Would you turn to the 65th Psalm? Psalm 65. This is always, I guess I got
150. favorite Psalms, but this has
always been one of my favorites. Psalm 65. Praise waiteth for thee, O God,
in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed. O thou that hearest prayer, unto
thee shall all flesh come. Iniquities prevail against me. As for our transgressions, thou
shalt purge them away. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. and causest to approach unto
thee, that he may dwell in thy courts. We shall be satisfied
with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. By terrible
things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our
salvation, who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth.
and of them that are afar off upon the sea, which by his strength
setteth fast the mountains, being girded with power, which stilleth
the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult
of the people. They also that dwell in the uttermost
parts are afraid at thy tokens, Thou makest the outgoings of
the morning and evening to rejoice. Thou visitest the earth and waterest
it. Thou greatly enrichest it with
the river of God, which is full of water. Thou prepares them
corn when thou has so provided for it. Thou waters the ridges
thereof abundantly. Thou settles the furrows thereof. Thou makest it soft with showers. Thou blessest the springing thereof. Thou crannest the year with thy
goodness, and thy paths drop fatness. They drop upon the pastures
of the wilderness, and the little hills rejoice on every side.
The pastures are clothed with flocks. The valleys also are
covered over with corn. They shout for joy, they also
sing. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
word, how we thank you for who you are, how we thank you for
your way of salvation. How we thank you for all things. Lord, we're so glad that you're
God and beside thee is none else. And we would worship you. We would come into your presence
in the name of thy son. Lord, grant us a word from you. Forgive us of our many sins for
Christ's sake. Give us grace to love you more,
to love one another more. Be with all your people wherever
they meet together. Be with our friends that aren't
here. We ask that you would keep them by your grace. Meet each
need according to your will. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Praise waiteth for thee, O God. And my marginal reading says,
praise is silent before thee. Praise is silent before thee. Now this song ends up in verse
13. The pastures are clothed with
flocks. The valleys also are covered
over with corn. They shout for joy. They sing. It begins, praise is silent before
thee. It ends with shouting for joy
and praise. Now, This psalm speaks first of all
of what true praise is. It's silent before God. The most true praise that comes
from the heart doesn't have anything to say. Indeed, what would you
say? In the presence of God's transcendent
glory, What words are appropriate that come from us? One of the
reasons I love the hymn, O Sacred Head Now Wounded, I love that
phrase, what language can I borrow? To thank thee, dearest friend. I can't come up with proper words,
and neither can anybody else. The most pure praise, and even
it's impure, it's only accepted because of the Lord Jesus Christ,
but the most pure praise, the highest praise, is silent praise. What words can I come up with
to describe him? Praise waiteth for thee, O God,
in Zion, in the church, And unto thee shall the vow be performed. Now, what's he talking about?
Unto thee shall the vow be performed. Is it, is the Psalmist saying,
I'm going to keep my promises and I'm going to perform what
I vowed. He didn't say that. He says,
unto thee shall the vow be performed. And he's talking about that vow
that the Lord Jesus made as our surety. He said, lo, I come. In the volume of the book it's
written of me, I delight to do thy will, O God. Now the vow
being spoken of is when Christ vowed to be my Savior before
time began and take full responsibility for my salvation. Isn't it a
precious thought that you were in the Lord's heart before you
were ever born, before time began, and he made a vow to save you
when the Father gave you to him. Now that's the vow being spoken
of. Now look what he says in verse
two, O thou that hearest prayer. What a name for our God. He is
the one who hears prayer. When I pray to him, and I pray
only through the son, his son, but when I pray to him, he hears. The God of glory hears me. You see, our prayers are presented
to him through the intercession of Christ, our great high priest,
and they come to him as a sweet-smelling savor. What a name for our God. O thou that hearest prayer, unto
thee shall all flesh come. Now here's the scripture that
I thought of when I thought of that. statement, the Lord said
concerning himself, thou has given him power over all flesh
that he should give eternal life to as many as thou has given
him. Now, whether you're a believer
or an unbeliever, you're his. I love thinking that doesn't
mean you're saved, but you're under his control. You're under
his, he's Lord of the dead and the living. According to Romans
14, nine, he's the Lord of the dead and the living, whatever
is happening. Remember the Lord's got his hook
in their nose. I don't care what current event
is taking place. The Lord is a control of all
flesh. His will is being done. He's
an absolute control. And to thee shall all flesh come.
