Good evening, everyone. It's
so good to be here. It's so good to see you. I'm
truly grateful to Brother Eric for inviting me, and thankful
to Abby for doing all the work. We men make decisions, and our
wives then do all the work to make it happen. And really, it's
a real honor. So thank you. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
6, if you would. Matthew chapter 6. Our text tonight
is going to be Psalm 117, but I just want to Say a couple things before we
look at it. There is something very special
about simplicity. There's something very, very
special about simplicity. I like simplicity. I believe it's easier to get
to the heart of the matter when you're dealing with something
in simplicity. Just how simple can you make
it? How basically clear can you possibly
make it? The first time that I really
took note of Psalm 117, I was immediately struck by the heartfelt
sincerity of its simplicity. It's simplicity. And I immediately
thought of Zechariah 4 verse 10, which says, who hath despised
the day of small things? Don't despise small things. There can be great glory in them. Just because something is great
to us, that doesn't mean it's great to God. And that made me think of this
verse, thinking of just because something's great to us, that
doesn't mean it's great to God. That made me think of this verse
here in Matthew 6, verse 7. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, but
when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think
that they shall be heard for their much speaking. He said they think that just
because their prayers are long, you know, how long can I pray?
They think that just because their prayers are long that their
prayers are great and God will hear them because of that. But he said that's not so. That's
just not so. And that made me think of this.
Turn with me over to Matthew 14. Matthew 14 verse 25 says, And in the fourth watch of the
night, Jesus went unto them walking on the sea. And when the disciples
saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is
a spirit. And they cried out for fear.
But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer,
it is I, be not afraid. And Peter answered him, and said,
Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he
said, Come. And when Peter was come down
out of the ship, he walked on the water. Can you imagine when
he, that first step? He walked on the water to go
to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous,
he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried, saying." Now
this was his prayer, all right? This was his prayer. Now our
Lord said they think they're gonna be heard because of their
much speaking. But this was Peter's prayer right here. Lord, save
me. Three words. Have you ever, have
you ever jumped into a swimming pool before? Or a lake? You know how long it takes for
the water to go from the bottom of your foot to the top of your
head? I don't believe for one minute Peter cried, Lord, save
me. Lord, save me! Me could have
been a little gurgling. He may not have had time to get
it out. He may not have had time to get the words out. This may
have only been in his heart. Three words. Lord. Lord. There was an object there. You. It has to be you. Lord, save, I'm in trouble. I'm a sinner who needs to be
saved. I'm going down, I'm in trouble.
Your name is Savior. Call your name Jesus because
you will save. Lord, save me. Me. I pray it's me. Don't just save
sinners, save me. Don't just save your elect, save
me. Lord, include me, the chief of
sinners. There's heart in that simple
little prayer. Lord, save me. Verse 31 says,
and immediately. Jesus stretched forth His hand
and caught him. Boom. That means that simple little
prayer was a fervent, effectual prayer. Lord, save me. He was saved. Now, I believe you'll immediately
see why I was caused to dwell on the beauty and the glory and
the simplicity. A simple truth, a simple gospel
of good news, a simple communication to God. I believe you'll immediately
notice why all of that came to me as soon as we take a good
look here at Psalm 117. Turn with me over to Psalm 117. Let's begin reading in verse
one. And like our brother did, we're
gonna read all the way down to the end of the Psalm. We're gonna
read the whole thing, the whole chapter here. Two verses. These are two glorious verses.
