Would you turn to the 62nd Psalm? I mean, the 21st Psalm. The King shall joy in thy strength,
O Lord. And in thy salvation, how greatly
shall he rejoice. Thou has given him his heart's
desire and has not withholding the request of his lips. For thou preventest him, and
that word means you go before him, with the blessings of goodness. Thou settest a crown of pure
gold on his head. He asked life of thee, and thou
gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever. His glory is great in thy salvation. Honor and majesty has thou laid
upon him. For thou has made him most blessed
forever. Thou has made him exceeding glad
with thy countenance. For the king trusteth in the
Lord. And through the mercy of the
Most High, he shall not be moved. Thine hand shall find out all
thine enemies. Thy right hand shall find out
those that hate thee. Thou shalt make them as a fiery
oven in the time of thine anger. The Lord shall swallow them up
in his wrath. and the fire shall devour them,
their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed
from among the children of men, for they intended evil against
thee. They imagined a mischievous device
which they were not able to perform. Therefore shalt thou make them
turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon
thy strings against the face of them. Be thou exalted, Lord,
in thine own strength. So will we sing and praise thy
power. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that we might by your grace, by your spirit, see the King
exalted and may we be enabled to worship him. Lord, how thankful we are for
who you are. And we ask in the name of your
son, that you would be in our midst, that you would speak in
power to our hearts according to your will, for the glory of
thy name. Lord, we're so glad that you know what
we need. We don't know what we need other
than that we know we need thy son. But Lord, we pray that you
would give us each person here, according to your will, what
we need. Forgive us of our sins, cleanse
us, those that are going through difficult, difficult trials.
We pray that you would be especially near to them, saying to them,
I am my salvation. And Lord, we would pray for those
that are sick, those that are Needing you, the great physician,
your will be done. Be with all your people wherever
they meet together and Lord, accept our thanksgiving through
Christ. In his name we pray. Amen. Now I'm reading this glorious
psalm. It could truly be called the
psalm of Vicki. Not the psalm of a king like
David, but the psalm of the king of kings. And this truly is what
this psalm is about. The king, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now some of these things can be said of David, a king. The king, verse one, shall joy
in thy strength, O Lord, and in thy salvation, how greatly
shall he rejoice. Now David did, and so does every
other believer. Thou has given him his heart's
desire and is not withholding the request of his lips. Well,
the Lord has given every believer the desire of his heart. And
what's the desire of my heart that I might be found in Christ.
And that is the greatest desire of my heart that I would be found
in Christ. And he's given every believer
that desire. For thou go before him, verse
three, for thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness.
And you know, the Lord's gone before you and he's gone before
me. His hand was on me from the womb. And that's true of every believer.
It's called provenient grace, grace before grace. You know,
when you came into this world, the Lord knew you. Isn't that
a glorious thing to think about? He knew you and he knew thou
preventest him with the blessings of goodness. Thou set us a crown
of pure gold upon his head. Now, I think that's said of Christ.
David had a crown of some kind, but you know, we sing that song
of crown him with many crowns. And I love that song. But I always
feel a little bit uncomfortable with us crowning him. No, the
Father crowns him. And we sing that song, King of
my life, I crown thee now. I really cringe when I say, well,
human hymns, you know, the Lord crowns him with pure gold. I think it's interesting when
I was saying this, I could see everybody was Yeah, I feel that
way too, and I appreciate that. Verse four, he asked of thee
life, and thou gavest him even length of days for ever and ever.
Now David and you and I ask for life when we ask the Lord to
do something for us. Give us eternal life, give us
your life. His glory is great in thy salvation. Now that can only be said of
the Lord Jesus. His glory is great in thy salvation. Thou has laid honor and majesty
has thou laid upon him. For thou has made him most blessed
forever. Well, we're most blessed forever
in Christ, but this is speaking specifically of Christ. Thou
has made him exceeding glad with thy countenance. Well, isn't
it great when you, by his grace, see the Lord's favor toward you?
