I love the way this psalm begins,
the Lord reigneth. Not he did reign, not he will
reign, but the Lord reigneth. What a glorious statement with
regard to our God. Let the earth rejoice. Let the
multitude of isles be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round
about him. Righteousness and judgment are
the habitation of his throne. A fire goeth before him and burneth
up his enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the
world. The earth saw and trembled. The hills melted like wax at
the presence of the Lord. at the presence of the Lord of
the whole earth. The heavens declare his righteousness,
and all the people see his glory. Confounded be all they that serve
graven images, that boast themselves of idols. Worship him, all ye
gods. Zion heard and was glad. And the daughters of Judah rejoiced
because of thy judgments, O Lord. For thou, Lord, art high above
all the earth. Thou art exalted far above all
gods. You that love the Lord hate evil. He preserveth the souls of his
saints. He delivereth them out of the
hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous
and gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord,
ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. Let's pray. Lord, we're so thankful that
you are as this psalm that you inspired describes you. Lord, we ask that you would allow us the blessed privilege of knowing you. Loving your character,
loving your attributes, loving your gospel. Lord, we're so thankful for who
you are. We're so thankful for the complete
salvation that's in your son. We're so thankful for your gospel.
Lord, we pray that you'd give us what we need. We're so thankful that you know
what we need. And we pray that you would speak
to each heart here. We pray for our friends that
are sick and suffering. We pray for your blessing upon
them. We pray for your blessing on those of our number that are
out of town. We pray for your grace to be
upon them and be with all your people wherever they meet together.
Now bless us for the Lord's sake. In his name we pray. Amen. I'm not real sure why I was thinking
about this, but quite often when I hear preachers preach, they
talk about a worldview, a Christian worldview, and I'm not real sure
why that irritates me, but it does, because I know what they
mean by that. I guess I do know why it irritates me. They mean
a Christian view toward economics or a Christian view toward some
aspect of the culture of the world and how Christians should
view whatever you want to say about
the world. This is the attitude they ought to have. This is how
they ought to have Well, worldview. I hope that's coming out right. But you know, it's true, everybody
has a worldview of some kind. How we interpret the world or
what we see around us. You know, some people think that
there's a war between good and evil. That's how they interpret
the world. There's a struggle between God
and Satan. And we hope God will win. And then there's what's called
a humanistic view. That's where everything centers
around man. It begins with man. That's what humanism is. It begins
with man. And then there's the atheist
view, which I don't see how life can really have meaning if you're
an atheist as far as who's to say what's right, who's to say
what's wrong. I mean, it's survival of the
fittest. And this world's a very lonely place. And then you've
heard people say, well, it was meant to be. This is what the
universe wanted. This is what the universe dictated. You've heard things like that.
Kind of a blind fate. This is the way fate would have
it, luck. Well, here's the believer's worldview. The Lord reigneth. That simplifies
it, doesn't it? The Lord reigneth. Oh, how we
glory in that. The Lord reigneth. It doesn't say he did reign.
It doesn't say he shall reign in the millennium. It says he
reigns right now. You know, someone several years
ago left this assembly and they were saying you're not preaching
about the millennium. That's what they were upset about,
the time when the Lord will really reign. And I said, he's reigning
right now. Well, I know that, but then,
you know, well, there's no buts of it. The Lord reigneth. And what does that mean? Well,
it means he is in absolute control of everything all the time. That's what the Lord reigneth
means. He's in absolute control of everything all the time. I think it's interesting, you
know and I know, I don't know how much I am of it, I don't
know how much of you are control freaks. People that think they
need to control everything. Nobody has any control. You don't
have, I don't have any control. Is that good? Oh, I love it that
way. The Lord reigneth. This is talking about the absolute
sovereignty of God. Turn to Psalm 115. Verse two, wherefore should the
heathen say, where is now their God? Where's your God now, David? You're in all this trouble. All
these terrible things have happened to you and you talk about worshiping
God. What about this sickness you have? What about this terrible
thing that's taken place in your life? Where's your God now, David?