Verse one, it says, oh, praise the Lord. All ye nations, praise
him, all ye people, for his merciful kindness is great toward us. And the truth of the Lord endureth
forever. Praise ye the Lord. Enough said. Enough said. Amen. Whatever we're called on to do
in the manner of praising and worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ,
whether it's preaching or praying or whatever it is, let's remember,
it's not the length of it. It's not the length of it at
all. It's the love in it. It's not the eloquence. It's
the sincerity. It's not a head matter to man. It's a heart matter to God. It's
a true heart matter to God. And David right here said three
things in this psalm. He said three things. He said,
number one, praise him. Number two, praise him. And number three,
praise him. Well, you're kind of a one trick
pony there, aren't you, David? Is that your whole message? I
mean, beginning, middle and end, that's the whole thing. You're just harping on, aren't
you a harp player? You're just harping on the same
note there, aren't you? I love the story that Brother
Darwin Pruitt tells of that old man sitting there playing the
guitar. And he's sitting there playing,
you know a guitar has six strings. He's sitting there playing one
string with one finger on one fret. over and over again. And a young
man walks up to him and says, sir, is that the only note you're
going to play? And he said, yep. The young man said, well, wouldn't
you like to learn some other notes and move around a little
bit? The man said, nope. The young man said, why not? The old man said, you fellas
who move all the way up and down the neck, y'all are looking for
the note. I found it. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Aren't you going to do something
else? Aren't you going to say something
else? What about this ism and schism?
Don't you want to run over there for a while? No. David found it. He found it. Brother David Edmondson tells
the story of an auction that he went to a few years ago, and
they were auctioning off all kinds of different items. And
while one man was calling the auction, you know, give me five,
give me 10, whatever. Another man was displaying the
item, whatever it is they were auctioning off. You had one man
calling and another man was displaying the item and showing everybody
what it does and all that. One of the items that came up
was an old dinner bell that came off of a farm, an old farm. They had this bell. the guy that was displaying the
dinner bell started ringing it, you know, up for the next auction
as we have this dinner bell. And so the guy started ringing
it, and David said at first it was intriguing, it was interesting
to hear him ring that bell. And the guy kept on ringing it. And he just kept on ringing it.
The whole time the auctioneer was calling the auction, the
guy just wouldn't stop ringing it. And David said it started
to get on his nerves and it started to hurt his ears and he was thinking,
won't you just please stop? And he said later on he got to
thinking about it and he thought, that bell was so annoying to
me. And he thought, I would imagine
that bell was annoying to a lot more people around me. But he
said, I thought, do you know who would not be annoyed by that
bell? a farmhand who had been out there working all day long,
sweating all day long, hot, tired, waiting to hear that bell, needing
to hear that bell, longing to hear that bell. The sound of
that bell to that soul said, come and dine. It's coming down. It's time to
rest. All things are made ready. That soul cries, ring it over
and over again. Ring it over and over again.
And the weary soul who's longing for Christ, really, waiting for
Christ, needing Christ, cries, sing it over and over. Sing it over again to me. Wonderful
words of life. Preach it over and over again. Glorify Him. Glorify Him. Glorify Him. Thank Him. Thank Him. Thank Him. Praise Him. Praise Him. Praise Him. Verse 1 right here
says, Oh, praise the Lord, all ye nations. Praise Him, all ye
people. For His merciful kindness is
great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endureth forever.
Praise ye the Lord. Praise Him. Praise Him. Praise Him. And David tells us right here
exactly why we praise him. Verse two says, for his merciful
kindness is great toward us. And the truth of the Lord endureth
forever. Now, because this psalm is so
small, I looked up all of these words in a concordance. And I
want to give you their definitions because it will more clearly
explain what David is saying right here. Verse 1 says, Oh,
praise the Lord. The Hebrew word for that is Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. But praise means
shine the light on. It means boast of. Celebrate. command glory in the Lord. That means God, Jehovah,
Father, Son, and Spirit. That name means the existing
one, the self-existing one. Praise Him, celebrate Him, shine
the light on Him, acknowledge Him. Well, who, David, who should
do that? Who are you talking to? Who are you saying that to? He said, all ye nations. Praise him, all ye people. Does it really register with
us that we're Gentiles? You know, we like, those who
are believers like to think of themselves as spiritual Israel. Does it really register with
us that we're Gentiles? Aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel. Strangers from the covenants
of promise. In the flesh having no hope and
without God in the world. But God who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us. Oh, how merciful. Even when we were dead in sins,
He quickened us together with Christ. And by grace, we're saved. That's how it is for us Gentiles.
But that's how it is for the Jews, too. They're not all Israel,
which are of Israel. But God had mercy on some. He
didn't have to. He didn't have to save anybody.
