Psalm 111, several times, you
notice as we read down through here, it talks about the work
and works of the Lord. I mentioned at least five times. The old timers, when you read
back the old timers that lived back two or three hundred years
ago, written extensively, comments on the scriptures, But a lot
of them old timers refer to this psalm as the psalm of the Lord's
works. And it is, isn't it? Really,
when you get right down to the basics of it, salvation is by
works. Not ours. His. We read a moment
ago, he said, Father, I finished the work you gave me to do. Honored the law of God for us,
every precept. Satisfied every penalty of that
law. Salvation according to His doing
and dying, not ours. Salvation by His doing, not ours. So we're gonna call this study
in this Psalm 111, the Psalm of God's works. The Psalm of
God's works. We know that salvation, as it's
revealed and made known unto us in the pages of Holy Scripture,
is all about the doing of the Lord. You remember we studied
in Psalm 118, this is the Lord's doing, and it's marvelous in
our eyes. Salvation is His doing. It's
all according to His purpose and His grace. And you know what
that means to us? That means that salvation's of
the Lord, doesn't it? Salvation's of the Lord. His
purpose and His grace that was given us in Christ Jesus before
the foundation of the world. Remember what Paul wrote to young
Timothy when Paul was in prison. He said, don't be ashamed of
me. I'm the Lord's prisoner. And don't be ashamed of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. For it's God who saved us and
called us. We're the holy colony, not according to our works, but
according to God's own purpose and grace that was given us in
Christ before the foundation of the world. That's good news,
is it not? The Lord put away our sin by
the sacrifice of himself. He's a lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. And all that makes the salvation
that we enjoy in Christ, all of his grace, all of his mercy,
all of his love, not of our works. lest any sinner should boast. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourself, not of works, lest any man should
boast." You remember Paul writes this to Titus in Titus 3, 5,
where he said, it's not by works of righteousness which we have
done, but according to his mercy he saved us. So it's of the Lord's
mercies that we're not consumed. The Lord's mercy, great is His
faithfulness. The Lord's mercies that we are
not consumed. Let's look at verse 1 now, Psalm
111 verse 1. Praise ye the Lord, or hallelujah,
as the reference has there. Praise Jehovah, God our Savior. Praise ye the Lord, and then
the psalmist says, I will. I will. I will praise the Lord
with all my heart, my whole heart. And I'll do so in the assembly
of the upright and in the congregation of sinners. I will praise ye
the Lord. Because the salvation we enjoy
is in Christ and it's all of grace, it provokes us and motivates
the believer to wholehearted praise. And David said in Psalm
103, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless
His holy name. It's of His fullness that we
have all received grace for grace. Because salvation we enjoy is
all of His fullness, of His fullness have we all received grace for
grace. That motivates us, doesn't it?
To what? Praise ye the Lord, to rejoice
in the Lord always, and do it wholeheartedly, not half-heartedly,
with a whole heart. We studied it in Revelation.
I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the
voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thundering,
saying, hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent, he reigns. The Lord God omnipotent, He reigneth. Whatsoever the Lord is pleased
to do, that's what He does in heaven, earth, sea, and all deep
places. And whatever He does, He does
without any hindrance. He does His will all the time.
His will will be accomplished. And then the psalmist says, I
will praise the Lord. I will praise the Lord. Now,
look straight up the page, Psalm 110 verse 3. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power in the beauty of holiness from the womb of
the morning thou hast to do of thy youth. He made us willing
in the day of his power to praise ye the Lord. Give him all the
honor and glory for the salvation that we enjoy. As Paul said,
God forbid, actually glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is worthy
of all honor and glory, isn't he? He's worthy of all the honor
and glory that we can possibly give him now and forever. That
is the whole occupation of the redeemed in glory. Worthy is
the lamb that was slain to receive all honor, glory, blessing, and
power both now and forever. When should we do that? When
should we praise the Lord with wholeheartedness? Look right
across the page, Psalm 113 verse three. From the rising of the
sun unto the going down of the same, the Lord's name is to be
praised. The Lord is high above all nations,
his glory above the heavens. Who is like unto the Lord our
God who dwelleth on high? When should we praise the Lord?
At all times. From the rising of the sun to
the going down of the same. Praise ye the Lord. Where should
we praise the Lord? Everywhere. in the assembly of
the upright and in the congregation of sinners. I've got a reference
here if you want to turn with me. Look at Psalm 138. Psalm
138 verse 1, I will praise thee with my whole heart before the
gods, While I sing praise unto thee, I will worship for thy
holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for
thy truth, for thou has magnified thy word above all thy name. When should we praise the Lord?
