Everybody, let's turn to the 47th Psalm.
Psalm 47. Oh, clap your hands, all ye people. Shout unto God with the voice
of triumph. For the Lord Most High is terrible. He is a great king over all the
earth. He shall subdue the people under
us. and the nations under our feet. He shall choose our inheritance
for us. The excellency of Jacob whom
he had loved, Selah. God has gone up with a shout.
The Lord with the sound of a trumpet Sing praises to God. Sing praises. Sing praises unto our King. Sing praises. For God is the
King of all the earth. Sing ye praises with understanding. God reigneth over the heathen. God sitteth upon the throne of
His holiness. The princes of the people are
gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham, for the
shields of the earth belong unto God. He is greatly exalted. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that by your grace. From our hearts. The new heart
you have given. We might be enabled. To sing praises. Unto you. And to sing praises with understanding. Speak to each heart here according
to your will. Make yourself known to us for
Christ's sake through your word. Forgive us of our many, many
sins and enable us to hear the gospel with hearing ears. Lord, accept our thanksgiving.
We're so thankful for who you are. We're so thankful for your
glorious attributes. We're so thankful for the revelation
of yourself. We're so thankful for your word.
We're so thankful for the fellowship we enjoy with one another in
Christ Jesus. Now be with us, be with our nation. We pray for your guidance upon
our leaders. Lord, we would remember the people
in the Ukraine. We pray for your mercy upon them.
Bless us for the Lord's sake. In his name we pray, amen. Clap your hands. Now there are
two reasons people clap their hands. Number one, it's because
everybody else is clapping and you feel like it would be rude
not to clap. You've been in situations like that. But the other reason
is a spontaneous reaction that comes from a heart of approval
and affirmation. Clap your hands. O ye people,
and that's talking about this spontaneous reaction of the glory
of God and the greatness of his salvation. Clap your hands, O
ye people, and shout for joy at the voice of triumph. Now, thanks be unto God, which always,
and listen to this scripture, Thanks be unto God, which always
causes us to triumph in Christ. I hated when preachers used the
term a defeated Christian life. There is no such thing. And I suppose when a preacher
makes a statement like that, he's saying, well, I'm living
a victorious Christian life. You need to get up to my level. The Bible does not recognize
that kind of language. Every believer triumphs in Christ
Jesus. Thanks be unto God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. We're more than
conquerors, the scripture says. Is that talking about every believer?
Absolutely. We are more than conquerors through
him that loved us. Now you think about this. Your
sins are forgiven. They're all forgiven. You're
justified. You stand before God without
guilt. Perfect in Christ Jesus. You're
sanctified. Other as an act of his will through
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're preserved. God's made you meet right now
for the inheritance of the saints in light, all you need to be
in that great heavenly choir you have right now. Now that's a reason for rejoicing,
isn't it? Clap your hands, O ye people. Shout for joy with the voice
of triumph for, verse two, here's why, the Lord Most High is terrible. He is a great king over all the
earth. Now that word terrible is a verb. It's not an adjective describing
him. The word means the Lord Most High is awe-inspiring. Now I love that. He is awe-inspiring. Aren't you awed by his sovereignty?
It's not just a doctrine we give a cent to. It's something we
stand in awe of. His glory. He controls everything
and everybody. Aren't you in awe of His power?
He's all powerful. We're in awe of His holiness. Every one of His attributes are
holy. We're in awe of His immutability. He can't change. You think of
how much you change. One second to another. Up, down,
not him. I'm in awe of his independence. He has no needs outside of himself. You stand in awe. We're in awe
of his absolute justice. No sin will ever go unpunished. We're in awe of his wisdom, how
he is in his wisdom, he's made a way to be absolutely just. and yet make this sinner, having
never sinned, justified." Now we stand in awe of that, don't
we? He's awe-inspiring. He's terrible. He's awe-inspiring. He is a great king over all the
earth. He's king of kings. Lord, we're
meeting to worship this morning, this Lord we're wanting to hear
from. He's King of Kings. He's the
King over all the earth. Verse three, he shall subdue
the people under us and the nations under our feet. Now, who is the
us? The church, the church, every
believer. Now, when we think of us, we're,
humanly speaking, we're very insignificant, aren't we? We
don't even count, humanly speaking. Yet, God says the entire, everybody
is going to be subdued under the church. Everything God is
using for the good of his people. Romans 8, 28 says, and we know
that all things work together for good. All things. Now, everything you see, the
Lord is using for the good of his people. He shall subdue. the people under us and the nations
under our feet. And look at verse four. When's
the last time you really thought about this? I thought this is,
this is not something I've thought about a whole lot. He shall choose
our inheritance for us. What do you think about that?
