Now, last week, we were looking
at Psalm 25 and verse 14, which was about the secret of the Lord
being with those that fear him, and what it is really to fear
the Lord, this filial fear, not this fear of judgment and punishment,
for in Christ there is none, but there is this reverence and
respect. We come before our God, our Abba
Father, with a filial fear. knowing who he is and what he
has done and of what he is capable. And fearing him, and we only
learn to fear him because he himself teaches us, we only learn
to fear him, he brings us in on his secret. What is it to
have the secret of the Lord? It's to know that he exists.
It's to live your life in this knowledge of the living God,
that he's all around us. And not only that, he shows us
his covenant. He shows us the truth and the
blessings of his covenant, wherewith he has saved us. The triune God
has saved his people by eternal sovereign choice of the Father,
by the redemption that the Son has purchased and accomplished
and made satisfaction to the justice of God, and that the
Holy Spirit applies to each one of those dead sinners who were
chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. And we were thinking,
this is an internal thing. It's internal. It's inside. It's
a spiritual thing. It's applied by God's Holy Spirit
in the inner man. It's seeing what the natural
man can't see, because the things of God are spiritually discerned.
You must have spiritual discernment to see the things of God. You
cannot deduce it by human wisdom. You cannot work it out by philosophy
or anything like that. It just will not work. It must
be by Holy Spirit revelation. The natural man cannot see the
things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him. Neither
can he know them. Why? Spiritually discerned. And
we delight in the secret of God. not only delight in it, it's
comforting, isn't it? In all aspects of life, it's
like a warm blanket around you, it's this knowledge of the living
God. All aspects of life, warm and comforting, an inner glow,
feeling the riches of God's grace. And what does it produce? It
produces thanks to God. That's what it produces. The
hymns you'll notice this morning are very much on the theme of
thanks to God. It stimulates thanks to God.
Think of how many of the psalms are giving thanks to God for
what he has done. They're songs of thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving, something that those without faith cannot truly
express. In Romans 1.21 we read that when
they, the world in general that is, when they knew God, when
they were aware of God, because everything around you is screaming
that there's a God, they glorified him not as God. Neither were
thankful. Neither were thankful. That's
the indictment of God against this unbelieving world. They
were not thankful for who God is and for what he has done,
but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. They were made even more dark
because of it. Thankfulness to God cannot be faked. Thankfulness to God cannot be
faked. You know, When it comes to giving
gifts, you know, we're taught as children, aren't we, to be
thankful for the things that are given. And there are some
things that you get and it just bubbles out. You're so pleased
with it. Oh, thank you. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank
you. It bubbles out from inside. And then there are other things
and it's like, I wish they hadn't bothered giving me that. Really?
I mean, you know, and, and mum's going, don't you dare say that.
You go and say thank you to them. And he's going, well, All right,
thank you, but you don't really mean it. Do you know the sort
of thing I mean? You cannot fake true thanks to God. It comes
from a heart that really is delighted with what God has done and what
God has given. It cannot be faked. It comes
from a genuine spiritual experience in the inner man. And its absence
of thankfulness marks out unbelievers in general. Neither were they
thankful, is what Romans 1.21 says. What's wrong with it? Neither
were they thankful. They weren't thankful to God.
Because they should be thankful to God, because of what He is,
and what He has done, and what He has given. Now I want us to
look today, and we could have chosen any number of Psalms,
but I want to turn to Psalm 103, which we read earlier. and look
at the overflowing thankfulness of a true man after God's own
heart. That's what the people of God
are, they're people after God's own heart. And David, the Psalmist,
was one, the scriptures tell us he was, a man after God's
own heart for all the blessings of salvation the Lord's secret
seeing his covenant thankfulness for all of these things so this
psalm of how many verses is it? 22 this psalm of 22 verses is
a psalm of David see that in the italics right underneath
The title before the first verse, A Psalm of David. And as I've
already said, David is described, despite all of his faults and
all of his fleshly failings, and oh wow, were there some fleshly
failings. There were some horrendous fleshly
failings, there really were. David was in a He was a man of
flesh, there's no doubt about it. Like all are. None righteous. No, not one. None. None. But he was a man, God says, 1
Samuel 13 verse 14, a man after God's own heart. Why? Because
although he was still in the flesh with all of his sin and
rebellion, although he was still in the flesh, yet God had revealed
his truth to him, a man after God's own heart. Every true believer
is somebody who is in the flesh and is a sinner and is no better
than anybody else as we are in the flesh, but we have been given
a sight of the things of the living God. We've been taught
by the Holy Spirit to fear God. That's good. Being taught by
the Holy Spirit to fear God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom, the beginning of knowledge. And being taught to fear Him
will let into His secret, the secret things of the living God
that the natural man does not know. They say, I just can't
see it, there's nothing in it. No, you can't, you're not in on the
secret. You know when people say to you, well, I just can't
see it. Don't say to them, oh, well, you haven't applied enough
logic to this. They're not in on God's secret.
