Open your Bibles, if you will,
to Psalm 84. Psalm 84. Let me ask you a question and
I want you to consider it carefully. What is the most important aspect
of your life? The most important thing you
do? What's the most important aspect of a believer's life? Immediately, that which will
come to mind with most people is prayer or personal Bible study or family
worship. And all of those things are very
important aspects of every believer's life. But all of those things
are secondary to another. The singular most important aspect
of every believer's life is public worship. The worship of God's saints together
in the assembly of the saints in his house. the single most
important aspect of every believer's life. Can I make good on that
from the word of God? Tell me where God has promised
the one place, the one place where God has promised he'll
meet with his people. Where two or three are gathered together
in my name. There am I in the midst of them. He didn't promise he'd meet with
you and Judy sitting at your kitchen table. He didn't promise
that. He didn't promise that he would
meet with you, kneeling down out in the woods, reading your
Bible and praying. He didn't promise that. He did promise
where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am
I in the midst of them. He promises that He will make
the assembly of His saints the temple of God and when you come
together as the temple of God, the Spirit of God dwelleth in
you. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. So something
mystical, something mysterious, something that cannot be explained,
that cannot be imitated that cannot be forced or coerced takes
place whenever men and women come together trusting Christ,
seeking his face, seeking his glory. As we come together in
the place of worship, God the Holy Spirit comes with us. That makes this right here, what
we're doing right now, the most important thing on this earth. Mamas and daddies, grandma and
grandpa, listen to me now. When you willingly absent yourself
from this privilege to take your children to a ball game or to
the circus, or take them to see the president, or take them to
visit grandma or grandpa, or take them to the beach, or take
them fishing, or just stay at home because you'd rather watch
gun smoke than come to church. You take your children by the
hand and you tell them, listen son, listen daughter, God's house
and God's worship Christ and the gospel of his grace and God's
people are all good things to have around when you want to
use them, but here are the things that are important. Ouch. That hurts. I hope so. I hope so. It's intended to make
you understand this is the single most important thing we do on
this earth as believers. God saved me when I was not quite
17 years old. That's been now 42, 43, 44 years
ago. In 44 years, I've made it my business every time every time the church with which
I have been associated meets together to be there. If Granny
died, Granny just died. That's all. You mean you didn't
leave the church when your mama died? Not a chance. Not a chance. Well, they might bury her without
me. They just have to bury her without me. I'm sorry. I'm not
going to absent myself from the worship of my God. It's not going
to happen. He is more important than you, or my daughter, or
my wife, or anyone else. Nothing compares with the worship
of God Almighty. All right, let's look at Psalm
84. This Psalm expresses that which
ought to believe every believer's attitude with regard to the house
of God, and the great privilege of worshiping with God's saints. To the chief musician upon gitteth. This word gitteth is given in
the titles of a number of the Psalms. It means a stringed instrument,
but it comes from a word which means wine presses. It's translated
that way in some of the various translations of scripture. Rather
than get it, you'd have wine presses. This psalm speaks of
local churches and the assemblies of God's saints in public worship
where Christ the true vine causes his people to drink the sweet
wine of his grace, a psalm for the sons of Korah, that is, a
psalm to be sung by the singers in the house of God, a psalm
of praise to God. How amiable are thy tabernacles,
O Lord of hosts. My God, my soul longeth, yea,
even fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my
flesh crieth out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found
a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay
her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and
my God." When David was exiled from Jerusalem, fleeing for his
life, before ever the temple was built in Jerusalem, he envied
the sparrows who nested in the house of God. He ended the sparrows
because he longed to meet with God's people in the assembly
of the saints. Blessed are they that dwell in
thy house. They shall be still praising
thee. Now that word, Selah, I never
read it audibly when I'm reading the Psalms in public. It's really
a punctuation mark. It's a big, elongated period. The word means roll that over
in your mind. Stop now, pause, and pay attention
to what you just read. Blessed are they that dwell in
thy house. They shall still be praising
thee. Now turn, if you will, to Psalm
120. My text this morning is 15 chapters, Psalm 120 through
Psalm 134. These psalms form a section of
the psalms called psalms of degrees. They might be better translated
ascension psalms. These psalms were commonly chanted
by the children of Israel as they made their pilgrimage from
their own houses in various parts of Israel up to Jerusalem on
those three annual great times of feast when all the males in
Israel were required to go to Jerusalem and worship God. These
were the psalms that the pilgrims sang to the Lord God as they
were going up to Jerusalem. They'd leave their house and
the family of this group of men and then another group meet together.