Now look what he says in verse three. Iniquities prevail against
me. My marginal reading says matters
of iniquities. And you know what he's saying
in his own experience? Sin's beating me. Sin is prevailing against me.
It's knocking me backwards. Now that's what he's saying.
Iniquities prevail against me. And you know, I thought about
this verse of scripture and I thought in my own experience, if my salvation
was dependent upon me being able to defeat any one sin, I would
have no hope. Now this is David speaking under
the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, and he's being honest
before God. He's speaking to God. And he
says, with regard to his own experience, iniquities prevail
against me. As for our transgressions, thou
shalt purge them away. Same verse. Iniquities prevail. I'm getting defeated. As for
our transgressions, those iniquities that prevail against me, thou
shalt purge them away. All those iniquities that seemed
to prevail, Christ took care of them. Thou shalt purge them
away when he had by himself purged our sins. Verse four. Before I go on, I wanted to say
this in the introduction, and I did, and this psalm can be
divided into three parts. Praise the Lord for His grace.
Praise the Lord for His power. Praise the Lord for His plenty. Now, he's still in the midst
of praising the Lord for His grace, and look what he says
in verse four. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. Did David believe in election?
Oh yeah, just like every other believer believes election. David did. Blessed is the man
whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee, that he
may dwell in thy courts, We shall be satisfied with the goodness
of thy house, even of thy holy temple. Now, this is a blessed
statement with regard to the election of grace. Blessed is
the man whom thou choosest. You know, the Lord looked at
his disciples in John chapter 15, verse 16, and he said in
no uncertain terms, you did not choose me. but I chose you. If you're a believer, you know
that is so. You know it from the scriptures
and you know it from your own experience. You know you would
never choose him. You know you would always take
the wrong direction, but thank God he chose you. Ephesians 1, 4 says, according
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. Who chose who? He chose us. When was this choice made? Before
the foundation of the world. Not because he foresaw we would
believe. I hate it when people say that.
Try to turn God into a time traveler. You know, he traveled through
the quarters of time he could see and he saw who would believe
and chose Obama. No, no. Unconditional election. Blessed, how blessed by God is
the man whom thou choosest. Why did he choose them? to the
praise of the glory of his grace. If you look in that passage of
scripture, that's his reason for choosing you to glorify his
grace. Now in him choosing you, does
it glorify his grace? Oh yes. What? It just magnifies
his grace. How did he choose us? According
as he has chosen us in him. God's elect have never been viewed
independently of Jesus Christ, the Lord. Election. I love election. Somebody says, I don't like it.
I do because it glorifies God. It shows that he is God beside
him as none else. Election is God being God. That's
the best way to define elections. God being God. God indeed, not
God in title. I love the way David says this.
Blessed is the man whom thou choosest. And here's the result
of him choosing anybody. He causes us. Causes. Do you like that word? He causes. His grace causes me to approach
unto him. I would not do it did he not
cause me. I don't know how many times I've
heard people say, well, what you're preaching just makes me
into robots. No, it doesn't, but I'm not sure
that's not a bad, I kind of want to be his robot, don't you? I'd
like for him to just cause me to always do his will. I would like for him to cause
me by grace, to cause me to believe, to cause me to repent, to cause
me to come to him. And isn't that what the Lord
says when he says in John 6, 44, no man can come to me except
the father which has sent me, draw him. Now that's a strong
language. It means literally drag. Now, I want to be drugged by
him with my full consent, don't you? I want to be drugged by
him with my full consent. And notice the language, blessed
is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee,
coming to Christ, that he may dwell in thy courts. Now, what that means is to abide
in Christ. I want to just simply, the only
place I want to be, my home is to be in Christ. I want to stay
there. I don't want to go outside of it. Don't find any desire
to be anywhere but in him dwelling in his courts. Like David said
in Psalm, hold your finger there and turn to Psalm 27. For one thing have I desired
of the Lord, that I may seek after, that I may dwell in the
house of the Lord all the days of my life. to behold the beauty
of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. Now, I remember reading
that verse when I was a young boy, and I thought, that'd be
boring to be in the house all the time. I mean, I'd like to
go out and do something. Well, that's, of course, I didn't
understand. That's talking about abiding
in Christ, simply being found in him. Back to our text in Psalm
64. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house. The goodness. Don't miss this. When Moses said, show me your glory.
