Let's begin tonight in Psalm
84. Psalm 84. Well, Tom Harding and I visited
a little while Thursday afternoon. So good to get to just sit and
visit with him, chat, discuss what God seems to be doing in
our day. And Tom made the observation,
he said, I'm convinced that most of us Most of the people we preach
to and probably the preachers too, we don't have any idea what
a rare, rare, rare, great, great blessing it is to gather with
God's people and worship like we do. If we did, we wouldn't neglect
it. If we did, we wouldn't push it aside as if it were insignificant. The greatest privilege on this
earth, the greatest privilege on this earth, come together
with God's people in his house and worship him. Worship him. Few in this world know such a
privilege. To come to a place like this
and sit and listen to the preaching of the gospel, and God meet with
us. Let us sing his praise, call
on his name and worship him. I count it my greatest delight,
my greatest joy to be in the house of God with his people,
to meet with you in this place. I wouldn't miss it for the world.
I'm telling you the truth. I wouldn't miss it for the world.
Psalm 84, I believe, expresses what I want to say in this regard.
It expresses the believer's attitude toward the house of God. David,
when he penned this psalm, apparently was, in one of his times of exile,
banished from the worship of God because he was in hiding
for his life, and he longed for God's tabernacles. He longed
to meet again with God's people in worship. I get letters almost
every day from somebody who lives in some remote part of the world,
longing for what you had the privilege of doing here three
times a week, longing to worship God in his house with his people. Psalm 84, the psalm begins with
this title, to the chief musician upon Gitteth. Now the titles
to the Psalms are not inspired, they were added by the translators,
but commonly added with reason, I think, added with good reason
to explain the purpose of the Psalm or the occasion of the
Psalm. This word gitteth appears in many of the titles of the
Psalms and it simply means a stringed instrument. stringed instrument,
a harp or some other stringed instrument that you'd play the
psalm to. And so the psalm was written
to be played or sung with a stringed instrument. The word giddeth
also comes from a root word which means wine presses, and it's
often translated wine presses. The word then is a psalm to be
sung on a stringed instrument having to do with wine presses
or with reference somehow to wine presses. Certainly, this
psalm speaks of local churches, assemblies of God's saints in
public worship, where Christ, the true vine, causes his people
to drink the sweet wine of the gospel of his grace. A psalm
for the sons of Korah. That is, a psalm for singers
in the house of God. A psalm intended to be sung in
God's house. When you see the Psalms written
out in modern various hymn books or books of the Psalms, almost
all the Psalms that are sung in our day or in any time in
recent history have been altered considerably. They're altered
considerably so as to be sung the way we sing. These psalms
were not originally sung like we sing them. I hate to suggest
that there's even a remote possibility that there's something that papists
do that's right. But if you ever saw one of the
old movies, you go hear those priests in monasteries chanting
a hymn, that's how they would sing. They chanted these psalms.
And you can practice it at your leisure if you want to, but you
can chant them about any way you want to. You could just make
up your own tune and chant them about any way you want to. You
don't have to rearrange the meter and write special music for them.
Occasionally, you'll have one. Brother David sings Psalm 121
real frequently here. Brother Frank Sweeney wrote the
music to that a long time ago, but it's really, really difficult.
