Would you turn to the 76th Psalm,
Psalm 76. In Judah is God known. His name is great in Israel. In Salem also is his tabernacle
and his dwelling place in Zion. There break he the arrows of
the bow, the shield, the sword, and the battle. Thou art more
glorious and excellent than the mountains of fray. The stout-hearted
are spoiled. They have slept their sleep.
And none of the men of might have found their hands. At thy
rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast
into a dead sleep. Thou, even thou, art to be feared. And who may stand in thy sight
when once thou art angry? Thou didst cause judgment to
be heard from heaven. The earth feared and was still. When God arose to judgment, to
save all the meek of the earth, Selah, surely the wrath of man
shall praise thee. The remainder of wrath shalt
thou restrain. Vow and pay unto the Lord your
God. Let all that be round about him
bring presence unto him that ought to be feared. He shall
cut off the spirit of princes. He is terrible to the kings of
the earth. Let's pray. Lord, how Glorious how. Majestic, how awesome. How other
is that person? And we. Through the sun. Bow before the
and praise thy holy name. Lord, we ask that you would take
your word. And bless it to our hearts. and
enable us to worship thee, the living God and thy son, the Lord
Jesus, by the power of your spirit. Lord, we confess our sins. We
pray for forgiveness and cleansing. We pray that we might be found
in him and Lord, wherever your gospel is preached, we pray for
your blessing. We pray that you would raise
up a people to praise your name, to believe your gospel. We wait on you in Christ's name. We pray. Amen. Verse three, there, he break
the arrows of the bow and the shield and the sword and the
battle. Now this apparently was, um, uh, Psalm composed after
the Lord had given them some kind of victory. over their enemies. And one of the things, one of
the many things I love with regard to the scripture, both the victories
and the defeats, both the victories and the defeats are always ascribed
to God. Remember that in your own experience,
both the victories and the defeats are always ascribed to God. Now
he says in verse one in Judah, Is God known? This is the same knowledge of
which Paul said, I know whom I have believed. In Judah, God
is known. Every believer knows the living
God. This is life eternal, that they
might know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou
hast sent. Now this is not simply knowing
facts regarding God or about God. This is actually knowing
the living God. In Judah, not anywhere else,
only in Judah. And who did Christ come from?
Judah. In Judah, in the Lord Jesus Christ,
God is known. And if you know God, and I'm
not talking about just a knowledge of presumption, I'm talking about
knowing the living God. If you know the living God, it's
because he himself has revealed himself to you. In Judah, God is known. His name is great in Israel. Israel, is that talking about
national Israel? Well, I suppose on some levels
it is, but that's talking about the true Israel of God. Every
believer, every believer makes up Israel and in Israel, his
name, his attributes are great. The name of God is the person
behind the name that represents his attributes. His holiness,
his sovereignty, his justice, his omnipotence, all of his glorious
attributes. They're great in Israel. In Salem
also is his tabernacle. Now that's a shortened name for
Jerusalem. It's found that way several times
in the scripture. This is referring to Jerusalem
and that is where his tabernacle was. Now I love to think of the
tabernacle. It represents the Lord Jesus
Christ. There were seven pieces of furniture in the tabernacle.
And what was the first piece of, I guess, furniture is not
the right word, but it's the altar. The brazen altar for sacrifice. The only way you could come into
the tabernacle is through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the next piece of furniture, if you want to call it that,
or the paraphernalia, was the laver. that had water in it. In order to enter into the tabernacle,
you had to go first through the brazen altar, the blood, and
then there was that water. Most people think, well, you
get justified by the blood of Christ and then you wash yourself
up, sanctified by washing yourself in water. And that's such a horrible
view of that labor. That labor is what tells us that
the blood of Jesus Christ continually cleanses. That's what the scripture
says. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
son, cleanseth us. cleanseth us from all sin. Then you go into the holy place,
you have the altar of incense. Christ, my intercessor. You have the candlesticks. Christ,
my light. That's the light of how God can
have anything to do with me. We have the table of showbread.
