The 138th Psalm. A couple of comments first before
I read it. I was thinking this morning how
glorious it is that we're reading something thousands of years
old and reading it as if our life depended on it. And it does. And when we read Psalm 138 also,
I know this is a Psalm of David, but notice in verses one and
two, I will praise thee. Before the gods will I sing praise. I will worship toward thy holy
temple. Now, There's one who can say that
with confidence, the Lord himself, when he says, I will. And I think
that's glorious. I know these are the words of
David, and we're gonna read them as such, but remember, these
are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ as well. And he's the
only one who can truly say, I will worship. We say, Lord, enable
me to worship. If you give me the grace, I will
worship. But he says, I will worship toward thy holy hill. So let's keep this in mind as
we read this psalm together. Psalm 138. I will praise thee with my whole
heart. Before the gods will I sing praise
unto thee. I will worship toward thy holy
temple. and praise thy name for thy loving
kindness and for thy truth, for thou hast magnified thy word
above all thy name. In the day when I cried, thou
answerest me and strengthenest me with strength in my soul.
All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord, when they
hear the words of thy mouth. Yea, they shall sing in the ways
of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. Though the
Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly. But the proud
he knoweth afar off. Though I walk in the midst of
trouble, thou wilt revive me. Thou shalt stretch forth thine
hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall
save me. The Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever. Forsake not the work of thine
own hands. Let's pray. Lord, how grateful we are. And Lord, we know our prayer
can only be heard and accepted through that beloved son. But
how grateful we are for who you are. How grateful we are for the glory
of that person, your glorious attributes. And Lord, by thy
grace, we desire to worship just as David did. How we thank you
for your word. Lord, we love your word. How we thank you for the salvation
that's in your son. How we thank you for his righteousness
that makes us perfect before you without fault, without blemish. Lord, we ask that you unite our
hearts together even now to fear thy name. Give us ears to hear,
hearts to receive. Give us grace to love you more
earnestly and more zealously and love one another more. Lord, cause us to be merciful
and gracious and nonjudgmental people for Christ's sake. Be with all your people wherever
they meet together. In Christ's name we pray, amen. I will praise thee with my whole
heart. Now that's the desire of every
believer. I will praise thee with my whole
heart. Now the heart that he's speaking
of is that new heart that God gives in the new birth. That's
the heart that praises him. I'll praise thee with my whole
heart, with my understanding, understanding who you are because
of the revelation of yourself. With my affections, oh how I
love who he is and how he saves. And with my will, this is what
I want. This is the way I want God to
be. I wouldn't change him if I could. I love him just the
way he is, and I would not change him if it weren't my power to
change him. I've said this before. There's
not a human being alive, if you know him, that you wouldn't change
things about him if you could. Not a human being alive. I've
said that before, and I've had people say to me, I wouldn't
change you. I'm thinking, you don't know me then. But with regard
to the Lord God, perfect. I will praise Thee with my whole
heart, praising Him for who He is. Now, every believer, listen
to this, knows the Lord. When I speak of the Lord, I'm
not name dropping. Every believer knows the Lord and we praise
him for who he is and how he saves. We praise him. He says in verse two, Well, he
says, before the gods, small g, before every false god and
false concept of God, doesn't matter who it is, I will praise
thee. You'll notice that word gods,
small g, there's so many false concepts of God and David said
before them all, I will praise thee. Then he says in verse two,
I will worship. First he says, I will praise
thee. I will worship toward thy holy temple. And let me make
this statement that I've made so many times and it's always
applicable. You'll only worship a sovereign. If you can manipulate God, if
you can control God, if you can get him to act in a certain way
that you want him to, there's no worship there. You will only
worship an absolute sovereign. You're in his hands. He can do
with you whatever he's pleased to do. That is worship. You worship him for who he is. And he says, I will Worship toward
thy holy temple. Now, the temple represents the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the only worship we have,
we realize, is in Christ. And we look to Christ. The temple
represents Christ. Remember when the children of
Israel were told to pray toward the temple? That means you look
to Christ. And that's always in our awareness. There is no
worship. There is no praise. There is
no acceptance apart from Christ. He says, I will worship toward
the holy temple and praise thy name. His name is who he is,
his attributes. I praise your name for your loving
kindness and for your truth. A loving kindness is. His grace toward me. Have mercy
upon me, O God, according to thy. Loving kindness. That's my only plea. I will praise
him for his loving kindness and for his truth. How we love the
truth. Jesus Christ is the truth. He's the truth of who God is.