They would chant these psalms. They chanted them. That's how
they sang the psalms. And as they would come together,
more and more of them, they would chant the Psalms, one after another
together, until as they approached Jerusalem, you had the whole
body of the nation of God's Israel chanting these Psalms. Can you
imagine the chorus? Can you imagine how it must have
sounded to hear these folks coming up to the house of God, chanting
these Psalms? Some have suggested, whether
it's so, whether it's not, I don't know. Dr. Gill suggested when
the priest would meet the people coming up to the temple, there
were 15 steps going up to the temple. And as they would go
up, leading the people to the worship of God, they'd step on
the first step, and then the second, the third, up to the
15th, chanting these psalms, one on each step as they went
up to the house of God. These songs were written and
recorded by divine inspiration to show us three things. First,
they show us the attitude of our Lord Jesus himself as he
made his pilgrimage through this world going up to the heavenly
Jerusalem as our representative into the house of God everlastingly. And then second, they show us
the attitude that God's saints ought to have as we make our
pilgrimage through this world to our Father's house above.
Oh, may God give us grace and set our affection on things above,
not on things on this earth. Oh, God set my heart on heaven
and on eternity. Let me not be consumed with the
things of time. And third, this is the attitude
we ought to cultivate as we come to the house of God to worship
him. I want us to scan these 15 psalms,
and I mean scan them. I won't be long on any of them.
That'll give me about two and a half minutes on each one. But
I want us to look at these 15 psalms together and understand
that these psalms are intended to be understood together. They're
describing the ascent of God's pilgrims to glory. the ascent
of God's children out of this world to the house of God, just
as we've come here this morning. Whenever we have the privilege
of coming up out of this distressing world of darkness, out of this
world of woe, to gather with God's saints, worshiping in his
house at his footstool, before his throne with his people, we
ought to be filled with the anticipation that these Psalms express. When
we come to the house of God in public worship, we come to this
physical building. And you all, I commended you
the other night and I commend you again, taking great care
of this physical building. It speaks volumes about our attitude
toward the God we worship and the things we do. But this building
is not God's house. Like your pastor, Shelby and
I live close to the church building. We live in the Parsonage. And
I will often say I'm going over to the church and I try to bite
my tongue. It didn't mean to say that. It didn't mean I'm
going over to the church building. There's a big difference. The
church is not this building. The church is the people of the
living God. The church of God. is you, his
saints. And God's church just comes into
this building and we who are his church, the Apostle Paul
writing by divine inspiration says, we are the house of the
living God. So that when we come together,
not scattered abroad, but when we come together, we are the
house of God. In fact, the word church means
assembly. And we come in the assembly of
the saints as a local church to worship our God. What a privilege,
what a blessing. Oh, how highly this thing ought
to be esteemed. If the Lord will allow us today
to worship him, if indeed we've come to this place in the name
of Christ, that is seeking his honor, seeking His will, His
glory, trusting Him, seeking to worship Him. We've come into
the house and temple of the Lord Jesus and He is in our midst
and His Spirit is here. If we come, just two or three,
just are there two or three people who come here today trusting
Christ, wanting to hear from God and worship Him? Two or three. There am I in the midst of them.
And when we come together, the Spirit of God comes with us. Indeed, if you read Hebrews chapter
12, not only do we come together in Christ's name, come together
by the Spirit and in the Spirit as we assemble here. Right now,
at this very hour, our folks in Danville are assembled together.