That's what it is, really. And there's only one way to be
in on God's secret, and that's for God's Holy Spirit to show
you the secret of the Lord, and to reveal it to you. And so I
want it, and how do I get it? Pray to Him. Show me your truth,
show me your secret. Show me what you've shown others
that I can't yet see. Pass me not, O gracious Saviour. Hear my humble cry. Whilst on
others you are calling, which you clearly are doing. I can
see believers all around me. Whilst on others you are calling,
do not pass me by. Please do not pass me by. Reveal
your truth. Show me your secret. Show me
your covenant of saving grace and of peace with God and of
a hope of heaven and a removal of the fear of death, and a longing
to be with Christ, which is far better. Show me those things.
You see, David, this psalmist, this young shepherd boy, who
became king, and he acted in integrity in so many ways, and
then he acted in the most appalling sinfulness in other ways. You know, when the troops went
out to war, And David in his success had become rather full
of his own importance, and he didn't go out to war with them.
when there were wars going on and he stayed at home and he
spied from his room Bathsheba who was another man's wife and
he desired to have her and he sent for her and he brought her
and she became pregnant by him and because of that David sought
to have that woman's husband killed and he did have him killed
by putting him in the front of the battle you know God's word
doesn't lie about It's about the people of God. It tells the
truth of what we are. It doesn't give us an excuse
to go and do the same, but it's honest about what God's people
are like. In all of his success as a king,
as a result of that act, he had terrible, terrible problems.
Terrible problems. His family was riven apart. His family, his son Absalom,
who he loved, rebelled against him and nearly took the kingdom
off him. And it was as Nathan the prophet said to him, you,
David, are that man that has done this evil thing. And he
wrote Psalm 51. He said, you're going to have
trouble in your family forevermore, and he did. Right to his dying
day, he had trouble in his family forevermore. But look, he said
this. In 2 Samuel 23, verse 3, he said, the God of Israel said, The rock of Israel spake to me. Who's the rock of Israel? Just
reading Corinthians. That rock was Christ. The rock
of Israel, Jehovah Jesus, our God, Saviour, Jehovah Jesus.
The rock of Israel spake to me. He that ruleth over men must
be just. ruling in the fear of God. That's
what God said to David. And he shall be as the light
of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds,
as tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining
after rain. Although my house be not so with
God, although my house is in complete turmoil, although my
house is full of anguish and strife and torment, yet he hath
made with me, David, an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things
and sure, for this is all my salvation and all my desire,
although he make it not to grow. It's not experienced by the others,
but that was David's experience. He knew the covenant of the Lord,
for he was in the secret of the Lord. The Lord had brought him
into that place. He knew trouble in the flesh,
he knew sin and family strife and rebellion, but having been
shown God's secret, his covenant, he blessed the Lord. His soul
couldn't help overflowing with blessing of the Lord. Blessing
of the Lord thanking him, thanking him. You see, the very best of
men have what we call feet of clay. You know Nebuchadnezzar's
dream where he dreamed about that statue and Daniel interpreted
it to him. And you know the head was of
gold, and the shoulders was of silver, and the waist was of
bronze, and the legs were of iron, and the feet were of clay. Clay. Clay, go down my garden,
I'm not telling you to do it now, but down my garden you will
find clay plant pots. They're just clay that's moulded
and baked in an oven. And if you just get a stone and
you just tap them gently, do you know what they do? They fall
apart. They break. Because they're brittle. They've
got no strength in them. feet of clay. However strong
the best of men and women might look, we have feet of clay, fragile,
brittle, unable to support our best intentions. But God is sympathetic. In our psalm, turn to verses
13 to 18. It's a psalm of David, who was
a man after God's own heart, but nevertheless a man, a fallen
man, a sinful man, a weak man, a man full of trouble. Verse
13, like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth
them that fear him. You take into account the weakness
and the inability of your children, don't you? You shift them, you
take into account the weak. They're children, they're not
grown up yet. Yes, we teach them, we raise
them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord to become strong,
to become mature, to become responsible. But we pity them when they're
children. We take account of their weakness. You see, God,
it says in verse 14, he knows our frame. He knows what we're
made of. Why does he know what we're made of? Because he made
us. He remembereth that we are dust. He made Adam out of the dust
of the ground. And as any chemist will tell
you, if you take apart the components of your body and mine, a human
body, and you put it into little piles of chemicals, you will
see the stuff that makes up the soil out there in the garden.
