Now, the title of the message
is the first words of this Psalm 33, Rejoice in the Lord. But
the psalmist says, Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous, for
praise is comely. Now, he begins with an exhortation
to the righteous to praise the Lord. He says, You there, O ye
righteous, rejoice in the Lord. Now, only the righteous can really
rejoice in the Lord. The whole world should praise
him. The whole world has reason to rejoice in him. But only the
righteous can truly rejoice in him. Because true rejoicing,
just like true worship, comes from the heart. We've got to
be given a new heart of worship. And that's where our rejoicing
comes from. Spurgeon said, talking about this rejoicing in the Lord
as a command for the righteous. He says, praise from the natural
man is like putting a jewel in a pig's mouth. And I thought,
you know, that's virgin in his day. In our day, I'd say that's
putting a jewel in anybody's snout. It doesn't look natural. It doesn't look natural on a
person. It doesn't look good. But for the upright, praise is
comely. It looks good on the righteous.
It comes naturally to the righteous, to those whom the Lord has made
righteous, to rejoice in Him and to praise Him. Praising our
God is jewelry to the believer. Look over at Psalm 147. It's
just what's natural to the believer. In Psalm 147, he says, Praise
ye the Lord, for it is good to sing praises unto our God, for
it's pleasant and praise is comely. It's comely to the believer,
to the ones whom the Lord has made righteous. So he tells us
to rejoice in the Lord. In verse 2, he says, Praise the
Lord with heart. Sing unto him with the psaltery,
and an instrument of ten strings. Sing unto him a new song. Play
skillfully with a loud noise." Now, the church has always been
a singing people. Even Israel of old sang the psalms
that Moses wrote, and later they sang the psalms that David wrote.
The Lord and His disciples, when they ate the last Passover, when
they ate the first Lord's table, Scripture says they sang a psalm
and went out. The church is a singing people,
singing the praises of our God. Now, we can't all play instruments,
you know. We can't all go over here and
play the piano like Jason did, you know, before service as we
were singing. We all can't sing solos, but
we can all sing. Now, we can't all do that. It
may not be as good as somebody else, but we can all sing. And
I'm glad somebody can play musical instruments. It helps us in our
singing. And those musical instruments never sound as good as when they're
being played doing what we're doing here, when they're being
played in the singing of the praises of our God. One of the
writers says, use the harp because the harp suits a blood washed
hand. It just sounds best when it's
being used in the praises of our God. And like I say, we might
not all be able to sing like we like to, but the human voice
sounds best when it's praising God, when it's When it is praising
our Savior, that's when the human voice sounds the best. And the
psalmist is telling all of us, be energetic in your worship. Put your whole self into it. The Lord's redeemed us body and
soul, hadn't he? Then put your body and soul into
it, into worshiping him. Someone was visiting here one
time and they'd visited two or three times and they told me,
I like to visit here. I enjoy the song service because
people sing from the heart. And that's the way it ought to
be. And you know, it's our nature to shout for joy, isn't it? That's
just people's nature when we're truly happy. And if you don't
believe me, wait till Saturday afternoon, wait about three seconds
to go in a UK game and watch somebody throw a touchdown pass
and see the noise. I mean to tell you, I watched
the start of that big blue madness. I mean, you think they're going
to bring the house down? And I'm not saying, believe me,
I'm not, I'm a conservative person. I'm not saying we ought to make
a spectacle of ourselves in public worship, running around and acting
a fool. But we should put our whole self into worshiping the
Lord because he's worthy. He is. And you know, all of God's
nature sends praises to the creator. In Isaiah 55, verse 12, we read
about the mountains singing and the trees of the field clapping
their hands to the Lord. In Psalm 65, verse 13, the valleys
sing and shout for joy. In 1 Chronicles 16, verse 33,
the trees of the wood sing at the presence of the Lord. Birds
sing. You go out and you hear them
singing in the morning, they're singing because God's put a song
in their heart. Well, he's put a song in your heart, too. How
much more should a sinner sing? He's been washed in the blood
of the Lamb. All we should be is singing people. And we enjoy
singing the praises of our Savior because we sing a new song. The
song of the gospel is always new and fresh. I don't care how
many times you've heard it, it's always new and fresh. And it's
sung from a new heart. And there's always new mercies
to sing about because the Lord's mercies are new every morning.
