Psalms chapter 9. One of the
difficult things I face in preaching two times on Sunday Especially
since we have our services back-to-back like we do with a small break
with them. Sometimes, and this may sound
silly, but sometimes I'm in an awful conflict which message
to preach. And I come here this morning
fully intended to deal with Ephesians chapter 6 concerning evil spirits
and God's power and the power of Satan. But I want to go to
Psalms 9. Psalms chapter 9. And just one
verse is all I want to deal with. Psalms chapter 9 and verse 1. That hurts doesn't it? Brother Henry Mahan told a story
about people wanting to say great things. And he said there were
some old Indians on one of the reservations out west, and they
were sitting around the campfire and they were trying to out-say
each other. One would make a statement and
the other would make a greater statement. They were testing
bombs out there in the desert, the U.S. government was. While
those little Indians were sitting there talking, this bomb went
off. Oh, shuck the ground. And one of those Williamsians
looked around and he said, Man, I wish I'd have said that. So that's a bad interruption,
Terrence. That wasn't me. I wish I had
a voice like that. Psalms chapter 9, and look in
verse 1, just one verse. I will praise thee, O Lord, with
my whole heart, I will show forth all Thy marvelous works." And
that's our subject. That's what I want to think about
this morning. I will praise Thee, O Lord. If you've read the book of Psalms,
you know that this is a word that's used many, many times. I think probably in the book
of Psalms, the word itself, not counting all the other words
that mean praise, 160 times in the book of Psalms, you'll find
that word itself, praise. Webster's gives different definitions
for it, and it depends on who you praise. One of the definitions
Webster's gives of praise is this, to commend, to applaud,
to express approbation of personal worth or action. Now, I can apply
that to you. And maybe you can apply that
to me. We praise one another. We praise one another for our
faithfulness, for our works, for our giving, for whatever.
Paul said, Brethren, I praise you that you have been faithful
in all things, and you receive the traditions that I gave to
you, I praise you. So there is a sense in which
we praise one another. But Webster gives another definition
of this, and then you begin to realize that there is a sense
in which we cannot praise one another like this. And he says
this, to extol in words or song To magnify, to glorify on account
of perfections and excellent works. To exalt, to bless, to
praise because of perfections. That can't be applied to us,
can it? And excellent works, perfect works, that can only
be applied to God. I will praise thee, O Lord."
And when we praise one another, we always have to go back to
God's grace. Oh, I praise you for what you've
done. I praise you for your attitude.
I praise you for your faithfulness. But it's because of God's grace
that you're all those things. So we're limited when we praise
one another. But oh, when we praise Him. It's
unlimited praise. We can't extol Him. We can't
honor Him. We can't magnify Him. We can't
glorify Him enough. Give unto the Lord the glory
that's due His name. And the angels can't even do
that. Listen to Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 3 and 4. And Moses
got a sense of this. And here's what he tells us.
Because I will publish I will proclaim the name of the Lord,
because I proclaim his name. And all that goes with that,
his name is not only who he is, his name is what he is. It's
what he's done. I'll publish the name of the
Lord, therefore ascribe you greatness to our God. Ascribe greatness. That's what it means to praise
God. It means ascribe greatness to Him. Brother Scott Richardson
said one of the ways in which we praise God is just telling
back to Him who He is and what He has done. Ascribing greatness
to God. Listen to what Moses said. The
eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are His everlasting
arms. The eternal God. Now, that can't
be said about us. The eternal God, that's unique
to Him. We exalt Him because greatness
is ascribed to Him. What's one aspect of His greatness?
His eternality. The eternal God is our refuge,
and underneath are His everlasting arms. We praise Him because of
who He is. Listen to Psalm 145, "'Great
is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. His greatness is unsearchable.'"
And listen, he goes on, "'I will speak of the glorious honor,
the splendor of thy majesty. I will declare thy greatness.'"
We praise him because there is none like him. There is none
besides Him. Spurgeon used to say this, O
to God most high and most holy, in the sacred trinity of His
person, and for the glory of His eternal and perfect attributes,
be praise and honor and glory forever. And David began to get
a hold of this, and he said, Lord, I will praise I will praise Thee. And you all
remember this in 1 Chronicles 29 and 10 and 11. This is so
familiar to us. David was blessing the Lord when
he had stored up all the materials to build the tavern out. And
he was getting old, and he stood before the congregation, and
here's what he said. Blessed be Thou, Lord God of
Israel, our Father, forever and forever. Thine, O Lord, is the
greatness. Thine, O Lord, is the power. And Thine, O Lord, is the glory. And Thine, O Lord, is the victory.