Not a frowning countenance, but a accepting countenance in the
gospel. And that is most blessed forever. Verse seven for the King trusteth
in the Lord. David did. And you and I do through
the mercy of the most high, he shall not be moved. Now this
can only be said of the King of Kings. We're going to come
back to this in a minute, but it says thy hand shall find out
all thine enemies. And David wasn't able to do that.
But the King of Kings is. Thy right hand shall find out
those that hate thee. Thou shalt make them as a fiery
oven in the time of thine anger. The Lord shall swallow them up
in his wrath and the fire shall devour them. Now that's obviously
speaking of the anger of the Lord. Their fruit, the fruit
of those that hate him, shalt thou destroy from the earth and
their seed from among the children of men. And here's why. They
intended evil against thee. They imagined. mischievous device
which they were not able to perform. Now, men wouldn't put Christ
completely out of business, didn't they? They imagined a mischievous
device. They had a particular desire,
but they weren't able to perform what they wanted. Therefore shalt
thou make them turn their back when thou shalt make them ready
against arrows upon us by strings against the face of the amendment
david and would be doubt salted lord and i don't strange so we
sing and praise our power now like i said we can see where
some of these things can be said with regard to david and me and
you but i really believe that this is holy about the king and
we're going to read it as such the king The King. Shall joy in thy strength, O
Lord, and in thy salvation, how greatly shall he rejoice. Now, why is that? Because God
is glorified in his salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ is glorified. in his salvation. And how greatly
does he rejoice in that, that salvation, which is all of grace. And look what it says in verse
two. This is said of the king of kings. Thou has given him
his heart's desire and has not withholding the request of his
lips." Now, think of that in light of the Lord's great high
priestly prayer for his people. Father, the hour is come. glorify thy son, that thy son
also might glorify thee. That is his request, to glorify
his father. And then he said, thou has given
him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou has given him. Now, this is his request, the
glory of his father and life for all those the father gave
him. Now, when he prayed this prayer,
he was praying for me. It wasn't generic. He was praying for me. He was
praying for the glory of God and life for all of his people,
including me and every other Believer. Verse three, for thou
preventest him with the blessings of goodness. You go before him
with the blessings of your goodness, and thou settest a crown of pure
gold on his head. I love that passage in Revelation
where he said on his head were many crowns, and Menu didn't
put those crowns on his head. His Holy Father crowned Him. Thou hast set a crown of pure
gold on His head. And you know when Scripture speaks
of pure gold, it's speaking of that which represents the absolute
deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou hast set a crown of pure
deity, a pure Godhead. God the Father says to God the
Son, thy throne, O God, is forever. Verse four, he asked life of
thee, and thou gavest it him even length of days forevermore. Now he who has life in himself
died. And he asked life of thee, and
thou gave it to him. Now, I don't have any doubt that
this is more than anything else a reference to his resurrection.
He asked life of thee. He died. Is there anything more
mysterious than that? That the God-man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, died? That's something that I... You
know, we believe it, but how can the God-man die? But he did. He did. The God-man died. He was made sin, and he died,
and he asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him. Length of days forevermore. Wherefore he is able to save
them to the uttermost, those that come to God by him, seeing
he ever liveth. He ever liveth to make intercession
for them. You know, it's interesting how
in, a lot of times you find out a lot about a family when somebody
dies and all the contesting for the wills. I should get this,
so and so should get that. But he ever liveth, nobody's
able to contest his will. He's alive to make sure his will
is carried out. and every one of his people shall
be saved. His father shall be completely
glorified. Verse five, his glory is great
in thy salvation. Can that be said of anyone but
the Lord Jesus Christ? Now I realize he says the glory
thou gave us me, I've given them. And so I guess we could put ourself
in that sense. But I have no doubt that he's
talking about the Lord of Glory, the Lord Jesus Christ. His glory
is great in our salvation. Now you think about how much
glory does Jesus Christ, the Lord, get in your salvation? How much? Can you say from the
depths of your heart? He gets all of it. Can you say
with David in Psalm 115, not unto us? Not unto us, O Lord, but unto
thy name give glory, for thy mercy and thy truth's sake. I
love that scripture in Psalm 29. In his temple, that means
in his body, in his church, does everyone speak of his glory. Now, this is where every believer
is united. He gets all the glory and salvation. And how great His glory is. You know, one of my favorite
scriptures, I guess I quote it at least once a week. He by Himself
purchased our sins. You know what that means? It
means you didn't have anything to do with it. He did this by Himself. And surely His glory is great
in thy salvation. Honor and majesty has thou laid
upon him. Now this couldn't be said of
any other son of Adam. Verse six, for thou has made
him most blessed forever. Doesn't that rejoice your heart
that Christ Jesus, my Redeemer, God has made him most blessed
forever. He's the blessed one and we're
blessed in him. Thou has made him most blessed
forever. Thou has made him exceeding glad with thy countenance. Now,
I once again think that that's a reference to the fact that
at one time, he didn't have the light of God's countenance. He
had nothing but his awful frown and his anger. But weeping may
endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. And he once again
had the full light of his father's countenance. God said, in a little
wrath I hid my face. You remember that passage in
Isaiah? Now that doesn't mean God's wrath is ever little, but
it's talking about the temporary wrath of God toward His Son.