So we can always sing a new song as we rejoice in the Lord. Now,
the psalmist and the rest of this song gives us five reasons
to rejoice in the Lord, and the first one is the character of
the Lord. His character is right, it's
true, and it's good. Look in verse four. For the word
of the Lord is right. And all his works are done in
truth. He loveth righteousness and judgment. The earth is full
of the goodness of the Lord." God's Word is right. There's
no error in it. You can't find a defect in it
anywhere. It's right because it's the Word
of God who is right. And it's right simply because
God said it. That's why it's right. This Word
is perfect truth. There's not a word of it. Not
only is there not a word of it that's untrue, there's not a
word of it that's even misleading. It's perfect truth. And when
we read God's word, we read of the Lord Jesus Christ. We read
of redemption that his people have in his sacrifice. We read
how God can be just and justifier. We read how Christ has redeemed
everything his elect lost in Adam. And that's reason for us
to rejoice. That's the word of God. But the
Word of God is also the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Word incarnate. And He is perfectly right. Perfectly righteous. The only
perfect man to ever live. He's brought in righteousness.
He is our righteousness. He makes His people righteous.
He is right. He's the Lord who loveth righteousness
and will judge the world in righteousness. So He's right and Christ is the
truth personified. He is the truth of God, who reveals
the truth of God and the truth about men. And he will never
fail nor be discouraged. He will do absolutely everything
he promised to do because he is truth. You see, Christ is
the reason for our rejoicing. He's right. He's true. And he's good. There's none good
but God. And he is truly good. He's so
good, the psalmist said the whole earth is full of His goodness.
Now you look at creation, and it's easy to see, if you've got
eyes to see, it's easy to see the goodness of the Lord. The
sun shines, gives us the right amount of sunshine. The earth
is watered with rain and dew. The atmosphere stays full of
air. I don't care how many pairs of lungs draw in, how many breaths
we all draw in a day, The earth stays full of air. We don't run
out of air. That's the goodness of the Lord. He provides for
every creature on this earth. The smallest insect to the largest
animal has their provision from the Lord because he's good. And
the Lord provides for even man, sinful, rebellious man, the Lord
provides for men because of his goodness. And his greatest goodness
we know is his mercy to sinners. And I'm telling you, the earth
is full of the mercy and goodness of God. He's redeemed the people
from every kindred, tongue, people and nation. There's not a nation
on this planet that hasn't had the mercy of the Lord and the
Lord saving someone out of that nation. Maybe it's an infant
that dies in infancy, but there's not a nation on this planet that
hasn't experienced the mercy of God, because God's everywhere
and his mercy is everywhere. This earth is full of his mercy.
And in our age today of communication, where communication across the
globe is instant, the gospel is heard everywhere on this planet
via the Internet. I mean, we just don't know what
God's doing. We can't imagine the things that
he's doing to call his sheep out. But whatever it takes is
what he's going to do. He's going to call his sheep
out because he's righteous. He's true and he's good. And I thought of this as I was
looking over these passages this week. This earth is ruined by
sin. Well, if the earth that's ruined
by sin is full of the goodness of the Lord. How full of his
goodness must heaven be? I mean, you just think of his
goodness to his people. That gives us reason to rejoice
in the character of the Lord. Then second, in verse six, we
rejoice in the Lord because of the majesty of his creation.
By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the
host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathereth the waters
of the sea together as in heap. He layeth up the depths and storehouses. Now in the beginning, God spoke
the world into existence just with the power of his And that
Word is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who spoke the world
into existence. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. And you think about this creation.
That with the power of His Word, He spoke into existence. It's
so intricate. It's so detailed. It's so interdependent
on each other. You know, we go through our day. We never one time think of those
planets out there in space that we never see. But God put them
there, in their exact orbits, at exactly the right distance
apart, at exactly the right distance from the sun, so they don't crash
into the earth and kill us all. They all stay in their orbits,
just where, exactly where they're supposed to be, by the Word of
God. We go out at night and see the
moon, and we just think, well, Jan and I are driving home Sunday
night, and there was the moon. She saw the moon out the window.