All the time. Rejoice in the Lord always and
again I say rejoice. Where? In the assembly of believers,
and even among those who are unbelievers, we should give God
all the honor and glory. And how should we do that with
our whole heart? Why should we do that? Turn back
a page or two to Psalm 108, verse 1. Why should we do that? Psalm
108 verse 1, oh God, my heart is fixed. That's why. He fixed
us. He gave us a new heart. I will
sing and give praise even with my soul, my glory. Awake, psaltery,
heart. I will, myself, awake early. I will. Praise the Lord among
the people. I will sing praises unto thee
among the nations, for thy mercy is great above the heavens, and
thy truth reacheth unto the clouds. I will praise the Lord. I will. The rest of this Psalm declares
why we should praise the Lord, but I want you to turn back to
Psalm 107 for just a moment. Psalm 107. I looked at this earlier. Psalm 107. And this is a familiar
Psalm, but there's a repeated phrase in Psalm 107. Psalm 107,
look at verse eight. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness, for his wonderful works toward the children
of men. Down to verse 15. Oh, that men
would praise the Lord for his goodness, for his wonderful works
to the children of men. Verse 21. Psalm 107, oh, that
man would praise the Lord for his goodness, for his wonderful
work for the children of men. Verse 31, oh, that man would
praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful work toward
the children of men. Praise ye the Lord. Over and
over and over again, we read that in the Psalm, don't we?
Now look at verse two. In the assembly of the upright,
He's uprighted us. In Adam we're fallen in Christ. In Adam all died, in
Christ shall all be made alive. He uprighted us. Verse 2, the
works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have
pleasure therein. We have pleasure in The doings
of the Lord, the works of the Lord are great. You know, everything
about our God is great. All of His attributes, His love,
His mercy, His grace, His omniscience, His omnipotence, His sovereignty,
all the attributes of God, they're great, aren't they? Great is
the Lord, and greatly to be praised. The Lord our God is great. He
said, I am God, beside me there is no other. Everything about
Him is great, everything He does is great, and it's good. His
works are great. Whether we consider His work
of creation, how great is the work of creation? The vastness
of space, the vastness of the universe, God not in the universe,
the universe is in Him. Whether we consider his works
of creation, he created all things by the word of his power. He
said, let there be light, and there was light. He created the
heavens and the earth by the word of his power. Everything
about him is great in his work of creation and in providence.
The things that unfold in the lives of His people, they come
by God's order, by God's purpose, by God's will. We know that all
things working together for good to them who love God, to them
who are called according to His purpose. So God is great in creation. He's great in providence, isn't
He? The providence of God. God rules this world. in absolute
sovereignty according to his will. Nothing just happens. He's
the first cause and last end of all things. That includes
evil things. He rules over all things. He
rules over all things. And certainly we can say his
work is great in salvation, isn't it? His work is great in salvation. What did it take to put away
our sin? It took the great sacrifice of
the Lamb of God. His blood, with His blood He
obtained for us eternal redemption. So much so, He so fully and totally
put away our sin that God said their sin and their iniquity
will I remember no more. You remember from Revelation
15, they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, the song
of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord
God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou King of the saints. The Lord has won the victory
for us. We have the great victory. over
sin, over death, over hell, over the devil, we have the great
victory, thanks being to God, who has given us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn back to Psalm 40. You remember
this in Psalm 40? About his doing, about his works,
how great they are, marvelous they are. Psalm 40, look at verse
5. Psalm 40, verse 5. Many, O Lord
my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy
thoughts which are to usward, they cannot be reckoned up in
order. If I would declare and speak of them, there are more
than can be numbered." Boy, his works are marvelous and great.
Aren't you thankful that salvation depends upon him and determined
by him, by the Lord Jesus Christ? God's people, they sing, great
and marvelous are thy works. And believers, it says there,
sought out. Believers want to know more of
his work, don't they? Sought out. Believers seek to
know more of his doing, more of his dying. And we have pleasure. We have pleasure. We have pleasure
in his work. We have, and we rejoice in what
he has done for us. Look back to Psalm 92. Psalm 92, verse 4. For thy Lord hath made me glad
through thy work. I will triumph in the works of
thy hand, O Lord. How great are thy works, and
thy thoughts to us are very deep. Great works. We have a great
Savior, don't we? who brought in so great salvation. Remember Hebrews chapter two,
how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? His mercies
toward us are great. God the Father is well pleased
with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember on the Mount
of Transfiguration, what did the Father say? This is my beloved
Son in whom I'm well pleased, hear Him. What did the voice
from heaven say when the dove descended at the Lord's baptism? This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. The works of the Lord are great,
sought out of all of them that have pleasure. The Father has
pleasure in the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
believers have pleasure in Him and what He has done for us.