In just a couple of hours, our friends out in the West will
be assembled together just like this. Our friends already have
met in Australia and going home. But as we come together with
God's people, we come not just here, but Hebrews 12 tells us
that we are come to Jerusalem above. We'll come to the General
Assembly and Church of the Firstborn so that we don't just meet here
at some physical carnal altar. We've come together to Christ
who is our altar. We've come to Christ who is our
mercy seat. We've come to Christ himself
spiritually with God's saints as one to worship the living
God. Oh, what a day this is. We've
come to worship God. And the Lord God is thus honored
in the worship of these saints. The Psalms of Degrees, beginning
in Psalm 120, begins with Zion's pilgrim leaving his home, leaving
behind him a world of distress and woe because he dwells among
deceitful, ungodly, self-serving men who are constantly in strife
with one another. And you get to Psalm 134, as
the pilgrim returns from the house of God, going back to his
home, going back to face the world that he hates and the world
that hates him. The world that hates God, he
goes back now from God's house, refreshed in his soul. He seems
to be leaping and dancing in his soul, giving praise to God. Oh, may that be the case with
us today. That which relieved and comforted and rejoiced the
hearts of God's saints in those ancient times as they anticipated
the coming of Christ, as they anticipated the Lord's incarnation
are the very same things that rejoice our hearts now as we
rejoice in the fulfillment of that which was typified in all
the temple sacrifices. The sacrifice, everything in
the worship of the Old Testament, everything. All the daily sacrifices
and the weekly sacrifices and all the weekly Sabbaths and all
the Sabbaths through the years as they came together, everything
in Israel pointed to and brought almost like it was working narrowly,
narrowly to one point on the Day of Atonement when that high
priest offered the blood of the Paschal Lamb and God Almighty
declared that he was now pacified toward his people. And the priest
comes out on the basis of that sacrifice and lifts up his hands
over the congregation like the representative of Christ that
he was and says, the Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord
make his face to shine upon thee. Everything that Israel did in
the worship of God pointed to that one thing, and that was
the joy of their hearts, those who believe God, the joy of their
hearts, those who worship God in those things, and that's the
joy of our hearts. Everything we do, every song
sung, every prayer uttered, every activity involved in our worship
services, every scripture read, Every message preached points
to and directs our hearts to Christ, our Passover, who is
sacrificed for us, by whom our sins are put away, and through
whom the blessings of God's covenant come freely upon his people.
All right, let's look at these Psalms together briefly. First
in Psalm 120, the pilgrim leaves his home in distress. You fellows
have come here from a a week of work, you ladies, a week of
work and care surrounded by family and neighbors and friends who
have no regard for God. And you leave this world of distress
and come to the house of God calling on the Lord to deliver
you from trouble and from heartache, from the cares, from the slandering
tongues and the strife of the world. Added to that, God's pilgrim
was constantly aware that he dwelt in Meshach. Meshach was
the son of Japheth. His descendants were in the north
part of Israel. They were commonly associated
with Magog, the enemies of God and his people. Meshach represented
all false, anti-Christ, freewill works religion. Psalm 120, the
Psalm of Degrees. In my distress, I cried unto
the Lord and he heard me." I wish it weren't so. It ought
not be so. But I'll tell you when Paul and
Don will pray when we're in distress. I don't know that I've ever really
prayed except in distress. I try to pray a lot. I try to
pray constantly. At home, not in public, not in
a restaurant, but at home, I never eat a tomato sandwich without
prayer. I never rise in the morning,
never go to bed at night without prayer. I go through the day
and I have the privilege of spending my life studying the book and
I try to pray, but I don't know that I've ever prayed except
when I was in desperate need. And I expect the same is true
of you. In my distress, I called unto the Lord, and when we do,
He heard me. Look at verse five. Woe is me
that I sojourned in Meshach, I sojourn here among God's enemies. In this world, I live and dwell
among the tents of Keter. I live and dwell in a world of
darkness and blackness and corruption, idolatry and blasphemy that grieves
my heart and vexes my soul, Psalm 121. turning his eyes and his
heart and his mind away from the troubles around him. Zion's pilgrim looks away to
God on his throne here in Psalm 121. He is our help. He's our keeper. He will preserve
us from all evil. He will preserve our souls. I
will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from which cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord,
which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to
be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord
is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day nor the moon by night. The Lord will preserve thee.