Well, that moon's just not up there to give us something to
say, ooh, that's pretty. That thing circling the earth, accomplishing
God's purpose, the purpose for his creation. That thing affects
the movement of the sea. Who would have thought to do
that? But God, God did that. And the movement of the sea affects
the life of an amoeba somewhere or a crab. God put the moon there
to affect the sea, to affect the life of that crab. That is
so intricate and so interdependent, only God can do that. And when
God created the earth, scripture says water covered the whole
earth. And God said, let the waters be gathered together in
one place. Let the dry land appear. And it was so. Well, Psalmist
says here, God gathered all the waters together in a heap. Now,
have you ever tried gathering water together in your hand?
Can't do it. We just, but God treats water
like it's a solid and heaps it up like we heap up bricks. He
just heaped that water up on top of one another. Only God
can do that. That's the majesty of his creation. It reveals something of the majesty
of his character. And he created the host of the
heavens. And you know that's the stars that are in the outer
space. But that's also stars are always
in scripture a picture of God's elect. God told Abraham, number
the stars if you can. So shall thy seed be." Well,
God's elect are the creation of God, just exactly like the
stars in heaven are the creation of God. We're created by his
power in Christ Jesus. We're made, the psalmist says,
by the breath of his mouth. Well, the breath of God's mouth
is the Holy Spirit that he sends forth, giving life to his people,
calling us to faith and repentance. It's the Lord that made us. Not
we ourselves. And it is these bodies, but it's
not just these bodies. It's the new man, the new nature
that he's put in his people. And that's the majesty of God's
creation, his physical creation and his spiritual creation. And
that's good reason to rejoice in the Lord. It reveals something
of his majesty. Then third, in verse 8, we rejoice
in the Lord because of how he rules in providence. Let all
the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the
world stand in awe of him, for he spake, and it was done. He
commanded, and it stood fast." Now, the whole world should stand
in awe of our God, shouldn't they? It never has, but it ought
to. We should stand in awe of Him
who spoke the world into existence. God said, let there be light,
and there was light. God said, let the dry land appear,
and it appeared. God said, let all the plants
and things appear, and they did, and it was so. And instead of
standing in awe of him, men go to great lengths to try to support
the theory of evolution. Christ said to the storm, peace
be still. And the wind and the waves obeyed.
He went one day to a graveyard and said, Lazarus, come forth.
Out he came. The power of his word. And instead
of standing in awe of him, what did the multitude do? Cried,
crucify him. We should stand in awe of him.
The whole earth should, but it never has. But his people do. This is why we rejoice in him.
God commands and it stands fast. Look back a few pages at Job
38. God commands and it stands fast. In Job 38, Who should up the sea with doors
when it break forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? When
I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a
swaddling-band for it, and break up for it my decreed place, and
set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but
no further, and here shall thy proud ways be stayed. God commands
the sea, come right here and no further. God commands and
it stands fast. That sea has ended in the exact
same place all this time because that's where God commanded it.
Now today, people are afraid the whole beach is going to fall
into the ocean, aren't they? Or the polar ice cap is going
to melt and hundreds or thousands of miles of inland are going
to be flooded everywhere in the world. It ain't going to happen. It's just not going to happen.
God commanded that sea come here and no further. And that's all
the further it's ever going to go. You just don't need to worry
about it. I'm telling you. God gave to the sea its limit
and that's where it's going to be. Because God speaks and it's
always done. And thank God he speaks in mercy
and calls the people to himself. And when he speaks, the sheep
come running. They hear his voice. They know
his voice and they'll follow the shepherd. God speaks to His
people in His Word. He speaks peace to the hearts
of the people. Your life can be a storm just
like that storm the disciples were on in the boat that day. And they told the Lord, don't
you care? We're going to die. And you think that's what's going
to happen. And He can speak peace. And there's
calm. There's calm. This is a great
calm. He speaks and it's done. God gave commandment. that his
people be justified. And brethren, they're justified
without sin. God commanded his people have
life and they live and they'll never die because God gave commandment. Look over at Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah 40, verse 4, Every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked
shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory
of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. Why? For the mouth of the Lord
hath spoken it. That's why all this is going
to happen. That's why His people are going to be called to Himself.
When our girls were just Very, very little. And they couldn't
understand much language. The ultimate hammer of authority
that stopped all movement, that stopped all arguments was one
phrase. Mama say it. And she said that one time. I
could just see Holly. Because there was no way around
it. There's no way around it. That's our God. The mouth of
the Lord has spoken it. It's settled. It's absolutely
settled. Look at verse 10 in our text.