Christ, my necessary food. The ark. Christ, my covenant,
my way of salvation with the blood, the mercy seat over the
seat of propitiation in Salem is the tabernacle, the Lord Jesus
Christ and his dwelling place is in Zion. That's talking about
the church, his dwelling place. If I'm in the church, I'm the
dwelling place of God. God lives within me. Right now, what a glorious thing. Verse three, there break he the
arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle.
These are the weapons that were used against them, and they were
no match for the living God. He shattered them. And in this
Psalm, Asaph is celebrating this great victory. Now look at verse
four. Thou art more glorious and excellent
than the mountains of prey. Now, there are two different
meanings given to the mountains of prey. One, mountains that
support wild animals, wild animals that look for their prey. There's
big, majestic animals. He looks at these animals on
the mountain and he says, you're more glorious than they are.
Well, that's true. But there's another reading of this that
it says, you are more glorious than the everlasting mountains. Well, whatever it is, he's more
glorious. I have a tendency to think it
would be the everlasting mountains, but whatever it is, he is more
glorious, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. And glorious has to do with light. Light. And I love that scripture
that says he covers himself with light. He is so glorious that
light would be a covering to him. He doesn't cover himself
with darkness. He covers himself with light. This speaks of his
glory. Oh, he's so altogether other. That's the word. Other. There's none like him. There's
none that can be compared with him. He's more glorious than
the mountains of prey. Verse five, the stout hearted. Those who are opposed to him,
the people who rise up against Israel, the stout-hearted, are
spoiled. They have slept their sleep.
This is speaking of the sleep of death. And none of the men
of might have found their hands, these men who intended horrible
things against us. The Lord didn't let it come to
pass. None of the men of might have found their hands. Verse
6, at thy rebuke, O God of Jacob. Now don't miss that. The God
of Jacob. Remember when God said, Jacob,
have I loved? Esau, have I hated? And the title
God gives to himself more than any other title is the God of
Jacob. Listen to this scripture. Malachi
chapter three verse six says, I am the Lord, I change not. Now how often do you change?
He never changes. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. Oh, what a name for our God. The God of Jacob. At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob,
both the chariot and horse are cast into the dead sleep. And
that's a reference to what happened when the Red Sea was parted,
when the same children of Israel passed through the Red Sea. When
the Egyptians attempted to do what happened, the sea came back
down on them and they're cast into this dead sleep. Verse seven, thou Even thou art to be feared. Now, Lord willing, when we go
out, that's what I want to try to preach on this morning, where
Jacob, I mean, Joseph said, I fear God. I want to try to deal with
what the fear of God is. It's a reverence. It's an awe. It's a respect. It's a bowing
in my heart before who he is. The fear of God is the worship
of God. It is only the believer that
has the fear of God. The fear of God is not found
in the heart of the natural man. Paul said there's no fear of
God before their eyes. But the believer fears God. Now, this is not the fear of
mistrust. This is not the fear of loss. This is not the fear
of bad things happening to me. It's in my heart, respecting,
bowing in awe and fear and reverence the God of glory. I love what
David said in Psalm 19, the fear of the Lord is clean. Oh, how clean it is. Enduring forever. Someone that
has the fear of the Lord will eternally have the fear of the
Lord. It'll go on in heaven and there it'll be more realized
and understood. Verse seven, thou even thou art
to be feared. Who may stand in thy sight when
once thou art angry? Nobody can, he's all powerful.