I'm told. I'm not a musician. Really difficult
to write music to these Psalms because their meter is so irregular
in them. The Psalms were chanted by the
children of God as they met to worship our God. And look at
this 84th Psalm. How amiable. What a good word. How sweetly attractive. How delightful
are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. 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. David says, I envy that little
bird who's found his house in the house of God. And to swallow
a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine
altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are they,
blessed are they that dwell in thy house. They will be still
praising thee. That's something you ought to
think about a lot. Blessed are they that dwell in
thy house. I don't know how to state this
and it not be taken wrongly by folks who want to take it wrongly,
but you, I think, know my intent. Since I was 16 years old, I've
allowed nothing to keep me from God's house, nothing. Nothing. My parents come visit me and
they didn't want to come. They stay at home. That's all. I'm
going to worship God. My sister come visit and they
don't want to come worship God. They can stay. I'm going to go
worship God. Nothing. No form of entertainment for
my daughter growing up. Nothing. Nothing. Why? Because
there's nothing to compare with it. Nothing as important. Nothing. Oh, blessed are they. that dwell in thy house. Now,
if you will, let's turn to Psalm 120. And I want us to look at
15 Psalms. We're going to be here a long
time. No, I'll be real brief. I promise. We won't read them
all. I encourage you to read Psalms
120 through 134 at one setting. They're called Psalms of degrees,
if you have the titles to the Psalms above the Psalms in your
Bible, or they're called Ascension Psalms. Psalms of Degrees or
Ascension Psalms. These 15 Psalms were sung by
the children of Israel, chanted by them, as they would leave
their various places in the land of Israel and go up to Jerusalem
three times a year to worship God. They would leave their dwelling
place and come from this place and that, and they'd start off
chanting these Psalms one after the other. And they would meet
together, and there'd be two or three fellows chanting the
Psalms together, every male in Israel. And they would observe
the Feast of Passover, the Feast of Pentecost, and the Feast of
Tabernacles. observed the sacrifice of Christ,
the ingathering of God's elect by that sacrifice, and their
temporary dwelling in booze in the wilderness, they would come
together and sing these psalms. First, a man and his sons, and
another man and his sons, and then hundreds of men and their
sons, and thousands of men and their sons. Can you imagine the
procession going along chanting these psalms as they're going
up to the house of God? There are 15 of them. I had Alan
this morning was standing out there in front. I said how many
steps does I can't see well enough to count them He's the 15th house. I thought so There were 15 steps
going up to the temple. I The priests, when the folks
would gather together to observe these various holy days, these
holy feasts unto the Lord, they would stand on the temple steps,
and as they went up into the temple, they would lead the congregation
of Israel, chanting these 15 Psalms. The Psalms were written
for assent to the house of God. They're written to give us instruction
about certain specific things as God's pilgrims in this world.
Let me show you three things that are clear. Three things
that are clear. These Psalms show us the attitude of our Lord
Jesus Christ, God's great pilgrim, who sojourned on this earth as
he made his pilgrimage through this world. He walked through
this world with his heart and his mind incessantly fixed on
the world to come. Incessantly fixed on the world
to come, incessantly fixed on the complete revelation of the
glory of God in the complete salvation of his people in eternity,
so that as you walk through this world, Our Lord was not in the
least bothered by the things that took place in the world
around him. It didn't matter to him whether Caesar ruled or
whether Caesar didn't rule. It didn't matter to him whether
they increased taxes or diminished taxes. It didn't matter to him
whether the things were in a time of great recession or a time
of great prosperity. It didn't matter to him what
was going on in the world around him. His heart was in another
place. God teach me that. God teach
me that. Second, these Psalms show us
the attitude of God's saints, what it ought to be as we make
our pilgrimage through this world. Nothing here really matters much.
Nothing here. And I, when I speak these words
that I know are sharp to you, they're just as sharp to me.
I get too much wrapped up in things this world. God forgive
us. Well, but we got to watch out
for our children and grandchildren. God watched out for us. He'll
watch out for them. Everything's all right. Everything's all right.