The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to naught. He
maketh the devices of the people of none effect. Now there are
countless examples of this throughout history. You know, you think
back to 1776. How on earth did a bunch of farmers
defeat the most powerful army that up to that point had ever
existed in the world? And then go on, a bunch of farmers
now, to create a nation that's lasted to this day that enables
us to enjoy peace and freedom and worship. Well, I'll tell
you how they did it. That's the will of God. That
was the will of God for his people. You know, I like to watch the
History Channel and I was watching a show a week or so ago, I don't
know, about Hitler. And Jan, I'll tell you, this
World War II just fascinates me. Things are on, you know,
I watch it all and she just says, oh, you're watching that again.
And they're going through Hitler's reign in Germany and how he started
out and everything he did militarily was exactly right. There was
just no defeating him. And he had the world just I mean,
all he had to do is go and the world was his. And suddenly,
This guy that never made a mistake, militarily, makes one tactical
blunder after another, after another, after another, until
Germany lay in ruins and he kills himself down in a bunker. And
they're going through this hour-long program trying to figure out
how that happened. Why did that happen? Why did he do that? I'll
tell you why. Because the Lord bringeth the
counsel of the heathen to naught. That's why. That wasn't the Lord's
will at that time. That's exactly why he did it.
The Pharisees, in our Lord's day, thought, well, we'll just
kill this man, Jesus, and then we'll be done with this new sect
once and for all. Instead of that, they accomplished
the eternal purpose of God and bringing in the salvation of
his people. The opposite of their will is what happened. Well,
they saw that didn't work. They saw the early church flourishing.
So they said, well, if we kill a bunch of them and make life
hard enough on the rest of them, they'll all quit. And that'll
be the end of this. They forced the early church
out into the whole world, spreading the gospel everywhere they went.
The opposite of their will happened because the Lord brings the counsel
of the heathen to naught. He maketh their devices of none
effect. And that happens every time in
history. Just look through history. Somebody
tries to stamp out the name of God. They try to stamp out the
Bible. What happens? The gospel always ends up being
spread even more because the Lord rules in providence for
His glory and the good of His people. Now that's the counsel
of men, but look in verse 11, see how different the counsel
of the Lord is. The counsel of the Lord standeth
forever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations. See,
no matter what men do, they cannot alter the will of God. And it
is the will of God that makes His grace spread to every generation,
because the Lord has a people in every generation. So we rejoice
in the Lord for how He rules over providence. Then in verse
12 we find a fourth reason. We rejoice in the Lord because
He has made us His people. Blessed is the nation whose God
is the Lord, and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance.
Now, God made it clear to Israel of old. He chose them of all
the nations on the earth. God chose them to be his people. And Israel worshiped God while
other nations were bowing down to idols. And the Lord protected
them and had his providence over them in a very unusual way. And even today, that Jewish nation
is protected of God. And you just can't explain it.
You just watch him. You see it so. But the greatest
blessing, what he's talking about here is for spiritual Israel,
the true seed of Abraham. And every spiritual blessing
we enjoy stems from our first blessing. Election. God's choosing us. He chose us
for his own inheritance. Look at Psalm 65. Psalm 65, verse four. Blessed, immeasurably blessed,
is the man whom thou choosest, and caused us to approach unto
thee, that he may dwell in thy courts. We shall be satisfied
with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple." Now,
why is it that we're going to be caused to approach unto thee,
that we're going to dwell in thy courts, that we'll be satisfied
with the goodness of thy house? It all starts with this, blessed
is the man whom thou choosest. God chose a people. If that is
so plain in Scripture, God chose a people to make His own. We
did not choose God. He chose us. He elected us. He could have, and in justice
He should have, passed us by. But He didn't. In mercy and love,
He chose us in Christ. Now that will make a child of
God rejoice in the Lord, in His divine election. that the Lord
has made a bunch of nothings like us, like you and me, to
be his nation, to be his inheritance. He's made us his people and he's
made himself to be our God. I don't know about you, but I'm
going to rejoice in the Lord. Fifth, we rejoice in the Lord
because of how he protects the sheep of his pasture. Verse 13,
the Lord looketh from heaven. He beholdeth all the sons of
men. From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants
of the earth. He fashioneth their hearts alike.