He's the one who does the choosing for us. You know, I see so much
more safety in that for me and security that he's the one who
does the choosing. If it's up to my choice, I'm
in trouble. I just don't trust my choice. I might think I do
right, but I don't know where my choice will bring me. Well,
I do know where my choice will bring me. Always bad. But thank
God, the inspired writer says he shall choose our inheritance
for us. Oh, I love that. I don't want
it to be my choice. It's his choice and that's what
makes it so sure. He shall, when's the last time
he actually thought about that, how glorious that is. He shall
choose our inheritance for us. The excellency of Jacob whom
he loved. Now Jacob, I love the way the
scripture speaks of the excellency of Jacob. Now Jacob in and of
himself, Read his history. Not a lot to
him. The heel catcher, the supplanter,
the deceiver. There's a whole lot of bad things
that could be said about Jacob. Yet when God speaks of Jacob,
he speaks of the excellency of Jacob, whom he loved. And that speaks of every one
of God's people. This is how God views them. Excellent. the excellency of Jacob. I don't
think that way very much, but what a blessing it is to know
that the Lord Jesus Christ is my righteousness before God and
that makes me excellent before God. He chose this for me. This is his work alone. Verse
five, God has gone up with a shout. and the Lord with the sound of
a trumpet. And what that's talking about is the ascension of our
Lord back into glory. He's gone up with a shout. Now,
I love thinking about this. The Lord, the second person of
the Trinity, eternal, for 33 years left heaven and went to
earth. He wasn't in heaven any longer.
Now he was as God, but he was down here on earth. And I love
to think of the angels. Every second they were watching
him. They didn't really understand
completely what he was doing. They were watching it. And I
love to think. I love to think about the Lord
being nailed to the cross and you have legions of angels, they're
wanting to just wipe everybody out. They couldn't really comprehend
what all was going on. And the angels watched him as
he was raised from the dead. And can you imagine when he ascended
back into heaven, the glory that followed? and the angels were
so excited to have him come back. Here he comes. He's gone up back
into glory with a shout. God has gone up with a shout.
Look back at Psalm 24. Verse seven, lift up your heads, O
ye gates, And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the
King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The
Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your
heads, O ye gates, lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and
the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. And here the psalmist talks about
him going back up into heaven with a shout, God has gone up
with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Verse six,
sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises unto our king, sing
praises. Now, is there ever a time that
that's not the appropriate thing to do? There's never a time No matter
how dark it may appear, there's never a time when it's not appropriate
to sing praises unto God. You're sick and dying, sing praises
unto God. Everything's going well, sing
praises unto God. You've lost everything, sing
praises unto God. Now here's why. This life is
just so temporary. It's so temporary. And whatever
you go through here, Paul called it a light affliction. It's a light affliction. And
oh, the glory that awaits and he's to be praised just for who
he is. Sing praises. Look what he says
in in verse six. Sing praises to God. Sing praises.
Sing praises unto our king. Sing praises for God is the king
of all the earth. Sing ye praises with understanding.
That's so important. Sing ye praises with understanding.
You see, he hath given us an understanding. He's given it
to us. What was the good ground here? an understanding heart. He has
given us an understanding, and this understanding principally
is this, for God is the king of all the earth. We understand
that. Sing praises unto our God. God is the king of all the earth.
Sing praises with understanding. God reigneth over the heathen. Now that's what we have an understanding
of, God's reign. God's sovereignty. That's all sovereign means is
he reigns. Let's look at a few scriptures
with regard to this. Turn to Psalm 93. Now you think
of how he's saying, sing praises with understanding. You know, we understand that
he is other. Holy. Now does that mean we have
a complete intellectual grasp of any of these things? Of course
not. Of course not. But we understand that he is
God. We understand that he controls everything. We understand that
he is all wise, and everything he does, whether we can see it
or not, is always best. It's perfect. Whatever he does,
it's just right. We understand that everything
God requires of us, he looks to his son for. We have some
understanding of that. This is not ignorant worship.