And Thine, O Lord, is the majesty." See why we can't praise one another
like this? This belongs to the Lord only. I will praise Thee. Ascribe greatness
to our God. Why? That's the way we can worship
Him. We can't praise somebody we don't
know. And the more we know of his greatness,
the more we praise him. All thine is the greatness. For
all that is in heaven is thine, and all that is in the earth
is thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord,
and you are exalted as head over all. I will praise the Lord.
Ain't that wonderful? I'll exalt him. I'll worship
him. I'll extol him. I'll adore him. Ascribe ye greatness to our God. But David goes on and he says
this, or Moses goes on and he says this, not only that he praised
the Lord because of who he is and ascribed greatness to him,
but he went on to say this. Ascribe you greatness to our
God. Praise Him. And listen to what
he adds. For His work is perfect. We praise Him for who He is.
We worship Him for who He is. He's the eternal God. He's the
sovereign God that has no beginning of days nor end of life. He's
unique. There's nobody like Him. Nobody
can be praised. Like he can be prayed. But Moses says, it's more than
just that. It's more than just what he is
and who he is. His work is perfect. It's perfect
in its planning, it's perfect in its execution, and it's perfect
in its consummation. He begins it, and he carries
it on, and he finishes it. And when he's finished it, you
know what he says? Perfection. Perfection. Known unto God are all His works
from the beginning of time, and they're perfect. How many times
have you and I started something, and we have to rip up our plans,
and we have to tear down what we started, and we change everything. Very seldom we start a project
that we don't have to radically alter somewhere or another. Not
Him. He is perfect in His works. Thus the praise that belongs
to Him only. What shall I render unto the
Lord for all His benefits? Now we are getting something
else, don't we? Not just praising Him for who He is. Praising Him
for His works that are perfect. But now we should praise Him
for this, all His benefits, His blessings upon us. You know this
is one of the reasons the Lord saves anybody, to praise Him. Why does He call us out of darkness
into His marvelous light? To show forth the praises of
Him. That's why He calls us. He made
everything, brothers and sisters, I believe this. I believe the
scripture teaches it. He not only made man, He made
angels, He made spirits, and He made this universe. And He
made it all to praise Him. And it may not seem like it now,
but I bet you when this thing winds up and everything is said
and everything is finished, everything is going to bring glory to His
name. That's why we exist. That's why
the universe exists. That's why devils exist. And
they shall at last bow the knee and say, Jesus Christ is Lord,
and I praise God for it." It's made to praise Him. The benefits
we receive from Him, all the benefits that we receive from
Him. David said this. Here's one of
the benefits that David praised the Lord for. He said, He brought
me up. out of a horrible pit and the
mire reclaimed. I was sinking. I was ready to
go down and sink forever. And He brought me up. And what
did He do? He set my feet upon a rock and
established my goings. But David said he didn't stop
there. He put a new song in my heart, even praise to our God. Praising Him for His benefits
received. I will praise Him for His grace."
Oh, electing grace. Don't you praise Him for electing
grace? "'Twas not that I did choose
thee, Lord, that could never be. This heart would still refuse
You, but You've chosen me, and I praise You for it." Redeeming
grace. You know the grace of the Lord
Jesus. Though He was rich, for your
sakes He became poor and died upon a tree. redeeming grace,
calling grace. He called us by His grace, regenerating
grace and keeping grace. We praise Him for His grace.
Without it, we're nothing. We can't be saved. To the praise
of the glory of His grace. What about His mercy? Hasn't
He had mercy upon us? Don't we praise Him for His mercy?
Benefits bestowed. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness."
Oh, when you feel your sin, as you go about day to day in this
awful warfare within, and you hear this word, this covenant
mercy, I will be merciful to your unrighteousness. And your
sins and iniquities will I remember no more. That's mercy. I will
give them a new heart and a new spirit. That's mercy. I will
be their God, and they shall be my people." What a benefit!
