It's always good to be here.
I know everybody. I know everybody here. We're
going to go to Psalm 65. Psalm 65. In the 65th Psalm it
says, verse 1, Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion, and
unto thee shall the vow be performed. This first verse sets the tone
as we read down through here. Praise is waiting for God in
Zion, in His church. And there's a reason for this
statement. It's basically this, that the
cause of praise in Zion will never cease. Praise has always
been a part of Zion. She's always had reason to praise
God. Right now, Zion has reason to
praise God. And in the future, as long as
this world ends and even beyond, Zion will have reason to praise
God. It waits. It's waiting for Him. He has it coming. He always will. And it's a vow. It's a vow that
shall be performed throughout the ages by the people of God. Performed. Because it's due Him.
Every moment. Every moment. Now and through
the future. And we start reading here in
2nd verse, it says, O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall
all flesh come. You see, praise waits for God
in Zion because the God of Zion is the God who hears prayer.
He's not like the gods of this world. There are gods many. Little
gods. But this is the God that hears
prayer. This is the God that hears prayer. He's the only one
that does. He's not some local deity. You
know, you ever visit India, and I've never been there, but they
tell me that there are thousands, literally, thousands and thousands
of gods in every town you go to. There's some little deity,
some local deity you pray to. All those rocks and stones and
monuments don't hear anything. Zion's God is the God that hears
prayer. The answering God of Zion. And it's unto this God that all
flesh shall come. People of every nation, kindred,
and tongue, not just the Jews, but the Gentiles too, will have
access to this God. He's Zion's God. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere. Psalm 139, I'll
just quote it. Verse 7 says, Whither shall I
go from my spirit, or whither shall I flee from my presence?
If I ascend up into the heaven, thou art there. If I make my
bed in hell, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning
and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea, you know the wings
of the morning, that's talking about the sun coming up. If I
could come up like the sun and travel at the speed of light
and go to the uttermost parts of the earth, you're there. He's
an omnipresent God and that's encouraging. That's a cause for
praise for those who are praying. And He's an omniscient God. He's
a God who knows all things. He's not only omnipresent, but
He knows all things. He hears all prayers of all His
people in all His places, and He knows all His people beyond
any human comprehension, which is something that's just too
high for me to understand how well He knows us. Our Lord said
in Matthew 6 when we pray, He said, Your heavenly Father knows
what you have need of before you ask. Now, that's your Father.
You don't come to Him to give Him information. Now, you might
go to your earthly Father and give Him information before you
get any help from Him, but your heavenly Father, the God of this
heaven and earth doesn't need information when we come before
Him. We come before Him not to give Him information, but basically
to show our dependence upon Him. That's why we pray. We pray to
show our dependence. God's men are waiting for information,
but Zion's God knows. And this is an encouragement
too in this verse here. It says, unto thee shall all
flesh come. Now that's a great encouragement.
This is the God that flesh can come to. Flesh. All flesh. That's a great reason to praise
this God is because flesh can come to Him. frail, worthless. I'm talking about worthless human
beings. Sinful men can come to the God
of Zion and praise waits for Him because of that. Do you understand
that? That's one of the reasons praise is waiting for Him is
because of the kind of people that are allowed to come to Him.
Frail mortals corrupt dead, dying sinners, sinners, weary men from
every point on the globe can come to Him, shall come to Him,
to the God of Zion. And praise is waiting for Him.
Why? Because He's going to hear them. That's right. He's going
to hear them. I don't think that there's ever
been an honest, sincere prayer I just can't believe there's
ever been an honest, sincere prayer offered for the glory
of Christ that's not been answered. I'll bet everything I've got
on that. I'm just sure of it. Praise waits for Him. David goes
on to illustrate something about these flesh coming to him. Look at verse 3. Iniquities prevail
against me. Iniquities prevail against me.
I love this. This man, he knows what he's
talking about. He's saying my sins are mightier than I am.
My sins are far beyond my handling. That's something, you know, if
a man ever realizes that, God's done something for him. God's
done, most people never know that. They think they can handle
their problems. They think they can handle their
troubles. But David here just says my iniquities. You know,
if you ever really get a glimpse of what your iniquities are and
the trouble you have in your life, you're going to realize
something. It's like a monster with 7,000 arms. You can cut
one of them off, but the rest of them are going to get you.