God rules this world for the good of his own. I don't mean
to suggest or imply that you and I ought not to care what
goes on in the world around us. Yet, I do mean to say we ought
to be the most careless people in the world. Let us have no
care for anything but our Redeemer. the gospel of His grace, His
kingdom, His glory. Care for nothing else. Cast all
your care on Him. He careth for you. And third,
these Psalms show us the attitude we ought to cultivate as we come
to the house of God to worship. Now, we're going to look at these
15 Psalms. I'm just going to pick out the highlights of each
Psalm. But as we scan these 15 Psalms,
I encourage you, I encourage you, when you start planning
to come to services Tuesday night, might be a good idea to turn
over there and look at these psalms again. Look at them so often
that you become familiar with them. When you start planning
next Saturday afternoon or Saturday evening, you're going to bed
and you're getting ready to plan for the next day worship, look
at these psalms again. Next Sunday evening, look at
them again and understand that these Psalms are designed of
God, written by inspiration, to teach us how we ought to come
to God's house. Now, first understand this. Whenever
we come together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
is, wherever two or three are gathered together, not where
two or three just come together, but where two or three are gathered
together in the name of the Redeemer, The Lord Jesus Christ says, I'm
there in the midst of you. The spirit of God tells us in
first Corinthians, chapter three, that we are when we come together
like this, not not this physical building. This isn't God's house. It's physical building just to
build it. It's just to build it. It's folks get some kind
of a silly, superstitious, religious, idolatrous notion about church
buildings. Oh, I'd hate to see there ever
cease to be a church building. My soul. I wish they'd all turn
into bars or brothels. Anything but what they are. Where
the gospel is not preached. You don't mean that. Oh, I do
mean that. Anything other than what they are. If the gospel
is not preached there, the building is nothing. God's house is his
people. His people. And we come together
as the people of God, worshiping Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and
our Savior, by the Spirit of God, and we're told in 1 Corinthians
3, you are the temple of the living God. I don't have any
idea how to explain it, but David, when the Lord Jesus, by His Spirit,
gathers us in this place, if He causes us to come here, trusting
Him, seeking His glory, resting in His righteousness, His intercession,
His atonement. When we come in that door, God
the Holy Spirit comes in here with us. You're the temple of
the living God. You're the temple of the living
God. That's what it is to come into God's house. We come here
to worship the living God in spirit and in truth. And when
we do, Hold your hands here in Psalm 120. We'll look at it in
just a minute. Turn over to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews 12. The worship
is not in a material place, nor is it a material altar at which
we worship. We worship at Christ, our altar,
who is in heaven, and we worship the living God with his saints
in heaven. Can you imagine? Just try to
imagine. the myriads of God's saints around
the world this hour, we're worshipping him just like we are. All over the world. James, we're
all worshipping at the same altar. We're not worshipping here. I
worship there. Look at it. Hebrews chapter 12,
verse 18. Ye are not come unto the mount
that might be touched, and that burned through with fire, nor
under blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of
a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they had heard entreated
that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. For if they
could not endure that which was commanded, and if so much as
a beast touched the mountain, it should be stoned or thrust
through with the dark. If so much as a beast touches
the mountain, a beast, stone it to death, or take a dart,
kill it. What's he talking about? The
mountain where God's holy law was given, the mountain with
darkness and blackness and thunderings, men having been given by God
a revelation of what God requires for the saving of his people.
Perfect righteousness, perfect obedience. And if you put your
hand to it, God will kill you. Men go to hell because they try
to save themselves. That's the message of the law.
You will die in your sins if you try to save yourself. If
you just put your head, if uzzah touches the ark, you go. Just like that. Don't touch it.
Don't attempt anything. Trust the Redeemer. Read on.
Verse 21. And so terrible was the sight
that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. But ye are come. Not you have come, not you shall
come, but ye are come. You see that? Ye are come unto
Mount Zion. You come to the mountain of God,
unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to
an innumerable company of angels. to the General Assembly and Church
of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God, the judge
of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob ran the throne. And to Jesus, the mediator of
the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh
better things than that of Abel. See that you refuse not him that
speaketh. Be sure you pay attention to
our Lord Jesus as he speaks to you now by his word. These Psalms
of degrees begin in Psalm 20 with Zion's pilgrim leaving his
home in distress and circumstances around him that are just heavy,
heavy, heavy. When you get to Psalm 34, as
he returns from the house of God, going back home, going back
to face the world that hates God, his soul is refreshed. Oh, may God be pleased to make
that the case with us when we leave this place. Back a long,
long time ago, my soul has been now, oh, 35, 36, 37 years. Brother Mahan and I were preaching
together at a Bible conference over in Appomattox, Virginia.