Can you say that? Lord, show me your glory. Show me what you say is your
glory. Not what the preacher says or
what a church says or a denomination says, but what do you say is
your glory? He replied, I'll make all my
goodness pass before thee. I'll proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee and I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious.
Oh, his goodness is his grace. Now he's gracious to whom he
will be gracious. Somebody says, well, you ought to be gracious
to everybody. You don't say what he ought to
do. What he does is glorious, perfect, and right. And you've
entered a place you have no business when you start saying, well,
this is what I think he ought to do. He's God. What he does
is right. Bow. Bow. That's the only thing to say.
Bow. Bow down before him. He's God. And we'll be satisfied
with the goodness of the house, even of thy holy temple. Verse
five, by terrible things in righteousness, wilt thou answer us, O God of
our salvation. Now, this grace is righteous
grace. This is not God just sweeping
our sins under the carpet and looking the other way and not
holding us accountable. God's grace is righteous grace. Any sin I've committed, he has
righteously punished in the person of his son. And his righteousness
demands my salvation because Christ made me righteous before
God. And it's a righteous salvation. You know, the gospel is a declaration
of the righteousness of God, isn't it? Yes, it's His grace.
Yes, it's His mercy. Yes, it's His kindness. But first,
it's His righteousness. Romans 1, 16 and 17. Listen to
this scripture. I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for therein
In the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed. The very righteousness, the perfect,
absolute righteousness of God demands the salvation of everybody
that Jesus Christ died for. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. everyone that believeth." Oh,
he's praising God for his righteous grace, his sovereign grace. Verse 5, By terrible things and
righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation, who
art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and them that
are afar off. upon the sea. Now, what a gracious
God he is. He's confidence to the ends. The people furthest away, the
people that can't get to him, he comes to them. Aren't you
thankful for that? He comes to them. You need to
come to Christ. Yeah, I do. But I need him to
come to me. He comes to me, I'll come to
him. Like the Shulamites said, draw us and we'll run after thee. We say the same thing, don't
we? Draw me to yourself completely. I'll run after you. He's the confidence of the ends
of the earth. Those that are far off. Now look
in verse six, now he's going to start praising the Lord for
his strength. Because what good would his grace do if he didn't
have the strength to make sure whatever his grace purpose came
to pass? Now he's talking about his strength, which by his strength,
his omnipotence, saith fast the mountains, being girded with
power. His grace, Could not come to
pass without his omnipotence to execute it. What good would
grace be if there was not omnipotence? And now David praises him for
his power, which by his strength said fast the mountains. Now
somebody says, now anybody knows that the reason there's mountains
is because tectonic plates collide. They go up and there we have
the mountains. Yeah. Whose power caused that? That's the power of God that
brought forth the mountains. Yes, I think I'm tectonic. Is that the way to say it? Okay.
Yes, those plates collided. Up comes the Himalayas. Up comes
the Rockies. But it's the power of God that
does this. which by a strength setteth fast
the mountains being girded with power, which stilleth the noise
of the seas. You remember the way the seas
were raging the storm and Christ said, peace be still. And the
scripture says there was a great calm. Only God can do that. which stilleth the noise of the
seas, the noise of the waves, and the tumult of the people."
