Turn with me to Psalm 150. 150th Psalm. It's the last of the Psalms. Beginning with verse one. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God
in His sanctuary. Praise Him in the firmament of
His power. Praise Him for His mighty acts. Praise Him according to His excellent
greatness. Praise Him with the sound of
the trumpet. Praise Him with the psaltery
and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and
dance. Praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise
him upon the loud cymbals. Praise him upon the high-sounding
cymbals. Let everything that hath breath
praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Thirteen times In this short
chapter, we read this, praise the Lord. Some of the old writers, they
say this is associated with what they called 13 properties or
13 perfections of the Lord. Back in the book of Exodus, after
God had given Moses the 10 commandments, And Moses took him to the people.
Remember that? He came down off the mountain.
And when he came down off that mountain, the people had been
taken up with false gods. You know, just a short time had
passed. And here he comes down off the
mountain and he finds them worshiping false gods. He finds them in
idolatry. Here they were, naked, dancing
around a golden calf. Remember that? And Moses, he
asked him, he said, where did this golden calf come from? And
Aaron answered. This just sounds like us when
we're in trouble. This just sounds like us when
we've got the goods on us. Somebody's got the goods on us.
Aaron answered and he said, well, we had a fire and we asked the
people if they had any gold and they brought the gold and we
threw it in the fire and out came this golden calf. Isn't that kind of a ridiculous
explanation of what had happened? And when Moses saw all this foolishness,
he cast those two tablets down and he broke them. But then he
proceeded to intercede for the people. Turn to Exodus 32. Hold your
place there in Psalm 150, but turn to Exodus 32. Exodus 32, look at verse 30. Verse 30, it came to pass on
the morrow that Moses said unto the people, he said, you've sinned,
you've sinned a great sin. And now I'll go up to the Lord,
prepare adventure, I shall make an atonement for your sin. And Moses returned unto the Lord,
and he said, O this people have sinned a great sin, and they've
made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive
their sin, and if not, blot me out, I pray thee, out of thy
book which thou hast written." What love Moses must have had
for those people. He said, forgive them, and if
not, blot me out out of thy book which was written. And the Lord
said unto Moses, whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I
blot out of my book. There's a consequence for sin. I think that's something that's
missing in modern day. There's a consequence for sin.
Sin is going to be punished. Therefore now, verse 35, go,
lead thy people unto the place of which I've spoken unto thee.
Behold, mine angels shall go before thee. Nevertheless, in
the day when I visit, I'll visit their sin upon them, and the
Lord plague the people. because they made the calf which
Aaron made." Now again, the people had sinned and Moses went to
intercede for them and the Lord would later have Moses hew two
more tables of stone and go up to Mount Sinai and it was there
that the Lord would proclaim something of who he is. And within
this proclamation are these 13 perfections, these 13 attributes
that describe the Lord. Look at Exodus, you're close
to it there, Exodus 34 verse 6. Listen to what he says here.
He says, the Lord. That's the first one. The Lord God. And he goes on,
merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness, abundant
in truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, forgiving
transgression, forgiving sin, and that will by no means clear
the guilty. visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children and upon the children's children
and to the third and to the fourth generation. Now some say that's
why David here in Psalm 150 praises the Lord 13 times, once for each
one of those attributes. Others say that this number 13,
that it represents victory. Think about that. When the children
of Israel marched around Jericho, for the first six days, they
were to walk, they were to go around it one time, one time
a day. And then on the seventh day,
they marched around it seven times, a total of 13 days. And when that happened, what
was the result? Remember that? The walls of that
city collapsed. Joshua 6, let me just read this
for you, Joshua 6, verse 16 and 17. It came to pass at the seventh
time when the priests blew the trumpet, Joshua said unto the
people, shout, for the Lord hath given you the city, and the city
shall be accursed, even it and all that's therein to the Lord,
but only Rahab. Only Rahab the harlot shall live. She and all that are within her
house, because she hid the messengers that were sent. That scarlet
cord hanging from the window, Rahab was delivered. That scarlet
cord that pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now again, 13 times
around that city, victory. God gave victory over the enemy.
