All right, let's take our Bible
again. Psalm 21. The 21st Psalm. Now if anybody in here is hard
of hearing, and I think by nature we all
are when it comes to the gospel, But if you have a natural hearing
loss and need me to speak louder than I do, you just put your
hand like that and I'll know what to do. So Psalm 21, there's that chief musician one
more time. It occurs, well, there it is
in Psalm 22, but it's not in Psalm 23 nor 24. Before reading Psalm 21, let's
ask the Lord to be pleased to visit us this day
in His Word, in His Gospel, in His mercy, in His grace. Dear Lord, You have enabled and caused us
to gather together in this place this day. Your kind providence has blessed us to be able to
be present. Yea, the very desire to be present
is from You. But we pray as we have come together
in this place that you would, through the power of that grace,
through your blessed Son and the precious gospel of Christ, that you would make us what you
would have us to be. Give us, we pray, the ability to read and understand what we're
reading in your book. And as we feebly attempt to preach
the gospel from Psalm 21, Lord, that you would see fit
to attach your power to your word, that the gospel might run
well this day, not only here but everywhere in this world
where the true gospel of Christ is being proclaimed. In our own pulpit at home, we
ask your blessing upon Mike Walker and the folks that are gathered
there. Lord, if you don't meet with
us, we've just gone through meaningless exercises. Your Word, your Gospel, your
Son. Oh, help us to encounter our
Savior in this book of God. Impart to us in the spiritual
part of us, an understanding of what we read and study this
day. We beg your mercy and your blessing
upon this assembly. We thank you for their boldness
and willingness to open a house of worship, a place where Christ
can be freely preached. And Lord, that you would see
fit to bring Your sheep into this place, even this very day. Honor Your Son and honor Your
gospel, we pray for Christ's sake. Amen. Now we come back to Psalm 21. Psalm 21. Well, we don't come back to it.
We're coming to it, aren't we? It's the first time. Let me read it since it's only
13 verses, and then I want to come back and ask you to look
at scriptures, oh, several at least, maybe not as many as I've
got written down. Now David is speaking of himself
in verse 1. the King shall joy in your strength,
O Lord, and in your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice." And upon beginning such a statement,
it's like David loses sight of himself and makes not only verse
1 but all the remaining verses to have to do with Christ. Like verse 2, "...you have given
him, God the Father has given the Lord Jesus his heart's desire, and has not withheld the request
of his lips." And then that word, Selah. Let's wait and comment
on it when we run into it in just a moment. for you prevent him this means
you go before him in King James English you go before him Jehovah
God goes before Jehovah the Lord Jesus with the blessings of goodness
you set a crown of pure gold on his head he the Lord Jesus ask life of
you and you gave it him even length of days, forever
and ever." Now please understand, this is talking about our Savior
in His mediatorial office as the God-man. As God, none of
these things could be offered to Him because they're already
His. So when we read our Bibles, especially the New Testament,
we have to pay particular attention to two phrases that are very
similar, the Son of God and the Son of Man. Because they're describing
two distinct natures, and yet there's only one person, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 5. Here's what this psalm
is all about. His glory, Christ's glory, is
great in God's salvation. Honor and majesty have you laid
upon Him. all honor and all majesty is
His, the greatness of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then
verse 6, for you have made Him most blessed forever, forever. You have made Him exceeding glad
with your countenance For the king trusts in the Lord, and
through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved." Now, directing these words directly to Christ, beginning
at verse 8, no longer speaking about him but speaking to him. Thine hand, your hand shall find
out all your enemies." Wherever Christ and His gospel goes, it
reveals the hearts of men, exposes it. Your hand shall find out all
your enemies. your right hand shall find out
those that hate you." Well, how many enemies does the Savior
have, to be precise? Every man, woman, boy, and girl
is born an enemy of the Son of God. The amazing thing is that God
saves many of those very people, not all, but as many as He purposed
to, as many as He gave to Christ in the covenant of grace in old
eternity. Verse 9, "...you shall make them
as a fiery oven in the time of your anger. The Lord shall swallow
them up in His wrath, and the fire shall devour them. Their
fruit shall you destroy from the earth, and their seed from
among the children of men, for they intended evil against you.
They imagined a mischievous device..." Oh, thank God for this little
phrase at the end of verse 11. They intended evil. They imagined
a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform. If people did all they intended
to do, you wouldn't be here this morning and I would not either.