Where is he? What do you got to say? I love
David's answer. Our God is in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever he pleased. That's who God is. Look in Psalm
135. Verse five, for I know that the Lord is great
and that our Lord is above all gods whatsoever the Lord pleased. That did he. In heaven, and in
earth, in the sea, and in all deep places. Daniel or Nebuchadnezzar
said, for he doeth according to his will in the armies of
heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay
his hand. None can stop him from doing
his will. for saying to him, what doest
thou? Give an account for yourself. Give us an account for why you're
doing what you, no. He gives no account of his matters.
He does not owe anyone an explanation. Now, understand this, we love
him though. We trust his character. I don't
have any problem with that. I don't need an explanation because
I know his character whatsoever the Lord does is right, shall
not the judge of the earth do right? And he doesn't have some
kind of law that he has to live up to, or he's gonna do what's
right. No, if he does it, it is right because of who he is.
Aren't you thankful for that? The Lord reigneth. He exercises sovereign control
all the time. He reigns exclusively. What's that mean? Only he reigns. He reigns constantly, all the
time. He reigns actively. And let me
tell you what that means. There's no such thing as the
permissive will of God. He reigns actively. He is the
cause. He doesn't permit things to happen.
You see, he doesn't respond to anything. When I talk about the
permissive will of God, I might have even used that language
before. I'm saying he sees something and then he allows it to happen.
That puts something before his will. His will's first. His will's
first. And his will is irresistible. And there's only one proper response,
turn back to our text, in Psalm 97, the Lord reigneth, let the
earth rejoice. And let the multitude of the
isles be glad. That's the only response, and
it's because of his character. The Lord reigneth. I'm so thankful
for his reign. I'm so thankful for his absolute
control of everything. The Lord reigneth. Now, what's
your response? When you hear this, in your heart, does it
make you rejoice? It did, David. And it does all God's people.
Let the multitude of the isles thereof be glad. Now, look at
this next verse. I love this verse. Verse two,
clouds and darkness are round about him. Clouds preventing much of our view.
Darkness. When Moses went to Mount Sinai
for the giving of the law, the scripture says, and Moses drew
near in the thick darkness where God was. Solomon said the Lord said he
would dwell in the thick darkness. And the scripture says God is
light. How is that compatible with these statements? He shall
dwell in the thick darkness. Well, here's how it's compatible
because God said it. That's our first answer. because
God said it. I'm not worried about trying
to bring things together. God said two things are both
true. Uh, there's no contradiction. If there is the problems with
me, it's not with God. You believe that if God said
it, we bow to what he says. I'm so thankful for the word
of God. I'm so thankful that God declares
us the truth in his word that we're not dependent upon some
man to tell us what the truth with God is. He tells us in his
word, thick darkness, clouds round about his throne. And really that's a mercy. I
love when the Lord put Moses in the cleft of the rock. He
said, no man shall see my face and live. That's a mercy. But I want us to think about
the darkness for a moment. When God created the heavens, there was a time before the creation
when all there was was God. There was no created, there wasn't
matter, there was nothing but God. But when he created the
universe, what was first? Darkness covered the face of
the deep. That's what was first. Now, darkness. And then God said, let there
be light. And there was light. But first there was darkness
and the earth was without form and void. God created the universe
in the darkness. What about the incarnation of
Christ? That took place in the darkness
of Mary's womb. This lets us know that there's
so much we don't comprehend. What about the darkness that
surrounded the cross that covered the entire earth when the sun
quit shining? You know, this was a transaction.
Now, I hate using that word. I don't know what else word to
use, but this was a transaction between the Father and the Son. And me and you, there's just
a whole lot we're not gonna see about that. Darkness. What about the resurrection of
Christ? Took place in the darkness, didn't it? No eye could see. Darkness, clouds. Doesn't the scripture say, we
see through a glass darkly, dimly? What we do see, the more light
I have, the more I'm gonna see that there's just so much I do
not know and do not comprehend. And I've said this many times
before, that I can understand, there's not much to it. Darkness,
clouds surround his throne. And I love that scripture that
says he covers himself with light. He's so glorious that light is
a covering to hide him from our eyes. That's the brightness of
his glory. Darkness. I love it this way. darkness. He's so mysterious. He's so glorious. He's so transcendent. This is
who he is. He reigns and clouds and darkness
around about him. Righteousness, look in verse
two, righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. Now, his throne symbolizes the
first statement, the Lord reigneth. He reigns from his throne. And we can count on this. And
you know, everybody knows this really intuitively. God is righteous. God is righteous. Now, the believer
understands it. But every man, woman, boy, and
girl born into this world has some intuitive knowledge that
God is, he's righteous, he will reward the righteous and punish
the wicked. Everybody thinks that. And the
believer has more than just thoughts of that. He understands that
righteousness and judgment is the habitation of his throne.