I will praise the O Lord for your mercy. Tender mercies, sure
mercies, mercies that's higher than the heavens, mercies, David
said, that follows me all the day of my life, mercies that's
upon us now, and mercies that's yet to come. Free, sovereign
covenant. You know what the definition
of mercy is? God not giving us what we deserve. Isn't that wonderful? What do we deserve? We don't
even want to think about it, do we? But He's not giving it
to us. He's not giving it to us. And
don't we praise Him for it? Prayer. We praise Him for prayers
that He's answered. We praise Him for prayers that
He's not answered. He knows best. His chastening
rod upon us, where would we be without that? No assurance of
His love, that's for sure. He corrects us. He keeps us in
line. He brings us back because He
loves us. And we praise Him for His rod.
His rod of correction. We praise Him. We praise Him.
David said, I will praise Thee, O Lord. And look at all the reasons
that you can think to praise Him. Who he is, all of his perfect
works, and all his benefits toward you. Hold that Psalm right there,
and look in Psalms 148. You may have noticed this as
you've read the last, I guess it's the last five chapters,
the last five books of Psalms, all of them end the same way.
Have you noticed that? It just seemed like the farther
the book of Psalms goes, the more somebody's heart was filled
with praise. And the last five books end like
this. Praise ye the Lord. All of them in the same. Praise
ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Let everything
that hath breath praise the Lord. Look at Psalm 148. Look how this
reads, Psalm 148. Praise ye the Lord, praise ye
the Lord from the heavens. Praise him in the heights. Praise ye him, all his angels. Praise ye him, all his hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon. Praise him, all you stars of
light. Praise Him, ye heaven of heavens,
and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the
name of the Lord, for He commanded, and they were created. He hath
also established them for ever and ever. He hath made a decree
which shall not be passed. Praise the Lord from the earth,
ye dragons, and all deep places. fire and hail, snow and vapor,
stormy wind fulfilling his will, mountains and all hills, fruitful
trees and all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things
and flying fowl, kings of the earth and people, princes and
all the judges of the earth, both young men and maidens, old
men and children." Man, that's covering everybody and everything.
Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is excellent,
and his glory is above the earth and above the heavens. He also
has exalted the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints,
even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye. Praise Him. Praise Him. But look
back over in my text in Psalms Chapter 9. David doesn't stop
here with saying, I will praise Thee, O Lord. He goes deeper
than that, doesn't he? So he adds this, I will praise
Thee, O Lord, with my whole heart. I will praise You with my heart.
He's concerned about what you and I are often concerned about.
We don't want to draw near to the Lord with our lips and our
hearts being far from Him. Worship, praise is a heart thing. It's a heart matter. The Lord
Jesus told that Samaritan woman, if you worship the Father, you've
got to worship Him in spirit. You've got to worship Him in
truth. You've got to worship Him with your heart because God's
the spirit. And they that worship him must
worship him in spirit and truth. And he made this wonderful statement.
The Father seeketh such to worship him. Heart. A heart worship. But he doesn't stop there, does
he? You notice David doesn't stop there. He doesn't say, I
will praise you with my heart. He goes even deeper than that.
And this is amazing here. I will praise thee with my whole
heart." No room in my heart for anything
else but praise. Do you ever have your heart filled
so full that you couldn't utter it with your lips? Have you ever
had a certain aspect of God certain attributes of God. And that just
fills your heart. Maybe it was this. Maybe you
saw the love of Christ. It just almost suddenly fills
your heart. And it was there and it was so
clear. The love of Christ. He loved me. And that fills your
heart. It just fills you. And it scrounges
out self. And it scratched out sin, and
it scratched out the world, and it scratched out everything else,
and your heart was filled with praise. You know, I've had a few of those
times, but what I found out about that is the short-lived. It's
just almost something that's spontaneous, and it comes and
it fills your heart, and you're filled with gratitude, and you're
filled with praise. And then, like a bucket, you
just pour it out and it's empty and it's dry. Wouldn't it be
wonderful if it was something like the Lord Jesus said to that
Samaritan woman? There shall be in you a well
of living water springing up. Wouldn't it be wonderful if that
well was gushing up in us to the point that it filled our
hearts every moment? of every day. Wouldn't that be
wonderful? And you live with a heart full
of worship and praise and adoration. There was nothing else there.