It was full and complete, but it didn't last because He put
away sin. And He once again had the full
favor and the glorious countenance of His God. Verse 7, for the
king trusteth in the Lord. You know, there's no faith like
the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our faith is so sketchy. And you know that, so there's
always, I believe, help thou mine unbelief with regard to
me and you. But even when Christ was on the
cross, completely forsaken by his father, he trusted him completely. Though he slay me. Now, me and
you can't say that. Anything goes wrong, we're calling
into question everything about him. But he said, though he slay
me, yet will I trust him. There's no faith like the faith
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through the mercy of the Most
High, he shall not be moved. And that's why we won't be moved.
He shall not be moved. Now look what verse eight says.
Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies. Thy right hand
shall find out those that hate thee. The fact of the matter is, me
and you, Here's where our problem is. We have been guilty of hating
Christ. Hating God. Now somebody says,
I've never hated God. Yeah, you have. Yeah, you have. And men's hatred for the living
God is not exposed until they hear who God is. and how he's
absolutely sovereign and you're in his hands. I can remember
the first time I was made to deal with this thing of election.
I can remember this. And this is really what I think
the Lord used to show me how sinful I was when I heard that
God elected a people and I might not be one of them. And there's
nothing that I could do to make myself one of them. You know
what I saw rise up in my heart? hatred for God. This is not right. This is not fair. How can he
do that? And that is what exposed to me.
That's what the Lord used to expose to me that my problem
was not as in a man, you say I've stolen a watermelon. My
problem was that I had been guilty of hating the living God, and
sitting in judgment of God, and finding fault with God. And that's
the description of these people, those that hate God. Now that's
just the truth. The wicked are estranged from
the womb, the scripture says. They go about as soon as they
be born, speaking lies. Every natural man, that's sad,
isn't it? He's so glorious. He's so altogether
lovely that yet we were born into this world hating him. And the scripture here says,
thine hand shall find out all those thine enemies, thy right
hand shall find out those that hate thee. Now look what verse
nine says. Thou shalt make them as a fiery
oven in the time of thine anger. The Lord shall swallow them up
in his wrath and the fire shall devour them. Now this speaks
of hell. There isn't anything that I have
more difficulty thinking about than hell. I mean, of all the
things in the scripture, that's always been the thing that's
just, you know, it's troubling to think of somebody burning
eternally in hell under the wrath of God. Sure, that's a troubling
thing to think about. But the reason we have trouble
with that is because we don't think of things from the Lord's
perspective. That's the only reason we have trouble with that.