I love what Abraham said, shall not the judge of the earth do
right? Abraham was sure of that. I am too. The judge of the earth
is going to do right. Turn with me to Romans chapter
one. Hold your finger there in Psalm 97. Turn to Romans chapter
one. Paul says in verse 16, for I
am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. You know, I say from, I hope,
the depths of my heart, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
I'm proud of it. I'm not proud of myself. I'm
ashamed of myself. On so every level, every level. But I'm proud of the gospel.
It glorifies God. It's a gospel worthy of God. You know, what we've been saying
about darkness even, that's worthy of God, isn't it? The God of
glory. The Lord reigneth, that's worthy
of God. And the gospel glorifies God. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
I want to preach the gospel. That's what I want. I want to
preach God's gospel, the gospel I'm not ashamed of. I glory in
the gospel. This is the gospel that saved
me. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. And look what he goes on to say,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it, the gospel,
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to
the Jew first and also to the Greek for therein in the gospel. This is a key verse in understanding
the gospel. This is so important. For therein in the gospel is
What? The righteousness of God. Revealed. There's nothing more important,
there's no word more important than this, the righteousness
of God in the gospel. Now, you know as well as I do
that if you would go out tomorrow and ask the people at work, what
do you think the chief attribute of God is? What would they say?
Love. The love of God. And there's
no doubt that the love of God is revealed in the gospel and
the mercy of God is revealed in the gospel and the grace of
God is revealed in the gospel. But here's the word Paul uses
to describe the gospel. Therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. Now. Here's what that means. God is absolutely righteous and
just and perfect and holy and true in bringing me into heaven
through what Christ did on the cross. The righteousness of God
demands the salvation of everybody that Jesus Christ died for. Now
that's the justice and judgment that are the habitation of his
throne. God's righteousness demands the
salvation of me. Well, that shows it's all grace,
doesn't it? And that shows it's the righteousness
of Christ. It talks about the full, complete
atonement of Christ. Oh, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
Therein is the righteousness of God revealed. Now back to
Psalm 97. A fire goes before him. You know,
there are not that many God is, you know, God is love, God is
just, God is faithful. There's like five or six that
actually say God is, one of them is our God is a consuming
fire. Our God is a consuming fire. Fire goes Before him, this can
speak of his wrath, this can speak of his, you know, remember
when the Lord said a fire coming down from, he said, I have a
baptism where fire's gonna come down from heaven there in Luke
chapter 12, and how am I straight until it be accomplished? Oh,
the fire of God's wrath that came down on Christ that he consumed,
that he put away, that made it gone, but a fire goes out before
him. And burneth up his enemies round
about him. Now make no mistake, God has
enemies. Christ has enemies. Don't miss that. He has enemies. And I don't want to be his enemy,
do you? I want him to look at me and say the same thing he
said about Abraham, Abraham, my friend, I want him to say,
Todd, my friend, I want every one of you. The Lord says, with
regard to your name, he or she is my friend. That's what I desperately
want. I want to be the friend of God
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse four, his lightnings and
lighted the world. The earth saw and trembled. I
love the language of this. The earth saw and trembled. Remember,
the world is his. And I love the way he talks about
the creation responding. It's just glorious. The earth
saw and trembled. The hills melted like wax at
the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord, of
the whole earth. The heavens declare his righteousness. And all the people see his glory. Now everybody who believes the
gospel, without exception, they see his glory. That means two things. First,
they see the glory of his person. They see Jesus Christ as the
brightness of God's glory and the express image of his person.
They see the glory of his person. They see that he gets all the
glory and salvation. They see that. I know for a fact
that if I'm saved, he gets all the glory and none goes to me. I am sure of that. Not only am
I sure of that, I like it that way. Because if he doesn't get
all the glory, that means there's something that I need to do in
order to save myself. And I'm sunk if that's the case.