A lot of preachers there, a lot of older preachers. And I was
just a young pup. And Brother Mahan stopped by
to visit with me, I was preparing my message, getting ready to
preach this evening, and he got done chatting a little bit, and
he said, now, Brother Fortner, he said, don't try to preach
those preachers, you're not gonna teach them anything, they won't
pay any attention to you. He said, just forget them. He said,
see if you can picture in your mind some man sitting back there,
looks like he, maybe he doesn't have any education, And he just
lost his son, buried his son and his wife left him. And he
doesn't have two pennies rubbed together and his heart's crushing.
And find something he needs. Chances are the rest of us do
too. I try my best in preparing to preach to you, no matter what
the theme is, no matter where we're going with the text, to
remember that I'm preaching to men and women. who live in a
world of heaviness, a world of pain and hurt and sorrow. And I want you to leave this
place, children of God, refreshed by his word, not beaten to death. And that which relieved and comforted
and rejoiced the hearts of God's saints in those ancient times
is the very same thing that relieves and comforts and rejoices the
hearts of God's saints today. They came to the house of God
and they saw the sacrifice. They would observe the sacrifices
made, the sin offerings made, and they would observe in those
sacrifices the foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer,
blood atonement, justice satisfied, law fulfilled. If you can see
that, you will leave here rejoicing. They saw the word of God. That
is, they heard the Word of God read, and the priest would give
the sense of the Word explained to them. They would have the
revelation of God made known to them. And they, observing
the sacrifice and the Word of God, went home with God's blessing
upon them. You remember how the Lord commanded
Aaron? He said, the Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord
make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The
Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace.
And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, God said,
and I will bless them. This is the house of blessing.
This is the place where God ministers to your soul's needs. All right,
let's look at this first Psalm. It speaks of distress, Psalm
120. In my distress, I cried unto
the Lord. Fact is, that's about the only
time we do it. In my distress, and he heard me. In verse five, it says, woe is
me that sojourned in Meshach. Meshach. was the people who dwelt
north of Israel. They were the descendants of
Japheth. You remember the Lord divided
the human race in the sons of Noah into these three groups,
Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham, being cursed, was ordained
of God to be the servant of servants to Shem and Japheth. Ham representing
the reprobate of this world. They are created by God only
to serve the interest of God's elect. Shem were the Jews, the
children of Israel, the sons of Abraham in days to come. And
those Jews were God's special covenant people representatively
in the Old Testament, but only representatively, only in a symbolic
way, because God Almighty has another people who are the true
Israel of God who must be saved. And he said, Japheth shall inhabit
the tents of Sheol. Speaking of the salvation of
God's elect among the Gentiles. So the poor Israelite comes up
to worship God. And this is, I dwell in the midst
of these Gentiles. Meshach. Commonly associated
with Magog. Commonly associated with idolatry.
Commonly associated with violent false religion. Much like we
now are hearing so much about Islam. You can forget the nonsense
of Islam being a peaceful religion. It is intended to be a violent
religion. But don't get too terribly upset. Don't forget now, Meshach is
numbered among the sons of Japheth. And some of God's elect are there.
Some of God's elect are there. So we don't dare take up swords
as they do. We don't dare attempt to enforce
religion on people as they do. No, no, no, no. We wait for God
to work and God calls out his elect as he will by the gospel. But all the while we live amongst
them. full of distress and heaviness in this world. Look at Psalm
121. This one I want us to read the whole Psalm. This is one
Brother David sings for us so often. If I could sing like he
did, I'd sing it to you. But you don't want that. Turning
his eyes and his heart and his mind away from all that troubled
him, Zion's pilgrim here looks away from Meshach. and looks
away from his distress and looks away from his trouble and buries
himself in his God. I will lift up mine eyes unto
the hills from whence cometh my help. Quit looking at you and look
at your help and your troubles don't measure up near as much.