That's what it is. It's just the dust of the ground.
As for man, his days are as grass. You know, we're just coming to
the end of another summer. As the flower of the field, so
he flourisheth. Fortunately, there are some out
there that are still flourishing, and I hope they'll go on for
quite a while yet, but others have had their day. They were
in the bud, they came out into the full flower in all their
beauty, they bloomed, and before too long, they withered. and
they've perished, and they've gone to seed, and they've dropped
off, and that's just what we are like, and God knows and understands. The wind passes over it, and
it is gone. Soon, not many weeks, all those
lovely leaves on those trees will dry, and wither, and go
brown, and the wind will pass over it, and it will be gone,
and they'll all be blown away. The place thereof shall know
it no more, but the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting
to everlasting upon them that fear him." There it is again.
Them that fear him. Them that fear him with a filial
fear. And his righteousness unto children's
children, to such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember
his commandments to do them. What commandments? Gospel commandments. gospel commandments. This isn't
legalism, this is gospel precepts. This is knowing the gospel of
grace, and living in the light of the gospel of grace, and walking
by the spirit in the light of the gospel of grace, constrained
by the love of Christ. That's the blessing that God
pours upon his people. You see, our God is not a far
off. As Paul preached to the Athenians,
he said in Acts 17, though he, God, be not far from every one
of us, for in him we live and move and have our being. All
of us. We live and move and have our
being in him. He's not far from each one of us. And not only
does he sympathize with us, He's done more than that, hasn't He?
In His Son, in His darling Son, in the Second Person of the Glorious
Trinity, He has not only pitied us, but He has experienced our
fleshly nature. He was made of a woman. When
the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son,
made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem those who are
under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
In His Son, He has experienced our fleshly nature. He knows
what it is to be tired and weary. He knows what it is to be hungry
and thirsty. He knows what it is to feel sorrow. When Lazarus died, we read, and
Jesus, God, eternal God, in flesh. When Lazarus died and Jesus went
to the tomb, the shortest verse in the Bible, Jesus wept. Jesus
wept. Jesus the man wept. He wept. He's experienced our fleshly
nature. We have not, as Hebrews 4.15 says, we have not an high
priest, for he is our great high priest, which cannot be touched
with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted,
like as we are, but with him, yet without sin. He has empathy
for us, because he's been in our flesh. He has pity and understanding. Are you like David? Am I? A sinner? A failure in terms of the holiness
God requires? Yet blessed of God, taught to
fear, let into his secret, shown the glories of his covenant,
of gracious salvation. Then, bless the Lord, O my soul,
O bless the Lord, in every fibre of your being, be thankful and
remember all his benefits. Be thankful for who he is. Thankful for who he is. Back
to verse 1. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Thank God for who he is. His
holy name. All that is within me, bless
his holy name, the name of God is every attribute of God's person
and nature. He is the great I am. He is the
only one who is the great I am. Every other living thing, every
creature, every man, woman, every plant, every animal, every creature,
everything owes its existence and its life to him. He is the
one who alone is the great I am, the giver of life, the one who
is holy and just, but gracious and merciful, the one who is
just, who dwells in an approachable light, who will in no wise clear
the guilty, who is a consuming fire, just, but yet, listen,
justifier of the one who comes to him by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Just and justifier. He is, as Isaiah says, a just
God. Well, if he was a just God, how
can he save sinners? Because he wouldn't be just if
he saved those who deserve hell, would he? But in his son, he
is a just God and a saviour. have an eye towards Him, look
to Him, Isaiah 51 verse 1, hearken to Me, ye that follow after righteousness,
ye that seek the Lord, I trust that's you, I trust that's us
here, hearken to Me, look unto the rock whence ye are hewn,
He's the one from whom we have been made, unto the hole of the
pit whence ye are digged, that hole of the pit of sin from which
he digs his people out. He has rescued me from that horrible
pit and set my feet upon a rock. Remember who this Lord is. Look at Ephesians chapter 1.
Ephesians chapter 1 and just in the first few verses there.
Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he has
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in
whom we have redemption through his blood, and so on and so forth.
This is our God, this Lord, for who is he? He's Jehovah Jesus,
the God who saves his people from their sins. We give thanks
always, as again Ephesians 5 verse 20 says, giving thanks always
for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Bless him, thank him, bless him. As it says there, bless the Lord,
O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Again
and again, bless him, thank him, O my soul, bless him. for teaching
you to fear him, for revealing his secret in you, for showing
you who he is, and that all things are from his providential hand.