Thirteen times around that city, we see deliverance. God delivered
Rahab the harlot and her family. Now back to our text, turn back
to Psalm 150. It could be real easy for us
to get caught up in numbers, couldn't it? What this means
and what that means. You know, 13, I know this for
sure. I don't know about those other
things, but these 13 things I know for sure. David praised the Lord
13 times. Maybe it was just his intense
desire to do just that, to praise him. To praise the Lord who is
worthy of all praise. To praise Him who should always,
at all times, be praised. It's good. It's good to give
thanks. It's good to praise the Lord. Well, let's look at this passage
just for a few minutes here this evening, beginning with verse
1. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God
in His sanctuary. Praise Him. in the firmament
of His power. Praise Him in the sanctuary.
That's in the temple. Praise Him in the temple. But
you know that can also be translated in His Holy One. Who is His Holy One? There's
just one, isn't there? That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Holy One. He's the Holy
One of Israel. That one who was made flesh and
dwelt among his people. Praise the Lord. Praise Him in
Christ. Praise ye the Lord. Praise Him
in the firmament of His power. That which is the work of His
power. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. The sun, the moon, the stars,
all that's therein. It's all the work of His hand.
What are we reading here? Praise Him in all places. It
all declares His glory. It all declares who He is. The
heavens, that's what scripture says, the heavens declare the
glory of God. And the firmament showeth His
handiwork. Go outside on any clear night
and just look up to the skies. Everything is just right where
it's always been, right where the Lord put it, and He sustains
it all these many years. It's the work of His hand. Well,
verse 1, where do we praise Him? Praise Him in the sanctuary.
Praise Him in the firmament. Praise Him in all places. There shouldn't be anywhere we
go that we cannot praise the Lord. Psalm 150 verse 2. Praise Him, it says, for His
mighty acts. Praise Him according to His excellent
greatness. Here we read why, why we're to
praise Him. Praise Him for His mighty acts. Consider His mighty acts. We
just spoke about one of them, His mighty acts in creation.
God created the heavens and the earth. That's a mighty act, isn't
it? Turn with me to John chapter
1. Hold your place there in Psalm
and turn to John chapter 1. John 1 verse 3, all things, great and small,
all things were made by Him. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. The whole creation is ascribed
to Him. He said all things, all things. He is before all things. He's
eternal. He's the originator and creator
of all things. He's omnipotent. Consider His
mighty acts in creation. Consider His mighty acts in providence,
in all things, big and small, what we call good, what we call
bad, that which we enjoy, that which we do not enjoy. In Acts
21, turn to Acts 21, Acts 21. Look at verse 27 of Acts 21. And when seven days were almost
ended, the Jews, which are of Asia, when they saw him in the
temple, they saw Paul, They're talking about Paul here. They
saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people and laid hands
on him, crying out, men of Israel help this man that teaches all
men everywhere against the people and the law and this place and
further brought Greeks also into the temple and hath polluted
this place. For they had seen him before
in the city of Trophimus and Ephesian, whom they supposed
that Paul had brought into the temple. And all the city was
moved, and the people ran together, listen to this, and they took
Paul. And they drew him out of the
temple, and forthwith the doors were shut." They just ran in,
grabbed him, drug him out, and shut the doors. You know men by nature hate the
gospel. They hate the gospel, they hate
his people, they hate his messengers. Why would they do this to this
man? And as they went about, look
at their intent here in verse 31, as they went about to kill
him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all
of Jerusalem was in an uproar. And immediately he took soldiers
and centurions and ran down to them. And when these people that
were trying to kill Paul saw the chief captain and the soldiers,
they left. They stopped beating Paul. And
the chief captain came there and took him and commanded him
to be bound with two chains, demanded who he was and what
he had done. What is that? What's going on
in there? That's God's providence. Some would look at this, I guess
at the beginning of the story, and they'd say, Paul wasn't very
lucky. And then they'd say, well, Paul was lucky. Listen, Paul
was delivered. He was delivered by God's providence. Back in the Old Testament, David,
Remember David was walking through that town and a man named Shimei
came out and he started cursing David, cursing the king. And David's
servant Abishai was ready to take that man's head off. He
would have slew him. You don't curse the king. You
don't come at the king that way. What did David say? Let him alone. Let him alone, and let him curse,
for the Lord hath bidden him." The Lord sent him to curse me.