Quit looking at you and your woes and look at your help and
your woes won't be near so great. 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 of adversity shall not
smite thee by day, nor the moon the secret things of night. The
Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. Isn't that a great
word? The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. There shall no evil happen to
the just. I'm 59 years old and I've never
experienced an evil thing in my life. There was a lot of it
I thought was evil, but not an evil thing in my life. It's all
been good. God's been doing me good and continues to do me good. And he promises the same to you.
There shall no evil befall thee. He will keep 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. Psalm 122 speaks with anticipation. The believers' anticipation and
prospect of things that God's promised our hearts ought to
be filled with gladness. 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 is builted as a city
that is compact together, whether the tribes go up, the tribes
of the Lord, that is all God's elect, all the 144,000 of God's
elect come together under the testimony of Israel, the ark
of the covenant, the mercy seat, Jesus Christ, the Lord, to give
thanks, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. For there are
set thrones of judgment, thrones of the house of David, of Christ
the Lord. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And let me pause a minute. I said to you men back in the
office a week or two ago, God's given us something unique, something
special in this place. Something special. Brother McCall said this morning,
this is the rarest congregation I've ever known. Me too. Me too. Cherish it. God's given us, in
his great mercy, a voice in this generation for the gospel. Cherish
the privilege. Cherish it. Pray for him to keep
it. He can take it away like that. Just like that. Pray for the
peace of Jerusalem. Not those folks across the water
over yonder in that little country. That's fine, pray for their peace.
I'm not saying don't pray for them. That's not what this is
talking about. This is talking about God's church, his kingdom. They
shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls and
prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren, my companions
sake, I will now say peace be within thee. Because of the house
of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good. Now, the next Psalm,
Psalm 123, speaks of our faith. The pilgrim sings now about the
faith of all those who worship the Lord God Almighty in spirit
and in truth. Faith that expresses itself in
the worship of God. Unto thee lift I up mine eyes. O thou that dwellest in heaven. Look at the last part of verse
two. So our eyes wait upon the Lord our God. Like a maid waits
at the hand of her mistress. Our eyes wait on you. That's called faith, Bob. It's
called faith. Wait on God. Wait on, wait, wait. Every time I ever pressured myself
into trying to fix something, every time I ever did it, I made
a mess of it. Every time I waited for God to
fix it, you know what happened? He fixed it, good. Wait, just
wait. It's called living by faith.
Trust your God and Savior. Have mercy on me, verse three. Have mercy upon us, oh Lord,
have mercy upon us. For we're exceedingly filled
with contempt. Not we're filled with contempt
inwardly, but all around us we're held in contempt by men. Look
at Psalm 124 and see this acknowledgement of the tried and tempted and
slandered pilgrim acknowledges God's my savior, God's my keeper.
If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, verse two, if
it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose
up against us, verse six, blessed be the Lord who hath not given
us a prey to their teeth. If it had not been the Lord,
we'd have perished in hell a long time ago. If it had not been
the Lord who was on our side, Where would we be? Verse 125,
Psalm 125. Psalm 120 speaks of our distress. Psalm 121, our help. Psalm 122, our anticipation. Psalm 123, our faith. And Psalm 124, our acknowledgement. Here is our confidence. Confidence
in God. Let us come to the house of God
confident of His goodness. Oh God, teach me to be confident
in you, confident of you, confident of your goodness. They that trust
in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abideth
forever. 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. Last word, peace shall be upon
Israel. Have a look at Psalm 126. and
read about the joy that ought to possess our souls as we walk
through this world making our pilgrimage unto heavenly glory.