There was room for nothing else. I will praise Thee, Lord, with
all my heart. My whole heart. I never will forget one of the
first times I heard Brother Scott Richardson. Some of you here
know Scott Neumann. He's been gone now for a couple
of years or so. One of the first times I ever
heard him preach, he preached on Revelation 22, verse 4. They
shall see his face. And there's nobody that knew
the heart any better than Scott Richards. I mean, boy, he could
pick us apart. But there was nobody, I found
out from being around that man, there was nobody that longed
to be free from this body of death, to worship the Lord. And he preached that message,
they shall see his face, in heaven they shall see his face. And
I remember this, he said one of the things, this means, And
this is what he longed for more than anything else. He said,
one of the things it means to see His face, and this was a
saying I've adopted as my own, but I got it from him. He said
it means this, they shall worship Him with undimmed eyes and an
unsinning heart. They'll worship Him with a whole
heart. Nothing there to interfere in the praise and adoration and
worship. The world can't afford it here,
brothers and sisters. We have these times where our
hearts are filled and it is gone. But yonder, yonder. 24 sevens,
as they say. And that's what will make heaven,
heaven. No sin, no sense of sin, no devil
to harass us, no flesh and blood, no world, a full heart to praise
Him. What were they doing there? I
tell you what I want to do, and I think what you want to do.
I just want to get at His feet, don't you? And worship, like
I wasn't able to worship here. I will praise Him with my whole
heart. Oh, David often said things like
this. You know, he often, he often,
boy, he got up and he got up and he used to feel no doubt
with his spirit. And he said, oh, I'll never be moved. I'll
never be moved. And the very next line, he turned
around and says, help, oh Lord, I'm in trouble. That's the way
we are. The whole heart. Oh, God, keep
us there. Keep us there. But he doesn't
stop there. Now look, he's so full of praise
with his whole heart. Here's what he desires to do
in the last portion of our verse. I will show forth all thy marvelous
works. I tell you, he's so full of praises
that he says, Lord, I just want to tell everybody what you've
done. I want to tell people what you've done. And brothers and
sisters, it's not enough to fill this in our hearts. Tell people
about it. Tell people what you experience.
Tell people what you know about God and his work. This word,
marvelous, it's a wonderful word. It means several things. When you
look at it, you know, we think sometimes we know the meaning
of these words until we go look them up. And then, we're surprised
at, then we see why David called it marvelous. Listen to what
this word means, marvelous. It means distinguished, separated,
difficult, wonderful, accomplished, surprising, strange, exciting,
wonder, are some degree of surprise. Exciting wonder are some degree
of surprise. David looked at the works of
the Lord. He said, Lord, I'm surprised. I've never seen anything
like this. And it simply means what Terence
said about miracles. This marvelous is very akin to
the word miraculous, miracle. It means only God can accomplish
it. I will speak of your marvelous works, and they are marvelous
because only you can do them. Oh my goodness, when he does
it, it's because only he can do it. But here's three things
that you and I often talk about, and we praise him for it. And we show forth this to others,
too. Look here in Isaiah chapter 40,
and we'll just stay in this chapter. Isaiah chapter 40, and look at
verse 25, and look at verse 26. To whom, then, will you liken
me? Or shall I be equal, saith the
Holy One? He says this several times in
this book, especially in these chapters. Who are you going to
like of me? Who am I like? He brags about that. He says
there's no God like me, and there's no God besides me. I know not
any God. I'm the only God. And then he
quickly gives us one of the things that makes him unique. He has
done something that nobody else can do. What is it? Look in verse
26. Lift up your eyes on high. You go out tonight on a clear
night, on a dark night, and just lift your eyes up on high. I
mean, you're looking at an amazing thing, aren't you? A mass that
cannot be measured. planets, stars, systems. And he says here, and behold
these things, and who has created these things? He brings out their
host, all the stars and planets, by number. He calls them all
by names. By the greatness of his might,
and he is strong in power, not one fellow." Creation. That's his marvelous work. Nobody
else can do it. Nobody has created one thing. Did you know that? We put, well,
let me say it like this. We create a lot of trouble. We
create a lot of sin. That's about it, ain't it? But
all man does is put together what God has created. We can't
create anything. There's one Creator, and He's
created all things. Listen to Psalms 33.6. By the
word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them
by the breath of His mouth. He gathered the waters of the
sea together in heaps. He left up the depths in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the
world stand in awe of him, for he spake." That's all he did,
was spake. And said, let there be light,
and there was light. Let there be this, and there
was. He spake, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. This is in Hebrews chapter 11.