You know what I'm saying? The rest of them are going to
get you. When a man ever sees his own
lust, his own wickedness of heart, the indwelling sin that's in
him, and the vanity of his own thoughts, he'll realize why the
Scripture says, your thoughts aren't my thoughts, your ways
aren't my ways. That's just a fact. God has to do that in the heart
of a man. And it's by his grace here, this
man, David, says, I see this. It's the grace of God that's
allowed this to be seen, but seen by me. I see this. And he's to be praised that I
see this. But I'll tell you something else.
By His grace, I see something a lot more important than that.
Look at this next part of that verse. As for our transgressions,
thou shalt purge them away. That's another thing that needs
to be prayed. God needs to be praised for. Not only that He
shows us our sins, but that He has dealt with our transgressions.
As for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. Thou shalt
purge them away. He shows us His Son's atonement. Now, there is an atonement that
covers even my prevailing iniquities, a blood sacrifice that purges
away my sins. It seems as if my iniquities
are too much for me, but my iniquities are not too much for Zion's God.
You see that? It's not too much for Him. They
can get the best of me, but they'll never get the best of Him. They're
purged away. Hebrews, look at Hebrews 1. There's
a nice verse here. Hebrews 1 verse 3, where this
very word is used. Hebrews 1 verse 3, speaking of
Christ, who being the brightness of His glory and the express
image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His
power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on
the right hand of the Majesty of High." You see here, there's
been an atonement made for sin. And it's not just an atonement
for just my sin. I like the way this verse starts
here. Iniquities prevail against me, but as for our transgressions,
thou shalt purge them. You know, you need to get a picture,
the big picture. When you think of all the iniquity
of your own life and all the sins that you've created, that
you came into this world with and have gone on with, and then
you multiply that by all the children of God that have lived
in all the ages that Christ bore their sins for. I hate to say
this, but what's my two cents worth of sin compared to the
trillions and trillions of sin debt He paid. Ask for our transcript. That's a bad illustration, but
that's an illustration. You've taken care of this. You see the largeness of His
work here. And He's to be praised for it.
He's to be praised for it. That's what this verse is all
about. And go on here. Praise and honor for this atoning
work for His people. And look here, verse 4, here's
another thing praise is waiting for in Zion. Blessed is the man
whom thou choosest, whom thou choosest, and causeth to approach
unto thee, that he may dwell in thy court. We shall be satisfied
with the goodness of his house, or thy house, even of thy holy
temple. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest, Zion's praise is towards God for His electing love of
His people. You know, this is the first blessing
that any one of us ever received of God. Now, you just write it
down. I can't tell you when it happened.
All I know in eternity past, for unmerited reasons, unconditional
reasons, God Almighty looked at fallen mankind and said, I'm
going to choose this host an innumerable host, and the names
of every one of those men and women was known of Him, and their
sins were known of Him, their transgressions and their vileness
and all that they would ever be was known of Him, and He put
them in His Son. Blessed is the man who now chooses. Electing love. You know it says
in John 6, let me see if I can find that verse for you. Look
over John 6 for a second. 37. This just alludes to it. John 6, 37. All that the Father giveth me. Now that seems to be in the present
tense. shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which
he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again in the last day." There's a group of people that were given
to the Son, and He's not going to lose one of those people.
He's going to bear their sins. They were His choice in electing
love. And how blessed is it that a
man has been chosen of God? Men who, the verse before talked
about having iniquities prevailing, who had an atonement made for
them. Why'd that happen? Was it because of something they
saw that was seen of them? My friends, it was something
that was done not only without merit, but in spite of the fact
they didn't have any. They did not have any. Scripture
says it's according to the good pleasure of His will. The Lord
said when He rejoiced, He said, even so, Father, so it seemed
good in My sight. So it seemed good in My sight.
And these chosen ones cannot, and listen to me, They will not
come to such a blessing unless Zion's God brings them to Him. And that's the very next statement
here. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causes to approach unto thee. The blessing of electing
love and the blessing of fetching grace. The first time I heard
that said, I can't remember who said it. It was at 13th Street
years ago. Fetching. Fetching grace. God Almighty
calling His people. No man can come unto Me except
the Father which sent Me. Draw him. And all those that
come to Him are going to be taught of God. He's going to draw them
and teach them. Fetching grace. Subduing the unwillingness of
His people. I love the song we sang there.