When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with
laughter and our tongue was singing. Then said they among the heathen,
the Lord hath done great things for them. The Lord hath done
great things for us, whereof we are glad. Several of you have
been reading, again, Mercies of Covenant God by John Warburton. And it had been a long time since
I read it. I've heard my wife talk about it so much, I decided
I'd read it again. I picked it up and started reading
it the other day. And Warburton describes how when finally the
Lord spoke peace to him. Oh, he'd go to the meetings,
preach and preach. It seemed like every time a preacher
preached, he preached, cursed as everyone that continueth not
in all things written in the book of the law to do them. And
Warburton was beaten down and thought, sure, he's going to
hell, and made up his mind to commit suicide and go to hell
now rather than sin more. And over and over and over, he
went through such struggles. And last one night, he went to
the house of God and heard the gospel of God's free grace in
his heart. And believing on the Son of God,
he said, it was as though I had dreamed a dream. He said, I could
hardly imagine it. He said, I went home that night.
I couldn't wait to get out in the streets. And I would think
about it. I just laughed. I had to hold
my head over my mouth so folks wouldn't think I was a madman.
And I finally got into the fields where nobody could hear me and
nobody could see me. And oh, how I shouted his praise
because he had done great. Like those who dream a dream. Who could ever have imagined
that God Almighty would do for such a sinner as he's done for
me, as he's done for you? Like those who dream. And then
in Psalm 127, the pilgrim in Zion meditates upon the security
of God's house. Except the Lord build the house.
They labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the
city. It's vain to watch him wake up,
but in vain. It's vain for you to rise up
early, to set up late, to eat the bread of sorrows. For so
he giveth his beloved sleep. Now the house he's talking about
here is not your house. And the full quiver is not your
quiver. And the man of the house is not
you. It's talking about God's house.
The quiver of God's elect that belongs to Christ, full, always
full. And Christ the Lord building
the house. This house is his. And except he built it, we labor
in vain to build it. And it's vain to rise up early
or stay up late. As your pastor Every time something
seems to threaten, in my mind, what God's given us here. Shelby
can attest to you, I get a little hard to live with, because I
can't sleep. And I try to pray, but I pace
instead of pray. And I try to wait, but I keep
wringing my hand instead of waiting, as if I could do something. As if somehow this house is kept
and preserved by me. No, no. It's his house. And you're his people. And our
security is the fact that he builds his house. And he keeps
his church. And he keeps his people. Psalm
128. Blessed is everyone that feareth
the Lord, that walketh in his way. His way is our way. He orders our steps. The steps of a good man are ordered
of the Lord. Now, Lindsay Campbell, you and
I are not good men, but we are. He made us such. The steps of
righteous men and women, the steps of God's elect are ordered
of the Lord. All of them. Every step. ordered by God. Oh, what a blessed
way, the way of God's appointment, the way of God's pilgrim, the
way by which he leads each to his heavenly inheritance. If you pull down one of your
Bible atlases and look at the way the Lord led the children
of Israel out of Egypt into the land of Canaan, it was sort of
like this. And you know what the psalmist
says? He led them forth in a direct way. What's direct about that? It
was the path by which God Almighty, for His glory and their good,
would lead them into the possession of their inheritance. That's
the direct way. Bill Raleigh, he's led you in
a direct way all these days. And he'll keep leading you that
way. Every step ordered by the Lord. Psalm 129. What about our
foes? Here in Psalm 129, as the pilgrim
moves up to Zion, up to God's house, this happy pilgrim bids
his foes farewell and commits them to his God. That's exactly
what we have to do. He says, they've not prevailed.
Verse 4, the Lord is righteous. He hath cut asunder the cords
of the wicked. Let them all be confounded and
turn back that hate Zion. I've told you this before, but
it'll bear repetition. I'll tell it to you again. I
like to tell it. I like to be reminded of it. Back in 1975, 76, whenever it
was, I was so sick with cancer. I'd
finished up the cobalt treatments in the middle of taking chemotherapy,
and I was whipped. Oh, I was so sick. Spent almost every waking hour
hugging a commode. I was sick as a dog. And one
day I got a card in the mail. from a fellow that I knew slightly.
He attended the same church I did for just a little while down
in Western Salem, Brother Bill DeBusk. I wouldn't have known
who it came from except that it had his address on the outside.