This place would not be. The greatest example of verse
11 is Christ on the cross. The devil said, I've got you
now. And little did he know that he was being gotten himself. He's the servant and slave of
our Savior. He's on a leash, Bunyan discovered
in Pilgrim's Progress. He does only what our Lord Jesus
lets him do. Therefore shall you make them
turn their back, when you shall make ready your arrows upon your
strings against the face of them. Be you exalted, Lord, in your
own strength. So will we sing and praise thy
power." Now let's go back just a little
bit. I fully intended to be elsewhere
this morning as far as a message is concerned, but I hope this
is where we're supposed to be. Look again at verse 1. The King
shall joy in your strength, O Lord, and in your salvation. How great
shall your joy be! If you kindly look to Hebrews
12 and verse 2, and if you don't want to turn, it won't bother
me if you don't. If you'll just let me read it
to you, I'd be perfectly pleased at that. The king shall joy in your strength,
O Lord, and in your salvation, how greatly shall he rejoice. Now watch this statement, Hebrews
chapter 12 and verse 2. looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith." Anyone with genuine saving faith, Christ
is both author as well as finisher. But watch this statement, "...who
for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne
of God." And that's the interpretation and that's the meaning of the
first verse of Psalm 21. The second verse confirms that
and gives us additional thoughts. Back to Psalm 21. You have given
him his heart's desire." Jehovah God has given the Lord Jesus
everything that He desires. So any man who pictures before
people, or before himself for that matter, a Christ who cannot
have all that He wants, that cannot be. It just flat can't
be. The Lord Jesus is God Almighty. Whatever He desires, He has. Let me prove it to you in another
text. If you're right here in the book of Psalms, we'll make
it easy. The second Psalm. And I don't have time to tell
you what all is in Psalm 2, but I do want to read you a couple
of statements. Like the 21st Psalm, it is so
glorious, only 12 verses in length. And here in verses 7 and 8, if
we could shorten it just a bit. Well, I have to tell you this,
it's in stanzas of three verses. In the first three verses, it
tells you what people, kings and people and rulers, what they
purpose against God's Christ. In verses 4, 5 and 6, God the
Father is presented and it says, in light of this attempt now
to thwart His purpose for Christ to be all, it says that God laughs
at their puny attempts to unseat Christ from the throne. All right,
the Father speaks in verses 4, 5, and 6. And now in verses 7,
8, and 9, the Lord Jesus speaks, and here's what He says, "...I
will declare the decree The Lord, the Lord God Jehovah
has said unto me, the Lord Jesus, you are my Son, this day have
I begotten you." What a glorious day that is. And this not only
means at Bethlehem, my friends, it means in the covenant of grace
in old eternity. God says to his son every day
that rolls by, you are my son, this day have I begotten you. Ask of me and I shall give you
the heathen, the Gentile, for your inheritance and the uttermost
parts of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod
of iron, you shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
Now pray tell me, Our Lord Jesus Himself acknowledging all power
and all authority to belong to Him in heaven, in hell, and on
earth, everywhere there is, whatever there is, the Lord Jesus is King
of kings and Lord of lords. No doubt, David said in Psalm
21, In verse 2, speaking to God the
Father, you've given him his heart's desire and you have not
withheld the request of his lips. Now, that reminds me of something. What is the present occupation
of Christ at the right hand of God? Say what? He's praying. And here it says, "...and has
not withheld the request of His lips." If He asked for it, it's
His. Can't be any other way. There's
no room for doubt, no room for defeat. Oh, I get so tired of
hearing preachers talking about the Lord Jesus shedding tears
because you won't let Him do something. That's just absolutely
incredible that anybody could make such a statement Yet I think
in my own mind, you've made plenty of them yourself, oh boy." Oh my goodness. Alright, verse 3, Psalm 21. For you prevent him, again that
means you go before him, The triune God precedes the Lord
Jesus in every venture, every place, every time. With the blessings
of goodness, you set a crown of pure gold on His head." Some people worry about which
crowns they're going to have in heaven. In my understanding, there ain't
but one going to be wearing crowns up there, and that's Christ. I don't say this with any malice
or meanness, I hope, if I can say it. In certain circles, people are
going to talk about seeing grandma and mother and dad and all this
stuff. I tell you what better be on our mind is seeing Christ. human relationships will not
be continued in heaven such as husbands and wives, mothers and
daughters, fathers and sons. It won't exist. How could it be if heaven is
a perfect place and we have loved ones nearest and dearest to us
who are not there? I just somehow don't think that's
how it'll be. You made me lose my place. I know where it is. Psalm 24. Let me read you another account
of this victorious, glorious, ever-reigning, all-victorious
Christ. Verses 7 through 10. in the 24th
psalm. The 24th psalm is the ascension
psalm. It is the ascension of our Lord
Jesus. I thought I was going to be on this psalm this morning,
but I found out I wasn't. Beginning at verse 7, lift up
your heads, O you gates, and be you lifted up, you everlasting
doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King
of glory? It's none other than our blessed
Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 8 asks and answers that
question, as well as verse 10. Who is this King of glory? The
Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your
heads, O you gates, and be you lifted up, and even lift Him
up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come
in. Who is this king of glory? Now verse 8 says, the Lord strong
and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. But verse 10 says, the
Lord of hosts, the Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies. Literally
the word is Jehovah Sabaoth. He is the king of glory. Christ is king. And then there's
that word again, Selah. I was thinking we were going
to meet with it again in Psalm 21, but nope, we don't. But at any rate,
some people say it's a musical instruction and all this, that,
the other. And some people say it's pausing
and reflecting. But pausing and reflection comes
awful close. but it is to pause and look for
Christ in what we've just read that's that's where we miss this
book and get off the mark is when we miss Christ alright back in Psalm 21 verse
4 The Lord Jesus is presented as
having asked the Father for life. Life. This is eternal life, which
the Savior gives to His people. But He's pictured here as asking
His Father for that life. He asked life of you and you
gave it Him. In fact, the Lord Jesus is eternal
life. He not only gives it, He gives
it by giving us Himself. Even length of days, forever
and ever. Now I'm turning to II Timothy
chapter 1, and I put me a little marker there so I could beat
you to it. But if you want to turn anyway, that's fine. But
I have to read you this statement. 2 Timothy chapter 1, the verse
is verse 10. And I should like to read verse
9 so that you'll see the connection. God who has saved us and called
us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according
to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the
appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ." When our Savior came
to this world, lived here some 33 years, look what happened.