from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The
Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this
time forth and even forevermore. And next in Psalm 122, Zion's
weary pilgrim turns his mind toward God in
his house, toward the assembly of God's saints around his throne,
gathered around the mercy seat, gathered around the sacrifice,
gathered around the propitiation, anticipating the prospect of
coming together around Christ the Lord with joy. I come to, well, boy, it's going
to be good to come into God's house and get to see Brother
Craig again. Well, that's good, but that's
not what I came for. That's just a side benefit. I always look
forward to coming down here and getting to see you folks and
see your faces, enjoy your company, but oh, that's not the reason. That's not the reason. We come
here in the anticipation of meeting the Son of God again, of hearing
him speak, of seeing his face, of enjoying his sweet presence
and his communion. I was glad when they said unto
me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand
within thy gates, O Jerusalem." Jerusalem, this is not talking
about that city over yonder across the water. It's talking about
Jerusalem, which is above the mother of us all, the church,
the city of God. Jerusalem is builted as a city
compacted together. Where did the tribes go up? The
tribes of the Lord, that's all God's elect. That's the 144,000
described in Revelation 7. They go up under the testimony
of Israel, that is under the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy
seat to give thanks, to give thanks under the name of the
Lord. For there are set thrones of judgment, thrones of the house
of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
They shall prosper that love thee. Excuse me. Peace be within thy walls and
prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and my companion's
sakes, I will now say, peace be within thee. For my brethren,
my companions in the kingdom and grace of God, peace be. How many years did you tell me
you'd been here yesterday, 28, 29? Brother Doug said, it's unbelievable,
we've had 29 years of peace. Do you know how rare that is
in a Baptist church? 29 years of peace. For my brethren,
my companions' sake I pray, peace be within your walls. God preserve
the peace of Israel. because of the house of the Lord
our God, I will seek thy good. Psalm 123. The pilgrim sings
now about our faith. The faith of all those who worship
God, faith that expresses itself in worship and is encouraged
and strengthened in the house of God. Unto thee lift I up mine
eyes, O thou that dwellest, in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes
of the servants look to the hand of their masters, and as the
eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so our eyes
wait upon the Lord our God until that he have mercy upon us. The
eyes of a servant looks to his master. For what? Everything. Master's hand is what gives him
his clothes and his bread and his benefits and his protection. As the maid looks to the hand
of her mistress, looks to her for everything, so we wait on
the Lord. Wait on the Lord our God for
his mercy. Have mercy upon us, O Lord. Have mercy upon us, for we are
exceedingly filled with contempt. Tell you what you do. Read through
this book one more time and find me anywhere where anybody came
to the Lord God seeking mercy who didn't get what he sought. Everywhere. Have mercy on us.
We wait on you for mercy. For we're exceedingly filled
with contempt. Our soul is exceedingly filled
with scorning of those that are at ease. with contempt to the
proud. Those all around us are perfectly
comfortable and at ease. They've got everything fixed
up between them and God. They don't have any trouble.
And we're constantly at trouble with the world and at trouble
with ourselves. Psalm 124. Here, the tried, tempted,
slandered pilgrim acknowledges, God, my savior is my keeper.
Acknowledges by the grace of God, I am what I am. If it had
not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say,
look back over all the past. Go ahead, take a brief scan over
all the past. If it had not been for the Lord
who was on our side when men rose up against us, then they
had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against
us. Then the waters had overwhelmed
us. The stream had gone over our soul. Then the proud waters
had gone over our soul. Blessed be the Lord who hath
not given us as prey to their teeth. Our soul is escaped as
a bird out of the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken
and we are escaped. Our help is in the name of the
Lord. who made heaven and earth, Psalm
125. With each of these Psalms, there
seems to be a continual rising of thoughts. Psalm 120 speaks
of our distress, and Psalm 121, our help, and then Psalm 122
speaks of anticipation. Psalm 123, our faith, and then
our acknowledgement here in Psalm 124. In the 125th Psalm, the
pilgrim ascribes confidence in God. Let's come to the house
of God with confidence, confidence, not confidence in ourselves,
not self-confidence, confidence in God, confidence in God's goodness,
confident of his goodness. They that trust in the Lord shall
be as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abideth ever. As the mountains are round about
Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth
even forever. The rod of the wicked shall not
rest upon the lot of the righteous. Go ahead. Do you remember the
promise that God made to the children of Israel? when he commanded
them to go up to his house, to go up to Jerusalem for a week,
three times every year. Do you remember the promise he
made to her? Well, buddy, those Jews, you
watch them. You can mark your calendar. Buddy,
come Labor Day, they're all going to that Bible conference up in
Denver. You watch them. We can get their houses. We can
take their cattle. We can take their property and
we can take their children. You watch them. You can mark
your calendar. Man, they leave on Thursday morning every year.