Verse eight, thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven. God is a God of judgment. Abraham
understood this when he said, shall not the judge of the earth
do right? Anybody who knows him knows he's a God of absolute
justice. And that is seen most clearly
in the cross. In and of myself, and the same
is true of you, we're sinners. How can a holy, just God accept
me and still be just? The great manifestation of that
is the cross when my sin, Christ bore it, God punished my sin
in his son, it became his sin, and his righteousness becomes
mine. What is more just than the cross? I mean, we tremble
at the glorious justice of the cross. It's so altogether glorious. Thou didst cause judgment to
be heard from heaven. The earth feared and was still. And I think this is a reference
to what took place on the cross. I mean, even in the physical
earth did things. The sun quit shining, there was
quaking, and then there was the stopping of quaking. And so on
the earth filled the whole creation. Now here's the Well, no, it's verse 10. Verse
nine, when God arose to judgment to save all the meek of the earth,
when God arose to judgment to save all the meek of the earth.
Now, when I see that word, God arose to judgment, what do you
think of? You think the resurrection, don't you? And that is how he
saved all the meek of the earth, his resurrection. He put sin
away. He was raised because God was
satisfied with what he did. And he saved all the meek of
the earth. And I love the way He doesn't say simply he saved
the meek of the earth. I'd be thankful if he said that.
The meek is the lowly, the poor. It describes every believer,
but he saved all the meek of the earth. Now let me remind
you, there will be nobody in hell that God loved or that Christ
died for. Amen? He's incapable of failure. And he arises, he arose to save
all the meek of the earth. Now here's the verse I wanted
to kind of focus on, verse 10. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee, and the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.
Now the wrath of man. the evil intentions of man, his
anger against God. Now, I realize people are not
angry with the God that's preached in human religion because there's
nothing to fear about him. They don't get mad because they
don't hear of a sovereign God. They think they control this
God. They think, well, he's going to have to respond to me. I'll
be saved whenever I want to and he'll save me whenever I decide
to let him save me. Nobody's afraid of that God.
But that's a non-existent God. The God of the Bible is so clearly
described in this 76 Psalm. And the response of man to this
God is wrath. I don't like this God. I don't
like a God that I can't control. I don't like a God that I can't
manipulate. I like a God that I can control,
manipulate, and get him to respond to me, but an absolutely sovereign,
holy God who owes me nothing, I don't like that God, and it
produces wrath. But what does the scripture say?
The wrath of man shall praise thee. Now, how is that? Well, let's go back to the cross
for just a moment. Those men said in utter contempt,
hail, king of the Jews, bowing before him in a mocking way.
making fun of him. Does the wrath of man praise
him? He truly is the king of the Jews. What a glorious description
of praise to him. He's the true king of the Jews. Remember what they wrote above
his head? Jesus of Nazareth the king of the Jews. And when men said this in wrath,
mocking him, oh, they didn't know it, but they were praising
his holy name. God was using what they said
to bring glory to himself. One of the ways they made fun
of him, they said, he saved others. himself, he can't save. And they
were making fun of him. If he ever said anything to him,
he'd come down from the cross. He saved others himself. He cannot
save for me or you to be saved. He
could not save himself. What a glorious statement made
with regarding to his salvation for him to save me. He had to
drink the contents of that cup. He had to go to the cross. He
had to bear the wrath of God and put it away. Now, he could
have come here and lived and obeyed God's holy law and went
back to heaven. And what good would that have
done me or you? Absolutely none. He had to die on Calvary Street
for somebody else to be saved. He could not save himself. And child of God, he did this
willingly for you, for me. You remember when they struck
him in the face and said, prophesy thou Christ, who struck thee. Prophesy, which one of us did
it? Prophesy thou Christ, who struck
thee in utter condemned. But I think of that scripture,
they didn't realize what they were saying, but we know who
smote him. Awake, O sword, smite the shepherd and the sheep will
be scattered. It was the Lord that smote him.
He was no victim. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He had put him to grief. I think of that horrible statement made by the
people around the cross. His blood be upon us and our
children. We take full responsibility for the crucifixion of this wicked
man, is what they were saying. While we want our children to
be charged with it. This is how bad we hate him.
We're very fine with our kids being held responsible for his
death. That'll be a feather in their
cap. That'll speak well of them. What is our prayer? Oh, his blood
be upon us. And his blood be upon our children.