And then look at verse 3, Psalm 111 verse 3, His work is honorable. It's honorable. Everything He
did, He honored God's law and justice, didn't He? He honored
God. His work is honorable, and it's
glorious. And His righteousness, He brought
in for us, Daniel 9, 24 says, He brought in for us, when He
finished the work, He brought in for us everlasting righteousness,
and He freely imputes that to us. Believers stand before God
completely justified, made righteous in Christ. He gives us His everlasting
righteousness. His work is honorable, honoring
all the attributes of God. He said, I am God. Beside me,
there is none else, the only just God and Savior. Now look
unto me and be ye saved. He's both just and the justifier. His work is honorable. The Lord
is well pleased for his righteousness sake. Isaiah 42, 21, he will
magnify the law of God and honor it. We have an honorable salvation
in Christ Jesus. God saves us in a way that his
law is honored and magnified, doesn't he, in Christ and is
glorious. His work is glorious. Everything
about his work is glory. To the praise of the glory of
his grace, you remember Ephesians chapter one, God chose us. What? According to the praise
of the glory of His grace, the Lord Jesus redeemed us, and whom
we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin,
according to the riches of His right, to the praise of His glory.
Everything about His work is glorious. In election, redemption,
regeneration, it's all to His glory, isn't it? He saved us
in such a way that He's going to get all the honor and glory
for all salvation. Every sinner he saves is going
to give and recognize it's God who saved us and called us. And
then his righteousness is honorable, glorious, and righteous. That
is his salvation done in a righteous way. Now all of our own righteousnesses
are as what? Filthy rags. His righteousness
is honorable. His righteousness is right. He
established for us everlasting righteousness. Believers are
now no longer going about to establish the righteousness of
their own. We're resting in Christ, submitted unto Christ. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe us.
He is the Lord, what? The Lord, our righteousness,
right? You thought I forgot, didn't
you? He's our righteousness. He's our righteousness before
God. He's made unto us wisdom. What says there, the fear of
the Lord is beginning of wisdom. He's our wisdom. He's our righteousness. He's our redemption, isn't he?
He's everything in salvation. Blessed is that man whom the
Lord imputes righteousness without works. Look at verse four. He
made his wonderful works, wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord
is gracious. Not was, he is. The Lord is gracious. The Lord is full of compassion. He's full of love, full of grace
and truth. In him dwells all the fullness
of a Godhead bodily, and we are complete in him. His work has
to be wonderful because isn't that his name? You remember Isaiah,
what is it, chapter 9? His name shall be called Wonderful
Counselor of the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. His name is wonderful. His works are wonderful. God
has purpose for his people to remember. You see that word? Works to be
remembered. He's given us the Lord's table.
Remember? This do in remembrance of me. He made his wonderful works to
be remembered. When we think of salvation, we
remember what he's done for us, not what we've done for him.
And the Lord is gracious. The Lord is gracious. He is long-suffering,
and he's full of compassion. He's full of love. Here in His
love, how do we know He's full of compassion? He laid down His
life for us. Here in His love, not that we
love God, He loved us! And He gave Himself a sacrifice
for our sin. He laid down His life for us. Look at verse 5. The Lord is gracious and good. Verse
5, it says, He hath given, He hath given meat. He's given us everything. He's
given us meat. He's given us Himself. He's the
meat and bread of the Word. I wrote a reference here, John
6, 25. He said, I'm the bread of life.
He's our meat. We feed upon Him. He's given
meat. Unto them that fear him, those
who fear him are those who worship him. Those who fear him are those
who believe him. He will ever be mindful of his
covenant. Our God, the covenant God. That
word is covenant is used over 250 times. Our God, the covenant
God. We have covenant mercies and
this covenant here talking about the everlasting covenant of grace
that David said it's ordered in all things and sure, this
is all my hope and all my salvation. It's ordered in all things. God,
God, the covenant God, the Lord who purposed salvation will certainly
provide all things for us. He is called Jehovah. What? Jireh, the Lord will provide,
right? My God shall supply all your
need according to his riches in glory through Christ Jesus.
You remember Matthew 6? Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness, all these things will be added unto
you. He provides everything for us. All that God has promised he's
able to perform. Seeing the Lord Jesus Christ
as our surety, our sacrifice, our mediator of the covenant.
You remember he's called the surety of the everlasting covenant.
He's called the sacrifice of the covenant. There's one God
and one mediator. He's the advocate, mediator of
the covenant. How can any covenant promise
fail? The God of peace who brought
again from the dead the Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd
of the sheep to the blood of the everlasting covenant. He
obtained for us eternal redemption with his own blood. That blood that was shed was
not shed in vain. Everyone for whom the Lord Jesus
Christ died, they're saved. They're justified eternally in
Christ Jesus. Verse six. How do we know anything
about this? He showed his people. He showed
us. He revealed himself unto us.
