I didn't expect Mike to be here
this evening. We're very thankful you are.
He walked in tonight and I said, what are you doing here? I didn't mean it like that. We're
very thankful. It was a difficult, difficult
time. Now, if you would open your Bibles
again to Psalm 92, I have a story for you of how
I came to this text this evening. Back at the first part of this
year, before I had my back surgery, I was in a great deal of pain. The only way I could get relief
was to lay on my back on the hardwood floors. I couldn't even
lay in a mattress. It had to be those hardwood floors.
I could stand, I couldn't sit, you know, so I'd stand at work
and try to get my work done. As soon as I got done, I'd come
home and there I lay on those hardwood floors, you know. And
I couldn't come to service on Wednesday nights. Feeling pretty
sorry for myself. And I told Janet, I said, rather
than listen to a message tonight on sermon audio, I'd like for
you to read the Scripture to me. Just pick Scripture and read
Scripture aloud to me. And she did. And the very first
scripture she picked out to read to me, we made a habit of doing
this, but the very first scripture she picked out to read to me
was Psalm 92. Now, I can tell you, I had been
praying. I mean, I had been praying. But
I don't recall, to my shame, much thanksgiving in my prayers.
And there I lay, on the hardwood floors, feeling sorry for myself.
And the first words of this psalm just rang like a Chinese gong
in my ears. It's a good thing to give thanks
unto the Lord. It's a good thing. And as she
continued reading, I could just feel God's word, just like the
sweet balm of Gilead, just comforting my soul. Now it didn't, my physical
pain, I'm not telling you it was a miracle or my physical
pain was unaffected. But I had such calmness of soul
because of God's Word. I was so thankful, only God's
Word can preach a whole message to you in one sentence. It's
a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. And when she got done
reading, she was sitting in the chair and I said, give that to
me. And she said, this is what she said, I knew you were going
to preacher me. Earl, I knew you were going to
preacher me. I didn't know you could use the word preacher as
a verb, but she did. I knew you were going to preacher
me. But I wanted to see that scripture because as she read,
I could see an outline just unfold. And a couple of days after my
surgery, I sat down and I wrote out this outline. And that's
what I would like for us to look at in this psalm tonight. of
the countless many reasons it's a good thing to give thanks unto
the Lord. And it's a good thing for us
to be reminded. I'm not telling you anything you don't already
know. It's good for us to give thanks, but we do need to be
reminded because the sinfulness and the selfishness of this flesh
that we live in, our prayers too often contain too much petition
and far too little thanksgiving. Now, I'm not saying we ought
not ask The Lord taught us to pray. Give us this day our daily
bread. We have a lot to ask for. Now
we in this flesh are a poor and needy people. We have a lot to
ask for. And we should ask the Lord for
help in prayer because He's the only one who can help us. But
when we get in the depth of trial, we face uncertainty, we face
emotional pain, physical pain, we suffer loss like Debbie's
family suffered the loss of a dear loved one. We have a lot to ask
for, don't we? To pour out our need before our
Heavenly Father in prayer, before the believer. Even in those times
of the valley, we have so many reasons to give thanks. When
we're in the valley, just like all times, our prayers, no matter
what our situation is, our prayers should always contain thanksgiving.
The scripture says it's a good thing to give thanks to the Lord. It's good for me to give thanks. Now, it's just good for me to
give thanks unto the Lord. And it's good for others who
hear me, to hear me giving thanks to the Lord. Might it have been
a blessing to my family if I'd laid there on the floor and could
find it in my heart to give thanks? It'd been a good thing for them.
It'd have been a blessing for them. It's a good thing to give
thanks unto the Lord. Now, it's one thing To give thanks
to the Lord, we're on a mountaintop. Like Brother Henry said, we've
got the tiger by the tail on a downhill pull on the shady
side. It's one thing to give thanks then. But it's another
thing altogether to be able to give thanks in the valley. It's
a good thing to give thanks unto the Most High, even when we're
in the valley. I'll come back to that here in
a minute. But the psalm begins, it's a good thing. to give thanks
unto the Lord and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High. It's a good thing to give thanks
to the Most High. It's good. It's right. It's what
we should do. And it's pleasant to the new
heart to give thanks unto the Lord at all times. But especially
when we're brought into the valley, it's good to remember we're giving
thanks to the Most High. The Most High. Now God, our Father,
is the Most High. Now this might be pretty simple,
but that means there's nobody higher. Isn't that what that
means? He's the Most High. That means our Heavenly Father
is sovereign over all things. Nothing is outside His realm
of authority. He's sovereign over everything.