And we love him for his truth. We praise him for his truth.
Sanctify them through that truth. Thy word is truth. Now the next
statement he makes I think is so awesome. He says, for thou
has magnified thy word above all thy name. Now I don't even know exactly
how to comment on that. I realize his word is the Lord
Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the word
and the word was with God and the word was God. I realize the
word is the Lord Jesus Christ, but how would we know that without
this written word? The reason we know Christ is the word is
because of the written word. And how you and I view and worship
and believe God is seen in our response to this word. Thou has magnified, God did this,
Thou hast magnified thy word above. Now that's why I don't
even know what to say about it other than read it. Thou hast
magnified thy word, yes the Lord Jesus Christ, yes the scriptures,
above all thy name. You see, we won't even know his
name without his word. This word declares his character,
his person. We wouldn't even know it without
that. So David says I've magnified. thy word. Thou has magnified
thy word above all thy name. Now, once again, we're looking
at a psalm that was written over 3000 years ago, the psalm of
David, and we're reading it and we're saying, this is the gospel.
This is the word of God. And there's worship involved
in that. We're here to hear his word. Three thousand years old? Well,
no, it's a lot older than that. It's eternal. It's eternal. The eternal word of God. Verse
three, in the day when I cried, thou answerest me. Child of God,
you're always answered. You're always answered. And you're
answered when you cry. And when you cry, it's because
He enabled you to cry. That's where that crying comes
from. You cry from your heart unto Him. I love what David said,
when thou said, seek ye my face, my heart said, thy face, O Lord,
shall I seek. I cry, He caused me to cry, and
He always answers my cry. Now that may be with an O. Aren't
you thankful for when the Lord says no? If he gave you everything
you asked for, if he gave me everything I asked for, we'd
all be in hell. It'd just cause us all kinds of trouble. Thank
God for his no's. But he always answers. And he
always answers in grace and in loving kindness. When I cried,
thou answerest me and strengthened me with strength in my soul.
Now here are two things that are always true. Without me,
you know the rest of the verse, you can do nothing. And here's the other statement
Paul said, I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth
me. Two things that go together,
without me, or don't you know that so? How dependent are you
upon the Lord? You can't even think a right
thought without him. Without me, you can do nothing. I can do all things through Christ,
which strengtheneth me. Philippians 4, those are the
words of Paul. And in the day when I cried, thou answerest
me and strengtheneth me with strength in my soul. You know,
the Lord strengthens us to believe the gospel. He brings us into
a continual state of repentance by his strength. He strengthens
us to love him, to love one another. Oh, the gracious strengthening
of the Lord. Now he says in verse four, all
the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord, when they
hear the words of thy mouth. Now, no matter who it is, if
the Lord speaks, you will praise. When will this praise take place?
When they hear the words of His mouth. If you hear the words
from Him, you'll praise. It can't be other. You must. When will the kings of the earth
praise? When they hear the words of His
mouth. When He speaks, there's always
a response. Now, if I speak, there might
not be a response. Somebody might fall asleep. Somebody might be
thinking about something else. But when He speaks, You hear,
you hear his word. All the kings of the earth shall
praise thee, O Lord, when they hear the words of thy mouth. What we're looking at right now
is the words of his mouth. Verse five, yea, they shall sing. These people hear the words of
his mouth. They shall sing in the ways of the Lord for great
is the glory of the Lord. There is something called in
Romans chapter 15, verse 13, the joy and peace of believing. When, by the grace of God, I
am enabled to trust Jesus Christ only. There's joy and there's peace. There's singing. Singing and
making melody in your heart to the Lord. The joy and the peace
of believing. They shall sing in the ways of
the Lord. When the Lord says I am the way,
the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me.
That means when he comes into the Father's presence, he brings
me, and I'm in the Father's presence. You know what I do? I sing. I'm
so happy about that. The joy and peace of believing.