We think of things from man's perspective rather than the Lord's
perspective. Now, I want you to think just
for a moment. We have been guilty, me and you,
We've been guilty of murdering God's son. Now, whether or not you believe
that, it's so. It's so. You might not have been
there when it happened, but you were in Adam, you were in them. If somebody murdered your child,
could they ever make up for it? Could they ever say, well, here's
$10 million, or here's $100 million, or here's... You'd never be satisfied. You'd never be satisfied. That's
why hell is eternal. But not only that, unless we
start feeling sorry for those people in hell, which right now
we do, but remember this, in hell, there's absolutely no reform. Those people in hell still hate
God. And I think of that scripture,
even after they were scorched with heat, they repented not
to give God the glory. Revelation chapter 16, men, even
in hell, still hate God and hate Jesus Christ and there's no reform. Now, when Paul said, if any man
loved not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, maranatha,
let him be damned upon the return of the Lord. Was Paul saying
that from an unloving heart and an unfeeling heart and an uncaring
heart? Of course he wasn't. If any man doesn't love Jesus
Christ, you know what? He ought to spend eternity in
hell. He ought to. The glorious Lord
Jesus Christ, now this is speaking of his wrath. Thou shalt make
them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger. The Lord shall
swallow them up in his wrath and the fire shall devour them.
Their fruit, their doings, shalt thou destroy from the earth and
their seed from among the children of men. And here's why, look
at verse 11. You know, it's more what you intend to
do than what you do that he sees. Don't miss that. for they intended
evil against thee." Now, everybody intended. Remember, when these
men nailed Christ to the cross, they intended evil. You were in them. Your intention
You would, this is the way we're all by nature, every one of us,
if it were in our power, we'd put God out of business and put
ourselves on the throne. We don't like the way he does
things. We would rather it be us. That's our intentions. That's
our intentions. That's what God holds every one
of us responsible for. They intended evil against they. They imagined a mischievous device. We can get rid of him, which
they were not able to perform. Now they might have intended
evil, but God rules. God reigns. God's in complete
control. And they were not able to bring
forth their mischievous vice. As a matter of fact, God controlled
what they were doing in such a way as to glorify himself,
to save all of his people, He rules. He is God. Although they intended this,
and remember the Lord looks, He sees what we intend to do.
You know, we can't do what we want to do, but He sees the heart. He sees the intentions. And they
intended evil against thee. They imagined a mischievous device,
which they were not able to perform. Therefore, verse 12, Therefore,
shalt thou make them turn their back when thou shalt make ready
thine arrows upon my strings against the face of them. Now, in light of all this, be thou
exalted, Lord, in thine own strength. So will we sing and praise thy
power. Now this, what I'm gonna talk
about, close this up with. This is something you and I cannot
understand right now. Can't understand this right now.
But one of these days, if we see God, and we will, cast men
and women into hell, we'll praise him for it. Let me show you that
in the scripture. Turn to Revelation 19. You know, when somebody is cast
into hell. They're going to hear the applaud
for God for casting that person into hell. Because of his justice,
his glorious righteousness. Now look in Revelation 19. After
these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven
saying, Alleluia, salvation and glory and honor and power unto
the Lord our God, for true and righteous are His judgments. For he hath judged the great
whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and
hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again
they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up. Forever and ever, and the four
and 20 elders and the four beasts fell down and worshiped God that
sat on the throne saying, amen, hallelujah. And a voice came
out from the throne saying, praise our God, all ye his servants,
and ye that fear him, both small and great. And I heard as it
were the voice of a great multitude And as the voice of many waters
and as the voice of mighty thundering saying, hallelujah, for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth. Now that is the response of the
church at that time. Now, until then. I read this,
I believe it, I agree, but the thought of hell terrifies me.
The thought of hell, somebody going to hell, the thought of
me going to hell terrifies me. The thought of somebody else
going to hell terrifies me. I'm still got this thing called
the flesh. But one of these days, that will
be no more, and I'll see everything from God's perspective, which
is the only right perspective. And I'll say hallelujah to all
that he does, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Isn't that a glorious
psalm? The psalm of the king. And I, you know, I can't help
but think this is so interesting, the timing of this. This is all
about the king of kings. And what's the next psalm? The
psalm of the cross. Preeminently the psalm of the
cross, Psalm 22. And this is letting us know it's
the king that's hanging on the cross.