who has abolished death. Abolished it. I mean for His people. It's gone. It's gone. According to Revelation
chapter 1, Christ wears the keys of heaven, hell, and death. You
can't die without His permission. And you can't live another moment
without His say-so. who has abolished death and has
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."
That, my friend, is the statement of all statements. Goodness me. Okay, let's go back to Psalm
21. Verse 6, "'For you have made
him most blessed forever. You have made him, the Lord Jesus,
exceeding glad with your countenance. For the king trusts in the Lord,
and through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved. Your hand, Christ's hand, shall
find out all your enemies. Your right hand shall find out
those that hate you. You shall make them as a fiery
oven in the time of your anger. The Lord shall swallow them up
in wrath, and the fire shall devour them." Now let me show
you a scripture or two Now, you know, when we were in John 9,
Friday night I think it was, yeah, Friday night, the chapter
ended in verse 39, 40 and 41 with the gospel being declared
to bring a certain kind of judgment wherever it goes. And this is
very similar to that statement. Verse 8, your hand shall find
out. That is, Christ's power in His
grace shall discover all His enemies, all of them. Of some
He makes believers, and of others He makes mad, and mad indeed
they are. But let me show you a scripture
too that will help us with that statement, I think. The Gospel
of Luke will be fine. Turning first of all to chapter
8, Gospel of Luke chapter 8. Beginning at verse 26 in Luke
8, the Lord Jesus goes to the country of the Gadarenes, and
upon getting out of the boat onto the shore, he meets the
maniac of Gadara. And our Lord conquers the demons
that possess this man and allow them to go into a herd of swine,
some 2,000 head in all, and they perish by running off a cliff
into the Sea of Galilee. And in verse 35, the people of
Gadara, then they went out to see what
was done. and come to Jesus, and found
the man out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the
feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind, and they've lost
theirs, because now it says they were afraid. They should have
been afraid before, but now they're afraid. And here's that judgment. And they also which saw it told
all these people that gathered, told them by what means he that
was possessed of the devils was healed. Then the whole multitude
of the country of the Gadarenes round about besought him, the
Lord Jesus, to depart from them. For they were taken with great
fear, and he went up into the ship and return from where he
came. And then verses 38 and 39, this
man that our Savior has delivered wishes to accompany him. And
in verse 39 he says, return to your own house and show how great
things God has done unto you. And the man went his way and
published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had
done. Alright, Psalm 21 again. Let's jump down to verse 11. For they intended evil against
you, they imagined a mischievous device which they are not able
to perform. Now if you've been a believer
very long, you just might have had some
of these occasions when that's exactly what took place. and
I suspect we may have been included in some kind of malicious device
against us of which we were never made aware. Never knew it and
will never know it. We have no clue what goes on
in the world around us, in the heavens above us, or beneath
this earth. for they intended evil against
you. They imagined a mischievous device which they were not able
to perform." Now verses 12 and 13. Therefore, therefore shall you make them
turn their back when you shall make ready your arrows from your
strings against the face of them. Be you exalted, Lord, in your
own strength How much strength is that? All power in heaven
and in earth. So will we sing and praise thy
power. You reckon we could do that?
Sing and praise the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let the
world's religion do whatever the world's religion wants to
do. Unless whatever we do Whatever
we do, we need to tell the truth about our Savior. Whether we're
reading, praying, preaching, singing, or doing whatever we
do, we do not wish to slight our Lord Jesus not one iota. Just cannot do it.