Don't get back until late Monday night. We can take everything.
And the Lord God said for those three annual weeks of worship,
I mean, they went three times. You can mark your calendar three
times every year. The Lord God said, when you leave,
I'll fix it so they don't want what you've got. Nobody will take anything from
you. Nobody will take a dog from you. The rod of the wicked shall not
rest on the lot of God's people. It won't happen. How can you act so irresponsibly? How can you behave so irresponsibly? Well, Walter Groover, 45 years
ago, took his wife and children left a good job at Cameron Ironworks
plant down in Houston, Texas, and went to Medina, Mexico to
go to work as a missionary with not one dime supplied to him. I'm talking nobody, nobody said,
we're going to support you. He quit his job, went to Mexico,
prepared to go to work. Went down there, why? to preach
the gospel of God's grace, 45 years ago, 45 years ago. And
you know, his family's doing pretty good. I know every one
of them, his grandchildren and his great-grandchildren, they're
doing pretty good. And I've known Walter a long
time. He doesn't look like he's at all hungry or poor or do without,
but he's doing pretty good. See, they got a nice house to
live in She looks like she's in good health. I've never seen
her when she's dressed in rags. Everything seems to be going
all right. Well, how could you do that? I didn't. I didn't. God did. God did. That's all. God did. God takes care of his own. Him
that honoreth me, I will honor. Well, Brother Dunn, you're talking
about a missionary. That's something special. Well, he is something
special. Do you know what Doug West is?
He's called a missionary. God's witness. All God's people
are his missionaries. The word means martyrs. The word
witness in the scriptures is the word translated commonly,
martyrs. You mean God's people are all
martyrs? Well, Brother Donna, a martyr is someone who lays
down his life in the cause. That's what a believer is, is
a man, a woman who lays down his life for the glory of God. I'm glad to do it. Psalm 126. Here, this psalm moves up another
scale and speaks of joy. When the Lord turned again the
captivity of Zion, we were prisoners and God set
us free. We were like them that dreamed
a dream. Oh, God pardoned my sin in my
conscience and declared me in my soul not guilty. When God
set me free from my prison, I was like a fellow who dreamed a dream.
This can't be. This just can't be. Oh, this
really is. Then was our mouth filled with
laughter and our tongue with singing. Then said they among
the heathen, the Lord had done great things for them. The Lord
had done great things for us where we are glad. Do you remember
how David brought the Ark of God up to Jerusalem, out of the
house of Obed-Edom. Here's the King of Israel, the
mightiest, richest man in the world, the King of Israel. Here he is walking in front of
that Ark, and he understood that that Ark represented Christ,
atonement, and righteousness. He understood that ark represented
God's salvation in his darling son. He realized that ark represented
all the blessings of God's covenant given to him by his free grace. And David started to leap and
dance. If I were 20 years younger, I'd
show you what he did. He was jumping up and down and
just dancing in the streets. And his wife looked out her window
and despised him. He came home and Michael, Saul's
daughter, his wife, gave him a good cussing. And when she
finally shut up, he said, yes, I've made myself vile before
the daughters of Jerusalem. And if you'll hang on to your
seat and watch me, I'm going back out and do the same thing
again because God chose me. God chose me. and my heart breaks
with dancing. All right, Psalm 127. The pilgrim
of Zion here meditates upon the security of God's house as he
ascends to it. Here's our security. The building
of God's house, we sang about it just a little bit ago, is
his work. The security of his house is
his work. The children he gives are his
heritage. Knowing these things, we read, so he giveth his beloved
sleep. Except the Lord build the house.