I could not have chose you. That could never be. It could
never have been. It could never have been. My
wicked heart would still refuse you. That's exactly right. We are made willing in the day
of His power and we've been blessed and chosen of Him and caused
to approach unto Him. And listen, this is all that
we may dwell in His courts. We're not just going to do this
temporarily. These people that are brought to Him are going
to dwell, they're going to abide in His courts. Zion waits to
praise God for this blessing. Bringing us into His very courts
that we may be eternally secure, chosen, called, sins atoned for,
dwelling, ever abiding, never going out, all due to the work
of the Son of God. That's what this is about. Our
security. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ praises him for that. It goes on to say, We shall be satisfied
with the goodness of thy house, even thy holy temple, chosen,
redeemed, called, brought nigh, saved forever, and satisfied
forever. The Lord's people are satisfied.
You're not going to meet anybody in this world that ever is. But the Lord's people are satisfied
with the goodness of His house, the provisions of His house.
I've got a friend. Some of you may know him. I'm
not going to say his name, but you all know him. And if you're
ever invited to his house and he asks you over, you get ready. He's going to wait on you. He's
just the greatest host. sitting around chit-chatting
and he'll be making shrimp. And then he'll sit down in another
room and before long he'll have the grill up and going and he'll
be making filet mignon. And he's just a great host. It's the provisions of his house.
I'm telling you that we've been called into the provisions of
his house. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The food that's
to be found there. The grace that's to be found
there. The worship. the fellowship that's to be found
there. They're satisfied with these
things. Now, that's what this taught. That's the blessed food
of His house. David thought enough of it. When he spoke of the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ and His temple, he said in Psalm
84, he said, A day in thy courts is better than what? A thousand. A thousand. I'd rather be a doorkeeper
in the house of God wiping somebody's feet than to dwell and abide
in the tents of the wicked man. That's just how much his house
meant. And Zion praises God for the blessings of being chosen,
for the blessing of being fetched, dwelling and abiding in His courts
and being satisfied with the goodness of His house and His
holy temple. Zion owes God praise for that. That's what David's
talking about. Chapter verse 5 says, "...by terrible things
in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation, who
art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them
that are far off upon the sea." Now I'm going to back into this
verse. All the Lord's people, whether
they're on earth, land or sea, all have one confidence. That's
what that's talking about. They've got one confidence. Wherever
they're found in this world, they have no other confidence. And it's the God of their salvation.
That's what He's called. There's not a spot on this earth
where they have any other confidence. We are told in Philippians 3,
verse 3, We are the circumcision which
worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in the flesh. Not confidence in our religion,
not confidence in our upbringing, not confidence in our education,
not confidence in any kind of religious upbringing we have.
Our confidence is in the Lord Himself and what He's done for
us. And by terrible things in righteousness,
thou wilt answer us. That's how that verse starts
off there. What I mean by this is that Zion's confidence in
God has been rightly justified throughout the past. If you go
back to the Old Testament and look at Zion's confidence in
God, that confidence was justified. When the Lord came to bring them
out of Egypt, those ten plagues that came, You can write it down,
Zion's confidence was justified. These were terrible acts and
righteous. I love that adage, righteous. It ain't just terrible, awe-inspiring. It was absolutely righteous for
him to do what he did. When he brought them to the sea
and the sea swallowed up all the armies of Pharaoh, it was
terrible, but it was righteous. Absolutely. I was reading here
right before service. Look at Judges for a second. Joshua, excuse me. Chapter 2. Joshua 2. I was thinking about
this right before the service and I found the verse starting
in verse 9. The spies went to Rahab's house. And she said to them, I know
that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror
is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint
because of you. For we have heard how the Lord
dried up the water of the Red Sea for you, and when you come
out to Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites,
which were on the other side of Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom
you utterly destroyed, And as soon as we had heard these things,
our hearts did melt. Neither did there remain any
more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord your God
is the God of heaven above and the earth beneath." Scared to
death. Terrible, terrible acts and righteous acts. Thou didst
answer us. But back in that text, if you
look at this, these terrible things, he says in verse 5, by
terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O Lord."