That means I didn't fall into that valley accidentally. He
brought me there on purpose. Our Sovereign Father brought
us here on purpose for our good, for our learning, and for His
glory. Now if He's brought me here for
my good and my learning, isn't it a good thing to give thanks?
It's a good thing to give thanks to the Most High. And it's a
good thing to sing the praises of the Most High and our God.
And I love to sing to Him. I love to sing hymns. When I'm
by myself in the car, you ought to hear me. I sing choruses and
hymns. I enjoy it. I just enjoy it. I can't sing, but I enjoy it.
One evening, a few weeks ago, I pulled up here on Wednesday
night, and there were no cars in the parking lot. And I'm getting
out of the car. I've been singing, and I keep
singing. I'm walking up the steps. I'm just singing away, you know,
because nobody's around. I would have quit if somebody
was in the parking lot. And I come in the door, and I mean I'm belting
it out. And there's John standing right
outside his study. Oh, man. I said, John, I was
singing like nobody was listening. You were supposed to be here.
He said, well, Vicki forgot something, so she dropped me off and she's
coming back. And he taught me, you know. But I enjoy singing
the hymns. And the church does. We had a
visiting preacher here one time who told me, he said, I love
to come here. He said, everybody sings with such heart. And we
ought to. The church is a singing people.
This singing, though, just like giving thanks, is done with knowledge. It's done with knowledge and
appropriate to the situation. Who are you thanking? The Most
High. Well, then you do it appropriately,
don't you? Whose praise are you singing? It's the praises of
the Most High. Then do it appropriate to the
situation. Do it reverently. Look at verse
3. David says, upon an instrument
of ten strings and upon the psaltery, upon the harp with a solemn sound.
And that word solemn means with meditation. Think about what
you're singing. Think about what you're singing
and do it with understanding. Now, the rest of this psalm,
the psalmist gives us a few reasons why it's a good thing to give
thanks unto the Lord. And the first one is found in
verse two. It's a good thing to give thanks to God for his
loving kindness. to show forth thy lovingkindness
in the morning." Now, Scripture teaches us that God Almighty
set His eternal love upon a people. He didn't set His love upon them
because they were lovable or because they were good. They
weren't. They were rebels. They were sinners. But God set
His love upon those people in His Son. And with lovingkindness,
He draws those people to Himself. Loving kindness is the word the
psalmist chooses to use. Loving kindness. And that word
means a compassion and a tenderness that's born from love. You know,
when I was hurting so bad before my surgery and then after the
surgery, I was impressed with all the medical people that I
ran across. They seemed to care a great deal
about my pain and do, you know, things that they could do to
alleviate. And they seemed to genuinely care about my pain. But nobody cared for me like
Janie did. Nobody did. Tonight, nobody is
taking care of our pastor like Vicki. It's a compassion that's
born out of a genuine love. Well, our Savior, Scripture says,
loves his people with an everlasting love. And he showed his loving
kindness. Love acts, doesn't it? He showed
his loving kindness when he left glory and humiliated himself
to be clothed in human flesh and lived a life as a man, to
be the representative of his people. And he became, willingly,
a sacrifice for the sins of his people. And he did that with
a compassion for sinners. A compassion for his people.
A couple weeks ago, our pastor pointed out how the crowds just
always thronged him and the crush was just always around him. Never
one time did he rebuke those people for thronging him. Never
one time. A compassion born from loving
kindness. And when I consider that God
loves me That He loved me like that, I must give thanks. It's a good thing to give thanks
for His loving kindness. Second, it's a good thing to
give thanks for God's faithfulness to show forth Thy loving kindness
in the morning and Thy faithfulness every night. God's faithful. He's faithful to His Word. He's
faithful to His people. He is faithful that promised.