This is worship with understanding. It comes from knowing who he
is. We put an emphasis of knowing
Him, but this is a more important emphasis, knowing who He is.
If you know who He is, you know Him. But the emphasis is, do
you know who He is? Sing these praises with understanding. Now look in Psalm 93. It says,
God reigneth over the heathen, God sitteth
upon the throne of his holiness. Psalm 93, the Lord reigneth. He is clothed with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength,
wherewith he hath girded himself. The world also is established
that it cannot be moved. Look in Psalm 96. Verse 10, say ye among the heathen, the
people that don't believe, tell them this, the Lord reigneth.
You know, the best thing a heathen can hear is that God reigns,
that they're in his hand, that it's up to him as to what's going
to happen to them. Say to the heathen, Somebody
says, well, that'll confuse them. They're already confused. Say
to the heathen, the Lord reigneth. We got a message, don't we? Psalm
97, one. The Lord reigneth. Let the earth
rejoice. It's something to make us happy.
The Lord reigns. Let the earth rejoice. Psalm 99, verse one. The Lord reigneth, let the people
tremble. He's to be feared. I mean, we
see his awesomeness in his reign, but we're afraid of him. We tremble
at the power of his person. Turn to Isaiah chapter 52 for
just a moment. Verse 7, how beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings. Just a note, feet. I heard a preacher just this
week, he was talking about, I was trying to read some messages
on Psalm 48, where count ye her bulwarks, it's what we're gonna
look at next week. And the preacher made the statement,
the bulwarks of the church are the preachers. Well, we're in trouble if that's
the case. We're in trouble if that's a feat. Feet all, I mean,
I know there's pretty feet and ugly feet, but the thing is,
you can't tell somebody by their feet. You look at their feet,
I know, no, just feet, just feet. Isaiah 52 verse seven, how beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,
that publishes peace, the peace of the gospel. that bringeth
good tidings of good, that publishes salvation, that saith unto Zion,
thy God reigneth. Now that's the message of gospel
preaching. Thy God reigneth. He is in absolute control. Now go back to Psalm 47. God reigneth over the heathen. I can't tell you the anxiety
I think of when I think of what's going on in the Ukraine right
now. It's just, I read everything I can about it. But what a blessing
it is to remember that God reigneth over the heathen. He's in control
of every one of these events. I mean, it breaks my heart to
see what's happening, but the Lord's in control, and whatever
he does is good. He reigns over the heathen. He's
in control of every world leader. He's in control of every insignificant
person. It doesn't matter what it is.
He reigns over the heathen and just because of that we can relax,
can't we? This God is our God and he reigns over the heathen. God sitteth. He's not pacing
back and forth. God sitteth upon the throne of
his holiness." Every attribute of God is holy. His wrath is a holy wrath. His justice is a holy justice. His power is a holy power. His love is a holy love. Every attribute of God, everything
he is pleased to make known is holy. What did the seraphims
cry as they flew round his throne? Holy, holy, holy. He sits on the throne, the absolute
dominion of his holiness. The princes of the people are
gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham. Now, notice
the people are called princes. All of God's people are princes. Isn't that what Israel means?
Remember when Jacob's name was changed to Israel? What does
it mean? As a prince, you have power with
God and have prevailed. Now what a statement with regard
to God's people. They're kings, they're princes.
They're princes, princes to God. Now it's because he's made them
that way. But I, you know, you, you may feel insignificant. You're a prince with God. As a prince with God, you have
power with God. He hears you. You have his ear. Through Christ, you have his
ear. And I'd encourage us to pray,
shouldn't it? Come, my soul, thy soup prepared. Jesus loves to answer prayer.
He himself has bid thee pray, and 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. He's the great king of all the
earth, The princes of the people are gathered together in his
church, even the people of the God of Abraham for the shields
of the earth belong unto God. Now that word shields it, you
know what a shield is, but it's also translated several times
in the Psalms defense, defense, the defense of God's people. I love what David said in Psalm
23 one. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall
not want. He's my defense. He makes me
to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still
waters, the waters of quietness, the waters of rest. He restores
my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil, for thou art
with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest the table for
me in the presence of my enemies. My cup runneth over, surely,
Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house
of the Lord forever. The shields of the earth belong
unto God. He is greatly exalted. And this I know about every one
of God's people with that exception. They have a high view of the
God of glory. And he is greatly exalted in
the hearts of every one of his people.