They shall sing in the ways of the Lord for great is the glory
of the Lord. Now, I love Psalm 29. I think it's verse 11 in his
temple. Doth everyone speak of his glory. Now there's a reason
that you love his glory. First, because you love him.
I realize that. You love him and you want him to have all
the glory. But the other reason you love him having all the glory
is because if he gets all the glory, that means he did it all.
That means you have hope. Salvation is all of him. And that's the only thing that
gives me hope. In that sense, maybe I don't have, I've got,
yes, I love him getting all the glory, but I've got a selfish
motive in it too. If he doesn't get all the glory, that means
salvation's something I need to do. And that's not good news
to me at all. How I love him getting all the
glory in salvation. Verse six. Though the Lord be high, yet
hath he respect. That's a strong word, isn't it?
Respect unto the lowly, but the proud he knoweth afar off. Though the Lord be high. One
of David's favorite names of the Lord in the Psalms is, O
thou most high. I love thinking of him in that
light. He is so high. However high something may be,
he is infinitely higher. He's the most high. He's above
everything. In all of his attributes, he's
most high, and I love to think of this. He's never disturbed
by opposition, and he's got plenty of it, but he's in control of
it. He's never disturbed. He never
worries. He never thinks of, what if this doesn't happen,
I'll have to do this. He doesn't have contingency plans or anything
like that. He doesn't have plan B. He is
most high, in absolute sovereign control of everything. Most high. He never has to wait to see what's
gonna happen. the way you and I do, most high. Though the Lord be high, yet
hath he respect. Now probably all of us have experienced
how hurtful it is and how on some levels irritating it is
to be treated in a disrespectful manner. Respect. What about somebody
you really respect? How you think about that person?
The Lord has respect. If I'm a believer, that means
the Lord respects me. That's a hard concept to get
hold of, but it's true because does the Lord respect Christ?
Oh, he respects his son infinitely and he respects all of those
in him. But how are these people described
that the Lord respects? The lowly, the poor, those who have nothing. Turn with me to Isaiah 57 for
just a moment. Verse 15, for thus saith the high and lofty
one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy
place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit. to revive the spirit of the humble
and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. That's who he
dwells with. Look in Isaiah 66. Verse one, thus saith the Lord,
the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where
is the house that you build unto me and where's the place of my
rest? For all those things hath mine
hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord. But
to this man will I look. Even to him that is poor, he
has nothing to offer God, and of a contrite spirit and trembles
at my word. That's who the Lord looks to. Though the Lord be high, Yet
hath he respect to the lowly, the poor in spirit is what that's
speaking of. Those who have nothing to recommend
themselves to God. But the proud he knoweth afar
off. The scripture says God resists
the proud. Do you hear that? Do I hear that?
God resists the proud. You want God's resistance? Be
proud. Be arrogant. Be obstinate. Have a high opinion of yourself.
Just write this down. The higher opinion we have of
ourselves, the lower opinion God has of us. God resists the
proud and giveth grace to the humble. That's who he gives his
grace to. That person who has no claims
on God, he delights to give them his grace. He delights in mercy. Though the Lord be high, Yet
hath he respect unto the lowly, but the proud, the self-righteous,
he knoweth afar off." Now verse seven, though I walk in the midst of
trouble, thou wilt revive me. Now I think that's first speaking
of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He walked in the
midst of trouble as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And the Lord raised him from the dead. Thou wilt revive me. But this is also speaking of
our experience walking in the troubles of this life. He always
revives. We start feeling dead. We start
feeling far away. We start feeling cast off. He revives. He, you know the
reason I live? Because he causes me to live
and continually revives me. That's the experience of every
believer. You know, you could say that
Psalm 23 would be the exposition of this seventh verse, but I,
Lord willing, I'm gonna preach on that this morning. I've been
thinking about that a lot, got on my mind, and I wanna preach
on it. But you can see how this is expounded by Psalm 23. Though I walk in the midst of
trouble, thou wilt revive me, Thou shalt stretch forth thine
hand against the wrath of my enemies, and thy right hand shall
save me. The Lord's got a long arm. Scripture points that out. And
he is going to use his long arm against the wrath of my enemies. Now, does that mean Those people who are against
me, he's going to be against them and he's going to wipe them
out. I don't really think that's what
that's referring to. Who's your greatest enemy? Your
sin. Do you find that to be true with
regard to you? My sin is my greatest enemy. He's going to put it away
with his long stretched out arm. His wrath will be satisfied against
my sin. And it was on the cross. And
he's going to save me from my sins. And thy right hand, the
Lord Jesus Christ shall save me. Now this eighth verse, look
at the confidence David speaks with. The Lord will perfect,
bring to an accomplished end. The Lord will perfect. This is certain. Not the Lord
may perfect, but the Lord will perfect that which concerneth
me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endures forever. Forsake not the work of thy hands. Now. This is a precious verse. The Lord. Jehovah. I love his name, the self existent
one. That's what Jehovah means. Self
existent. He has no needs. Jehovah. Will perfect. that which concerneth me. Now,
when I'm talking about, or when David's talking about that which
concerns him, he's not talking about the trials of this life
that concern him. That may be included, but that's
really not what he's talking about. What concerns me is that
I stand before God on judgment day and am accepted. And everything
involved with that, the state of my soul, my salvation, that's
what concerns me. You know, this life is so fleeting.