Look at verse seven. Thank him for what he's shown
you. He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children
of men. We read in Psalm 147 that he
makes his word known unto Jacob. God makes his word known unto
the people of his choice, unto Jacob. Secondly then, bless God
for forgiveness. Verse 3, who forgiveth all thine
iniquities. He forgives all your iniquities. Why is it so important to be
forgiven of our iniquities? Isaiah 59 verse 2 says, Your
iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins
have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. That's what
your sins have done. But look at verses 8 to 12 of
this psalm. The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always
chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the
heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward
them that fear him. As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. How
has he removed? our sins, our transgressions
from us. How has He removed the sins of His people, the sins
of those that fear Him? How has He done it? How has He
removed the sins of His people from them when we know that in
the flesh we're still sinners? That verse that we know so well,
2 Corinthians 5, 21, For He made Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, who
knew no sin, He made Him to be sin that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. He has made the sins of his people
into the sins of his beloved son, though his beloved son never
ever committed any sin. And when he loaded the sins of
his people onto his beloved son, he poured out the wrath of his
divine justice against his son, on his son, at Calvary, and satisfied
his justice. Justice said, this is the penalty,
it must be paid, and it poured out the penalty and paid the
penalty. And the law then said, the justice
of God then said, enough, enough, it is finished, it is enough.
With the poured out blood of the Lamb, the justice of God
was satisfied. With the lifeblood of the Lamb
of God, the justice of God was satisfied. All sin, all sin. My sin, what does that hymn say?
We don't sing it much these days, do we? But it is a glorious sin.
My sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to his cross. Does that mean you can go and
sin like mad because it's all going to be nailed to his cross?
No, of course you don't live like that, but I do know this.
I know I will sin till the day I die. but I know that all that
sin has been nailed to his cross and I bear it no more, praise
the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. And he's caused us to know
it and rejoice in his forgiveness of our sins. In Psalm 130 in
verse four, we read, there is forgiveness with thee that thou
mayest be feared. Does that seem an odd verse? What does that mean? There is
forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. God's people
can only be in a relationship of filial fear, that good fear
of the people of God for our living God, that filial fear
of our Abba Daddy Father God, We can only be in that relationship
if there is forgiveness of sin. There is forgiveness with thee
so that you can be feared, so that we can be in that relationship
of a child to an Abba Father. Bless the Lord, O my soul, for
his forgiveness of my sins. Bless God for his healing. Verse
three again. Bless God for his healing. who
forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. He has healed his people of the
leprosy of sin. Do you know how many times throughout
the scriptures, Old Testament and New, leprosy is a picture
of the condition of sin. I know now with modern antibiotics,
leprosy can be quite successfully treated, but in those days it
couldn't. Once you had leprosy, you had to be Barred from the
society of the day, you had to be put out and live in a camp
until you died and your limbs would rot away and it was a horrible
disease. But it's a picture of sin. A
picture of sin. But he has healed us of that.
How has he healed us? How has he healed his people?
By doing all that is necessary. To cleanse us from our sin. To
put a new heart within us. to put the mind of God within
his people's hearts. He is, as Exodus 15, 26 calls
him, Jehovah-Rapha, Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord that healeth thee, the
God who heals you. How does he do it? How does he
heal us? Galatians 2, 20, I am crucified
with Christ. Do you know how he heals us of
our leprosy? By killing us, by killing us. Sounds odd that, doesn't it?
That's how he does it. How does he do it? I am crucified
with Christ. For the believer, when Christ
died on Calvary, you and I died in him there. That's where he
cured us of our leprosy. And he quickened us when he was
raised from the dead. he was raised to newness of life
and he quickened his people and were born again of God's spirit
and given a heart like David's heart after God's own heart and
the laws of God and the principles of God's laws are written in
that heart and in all that we do though we still sin yet our
attitude and everything about us if we're true children of
God is constrained by Christ's redeeming love. The love of Christ
constraineth us. Bless God for his healing. Bless
the Lord, O my soul. Bless God for his redemption.
Verse 4. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction,
who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies. In Christ
God has paid, because that's what redemption is talking about.
It's payment of debt. Redemption is payment of debt. In Christ he has paid the ransom
price for his people. He's paid the sin debt for his
people. So that the law and justice of
God has no outstanding demands against his people. It doesn't. There is nothing, if you're in
Christ, and Christ has died for you, the law and justice of God
has nothing to charge you with, no accusation to bring against
you. Jeremiah 50 verse 20, in those days, in the day of judgment,
and at that time said the Lord, the iniquity of Israel, that's
the people of God. That's you and me if we're believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ. The iniquity of Israel shall
be sought for. Right, let's open the books.
says God at the judgment seat of Christ. Let's open the books
as Revelation tells us and let's see what everybody has done.