They labor in vain that build it. We labor the preaching of
the gospel, the gathering of God's elect, but except the Lord
build the house, our labor is in vain. Except the Lord keep
the city, the watchman, that man sitting over yonder, he waketh
but in vain. He spends those sleepless nights
tossing and turning, seeking God's mercy, concerned about
your souls in vain unless the Lord keep the city. It's vain
for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread
of sorrows. For so he giveth his beloved
sleep. You see, children are an heritage
of the Lord. The fruit of the womb is his
reward. This is not talking about your physical children. You say,
well, I believe my children are the Lord's reward. In some cases,
they are. Sometimes your children will
be your absolums and your amnons. And much as you love them, they'll
be nothing but pain to you. This is not talking about your
physical seed. No, sir. This is talking about God's spiritual
seed. Christ's church, His children. As arrows are they in the hand
of Christ the mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy
is the man, happy is that one man, the Lord Jesus, that hath
his quiver full of children. They shall not be ashamed, not
one of his. Don's children may be ashamed
of him or may be ashamed of themselves, but not of him, not his children,
but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. That is,
they'll speak with confidence, speak with authority, they'll
speak with boldness because they're his children. Look at Psalm 128. Here the psalmist speaks of our
way, the way in which we walk, the way of faith in Christ, the
ways of divine providence, the ways in which divine providence
takes us, his ways, the blessed way. Blessed is everyone that
feareth the Lord, that walketh in his ways. We walk in his ways. The steps
of a good man are ordered of the Lord. All of them. Brother Barefoot, if you don't
mind me asking, you've got to be pushing close to 80 years
old. How old are you now? Do you mind? Eighty-two. For 82 years, God's ordered every
step. Every step. Every step. I was born 60 years ago down
here in Bladen County on a tenant farm. Born where I was under
the circumstances to the parents in the family, God ordained for
my everlasting good. And he's ordered every step we
walk in his ways, his ways. And it shall be well with thee. Look at Psalm 129. As we
saw in the 120th Psalm, our foes are many and they're relentless.
The slanderer's tongue is sharp as an arrow that will never cease
to pierce and hurt. But here in this 129th Psalm,
the psalmist moves up to the house of God. Zion's happy pilgrim
bids his foes farewell and commits them to his God. That's exactly
what we must do. That's exactly what we soon shall
do. Look at verse two. They have
not prevailed against me. Verse four. The Lord is righteous. He hath cut asunder the cords
of the wicked. Let them all be confounded and
turn back that hate Zion. Let them be as the grass upon
the housetops, which withereth before it groweth up. I'm sure I've told you this before,
but 36 years ago, I was laying on my bed, sick
as I could be, had cancer. Doctors thought I was dying,
and they almost had me convinced. And I couldn't even pick my daughter
up. I was so weak. And I got a card
in the mail, a card from a friend who had never written to me before
or since, but he was a dear friend. I'd attended church with him
in Winston-Salem, and I hadn't seen him in about six or seven
years. The card had his address on the back of it. Didn't have
his name on it. I had to look up his address,
find out who he was from. Didn't even have a signature on it.
Just opened the card up, just had one thing in it. Romans 16,
20. I had to get my Bible and look
it up. I'd never paid much attention to it. This is what it says.
The God of peace shall brew Satan under your heels shortly. And I'm here to tell you the
God of peace shall brew Satan under your heels shortly. When
our Lord is done with us and done with the devil and done
with this creation, there will not be so much as the slime of
the serpent left upon it. There will not be any regrets,
any repentance, any wishes for change of anything. but we will
see that God has ordered all things well for his own. Psalm
130 describes our hope. It is the hope of grace and forgiveness
through redemption. Your pastor read it last night.
Let's just pick up the highlights. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. Verse three, if thou, O Lord,
shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is
forgiveness with thee. And that's how men come to fear
you, that thou mayest be feared. Verse seven, let Israel hope
in the Lord. For with the Lord, there is mercy.