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the
Word of God, so that the things which are made, the things which
are seen, were not made of things which do appear. Things that
we see They're not made. They didn't come from something
that appeared from the beginning. There was a little cell that
you could see that exploded and became everything that you can
see. It didn't happen that way. Everything that's made, He made
it. Right down to the minutest detail. All things were made by him,
and without him was not anything made that was made." Not one
single thing. And listen to Exodus 20, verse
11, "...in six days the Lord made the heavens, he made the
earth, he made the sea, and all that in them is." See that? There's nothing today that the
Lord didn't make in the beginning. One fellow said, well, I beg
your pardon. He said, I've got a dog. I've got a dog. And that dog, the Lord didn't
make that dog. I said, but who made it? He said,
it's a mixture, a mixture of what? A mixture of other dogs.
I said, who made the dog? Who made the dog? We've got all
different kinds of cows, have we not? They've bred these cows,
they've got meat cows, show cows, riding cows. I used to have an
old bull and I rode everywhere. But who made the cow? He made
everything. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. Know ye that the Lord, He is
God. And it is He that made us, and
not we ourselves. Brothers and sisters, I respect
science. I respect scientists. I love
science. Just about everything I know
about the universe, I learned from science. They show us so
much. They go out into deep space and
take these beautiful pictures. and send them back to us and
we look at them and we marvel. And we thank those scientists
for doing that. But when they start saying, these
things come from a big explosion or these things evolved, then
we back off. We take a step back and we look
at these things. We lift up our eyes on high and
we look around us at the mountains and the waters and ourselves.
And you know what we say? Who created these things? And
we find out that's not a question at all. That's a statement. Did you notice that there in
verse 26? He said, Who hath created these things? And there's no
question mark after that. It wasn't meant to be a question.
There is no question. There's no debate. Who created
these things? He's not asking us. He's telling
us. I created it. Oh, David said, Lord, I'll praise
you for your marvelous in your works. You've done what nobody
else can do. You've created all these things.
The second thing is this. We praise Him. We adore Him.
We worship Him because of His marvelous work in providence. Providence. See, the Lord just
didn't make the creation and stand back and see how it was
going to turn out. He didn't just say, I'm going
to set the sun in order, and it's going to follow its course.
You know what he says every day? Sun rise, sun go down. He causes his sun to rise. What stops all the planets and
the stars from colliding? What keeps them in this technical,
minute course as they travel? Oh, it's the speed through space. You know they can look out a
million years from now and tell you the exact minute the sun's
going to come up on any particular morning. You know why they can
do that? There's such order. Who keeps that in order? You're right. He does. The same
Creator. He keeps it in order. How can
He do that? His hand, His finger, His eye,
His ear, His person, is involved in every minute detail of what's
going on in this universe, in your life, and in my life. God's
hand is there ruling everything. He does according to His will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of this earth.
And no man can stay His hand or say to Him, what are you doing? David said, Our God's in the
heavens, and I'll tell you what He's doing. Whatsoever He please. Don't you worship a God like
that? I cannot worship a puny God that's sitting on a throne
in heaven, that's trying to do something, wringing His hands,
that He's frustrated, hoping and praying. No, that's not this
God. This is the eternal God that
sits upon the circles of the earth, and the peoples and the
princes and the judges are like little grasshoppers before Him. No, He that made the universe
rules the universe, and He upholds the universe, and He's involved
in every detail. There's not a bird that falls
from the air or a hawk that falls from your head. He's involved
in it. How can He do that? Because He's
God. Look what he says in verse 12, Isaiah chapter 40, look here
in verse 12. Look here what some statements
Isaiah makes about it. The Lord makes about himself.
He ascribes greatness to himself. And all these have to do with
measurements. Who hath measured the waters
in the holla of his hand? Who's measured the waters? You
remember during the flood, when the floods came and all the fountains
of the deep broke up and the windows of heaven were opened
and the waters kept pouring and pouring and pouring. And you
know the scripture says, the waters went twenty-two feet over
the highest mountain. That's a lot of water, Eddie. They couldn't even measure water
like that. They can't begin to even apprehend water that would
fill this earth with that measure. And yet he puts it in the hollow
of his hand. Look what else he said. And who
has measured out heaven with a spand? You know what a spand
is. That right there is a spand.