Whatever tumults are going on, he's in control of. You know,
every day, I'm always anxious to read about what's going on
in the Ukraine. That's just, you know, I... But what I love
knowing is that everybody is in the Lord's hands, and He steals
the tumult according to His will. And His hook is in the nose of
Putin and everybody else. And He is in control of everything,
the tumult in your life, whatever it is. He's in absolute control
of it. Remember, He's gracious. Yes,
he's all-powerful, but it's the all-power of one who is gracious. He stills the tumult of the people. Verse 8, they also that dwell
in the uttermost parts are afraid of thy tokens, the tokens of
your power. Thou makest the outgoings of
the morning and evening to rejoice. Now, I love thinking about this,
the morning and the evening. Time and space, everything in
time, morning and evening, he's in control of everything in space.
Whatever, wherever there's matter, he's in control of it. He dwells
outside of it. Time and space are his. He's an absolute sovereign, powerful
control. Don't you love his power? You
bow before his power and you love his power because it's his
power that causes you to be saved. It's his power that put away
your sins. It's his power that makes you acceptable before him.
If he didn't have the power to execute whatever he willed to
take place, it wouldn't take place. But David is celebrating
his power. Look at the way he celebrates
his plenty. We've talked, he's praised his
grace, he's praised his power, and now he praises his plenty. Now understand this, God is a
generous God. Oh, he's so generous. John Newton wrote, come my soul,
thy soup prepare. Jesus loves to answer prayer. He himself has bid thee pray,
therefore will not say thee nay. Thou art coming to a king, large
petitions with thee bring. For his grace and power are such
that none can ever ask too much. Now let's read of his plenty.
Verse nine, thou visitest the earth, and water it. Thou greatly enriches it with
the river of God, which is full of water. Thou prepares them
corn when thou has so provided it. Look at God's generous way
upon the earth. And this represents how generous
he is with his people watering them. The waters of his grace. the rain of his grace that comes
down. He's so generous, he's so glorious. Thou visitest the earth, waterest
it, if thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which
is full of water, thou preparest them corn when thou hast so provided
it. Everything you need he provides.
Thou waterest the ridges, verse 10, thereof abundantly. Thou
settlest the furrows thereof. Thou makest it soft with showers. Thou blessest the springing thereof.
Now we have this beautiful picture in our mind, but I love the way
the Lord, if the Lord left you to yourself, what would happen? Your heart would harden every
time. He doesn't have to do anything
to harden your heart. All he's got to do is leave you
alone. And your heart will be hard as granite. And you know
that. But he softens the heart with
the rain of his grace. You know the reason why your
heart cries out to him? He softened your heart. He softens
the heart with the rain of his grace. Thou waterest the ridges
thereof abundantly. Thou settlest the firs thereof.
Thou makest it soft with showers. Thou blessest the springing thereof.
Thou crownest the year with thy goodness. And thy paths drop fatness. Now
everything in the year, you may have had A horrible year, humanly
speaking. But it's God's goodness. He's
good all the time. Whatever it may be, He is good
all the time. And whatever He sent you has
been for your good. The scripture says, and we know
that all things work together for good. to them that love God,
to them who are called according to his purpose. He crowns the
year. Everything that takes place in
time, he's in control of. Aren't you thankful that the
Lord is absolute in all of his attributes? He has absolute sovereignty. Predestination is absolute, absolute. There's nothing that predestination
is unto salvation, but everything that happens, the Lord said,
there's not a sparrow that falls to the ground without your heavenly
father. All the hairs of your head are numbered by him. He
has absolute control and I'm thankful. He's good. He's so good to me. What about
when this, he's so good to me. What about when that terrible
thing took place? He's so good to me. You believe that? The goodness of God leads thee
to repentance, to a complete change of mind concerning who
he is and who you are and how he saves. He's good. Thou crownest
the year with thy goodness and thy past drop fatness. They drop
into the pastures of the wilderness. The little hills rejoice on every
side. Rejoice always, Paul said. Again, I say, rejoice. The pastures are clothed with
flocks. The valleys also are covered
over with corn. They shout for joy. They sing. I love the way this psalm ends.
Praise is silent before thee. And your silent praise does,
it shouts for joy. It sings. Amen.