Now let's see what these people that are chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world that he calls Israel and that he calls
Judah and that he calls Jacob. Let's look what it says in the
books about their sin. It shall be sought for and there
shall be none. There shall be none. But we say,
we're sinners. No, there shall be none. And
the sins of Judah and they shall not be found, for I will pardon
them whom I reserve. Justice that demands death has
been satisfied with the death of God's son as his people substitute. And God being perfectly just,
do you know what God says about justice? He says, it's completely
wrong to find somebody guilty and punish them who is innocent.
It's almost a worse thing than letting the guilty go free. It's
a terrible thing, it's a terrible injustice to punish the innocent
as if they were guilty when they're not guilty. And likewise, it's
a terrible injustice when the one who is truly guilty goes
scot-free, or is not punished in accordance with the dreadfulness
of what they've done. In the Lord Jesus Christ, the
justice of God that demands the death of his people for their
sin has been satisfied by the death of Christ himself as their
substitute. And God, being perfectly just,
cannot now demand the death of the one in whose place Christ
has died already. Do you see that? It would be
unjust. If Christ died for you, God would
be unjust if he then called you to account for your sins. For
Christ has already paid for your sins. He's redeemed us. He's
redeemed our life from destruction. He's already redeemed us. He
is indeed the lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
as it says in Revelation. And Satan, because of this, Satan
is furious. We saw it when we looked at Revelation.
Revelation 12, verse 17, and the dragon, the devil, was wrath,
was angry, was furious with the woman, the church, the people
of God. Why? because Christ had died and gone
back to heaven and had accomplished their redemption and he, the
devil, went to make war with the remnant of her seed with
her people, that's why we have strife and turmoil now but he's
disarmed this accuser of the brethren this devil, that's what
Revelation 12.10 calls him, the accuser of the brethren he's
completely disarmed he wants to come before God and accuse
the people of God of their sin but he has nothing with which
to accuse them. He cannot bring any charge. Who, says Romans
8, 33 and 34, who shall bring any charge to God's elect? Christ
has died. There's no charge to bring. If
Christ has died, the penalty's been paid. Have you ever owed
a big debt and then come to the day when that debt has been cleared. I tell you, it's a delightful
feeling. It is an utterly delightful feeling,
isn't it? To know that your debts are cleared
in full. It's always delightful. to have
confirmation, that your physical debts in this world are cleared,
that you don't owe anybody anything. That's a delightful thing. But
what we're talking about here are eternal debts cleared. That's
a delightful feeling. Bless the Lord, O my soul. He's
redeemed my life from destruction. And then finally, bless God for
his care. Verses four and five. He crowns
you with loving kindness and tender mercies. He satisfies
your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like
the eagles. He adorns his people with his
grace, with his loving kindness. That's his gracious, tender mercies. With good things, both here in
this life and then on in perfection in eternity. Even now it speaks
of his people being seated in heavenly places and having a
good hope of eternal life and constant spiritual refreshment
and soul nourishment. Are you oppressed? Are you oppressed? In a way I hope you are, but
I hope it's with sin and with fear of death and with laboring
and heavy laden under the burden of that guilt because you've
got to meet a God who is holy. The Lord Jesus Christ said, come
unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden with that debt,
with that guilt, with that burden, with that oppression of sin,
come unto me and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. For my yoke is easy, and my burden
is light. You see, if you're dreading the
judgment of God, Christ calls you to come to him. Because there,
just as Pilgrim found in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress,
he came to the foot of the cross, and there His eyes were open
to see, and the burden of sin, which was that great sack on
his back, in the type, in the allegory, in the picture, it
rolled away out of sight into the tomb under the cross. He
executes righteousness and judgment. Verse six, the Lord executeth
righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. Are you
oppressed? Burdened? Heavy laden? He executes
righteousness and judgment. What does that mean? It doesn't
mean that he judges you as you are in your sin in the flesh,
it means this, he's accomplished salvation for you. He executes
righteousness means that in his death on the cross he has paid
the penalty for your sin and established righteousness and
made you the righteousness of God in him. And judgment, judgment
is completed there for the people of God in him. That is salvation. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless God. Verse 19. The Lord hath prepared his throne
in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all. He calls on
the angels to bless God, to praise God. All his hosts. Verse 22. Bless the Lord, all his works,
in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless God for his kingdom and
his sovereign, dependable rule. Don't be afraid, there is nothing
to be afraid of in this life. Our God rules in all things in
the affairs of man. Bless the Lord, O my soul.