It's so transient. We can't even see things as we
ought to see them. We don't understand what's going
on. It's just so transient. Life. You know what concerns me is that
when I stand before God in judgment, he accepts me for Christ's sake,
that he justifies me, that he makes me to be found in Christ.
Now that's what I want. That's what concerns me. I'm
concerned that his hand be upon me, that he have mercy upon me,
that he keeps me by his grace. That's what concerns me. I want
to persevere looking to Christ all the way to the end. I want
to die with my last breath, if I'm conscious, looking to Christ.
Don't you? That's what concerns me. That concerns me a whole
lot more than anything else. I mean, with regard to everything
else, it's just temporary. We don't even see things as they
really are. We don't. I mean, how you see
things, you can just write this down, it's wrong. You don't know
what's going on behind the scenes. I don't either. And what concerns
me is not even being able to figure out what's going on here
because I don't know. What concerns me is to be found in Christ.
Now look at this confident statement, the Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me. You know why? By one offering,
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now here's
my hope that he'll perfect that which concerning me because Christ
said it is finished. That's why I'm perfected. The
Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. Think of this
scripture. Now unto him that's able to keep
you from falling and to present you forgiven before his presence."
Doesn't say that. Doesn't say that. Jude 24, now
unto him that's able to keep you from falling and present
you faultless. before his presence with exceeding
joy." Now, that is what concerns me, that I be presented by him
faultless, faultless. And that's what he's gonna do.
The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me because of what
the Lord did for me. Now the second thing, here's
why he's gonna perfect that which concerneth me. Thy mercy, O Lord,
endureth forever. Now that's why I can be confident
that he's gonna perfect that which concern me, eternal mercy.
mercy that never had a starting point. It's always been. I've
always been in Christ and I've always been in Christ. I'll always
be in Christ. Therefore, I can be dead sure
that the Lord is going to perfect that which concerns me because
his mercy endures forever. All the works were finished from
the foundation of the world. That's my hope. Eternal mercy. That's what David said in 2nd
Samuel 23, 5. He said, although my house be
not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things and sure. And this is all my salvation
and all my desire, though he make it not to grow. The Lord
will perfect that which concerns me. Why? Because thy mercy endures
forever. And he gives a third reason.
He says, forsake not the work of thine own hands. Now when he makes that statement,
he's saying I'm the work of your hands. My salvation is totally a work
of his hands. He's the one who did it. The
Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. I love where Paul
says in Philippians 1.6, he that hath begun a good work in you
will perform it. That's why it will be completed. Faithful is he that calleth you
who also will do it. My salvation is the work of his
hands. He stood as my surety and guaranteed my salvation.
He kept the law for me. He died for my sins. He was raised
for my justification. He gave me life. He gave me faith. He gave me repentance. It's all
the work of his hands. My salvation in every respect
is the work of his hands. And there's David's hope. He's going to perfect that which
concerns me because his mercy is eternal and because my salvation
is the work of his hands and he's not going to forsake what
he has done. Glorious Psalm. Okay.