He considereth all their works. There is no king saved by the
multitude of an host. A mighty man is not delivered
by much strength, and horse is a vain thing for safety. Neither
shall he deliver any by his great strength. Now the Lord is omniscient. He is everywhere. He sees everything. escapes his all-seeing eye. Now
that was easy when Adam was alone in the garden, wasn't it? He
could see Adam and see everything Adam was doing. It wasn't too
hard to keep track of him. He was in a confined space. He
was the only guy there. He could see everything Adam
did. Today, the Lord sees all the sons of men just as clearly,
in just as much detail as he did Adam, when Adam was the only
man living, because our God sees everything. But when we read
about the Lord seeing men, that's different than you and me. You
know, we see each other. We see each other sitting here.
We know what you look like, what you're wearing and so forth.
But when the Lord sees men, he's talking about he understands
men. He understands the secrets of
their hearts. He understands their motives.
Look over in Hebrews chapter four. In Hebrews 4 verse 12, neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. See, the
Lord understands the king as well as the beggar. And he rules
the king as well as the beggar. And no power of a man, no matter
how powerful the Lord enables him to get, can deliver him from
the Lord, from him with whom we have to do. Pharaoh found
that out, didn't he? All his army of horses and chariots. He found out the Lord reigns. You're not going to come up with
a sneak attack on our God. He's in control. Our father is
in control of all of our enemies. Now the Lord sees all the sons
of men, but look in verse 18. He uses different language when
he's talking about his people. In verse 18, Behold, the eye
of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope
in his mercy, to deliver their soul from death and to keep them
alive in famine. Our soul waiteth for the Lord.
He is our help and our shield. Now the Lord sees all the sons
of men, but when he talks about his children, he says his eye
is upon them. That's his eye of love. his eye
of delight that's fixed upon his children. And the best example
I could think of is this. I go watch my daughter, Savannah,
play Quick Recall. It's an academic competition
and there's four kids from one school playing four kids from
another school. And I've watched them for years. I go watch them.
I know all their names. I know what they do, what subjects
they're best in. When they start asking a question,
I know who's going to answer this question, who's not going
to answer this question. I see them. I know what they're doing.
But where's my eye? My eye is on Savannah Grace. Because your eye is where your
heart is. Your eye is where your affection
is. And the eye of the Lord is upon
the people that He loves. His eye is upon them that fear
Him. That hope in His mercy. Now that's
a good hope to find. To hope in His mercy. There's
no better hope. and the mercy of God, the sure
mercies of David. And those who hope in the mercy
of the Lord, he says, will have their soul delivered from death.
He doesn't say your body will be delivered from death, does
he? This body is a sinful body. It's got to die. And that's the
only way we're ever going to shed it, is death. But the soul
will never die. That's what will be delivered.
Your soul will be delivered from eternal death because Christ,
our substitute, tasted death for every son. So we'll never
have to. Then he says he'll deliver their soul from death and keep
them alive in famine. Now Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
they all experienced severe famines over the course of their lifetime,
but they never starved to death, did they? The Lord always fed
them miraculously, and he fed them. Now, we're not promised
that times are always going to be easy. Times will be lenient. There's going to be times of
famine, but what we're promised is the Lord will provide. The children of the king are
not going to beg bread. The king is going to see to it.
The Lord will feed and enclose his people just like he feeds
and clothes the lily of the field. He'll take care of that. But
here's the blessing. Here's the thing that we can
hang on to. It's how the Lord keeps his people alive during
a time of spiritual famine. And that's the day we live in,
is a day of the great famine of the Word. Look in Amos, chapter
8. If you have the authorized version,
that's page 1147. Find Daniel, then there's Hosea,
Joel, and Amos. And this is a description of
the day that we live in. It's just like reading a newspaper.
Amos, chapter 8. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine
of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words
of the Lord. And they shall wander from sea
to sea and from north even to the east. They shall run to and
fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it. Now that
is the day we live in. There's a famine of the word.