Our Savior was faithful. Fulfill the law as a representative
of his people. He was faithful to fulfill it
in every jot and every tittle. He is faithful to leave nothing
undone. And he was faithful to freely
impute that obedience to his people. Freely, so perfectly
did he impute that righteousness to his people that his righteousness
is my righteousness. His righteousness is my righteousness. Because He is my righteousness.
I don't know if that makes sense, but that makes sense to me when
I was writing out these notes. He is my righteousness. And He's
faithful to honor His Word. He's faithful to bless His Word
that's preached to His people. His Word will not return unto
Him void. And here's some comfort for those of you who preach and
those of you who teach. In spite of the preacher, He's
faithful to honor His Word. We bumble and say things like
I said to Mike, we shouldn't have said it that way. He's faithful
to honor His Word. Preach the Word. He's faithful
to honor His Word. Read His Word. Just like I told
you those times many evenings, just read out loud. Just read
the Scripture out loud. Read it. He's faithful to bless
His Word. He's faithful to call His people
to Himself through faith that's been given by the Holy Spirit.
And He's faithful, ultimately, to call every one of those people
to glory, to be with Him where He is, that we may behold His
glory. He's not going to lose one. He's
faithful. And I'm so thankful He's faithful
at all times. There's never a time we do not
have a reason to give thanks. He's faithful at all times, in
the morning and in the night. Give thanks to Him in the morning.
It's a good thing to start out your day giving thanks. The Lord
brought you safely through another night. We slept. He didn't. He doesn't slumber nor sleep.
He's faithful to watch over us when we're sound asleep. He's
always protecting His people. And every night, when you put
your head down on the pillow, give thanks. Oh, give thanks.
He brought you safely through another day of our journey here. Give thanks. Morning, noon, and
night. It's a good thing to give thanks
unto the Lord. Third, it's good to give thanks
for all the works of the Lord, but particularly his work. Look
at verse four. For thou, Lord, hast made me
glad through thy work. I will triumph in the works of
thy hands. O Lord, how great are thy works,
and thy thoughts are very deep. Now, David here talks about thy
work, and then he talks about the works of the Lord, doesn't
he? Look over Psalm 111. He does this again in Psalm 111.
In verse 2, the works of the Lord are great, sought out of
all them that have pleasure therein. But in verse 4, he hath made
his wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full
of compassion. Verse 6, he hath sowed his people
the power of his works. that he may give them the heritage
of the heathen. The works of his hand are verity and judgment. All his commandments are sure.
Those are all the works of the Lord, all plural. But look at
verse 3. His work, singular. His work
is honorable and glorious. And his righteousness endureth
forever. What's he talking about there
in verse 3? He's talking about the preeminent work of the Lord. His work of redemption. This
work. preeminent of all the other works
of God. Now it's true the works of God
are great. And every believer will ultimately
triumph in the works of God. All His works are great. The
human mind cannot comprehend. God has worked every event of
human history to work together to accomplish His eternal purpose
of saving a number no man can number. Our mind can never comprehend
that. Spurgeon made this statement.
He said creation is immeasurable. And boy, he's right. Even all
these years later, men are still discovering amazing mysteries
of God's creation they never knew about before. Like we just
discovered this. It's been here all this time.
We just found it out. His words that creation is immeasurable. Providence, Spurgeon said, is
inexhaustible. You think about all the intricate,
seemingly insignificant things that have happened over the course
of human history. God brought all those things
together to work together to accomplish His eternal purpose.