It's not just what he's done in the past. This man's confidence
and why Zion's got praise yet waiting to give to God is because
God Almighty is still going to answer in terrible works in righteousness. You can talk about the terrible
things in the past, but I'm here to tell you anti-Christ And everything
that opposes the Lord Jesus Christ is coming down on this earth.
It's coming down on this earth. And it'll be right and it'll
be terrible. And the world's going to know
it. The world's going to know it. And Zion's going to praise
Him. Zion's going to praise Him. Verse 6, Which by strength didst
set fast the mountains, being girded with power. Praises due
to our God because of His keeping power. The mountains of the earth
do not move as a result of their total weight. You know, I've
met some pretty big men that were hard to move because of
their weight. But the mountains aren't setting where they're
setting because of their weight. God Almighty put them where they
are and they're girded because He put them there. You see, and
that's what this is about. The firmest things on this earth,
speaking humanly, the firmest things on this earth are kept
by Him and the firmest things in the church, the firmest of
His saints are also kept by Him. You see a comparison to that
in Psalm 125. Look at that. When I talk about
this as referring to His His keeping, strength, and power. You see this in Psalm 125. Verse 1, they that trust in the
Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed forever. You make a comparison to the
mountains being sustained by God Almighty. I'm here to tell
you the saints of God are sustained by God Almighty's power. Back in our text, it tells us,
chapter, verse 7, this same one, this due praise is the one who
stills the noise of the seas and the noise of the waves and
the tumult of the people. He's in control of all the waves
and he's in control of all the tumult of all the people throughout
all the world. The Bible calls him the God of
peace. He's the God of peace. Let me show you a verse in chapter
46 of Psalms. Look at verse 8. We're talking
about righteous and terrible acts. Come behold the works of
the Lord, what desolations He's made in this earth. You think
of the great empires. You go over there right now.
Travel around, look at all them ruins. Come behold the desolations
that he's made in the earth. Listen to me. He maketh war to
cease. You know that? You say, well,
I'm just telling you that if it were not for our God, there
would be no end to war. Anarchy is in our hearts. Chaos
is a very part of who we are. That's life. He maketh war to
cease unto the ends of the earth. And I'm telling you, if the bow
is ever broke, and the spears ever cut asunder, and if the
chariots ever get burned up with fire, and we put all these things
away, He's the one that's going to do it. You see that verse
right there? That's what it's saying. He makes war to cease
to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow. He cuts the
spear asunder. He burns the chariots in the
fire. So, He's not only the God of keeping power in the previous
verse, the God who establishes the mountains and doesn't let
them move, He's the God of calming power. He's the God that calms
everything in this world and He's the God that calms the hearts
of His people. You see it? When we're in times
of trial and tribulation, when billows roll, as that old hymn
used to say, like sea billows roll, He's the God of calling
power. Zion's God, He alone can end
the chaos. Verse 8, And they that dwell
in the uttermost parts are afraid of thy tokens. Thou makest thy
outgoings of the morning and the evening to rejoice. Men everywhere
have got reason to be awed by Zion's God, by His power. And what He shows us in nature,
are just tokens, small glimpses of His greatness. I listened
today as the thunder was rolling. You know, I smile when I hear
thunder. Do you find yourself like that?
A great crack of thunder? I'm in awe. But I'm not terrified. I just see it's the voice of
God. I love to hear it. David, when he sat down before
the Lord and saw Him laid, he said, Who's man? Thou art mindful
of Him. He talks about, when I consider
the sun and the moon and the heavens which thy fingers made. He didn't even take God's arm. It was his fingers. Look over Job 26. I'll show you
something here I like. Job 26, verse 7. He stretches out the north over
the empty place. and hangeth the earth on nothing."
I love that. He binds up the waters in thick
clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them. He holdeth back
the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it. He hath compassed
the waters with a bound, and to day and night come to an end.
And the pillars of the heaven tremble, and are astonished at
his reproof. And by His Spirit, He hath garnished
the heavens. You ever gone out here to a restaurant
and had somebody bring you some food, and right there on the
plate there's a little sprig of something green there just
to kind of dress it up. Garnish it. He's garnished the heavens.