People run to and fro. I mean, people, it's hard for
me to believe that there's ever been a time in the history of
the world that people have been more involved in religion, running
to and fro everywhere, seeking the word of the Lord. There's
a lot of people talking a great deal about the Bible, but nobody's
feeding. Nobody's hearing a word from
the Lord. They're hearing a lot of men's
talk, but they're not hearing the word of the Lord. It's a
famine. But the Lord in this time of
famine keeps his people alive by feeding us with his word,
and he says how he'll do it in his word. He said, I must send
them pastors, pastors after my own heart who will feed them.
who will lead them to the green pastures of his word, who will
give us Christ, who is the bread of life. And it's true. It breaks
my heart how we live in a day of famine of the word, but the
Lord is going to feed his people. His people will hear the word
and be called to Christ. I guarantee it. And if you don't
believe me, just wait. He says in verse 20, our soul
waiteth for the Lord. He's our help. David said, wait,
I say. on the Lord, wait on him from
whence cometh our help. We wait on him because his eye
is upon them that fear him. He knows what's going on. He
sees our situation. He knows he'll take the proper
action, just like he has throughout the rest of history. As we looked
at how he dealt and overruled Providence, he'll take care of
our case. Just wait on him. Now, verse
21, for our heart shall rejoice in him. Because we have trusted
in his holy name. Now rejoice in him. That's the key, in him. Now it's
very dangerous to trust and rejoice in temporal blessings. Don't
get me wrong, I'm very thankful for him. I'm very thankful I
can go out and get in a car and drive home to a nice home. to
a nice bed with nice sheets that Janet goes and buys and lay down
and go to sleep. Get up in the morning and have
breakfast. Don't worry that there's going to be food to eat. I'm
very, very thankful. But don't put your rejoicing
in those things because where will your rejoicing be when the
Lord takes them all away and leaves you alone like he did
Job? Job still found reason to rejoice because his rejoicing
wasn't in those things. It was in the Lord. He said,
I know my Redeemer liveth. I'm as good as dead, but I know
my Redeemer liveth. We know certainly we can't trust
in ourselves, can we? In our faith and our love for
Christ and the things that we do? Because where will your rejoicing
be when you fall like Peter did or David did? Our rejoicing is
not even in the spiritual blessings that we've been given. Please,
don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for them. But our rejoicing is
not in those spiritual blessings or in these spiritual truths.
Our rejoicing is in the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't want to
get so caught up in the blessings that I miss the Savior. That's
our rejoicing is in Him. Our rejoicing is not in the imputed
righteousness of Christ. Careful as I say this, I'm thankful
for it. We cannot stand before God without
the imputed righteousness of Christ. But our rejoicing is
in Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord, our righteousness. It's in him. Our rejoicing is not in how that
we've been given everything that we need to stand complete before
God. Thankful for it. Can't replace
it. But our rejoicing is in Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provided. everything we need and made us
complete in him. Our rejoicing is not that one
day these bodies are going to be resurrected in glorious, perfect
bodies. I'm sure it's going to be quite
a day, but that's not what our rejoicing is. Our rejoicing is
in Christ who is the resurrection and the life. There's a big difference. Our rejoicing is not in the fact
that we have spiritual life. So I cannot tell you how thankful
I am to have spiritual life, but that's not what our rejoicing
is. Our rejoicing is in Christ, who is our life. He's our life. Our rejoicing is not in the fact
that we have some wisdom. We do have a little bit of wisdom.
We're pretty dumb, but we've got some wisdom, don't we? We've
got some understanding of the scriptures. But that's not what
our rejoicing is. Our rejoicing is in Christ, who
is our wisdom. Our rejoicing is not in the fact
that we've been saved from sin and from hell, although I'm very
thankful for that. But our rejoicing is in Christ,
who is our redemption, in the one who is our wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption. Our rejoicing is in him. I just can't stress, I hope you
see that, I can't stress that enough, our rejoicing is in him.
So, verse 22, let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according
as we hope in thee. We rejoice in a merciful God,
don't we? We seek mercy from him daily. Every minute we seek mercy from
him. We're thankful for the mercy, just the abundance of heaped
up mercy that we've received over the course of our lifetime.
But I need more tonight. I need more to get me home. I
need more to get me to sleep. I need more to wake up in the
morning. I'm going to need more tomorrow. We need His mercy.
So we seek more. And that's going to keep us trusting
in Him. And that will keep us rejoicing in Him as we find more
and more mercy in Him. All right. Well, I hope that
will bless you.