Providence is inexhaustible. But, Spurgeon said, redemption
is grand beyond comprehension. It's just greater than our minds
will ever be able to comprehend. And when I think about God's
work of redemption, I can say with David, He made me glad through
thy work. God's work of redemption that
He undertook for me. I can't get over it. I can see Him doing that for
other folks. I can't see Him doing it for me. But I think
that God loved me. He chose me, put me in His Son
before the world began, even though He knew my sin. And then
God the Son came into this world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. He worked out a perfect righteousness
as my substitute that He freely imputes to me. He willingly took
my sins in His body on the trail. He was made to be sin for me. And He paid the full, awful penalty
of God's justice for my sin. He drank the cup dry. He suffered
unimaginable agony. We cannot imagine the sufferings
of his soul when the Holy Son of God was made to be sin. We
can't imagine that suffering. He bled and he died under God's
justice to pay for my sins and they put a dead body in the tomb
and rolled a stone in front He rose again for my justification. And He ascended back to the Father
where He sits enthroned at His Father's right hand ever living
to make intercession for sinners like me. Now, brother, that makes
me glad. I mean, it makes me glad. I must
give thanks. I must give thanks. It's good
to give thanks for His work of redemption. For if it's good,
to give thanks for God-given understanding. Do you have any
clue about what I've been talking about tonight? When Wayne opened
up the Scripture and read it to you, did you have any understanding
of what he was reading? If you do, give thanks. That's
a gift God gave you. Look at verse 6. A British man
knoweth not, neither doth a fool understand this. When the wicked
springeth the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do
flourish, It is that they should be destroyed forever, but thou,
Lord, art most high forevermore." Now, a brutish man. Who's this
brutish man that Psalms talks about? Well, it's every one of
us in the flesh. What we are in the flesh is just
brute beasts. When Adam fell, we became fools. Men became fools with no more
spiritual understanding than a brute beast had an understanding
of the works of Shakespeare. We just became brute beasts.
Now, men are brilliant. They have a brilliant mind in
math and science and the arts and medicine. But the natural
man does not know Christ. He has no spiritual discernment,
no spiritual understanding, even though he has a brilliant mind.
Romans 1 describes all of us as without understanding. That's
the way we're born, without understanding. Matter of fact, a man who does
not know Christ, All his knowledge, as brilliant as he may be, all
his knowledge is ignorance. I'll give you a prime example.
God gives a man a brilliant mind so he can understand science.
What does he do with it? Comes up with a theory of evolution. All his knowledge is ignorance
because he's without understanding by nature. One of the writers
said this, I like this, God made man a little lower than the angels
And he's been trying to get lower ever since. That's us. That's
the nature of the people Christ came to save. Aren't you thankful
for that? But the Lord doesn't leave them
there. He gives them an understanding. Look at Luke 24. This is a very
familiar passage of Scripture, but it drives home this point.
Luke 24. Verse 44. And he said unto them, These
are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning
me. He told them these things before. Then opened he their
understanding, that they might understand the scriptures. These
men had been with the Lord for over three years, every day,
and they still had to be given understanding. Think we do? If they did, I'm confident I
do. And any understanding we have,
we should give thanks. God gave it. He had to give it.
And we have some understanding of who God is. Now this understanding,
we don't understand everything there is in Scripture. We don't
understand everything there is to know. But we understand this.
We understand who God is. We understand who we are. We
understand who we are by nature. We understand how God can be
just and justifier through his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. God
gave us that understanding. In 1 John 5, verse 19, John says,
now we know this, that we're a God and the whole world lieth
in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God
has come and he's given us an understanding that we may know
what? Know him. that we may know Him
that is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ." This is the true
God. This is eternal life. He's given us this understanding,
spiritual understanding. But now we also have an understanding
of some things that are happening in this world. In verse 7 and
8, David talks about the wicked springing up as the grass and
the workers of iniquity flourishing, but they're going to be destroyed
forever. Now, we know that. We see the wicked flourish. We
know it's just for a time. It may grate on my last nerve,
but we understand it's just for a time, for a short time. The
wicked, when they prosper, it doesn't mean the Lord's blessing
them. It could mean He's just raising them up for His purpose,
like He raised up Pharaoh, that He'd get glory in destroying
them. Could be He raises up a wicked man so He gives this one God's
sheep a job. Who knows? But when the wicked
flourish, don't get mad Shane, you know, the end of the story,
the wicked are flourishing. I mean, they're flourishing just
like David said, their eyes stand out with fatness. They want for
nothing. The same things happen in our day. Nothing's changed.