I love a salvation where he gets all the glory because that secures
my salvation. He does it all. He says in verse seven, confounded be all they that serve
graven images that boast themselves of idols, worship him all ye
gods." Now, you know that he's not saying there are other gods
and they need to worship him. He's talking about false gods.
They're all to bow before him. Now, turn with me to 1 Samuel
5. This will demonstrate what's
being said. And the Philistines, 1 Samuel
chapter 5, and the Philistines took the ark of God and brought
it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. The Philistines had stolen the
ark that represented the gospel, the person of God. When the Philistines
took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and
set it by Dagon. And when they of Ashdod arose
early on the morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face
to the earth before the ark of the Lord. Can you imagine how
creepy that must have been for them? They go into their temple
and their God Dagon is fallen down flat on his face before
the ark of God. And they took Dagon and set him
in his place again. Now that tells you what kind
of power Dagon had. He's gonna stay there until they
pick him back up and set him in his place. And when they arose
early on the morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face
to the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of
Dagon, and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the
threshold. Only the stump of Dagon was left
to him. Therefore, neither the priests
of Dagon nor any of them that come into Dagon's house tread
on the threshold of Dagon and Ashtod. And to this day, but
the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashtod, and he destroyed
them and smote them with emeralds and Ashtod and the coast thereof.
And when the men of Ashtod saw that it was so, they said, the
ark of the God of Israel shall not bide with us, for his hand
is sore upon us and upon Dagon, our God. All false gods will be made to
bow before him. Now turn back to Psalm 97. Verse
8, Zion heard, that's the church. Zion heard this and was glad. And the daughters of Judah rejoiced.
Because of thy judgments, O Lord. Now, we rejoice in his judgments
against the false, but we rejoice in the judgments of the cross,
don't we? We serve a just, righteous, altogether
perfect, holy God. We rejoice in his judgments.
Oh, how I rejoice when he said, it is finished, that judgment
that was accomplished. Verse nine, for thou, Lord, art
high above all the earth. And thou art exalted far above
all gods. These human man-made gods. Oh,
they're just, they're so human. They're so human. I love what
Luther said to Erasmus. Erasmus was, was a freewheeler
during that time. And he said to Erasmus, he said,
here's your problem, Erasmus, your God is too human. He's too
much like you are. Nobody's going to worship a God
like that. For thou, Lord, art high above all the earth, and
thou art exalted far above all gods. Ye that love the Lord hate
evil. Now here's what goes along with
loving the Lord. Hating evil. Do you know, can we even have
a concept of what love is in the first place if we don't have
a concept of evil, too? Can we have a concept of love
if we don't have a concept of hatred? Take hatred out of the
equation, what's love mean? Ye that love the Lord, you love
who he is, you love his character, you love his way of saving, you
love his attributes. Ye that love the Lord hate everything
that's contrary to that. Now let me tell you something.
Somebody that is completely for all the character of God, they
won't be in heaven. You see, if they were there,
it'd mess that place up. I say that fearfully, I say that
reverently, but if I'm not all on board with who God is according
to his word, and love it, and hate anything contrary to him,
I don't really love him. and I won't be in heaven. Ye
that love the Lord hate evil. Hate anything contrary to him. Now that, I think of what David
said in Psalm 139, I don't know how much I can enter into that,
but he said, do not I hate them that hate thee. I counted my
enemies. I hate them with a perfect hatred.
Now, there's only one person who could say that. That's the
Lord Jesus Christ. And I believe more than anything
else, that's Christ speaking. But the thought is, you that
love the Lord, hate evil. He preserveth the souls of his
saints. Now, the reason I persevere in
the faith is because he preserves me. The reason I'm going to endure
all the way to the end, looking to Christ only, is because he
preserves me. Kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation. Ye that love the Lord hate evil,
he preserveth the souls of his saints, he delivereth them out
of the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous,
the light of the gospel and gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice
in the Lord, ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance
of his holiness. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,
all thy works shall praise thy name in earth and skies and seas. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and
mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Okay.