That's our one desire, that His blood would be upon us, that
I might have my sins washed away by His blood and that I might
be made clean. And that's what I desire from
my children, for everybody I love, His blood be upon us. That's
our prayer. They didn't mean it that way,
did they? But oh, is there a better prayer than that? His blood be
upon us and upon our children. I like to think about there when
the Pharisees, you can read about this in Matthew chapter 27, they
said this deceiver said when he was alive, he raised from
the dead three days later. Now you put a stone over his
grave and you have a watchman there and guards there to make
sure it doesn't happen. This deceiver. Well, thou shalt send them strong
delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be
damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. They called him a deceiver in
a wicked way. They were deceived, weren't they?
And the scripture says, the Lord shall send them strong delusion. Now, when my marginal reference
says that this refers to Exodus chapter nine, when God said to
Pharaoh, now listen to these words, Pharaoh, he's the one
who said, who is the Lord that I should obey him? This one who
thought he had such power, God says to Pharaoh, Even for this
same purpose have I raised you up. That I might show my power
in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the
earth. Pharaoh, this enemy of God, God
raised him up. that God might show his power
and his authority in him, and that God's name might be declared
throughout all the earth. The wrath of man shall praise
thee. See what that means? The wrath of man shall praise
thee, and the remainder of wrath thou shalt restrain. You know
what that means? Men never get to do what they
want to do. God restrains it. Oh, they have their evil purposes,
their evil intentions. Don't think that men are without,
these men that God raises up, they're wicked, they would, I'm
wicked by nature, and if it were in our power, in these men's
power, they'd put God out of business, but God's not gonna
let it happen. The remainder of wrath thou shalt
restrain. This is who God is. And you know,
here's the difference between a believer and an unbeliever.
A believer likes it this way. They love it this way. They fear
this God. They respect, they reverence
this God. An unbeliever has no love for
this God. But this is the God of the Bible.
The wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath
shalt thou restrain. Now, verse 11. Vow and pay unto
the Lord your God. Does that mean, Lord, I promise I'll never do
that again? Well, you ought not ever do it again. Agreed? Whatever
it is. But you making a vow and saying,
I promise I'll never do that again, is that what that's talking
about? I hope you know better than that. What is this vow and this payment? What could you pay God? Well,
turn to Psalm 50. This is what this means. Offer unto God, verse 14. Psalm 50, verse 14. Offer unto
God thanksgiving. and pay thy vows unto the Most
High." Now this is not talking about a monetary payment. You offer him Thanksgiving. You're not gonna offer him your
works. You look to Christ, but you'll offer him thanksgiving.
And you know even that thanksgiving is only accepted through the
Lord Jesus Christ. You wouldn't even want your thanksgiving
to appear before God apart from Christ, would you? Only, here's
all I got, thanksgiving. You know when you, I think of
a marriage vow. You promise to be true to that
person. When you vow to God, you ask,
Lord, give me the grace to look only to your covenant, to your
son, to your grace. Let me look nowhere else. Now you vow to God in the sense
of pay your thanksgiving. Your homage is ascribing all
glory to him. Thou, and pay unto the Lord your
God, let all that be round about him bring presents unto him,
gifts of homage that ought to be feared. Now remember, this
is who God is. He's the one to be feared. The fear of reverence, the fear
of all, the fear of respect. He shall cut off the spirit of
princes, He is terrible to the kings of the earth. Now, this
is another way of saying God resists the proud. And he gives
grace to the humble. Everyone that exalts himself,
what does the scripture say? Shall be abased. And I love that scripture in
Daniel, where it says, them that walk in pride He knoweth how
to abase. He does. Everyone that exalts
himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself humbles
himself under the mighty hand of God, the God of Jacob, the
God who is to be feared, the God who is altogether glorious.
Everyone that humbles himself shall be exalted. That's the promise of the God
of glory.