The sun, the moon, the stars, all those planets out there that
people study and look into are just, they're garnished as far
as He's concerned. He's garnished the heavens with
them. His hand has formed the crooked serpent. He's put that
constellation up there. Lo, these are part of His ways,
and how little a portion is heard of Him." Boy, we don't begin
to understand by looking at that, but the thunder of His power,
who can understand? Who can understand? Everywhere
you go, His tokens are seen here. From the outgoings of the morning,
that's talking about the east, to the west, signs and tokens
of His presence are not a few earthquakes, pestilence, Tornadoes,
storms, lightnings. The lightnings actually stand
up, Job said in front of him and said, here we are. Lightning stands before him and
says, here we are. I had a picture sent to me today
of a lightning strike. It's phenomenal. It's controlled
by our God. Thou makest men everywhere to
rejoice from the east to the west. That's what it's saying
there. Make them to rejoice. Make them
to rejoice. Now I'm going to read these last
few verses here and I'm going to show you what's being said
is, Zion owes praise to God for his providential dwellings, providential
dealings on the earth. And that's what you're going
to see here. I want you to remember the scene that we're reading,
men are on the earth and men are doing things on the earth,
but men are not mentioned. And the reason for that is they're
not worth mentioning. Let's look at this. Look at this. Verse 9, Thou visitest
the earth and waterist it. Thou greatly enrichest it with
the river of God. He talks about God here as coming
out and visiting the earth like a man going out into his garden
with some water. And he's enriching the earth
with the river of God which is full of water. Thou preparest
them corn which thou hast so provided for it. The very staff
of life has been provided for by him. Thou waterest the ridges
thereof abundantly. Thou settlest the furrows thereof.
Thou makest it soft with the showers, Thou blessest the springing
thereof, Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness, And Thy paths
drop fatness. They drop upon the pastures of
the wilderness, And the little hills rejoice on every side.
The pastures are clothed with flocks, The valleys are covered
over with corn, They shout for joy, they also sing." He's talking
about the providence of God in providing for all mankind on
this earth. and how Zion owes God praise
for this. That's what that's about. He
visits the earth personally. And when he does this, when he
goes on visitation, I'm telling you, it's always fruitful. It's
always fruitful. He enriches it. He makes the
soil rich himself. He prepares the corn. The corn. I tell you, it was a great miracle
when God Almighty dropped manna out of the sky and fed those
Jews out there in the wilderness. But it's just as great a miracle
when he brings food up out of the dirt. He does that. It's just as much as great a
miracle whether we see it or not. He waters the ridges of
the earth, the distant places out there. There are places out
there right now, there are critters out there in those woods that
have got a smile on their face because there's pools of water
for them to drink of. If I can imagine a critter smiling. They're out there. Enjoying what's
been given to them in desolate places. And He settles the furrows
thereof. Little nooks and crannies out
there. Moss is growing way down deep. The water's got down there
too. This is all being done by Him. All being done by Him. High
and low. Blessing at the very springing
up. The very springing up. You notice
that? You cause the blessing, the springing thereof, those
first little blades that come up in the spring, He blesses
that into existence. And He crowns the year. He crowns
the year with His goodness. That's talking about at the end
of the entire year when the harvest is brought in, it's the crown
of the year. It's all been His goodness. It's all been His doings.