Listen, Scripture says this, that he doeth, God doeth all
things after the counsel of his own will. All things are of God. And of all those things, listen,
he doeth all things well. Praise Him. Praise Him for His
mighty acts in providence. Consider His mighty acts in redemption,
particular redemption, full redemption, plenteous redemption. Do you
know that you were bought with a price? What was that price? Was it silver? Was it gold? Was it vain tradition of your
father's? What was the price? What was the price that had to
be paid? The precious blood of Jesus Christ. The precious blood of the Son
of God. I was thinking about this. After the service, Lord willing,
Abby and I will drive to Kroger. and we'll pull into the lot,
and we'll park, and there'll be a fella bring out some groceries
to us. And he'll ask me my name, and
I'll tell him, and he'll load them up in the back of the truck,
and we'll take them home. How is that? Well, they're mine,
right? I've already paid for them. He's
put them in the truck. Well, how is that? How is that? Listen, we determined what we
needed. And we said, that's what we want. That's mine. I paid the price
for it. Simple thing, like a bag of potato
chips, right? I paid for it. It's mine. And
I'll take it home with me. Think about this. Nobody would
argue with that, would they? Would anybody argue if I said,
I picked out those potato chips, I paid for them, they're mine,
I'm going to take them home with me? Nobody would question that,
would they? Almighty God chose a people. And he said, they're
mine. And there was a price to be paid
for that people. And he paid it. The Lord Jesus
Christ paid it in full. We sing that hymn, Jesus paid
it all, all the debt I owe. When the fullness of the time
was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under
the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. Am I His? Did He pay the debt
for me? What Scripture says. That's a mighty act, isn't it?
The full redemption of His people, the particular redemption of
His people, plenteous redemption, sure redemption. Scripture declares
this, He shall Redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Praise
him. Praise him for his mighty acts
in creation. Praise him for his mighty acts
in providence. Praise him for his mighty acts
in redeeming his people. Read on there in Psalm 150. It
says, praise him for his excellent greatness. If you look back a
few chapters in Psalm 145, you'll read this. Great is the Lord,
and greatly to be praised. And His greatness, how great
is it? It's unsearchable. His greatness
is unsearchable. Well, Psalm 150, verse four. These next few verses declare
how. How we're to praise Him. Praise
him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise him with sultry in heart. We begin our service with a prelude. Mike or Dave or Brady or Dave,
they play a prelude. That's a pretty big word. I looked it up. It's an introduction.
But it's a little more than an introduction. to something more important. What is it that is of such great
importance? The worship service, the preaching
of God's word. You know, when we hear that music,
that prelude, we know that we're called together to worship. It's
time for the worship service to begin. The sound of the trumpet here
was that which was called, it was used to call the assembly
together to worship. A call to worship. Isn't that
a joyful sound? Isn't that a joyful time? A time
of worship? Praise Him for, listen, enabling
us to gather together. Praise Him for giving us a place
to gather together. Praise Him for a spirit of worship. Praise Him for blessing us with
His presence. He said, where two or three are
gathered in my name, There am I in the midst of them." Isn't that why we gather together? It pleased God. It pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. We've come into this house. We've
gathered in His name. For what reason? To worship Him. to worship Christ the Lord. Praise Him with the harp and
psaltery. All of these were instruments used in worship. Well, look at
Psalm 150, look at verse 5. Praise Him with loud cymbals. Praise Him upon the high-sounding
cymbals. Symbols are sometimes associated
with an annoying sound. I can remember watching kids
sneak up behind, like another group of kids, and taking those
symbols and just bashing them together to make them just kind
of jump out of their shoes. Maybe to try to frighten someone.