With him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel. He shall deliver all Israel from
all his iniquities. And then the 131st Psalm speaks
of humility and contentment. Lord, My heart is not haughty. I know what I am. I know who
I am. Nor mine eyes lofty. I don't
have high aspirations. Neither do I exercise myself
in great matters or in things too high for me. Surely, I have
behaved and quieted myself. Behaved? That's what believers
do when they quiet themselves. When we're not quiet, we're not
behaving. When we're not quiet, we're not
believing. It's I have behaved and quieted
myself. Lord, I'm comfortable with what
you're doing. I'm comfortable with your will. Now, it takes
us sometimes a while to get there. We bite our nails and paste the
floors anticipating things that never come to pass as if we actually
could control something. We bite our nails and paste the
floors and wring our hands as if we think we really could take
care of matters. The fact is when we believe God,
then we quiet ourselves. Let's see if that's what it means.
As a child that is weaned of his mother, Surely some of you
ladies are old enough to have breastfed your children. And
when they're weaning, I can still hear my daughter. She's 39 years
old now. I can still hear her squalling
because Mama was weaning her. It wasn't because she was hungry.
It was just because she wanted to nurse. She just got done nursing,
but she wanted to nurse some more. And she'd squall because
she couldn't nurse anymore. And it went on for a couple of
days. Just squall like it's going to
die. And then she got quiet. She got
quiet. This is what David says, I behaved
and quieted myself as a child that is weaned of its mother.
My soul is even as a weaned child. What does that mean? Let Israel
hope in the Lord. Set your heart on things above. Psalm 132. Psalm 132. Sets before us that which ought
to be our prayer. It begins like this, Lord, remember
David, that is, remember Christ, and all his afflictions, all
his sufferings, how he swear unto the Lord and vowed to the
mighty God of Jacob, surely I will not come into the tabernacle
of my house, nor go up to my bed, I will not give sleep to
mine eyes, nor slumber to my eyelids, until I found a place
for the Lord and I built God's house, established his people,
verse seven. We will go into his tabernacles.
We will worship at his footstool. Arise, O Lord, unto thy rest. Thou and the ark of thy strength,
let thy priests be clothed with righteousness and let thy saints
shout for joy. I've got to move on. Look at
Psalm 133. Here's our delight. Behold how
good how pleasant it is for brethren, brethren, brethren, children
of the same father, heirs of the same inheritance, members
of the same family, to dwell together, to abide constantly
together as one in unity. It is like the precious ointment
upon the head that ran down the beard, even Aaron's beard that
went down to the skirts of his garments when the priest was
anointed with that fragrant anointing oil and it ran down his beard
and ran down on his breastplate, ran down on the skirts of his
robes. That's how the psalmist describes the blessed unity of
the spirit given to God's saints. It's as Christ the anointed one
covering us with the sweet fragrance of His grace. Now watch this,
verse 3. As the dew of Hermon, as the
dew descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded
blessing, even life forevermore. I began by telling you this is
the most important aspect of every believer's life. This is
the place from which God commands his blessings upon you, his people. The word of God is preached and
your pastor is given some liberty and unction from God to preach
the word and God speaks to you. How many times you've been here,
Jody, and walk and say, oh, my God, I'm so thankful I was there.
So thankful I had the privilege of hearing that and learning
that. And you walk out the door and you forget it. Walk out the
door and everything consumes you. And you come back in the
evening, oh, God, thank you. Thank you for bread this evening
too. This is the place where God commands his blessing. This
is where God speaks to you, ministers to you, and instructs you by
his word. Psalm 134 speaks of praise. Because of these great
blessings of grace in Christ, behold, bless ye the Lord, all
ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of
the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary
and bless the Lord, the Lord that made heaven and earth. Bless
thee out of Zion. And that's these ascension songs
so that the Lord God as we worship him together, speaks to his people by his word,
through his son, by the power of his spirit, and commands blessing. And the blessing causes our hearts
to erupt with praise to the triune God. Amen.