And we opened the card up, there was nothing inside it except
a scripture reference. And I'm so glad he didn't write
out the scripture, Joe. I had to look it up. I would have never
known what it said if I hadn't had to look it up. But I've never
forgotten it. The reference was Romans 16,
20. The God of peace shall bruise
Satan under your heels shortly. Oh, what a word for my soul.
The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your heels shortly. Did you hear me, children of
God? That's a promise of God to you. The God of peace shall
bruise Satan under your heels shortly. And then in Psalm 130,
the psalmist speaks of our hope. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear the voice. My servant,
let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall
stand? But there is forgiveness with
thee. that thou mayest be feared. There's
forgiveness with you, God, that you might be worshipped and reverenced.
He delights in mercy. Look at verse 7. Let Israel hope
in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him
is plenteous redemption. What a word. Plenteous redemption. Redemption by blood, and redemption
by power, and redemption by resurrection. Plenteous redemption. And He
shall redeem, deliver by blood, by power, by grace, Israel, all
his elect from all his iniquities. Soon, our God will fix it. So that we are completely delivered
from all the consequences of the fall. have not even the trace
of the serpent's slime left upon us. Psalm 131, the psalmist here
speaks and sings of contentment. Lord, my heart is not haughty,
nor might I softy. Neither do I exercise myself
in great matters or in things too high for me. He says, in verse two, the last
line of the verse, my soul is even as a weaned child. We only had the one daughter,
and Shelby was the one who did the feeding. I wasn't equipped.
And I remember when she started to wean her. You know what happens
when babies are weaned? You're not too old to remember,
are you? They squall a lot. They cry for nothing because
they've got to be weaned. David wrote by inspiration, he
said, my soul is as a weaned child. I can't say that. But thank God he's weaning me.
And the weaning process is painful. but blessed be his name soon
I will be weaned of all those things of this infantile state
that detract me from worshiping and serving him. Look at Psalm
132 and hear this prayer. Lord, remember David. Remember David. When you're full
of heaviness and trouble, and you want to put God in remembrance
of his covenant, and you want God's help, and you don't know
how to pray, here's a wonderful argument at the throne of grace.
Lord, remember Christ. Remember him. I'm his. In the beloved accepted am I. Remember Christ. Remember his
obedience and his blood. Remember his worth. Deal with
me according to him. All right, look at Psalm 133. And here's a scene of delight
for the pilgrim. He comes to the house of God and he sees
his brethren coming from all over the place, coming from all
over the place. I try to be out on front steps
every Sunday morning to greet you folks as you come in. I never
get up and leave my desk until after Lindsey gets here, because
when he gets here, then I know it's time folks start coming. He's
always here first. So don't get to greet Lindsey
coming up the steps. But the rest of you, I do so.
How come? It does my heart good to watch
you greet one another. Get out of your cars and meet
up there. sometimes folks get out and it's
obvious. You've gotten out of your car,
man, your heart's so heavy. And then, uh, you see Bobby Estes
smile in the face and heaviness just go. It's go. Good for one another. Behold,
the psalmist says. Behold, what a rare sight. How good and how pleasant it
is for brethren, brethren, kinsmen, children of the same father,
children in the same household, to dwell together in unity. What strength, how refreshing.
It's like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon
the beard, even Aaron's beard. That is, when Aaron was anointed
as the priest in Israel, that anointing oil would run down
his head covered his beard and ran down his garments, covering
his entire body. So is the Spirit of God poured
out without measure upon Christ, our high priest, running down
the head over the whole body. And then he says in verse three,
for there the Lord commanded the blessing. Where's that? Right here in his house. He commanded
the blessing. even forevermore. And then in
Psalm 134, as the pilgrim has finished the season of worship
and he's got to go back to his house, got to go back to Meshach,
got to go back to the tents of Keter, he's full of praise. 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, Al-Zion. Lift up your hands and bless
God and the Lord who made heaven and earth. bless you this day
out of Zion for Christ's sake. Amen.