Symbols are sometimes used to drown out somebody that's talking.
You ever see that? Like somebody trying to tell
something, they'll just sit there and just beat on the symbols.
Well, that's not these symbols. That's not what we're talking
about here. These are well-sounding symbols. These are symbols which
make a grateful sound. The symbols of shouting. You
know, those were reserved for a joyful occasion. Think about a few of these joyful
occasions. A victory. That's a joyous occasion,
isn't it? Deliverance. That's a joyful
occasion. Salvation. Oh, what a joyful
occasion. In Psalm 32.7, the psalmist wrote
this. Thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with
songs of deliverance." Spurgeon wrote this. He said, what a golden
sentence. The man is encircled in song. He's surrounded by dancing mercies,
all of them proclaiming the triumphs of His grace. Oh, a song of victory,
a song of deliverance, a song of salvation. You know, after
the children of Israel passed through the Red Sea, after the
Lord brought them through the Red Sea, they sang, listen to
this song, the Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my
salvation. He is my God, I will prepare
Him a habitation, my Father's God, and I will exalt Him. Who was that song about? Sure
wasn't about the children of Israel, was it? Wasn't about
the Egyptians. The Lord is my strength and my
song. He, He alone has become my salvation. In Revelations 19, John said,
I heard a great voice of much people in heaven saying, hallelujah,
salvation and glory and honor belongeth to the Lord our God. Hallelujah. What's that mean?
Praise the Lord. Where do we praise him? In all
places. Why do we praise Him for His
mighty acts? His mighty acts in creation,
His mighty acts in providence, His mighty acts in redemption. How do we praise Him? The trumpet,
the cymbal, stringed instruments. How do we praise Him? With all
that's within us. Psalm 150 verse 6. Who? Here's the last question. Who
is to praise Him? You have verse six. Let everything
that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Everything
that hath breath. In creation, listen to this.
The Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground and he
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And when he did
that, he went from being a pile of dirt to a living soul. Job wrote this, he said, in whose
hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. And again in Job it said, the
Spirit, God, hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath
given me life. Just take a breath. Just do that. Take a breath. And I ask you,
who gave it to you? Who gave you that breath? There's lots of reasons to praise
him, isn't there? Take a breath. Oh, take a deep
breath. Where'd that come from? Almighty
God. And we can't take one breath
without him. In one time in my life, I've
experienced the inability to breathe. That's frightening. God gives us breath. If you breathe,
I can assure you of this, God gave it to you. That breath is
in his hands. We are in his hands. In Acts 17, 24, God that made
the world and all things therein, seeing that the Lord is heaven
of earth, he dwells not in temples made with hands, neither is he
worshiped with men's hands. As though he needed anything,
seeth he giveth to all, life and breath and all things. It's all of him. Let everything
that hath breath praise the Lord. on this earth, while we tabernacle
here below, and in glory to come. In closing, turn with me to Revelation
5. Revelation chapter 5. Praise Him for who He is. Praise
Him for what He's done. Revelation 5. Look at verse 9. and they sung a new song, saying, thou art worthy to take
the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou was slain and
has redeemed us to God by the blood out of every kindred, tongue,
people, and nation, and made us unto our God kings and priests. and we shall reign on the earth
and I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about
the throne and the beast and the elders and the number of
them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands and thousands saying
with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb. Worthy is the lamb
that was slain to receive power and riches wisdom, and strength,
and honor, and glory, and blessing in every creature which is in
heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as
are in the sea, and all of them. Heard I saying, blessing, and
honor, and glory, and power, be it unto him that sitteth upon
the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever. And the four
beasts said, amen. And the four and twenty elders
fell down and worshipped him that liveth forever and ever."
Praise, praise the Lord. All right. Well, I pray the Lord
would make that a blessing. I've asked Mike to come, him
and Dave, and he's going to sing a special. We'll join him on
the chorus, okay?