All of it. All of it. First to last, from
spring to harvest, it's all of Him. His path. Wherever he goes
in grace absolutely drops fatness. I love that. It just drops fatness. Now that's true in nature. He
covers the pastures, their clothes, with flocks, critters. I'm thankful
he does. You know if we wouldn't, you
think about the pastures. You know, I'm wearing cotton
tonight. That's from the ground. You're wearing wool. That's from
off some critter's back. These things that clothe the
earth go on to clothe us. He's covering it. So, Zion owes
God praise and always will as long as this earth stands for
His providential care. That's absolutely true in the
realm of nature. But there's a second side of
this I want to go through. I'll be brief. Look at Deuteronomy
32. I'll show you something there. Deuteronomy 32. I want you to
read this and then I'll quote two other verses before I run
through this with you. Deuteronomy 32, verse 1. Give air, O ye heavens, and I'll
speak, and hear, O word, the words of my mouth. My doctrine
shall drop as the rain. My speech shall distill as the
dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers
upon the grass, because I will publish the name of the Lord,
ascribing greatness unto our God." The preaching of the gospel
is likened unto the rain coming down on the earth. You have to turn there, but Isaiah
44, verse 3 says, I will pour water upon him that is thirsty,
and floods upon the dry ground, I will pour my Spirit upon my
seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring, and they shall spring
up among the grass as willows among the watercourses." Isaiah
55 went on to say, "'For as the rain cometh down the snow from
heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh
it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower,
and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that will go forth
out of my mouth, it shall not return to me void.' But it shall
accomplish that which I sent it to do. Accomplish that which
I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent
it." So back in our text, now let's back here to the text,
and we're going to go through this and not look at it from
the standpoint of nature. We're going to look at it from
a spiritual standpoint. He visits us. I love that. There's a personal touch
there. God Almighty comes to His people. He comes to His people. He waters us. He enriches us. He greatly enriches
us. with the river of God which is
full of water." You know, the first time through, he was talking
about those clouds going over your head that had been dropping
all this water on you for the last few days. They say again
tomorrow. But I'm telling you, he enriches
a believer with the river of God which is full of water. There's
a river that makes glad the souls of a believer. It's the river
of His grace It's everlasting life. It's the Holy Spirit. It's His Word. He enriches us. You see that? With this river,
which is absolutely full. It's the river of God. It's full
of water. And you prepare them corn. You provide your people with
what they need spiritually, the food they need. He does that. You notice that over and over.
Thou, thou, thou. Well, wait a minute. John's our
pastor. I know. He preaches to you. But I'm telling
you, the corn is His doings. Thou preparest. Thou preparest. And thou, when thou hast so provided
for it, He provides for it. And thou waterest the ridges
thereof abundantly. He waters us in our high places.
He waters us, and He waters us in their low places here, in
the furrows thereof. the furrows thereof. He's watering
us. All this rain that's been going
on has been going on to soften the earth, to make it fruitful. And I'm just telling you, it's
this river of God that flows down upon the people of God that
keeps us from becoming hardened clots. You leave it without water and
see if you're not just a hardened cloth. He does this. He makes us soft
with rain. He blesses the spring thereof.
From the very first blades of grace that ever come up in the
life of a man, it's God Almighty that blessed that. It's God Almighty
that did that. And I'll tell you something else.
He crowned us the year. with His goodness. I'm telling
you, first to last, it's His doings. That's the importance
of this. Crowning it first to last. Bring
forth the fruit. His path dropping fatness throughout
their lives. There is no other existence,
truly, than the existence of a believer. A person who knows
the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything else is death. It's death. And where He visits
here, I love it because He clothes it. He clothes it. He clothes
those pastures. He clothes those fields. And
I want you to know where He visits, He clothes His people. He sure
does. He wraps them up in a garment
of perfect righteousness the Son of God has given them. He clothes them. Absolutely. Covers them up. Makes them fruitful. Makes them righteous. And just
like those little mountains and valleys, they shout, we shout,
they sing, and we sing. Did you see that? Oh, my goodness. That's exactly what's being talked
about. And as I said a while ago, as we were reading all this,
men have been busy. In the realm of nature, men are
busy. And in spiritual affairs, men are busy. But the reason
it's not mentioned is because it just doesn't bear worth mentioning.
Is the ground to be praised for receiving the rain. Is a man
to ever be patted on the back for the grace of God that's been
given to him? The best thing he can do is shut his mouth and
soak it in. Just soak it in. It's for his glory. It's for
his glory. And so praise awaits him for
this. Hearing prayer. answering prayer, showing us
our prevailing sins, providing us with a substitute, a satisfaction. You see, praise awaits Him for
these things. Praise awaits Him for choosing
us. Praise awaits Him for calling us to Him and fetching us to
Him. Praise awaits Him for His preserving power of us and for
His calming power of His people. Praise awaits him for his providential
care in nature and in this world and in the realm of grace. Praise
is just waiting for God Almighty in Zion. That's what that whole
psalm is about. Somebody may say, well, you're
a fool to see all that in there. Well, I'm a fool. I'm a fool.