That's a spand. When you and I go to build something,
we have to have a tape measure, don't we? We have to have something
to measure with. We have to have something reach
from that 8-foot board's end to this 8-foot board's end, and
we measure on that. You know when the Lord goes to
measure this universe, you know what He uses? Ah, He says about
that size of my hand. You start from that side of the
universe and go all the way over to that side. How big is it?
Ah, about that right there. That's how big it is. How big
is God? That's what He's saying. That's
what He's saying. And he's comprehended, he grasps
the dust of the earth in a measure. That word measure, I never did
understand that. I've had to study quite a bit
on that. And it means basically three fingers. It means three
fingers. He's measured the dust of the
earth in three fingers. And I kept looking to try to
find out what that means. And all of a sudden, I ran into
one fellow that said, that's sometimes the way they measure
things. And I thought, I do that now.
I went down last spring to get some turnip seed. Down at Douglas. And he had the little tube, the
little plastic measuring tube. And he said, how many do you
want? I said, give me about three fingers. He took and he poured,
he had his finger on it, poured the seed. There's three fingers. Three fingers. When the Lord
goes to measure the dust of the earth, He congregates it in one
place, if He's so pleased, and He puts it in, He said, about
three fingers. About three fingers. That's the
way He measures the dust of the earth. And look what else He
said. And He weighs the mountains in
scales, and the hills in the balance. He does what you and
I do. When Bob goes to sell meat, he
puts in a scale, and he weighs out a pound of meat. There's
a pound of meat. The Lord is so great, when he goes to weigh
the mountains, he weighs the mountains like Bob weighs a pound
of meat. And what's he saying? He says,
there's nobody like me. Isn't that what he's saying?
Look at what he said down in verse 18. To whom then will you
liken God? Or to what likeness will you
compare unto Him? And go back up here right quickly
to verse 13. Just read this. He's speaking
here of God's sovereignty, His rule, His superintendence over
the universe. Verse 13. Who hath directed the
Spirit of the Lord? Or who then his counselor hath
taught him? Nobody's directed him. Nobody's
taught him. I tell you what, he don't need
us to tell him anything. But we sure need him to tell
us. With whom took he counsel? And
who instructed him? And who taught him in the paths
of judgment? And taught him knowledge? And
showed to him the way of understanding? It's obviously nobody. And look
what he said in verse 15, Behold the nations are as a drop of
a bucket. If you was carrying an old bucket,
it wasn't heavy to you, you had no problem at all carrying it.
You just sling it around, you carry it all day, never wear
you out, never wear you. And somebody came along and put
a drop of water in that bucket. Would that make any difference?
You'd never know it was there, would you? And the Lord said,
that's the way the nations are to me. It's like a drop of a
bucket. They're nothing. I have no difficulty
in ruling them. They are counted as the small
dust of the balance. I was down a few days ago, a
few months ago now, I guess, at the farm place and I was getting
some bird seeds. Weighed me out five pounds of
birdsick. And you know what? I never took time to wipe the
dust off of that scale. And the reason I did? It's insignificant. It means nothing. It weighs nothing. And the Lord said, all the nations
before me are as the dust that's on the scale. Behold, he taketh
up the islands as a very little thing. This little thing means
a grain of sand. If you look at the world map
sometime, look at the islands. I mean, it looks like somebody
threw a big bunch of corn out, and they just scattered all over
the place. And the Lord said, I can take those islands up,
just like you pick up little grains of sand, without any difficulty
at all. Well, look what else He says
in verse 17. You talk about humbling us and
exalting Him. All nations before Him are as
nothing. Well, that's in our eyes. No,
that's in His eyes. That's in His eyes. But He doesn't
stop there. Look what else He says. And they
are counted to Him less than nothing. Does this mean that
God doesn't care? No. This doesn't mean that at
all. But He humbles us. He humbles
the proud heart of sinful man. He says, you're nothing. You're
nothing. Before me, you're nothing. I
want you to know that. I want you to humble yourself
before me and know that you live, you have your existence, because
I'm God and I'm nothing like you. Why do we praise Him for this?
Nobody else can do that. Nobody else is like Him. He's
marvelous in His works. One last thing. One last thing. It's found here in this chapter.
Look in verse 1. Creation. Lift up your eyes on
high. Who has created these things?
