cries
of that heart, he will hear. He hears what God's done for
me. He made his son sin for me. Him who knew no sin, that I might
be made the righteousness of God in him. He made me perfect
and holy in his son. So God always hears my And he
always accepts me in his son. See, I was born in Adam, separated
from God, but God put me in Christ. God reconciled me to him through
the blood of his son and gave me union with Christ. Caused
me to be born again, so I'm a partaker of the divine nature. And he
hears and accepts the cries of that man, that new man born of
God. So here's what God did for me. He caused me to be born again. He gave me a new heart, a heart
that loves God, a heart that believes God. So I can't not
believe him and I can't not love him. So God hears my prayers
and accepts me because of what he's done in me. Now that's praising
the Lord. Here's one more thing, a way
to praise and worship the Lord. Here's one more thing he's done
for me. He's never turned me away and he never will. Verse
20. Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor
his mercy from me. See, this thing of the salvation
of my soul is all in God's mercy. God turned to me in mercy. A sinner, a sinful man, he turned
to me in mercy. God called me to his Son in mercy. God saved me in mercy. He gave
me the new birth. He gave me spiritual life. in
mercy and God keeps me by his mercy. And because of his mercy,
one day he's going to present me false before the father with
exceeding joy. That's the source of true prayer.
That our praise. That's the source of true praise.
It's salvation in the heart. It's salvation by God's mercy
and by God's grace. That's the source of true praise. I hope we can leave here tonight
with true praise on our hearts. All right, let's bow in prayer.
Father, we thank you for this blessed psalm that we've just
read. And Father, we do thank you for
your omnipotent, sovereign power over all things. We thank you
that you're the one who sends the trials to the hearts of your
people to try us and prove us. You're the one who sets the heat
and duration of them. You're the one that delivers,
brings it in and delivers. And we thank you. But Father, how we thank you.
Oh, how we praise you for your mercy and your grace to your
people. In your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
you've given us the gospel of Christ to hear, to hear and believe,
to hear of Him and have our souls thrilled, to have our faith strengthened
and our hearts encouraged. Father, I pray you bless your
word tonight. Make your word go forth in power
and of salvation. Cause it to go forth and bring
glory to your name. Let the hearts of your people
be comforted and encouraged as we continue the journey you've
called us to here below. It's in the precious name of
our Lord Jesus Christ. For his sake, we pray and give
thanks.