The wicked flourish. But now listen, God is in control. This world is not spun out of
control. It's not in the control of the
hands of wicked men. You know this. God's given you
an understanding. God's in control. Give thanks. Give thanks that that's so, that
God's in control, and give thanks He's given you understanding
to know it's so. God's in control. Fifth, it's
good to give thanks for God's electing love. Look at verse
9. For lo, thine enemies, O Lord, for lo, thine enemies shall perish.
All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered, but my horn shall
thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn. I shall be anointed with fresh
oil. Mine eye also shall see my desire of mine enemies, and
mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against
me." Now, God is love. That's a true statement that
is abused and misused all over this world. God is love. That's
a true statement. But that does not mean that God
loves everyone without exception. What that means is that God himself
is love. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
embodiment of love. He is love. Love is not an emotion
we feel. He is love. And the Father loves
his people in Christ. He loves his people for Christ's
sake. But he does not love everyone.
And the proof of that is hell. Now I know from Scripture one
day we will rejoice at that. That day is not today. We don't
rejoice over that today. We weep over that today. We weep over it. We gather together
here. We preach. Our pastor preaches
on the radio. Dan puts all these messages out
on the internet so that people will hear and come to know the
Lord Jesus Christ. We weep when they don't. I weep
when people hear us preach and don't believe it. I weep over
it. But the proof that God does not love everyone is people don't
believe the gospel, and hell is populated with those people.
Those wicked, those people were the wicked. They rose up for
a time, but now they've perished eternally. And that is exactly
what Every son of Adam deserves by nature. Every one of us sitting
here this evening, that's exactly what we deserve by nature, eternal
damnation. But thank God, God is love. And he must show that love on
the object of his affection. He set his love, scripture says,
on a particular people. And he sent his son to die in
the place of those particular people. And those people shall
be saved. Christ is not a failure. God's
Son shall not fail. Those people will be saved and
will live eternally with the Lord. David said here in verse
10, My horn shall thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn. Now
he talks about a unicorn here. He doesn't mean this little deer
looking thing with one horn. You know, Maggie, shoot that
thing. That's not what he's talking about. Probably he's talking
about a rhinoceros. That one horn, that was a symbol
of power in David's day. An animal that cannot be conquered,
that cannot be tamed is so powerful. David is saying God gives his
people power. Power. He gives them power to
believe. He gives them power to follow
Christ. Cecil read it in the studies
in my other illustration of this. He gives them power to become
sons of God. He gives them power, the right,
the privilege to become sons of God. And we're anointed, David
says, with fresh oil. We receive fresh anointing of
the Holy Spirit every day. We receive fresh views of Christ. It's not that you see something
new, but it's fresh. It's new every day. It's not
like the newspaper, you know, you have to read that once it's
old. He gives us fresh views of Christ every day. Fresh grace
for the day. Mercy for the hour. And I'll
tell you, David sounds right sure of himself, doesn't he?
He says, mine eye also shall see my desire, mine enemies.
Mine horn shalt thou exalt. He means, thou shalt, thou shalt.
This is what I shall. He sounds awful sure of himself.
One good reason. God's faithful. His mercies are
new every day. He's faithful. It's a good thing
to give thanks for God's electing love. I promise you this, if
He did not love us first, we'd never love Him. It's only because
He first loved us. If God set His love on you, you
don't need me telling you to give thanks. It just comes naturally. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. You know it's undeserved, and
you'll give thanks. It's a good thing to give thanks
for God's electing grace. Sixth, it's a good thing to give
thanks for growth in grace. The righteous shall flourish
like the palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in
Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall
flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth
fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing."