Consider the nations, what they are before me. I rule. I reign in the nation. What a
marvelous work. But this last one is even more
marvelous because it's his work of redemption. Look what he says
in Isaiah 40 in verse 1. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortable to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is ended. The war is over. The war between God's wrath and
God's mercy, God's justice and God's love. The war that sin
has brought between you and God, it's over. It's over. Your warfare
is accomplished. Look at this. And say unto her,
Her iniquity is pardoned. Who can forgive sins but God
only? That's why this is marvelous.
Your iniquities have been transferred. Ain't that what he's saying?
They've been transferred from you to somebody else. Your iniquities
have been punished in somebody else. Your sins have been put
away by somebody else. And now I declare unto you, your
iniquities are pardoned. Why is this marvelous? Nobody
else can do it but the one we've sinned against. Did you hear
what Jesus said to me? They're all taken away, away. Your sins are pardoned. And now you're free. They're
all taken away. Redemption accomplished. Pardon to our conscience. Isn't
that marvelous? Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and forget all His benefits. Don't forget His
benefits. David, what are they? He forgiveth. I want to show you one thing,
and I'll close with this. Look in verse 11. This is about
redemption. Look in verse 11. Isaiah chapter
14, verse 11. If you've never seen this before,
I want you to see it. I laugh every time I compare these two
scriptures. He is speaking here of the Lord Jesus Christ, our
Savior, our Lord and our Savior. And look what it says about him.
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd.
He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and he shall carry them
in his bosom, and he shall gently lead those that are with young. Can he do all of that? I'd say
if he spoke, and it was done. He commanded
and it stood fast. I could say if he could rule
every aspect of this universe, I could say he would do that.
He can do that. This is a lot the way. The lambs
have strayed. But what does he do? This shepherd
go gets them. And he don't quit searching until
he finds them. And when he finds them, he puts
them in his bosom and loves them to death and refuses to let them
go. When they are hungry, he feeds
them. When they are in danger, he protects them. When their
feet are tender, he gently leads them home. Through shady green
pastures, so rich and sweet, he leads his dear children home.
Why is this so important? There was a great man, one of
the greatest men that ever lived. His name was Moses. And you know
the Lord told him to do just exactly this thing. And you know
what kind of shape it got Moses in. I'll close with this scripture. This is the last scripture, I
promise. Look in Numbers, chapter 11. All the way back over to
your left. Look in Numbers, chapter 11. Numbers, chapter 11. And look at this. Look here in verse
10, Numbers chapter 11. I will praise the Lord with my
whole heart. I will show forth His marvelous
works. And look in Numbers chapter 11.
Moses got all these people out in the middle of that desert,
and boy, they started complaining and groaning and griping and
murmuring. And look what happened. Numbers
chapter 11, and look in verse 10. Then Moses shared the people
with throughout their families, every man in the door of his
tent. And the anger of the Lord was
killed greatly, and Moses also was displeased. And Moses said
unto the Lord, Wherefore have you afflicted thy servant? Why have you afflicted me? And
wherefore have I not found favor in your sight, that thou layest
the burden of all this people upon me. Have I conceived this people?
Have I begotten them, that thou shouldst say to me, Carry them
in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the suckling child unto
the land which thou swareth unto their fathers? When should I
have flesh to give unto all this people? For they weep unto me,
saying, Give us flesh that we may eat. I am not able to bear
all this people alone. It is too heavy for me. And if
you are going to deal thus with me, kill me, I pray you, and
do it quick. For I, if I have found favor
in thy sight, and let me not see thy face." Moses was one of the greatest
men that ever lived. And he said, you're telling me to put these
people in my bosom and carry them? I can't do it. Kill me
now. But along comes the Son of God. And He's a great Savior. And
He can do what Moses cannot do. The Father says, Son, put them
in your bosom where it's safe. He puts us in His bosom. My son,
give them meat to eat. And what does he give us? Himself.
My son, you keep them. You keep them. Don't let them
fall. You give them eternal life. Don't
ever let them perish. When they stray, you bring them
back. When they're sick, you get them well. When they have
sores, you pour in your oil. Can you do all that? Yes. He
said, yes, I'll do it. Oh, Father, He said, I come,
I do what I have to do with you. Oh, redemption. Redemption. Nobody else can do it, can they?
That's why we praise Him. I will praise Thee, O Lord, with
my whole soul, and I will show forth Thy marvelous works. May God bless you.