He didn't owe it to anybody. But in His merciful kindness,
He chose to save some people out of every tribe, nation, kindred,
and tongue on this earth. And that's why everybody, every
nation and every people ought to praise the Lord. Praise the
Lord. Verse 2 says, For His merciful
kindness is great toward us. Merciful means Compassion. Mercy is compassion. It means
pity. Kindness means grace, goodness,
faithfulness, favor. I love this one. It means beauty. Love. His mercy and grace, His
compassion and goodness, His pity and faithfulness, the beauty
of His favor, the beauty of His love is great toward us. It's great toward us. In that word we see the glory
of the gospel right there. I almost didn't look up the word
great. I thought I know what that one means. But I looked
it up anyway and I'm so glad I did. Great means has prevailed. His mercy has prevailed. His grace has prevailed. His compassion, His pity has
prevailed. His goodness, His faithfulness,
His love has prevailed toward us. Toward us. Where did all of that
prevail toward us? On the cross of Calvary. On the
cross of Calvary. The cross of Christ our Lord
and our God, His mercy prevailed, His grace prevailed, His faithfulness
prevailed toward us, toward the usward. Every chosen soul that God the
Father gave to Christ. Every chosen vessel of that mercy. Every chosen recipient of that
grace. The beauty of the sacrifice of
His love for them. The sacrifice of His body. The
sacrifice of His blood. The sacrifice of Himself. That sacrifice was great. It prevailed. He prevailed for us in putting
away our sin forever. Don't you love when the children
of Israel were leaving Egypt and the Egyptians were following
them and they were hemmed up at the Red Sea and they were
so scared, we're going to die. We've sinned against them and
now vengeance is coming to us. What in the world are we going
to do? And the Spirit of God laid it on Moses' heart. To say,
stand still and watch the salvation of the Lord. See the salvation
of the Lord. The Lord shall fight for you
and you're going to hold your peace. Watch Him prevail. You just stand there. Watch Him
win. Did He? Yes, He did. It was great. It was great. The Lord is great. He prevailed for us in putting
away our sin forever. Does that ever get a hold of
you? We've heard that so many times. We grow cold to it. We
grow numb to it. We accept that as we accept 2
plus 2 equals 4. That's the truth. Amen, brother.
2 plus 2 is 4. Christ put away our sins on the
cross by His blood. Yep, that's right. Does it ever
really get a hold of you? You ever have moments, like I
do, where you have to really admit, okay, I actually am a
sinner? You can buy a nice suit, you know, try to shave and clean
up and fool, we can try to fool each other, but does it ever
really reach you, I really am a sinner? You ever wish you could go back
and undo some things? You know Jesus Christ did. Here,
I'm going to undo that. He prevailed. He prevailed. Verse 2 says, His merciful kindness
is great toward us. And the truth of the Lord endureth
forever. The truth means the certainty.
It means the stability of the Lord, Jehovah, the existing one. He is the truth. Christ is the
truth. And His truth endureth. That means it stands firm forever. I love what the definition
of that is. Time out of mind. You want to
know what forever is? Time out of mind. Everything
we do is based on time. Because death's coming. There's
a time countdown. Whatever you're going to do,
you better do it. Death's coming. You know what eternity is? You
know what forever is? Time out of mind. Our Lord said, I wasn't just
in the beginning, I am the beginning. I am the end. Eternity. In Christ, in His blood,
in His sacrifice, in His gift, His merciful kindness is great
toward us. And in Christ, the truth of the
Lord endureth forever. His truth, the truth of His word,
the truth of this promise. The truth that he confirms in
the hearts of all of his people that says, I believe that, I
believe him. He said it, I believe him. It
will stand firm forever. There's only one response to
that. Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. I don't ever
get tired of hearing that. Praise ye the Lord. God's people
don't ever get tired of hearing that and they don't ever get
tired of saying that. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let His people rejoice. Oh, come
to the Father through Jesus Christ the Son and give Him the glory.
Great things He had done. Amen. Thank you, brother.