Earlier, David described the wicked as springing up as the
grass. Boy, they grow quickly, don't
they? And they can grow thick in some places, but grass never
lasts. It doesn't last. You can easily
cut it down and throw it into the furnace. Just let the Lord
withhold rain for a little bit. It's all dead. But in contrast
to the grass, David likens the righteous to a palm tree. Believers
are like palm trees. I'll give you three ways. First,
a palm tree grows in the desert. All you see is sand. There's
a palm tree growing up out there. How'd that happen? Palm tree
found that water. It can grow in the desert. That's
what a believer is in this world. This world is a desert. It's
a dry, barren place with no life for the believer. And I'll be
honest with you. This world looks like a lost
cause to me. I mean, it just looks like a
complete lost cause. But by God's grace, palm trees
keep spurting up here and there. Growing in the desert. because
God's faithful to honor His Word. Second, believers are like palm
trees because palm trees are strong. Now, I was in college. I think it was between my junior
and senior year. A buddy of mine and I, we got
in a car, drove to Florida to see a friend of ours who'd moved
down there. And we were out on the beach and having a big old
time, you know. One Saturday, we were out at the beach and
there was this party. Wow, it's huge. There were corporate sponsors.
I mean, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. And the
center of activity was this pier. It went way out into the ocean.
That thing was a monster. You couldn't get on it. I mean,
a pack of people. They were probably giving away
free stuff or whatever. We never got near it. Well, about two days
later, a hurricane blew in. We spent two or three days in
a hurricane shelter, and we finally got out of that place, and we
went back to our buddy's condo. We walked back out on the beach.
They told us not to, so of course we did. And we were walking out
there and my buddy says, remember we were down here the other day?
I said, yeah. He said, that's where that pier
was. It was gone. I mean, there wasn't a trace
that that thing ever existed. And right where that pier used
to be, not 15 feet away, you know what was standing there?
Palm trees. Standing there like nothing ever
happened. That's a believer in this life. The Lord gives strength to endure
what you think you cannot endure. He gives you strength and grace
to endure the many storms and troubles and trials of this life.
Palm trees are strong. And third, palm trees bear fruit.
Just like believers bear the fruit of the Spirit. Now some
in different amounts, but it's all the same fruit. Because it's
all the fruit of Christ. He's divine. We're the branches
that bear His fruit. It's all the same fruit. And
that fruit grows sweeter as the years roll on. I read about palm
trees that palm trees produce the best and sweetest fruit between
30 years and 100 years old. Long after most trees have quit
bearing fruit. Most of them are dead by that
time, and a palm tree is bearing the sweetest fruit. And that's
a believer. As the believer ages, the flesh
decays, it waxes weaker and weaker, but the fruit of the Spirit grows
stronger and sweeter. And David likens believers to
the palm tree and to the cedar tree. Cedar trees are known for
living hundreds of years. They grow tall and stately. And
cedar wood is incorruptible. Well, that's a good description
of a believer. In Christ, we are incorruptible, made sinless
in Him. And a believer should grow tall
and stately. Most of the time I feel like
a charlatan. But a believer should grow tall and stable. We should
show the effects of grace over the years. How many years have
you been hearing the gospel preached? Shouldn't we act like that to
have some influence on us? Should. And believers will live that
a long time. You think a cedar tree lives
a long time, believers are going to live eternally because God's
given them eternal life. And last, it's a good thing to
give thanks unto the Lord Because this is all his doing. He did
it all. Verse 15, to show that the Lord
is upright. He is my rock. And there's no
unrighteousness in him. You know, these palm trees and
these cedar trees David talked about, they didn't plant themselves.
They're the planting of the Lord. And that's a believer. We didn't
give ourselves spiritual life anymore. We gave ourselves physical
life. Somebody else gave that to us. God gives his people spiritual
life. He planted them. He made them
be born again in His house, in His courts. And He's going to
tend the garden. Now those trees are going to
be well taken care of. Now there are times that wise
gardener comes to prune the trees. But he prunes them so they'll
bear more fruit. He never yet cut one down. Never. They're going to flourish
in His courts. And the reason He did all this
is to show forth His glory. To show forth His power. To show
forth His mercy. To show forth His grace. To show
forth His lovingkindness. To show forth His righteousness
and His holiness. To make us trophies of His grace. Not so we get any trophy or any
glory. So He gets all the glory. He
did it to show forth His lovingkindness. His righteousness. His mercy. It's a good thing to give thanks
to the Lord, to the Most High. He did it all. God help us to
give thanks.