He has showed his people, his elect, his church, his bride,
he showed his people the power of his doing, the power of his
works, that he may give them the heritage of the heathen. He showed his people How does
He show us Himself? He reveals Himself unto us. You
remember Matthew 11, 25? He hid these things from the
wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes. He revealed
them unto us. Blessed art thou, Simon bar Jonah,
for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee. Thou
art the Christ. But my Father which in heaven,
He hath revealed this unto us. Salvation comes by revelation.
It's God the Holy Spirit taking the things of Christ and showing
them unto us. He reveals them unto our heart
and He gives us faith to believe Him. All His works are great,
honorable, glorious, righteous, and wonderful. His works are
gracious, full of compassion, and they're all according to
this covenant. His works are powerful. We have
experienced the power of His salvation in saving us, redeeming
us, regenerating us, and making us new creatures in Christ. The
gospel, Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Why,
Paul? I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. It is the power of God and the salvation to everyone
that believes, to the Jew and to the Gentile, therein is the
righteousness of God revealed. Our Lord prayed in John 17, Father,
I thank you, you've given me power over all flesh, that I
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given to me. We are saved and we are kept
by his power, right? We're saved by his power and
we're kept by his power. Look at verse seven. He's made us heirs of grace.
We have an incorruptible inheritance in Christ Jesus. He's made us
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. He's given us the
heritage of his everlasting covenant. The works of his hand, verse
seven, the works of his hands are verity, and that word means
truth. The works of his hands are done
in truth and justice. God never saved a sinner apart
from His justice being satisfied. And the only way the justice
of God can be satisfied is in Christ and Him crucified. The
works of His hands are truth and justice. All His commandments,
His precepts, His statute, His word, His decrees, all of His
decrees and mandates, they are sure. You reckon they'll come to pass?
All of His commandments are certain and sure. What He's decreed in
eternity, what will happen in time? They'll come to pass, won't
they? They'll come to pass. They're certain and sure. We
have, as Peter says, we have the sure word of prophecy. And then in verse 8 he says,
they stand fast. You see that in verse 8? They
stand fast. And the marginal reference on
the word stand there is established. Remember He said, Heaven and
Earth are going to pass away. My Word will not pass away. Forever,
O Lord, Thy Word is settled in Heaven. They stand fast, they're
established forever and ever and ever. All of His decrees,
His mandates, His statutes, His precepts. If you go over and
look at Psalm 119, the longest psalm of all the psalms, almost
200 verses, Without the exception of two or three verses, in every
verse in Psalm 119, He talks about His Word, His Law, His
Precepts, His Mandates, His Decrees. It's all about His Word. And
they stand fast forever and ever, and they're done in truth. Everything
God speaks is true. True. He is the true and living
God. And they're upright. They're
upright. I love verse 9. He sent. When we're in trouble,
He sent. When Israel was in bondage, Egyptian
bondage, 400 years, they couldn't get out of bondage. What did
the Lord do? He sent a deliverer, Moses. Moses, type and picture of Christ.
He sent the Redeemer. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem
them. And notice, He sent redemption,
and that word redemption is deliverance. We have deliverance from our
sin through His blood. He is the Redeemer who redeemed.
And He sent redemption unto, and again He mentioned His people.
We saw that before, didn't we? Talks about in verse six, he
showed his people the power of his works. And then again in
verse nine, he sent redemption unto his people. His people,
who are these people? All that the Father giveth to
me shall come to me, and those that come to me, I'll never cast
them out. He sent the Redeemer to you,
to your heart. Think about that. Of all the
millions and billions of people that ever lived upon this earth,
God singled you out and sent you a Redeemer, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And He commanded, again He says
there, talks about the covenant. He's commanded His covenant mercies,
covenant grace, covenant love, God has a covenant of grace established
in Christ Jesus, the surety and mediator of the covenant. He's
commanded His covenant forever and ever. He saves us with an
everlasting salvation, doesn't He? Holy, verse nine, holy and
terrible is His name. Holy and reverend is His name. Oftentimes, you see in the paper,
that a certain person has passed away and they're going to have
Reverend Jones conduct a funeral service. I wonder if Reverend Jones knows
what this name Reverend means. That means that his name is Terrible
Jones. That's what the word reverend
there means, terrible. Our God is a tremendous God.
Holy and reverend is His name. Don't ever, I've corrected people. Sometimes people refer to me
as reverend, so and so. And if I can, I stop them and
correct them. I said, holy and reverend, His
name. My name's Tom. Just call me Tom, Tom. That's
fine. Holy and reverend is His name.
Holy and reverend is His name. Our name's not reverent. Our
name's not holy. He is the holy and terrible God.
Verse 10. The fear of the Lord is beginning
of wisdom. That statement's made several
times in the scriptures. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. A good understanding have all
they that do. What? Fear of the Lord. Notice
the two words are His commandment have been added. The fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We have wisdom because He's given
us a good understanding. You see that? Wisdom and understanding
go together. You remember 1 John 5, 20? We
know the Son of God has come and He's given us an understanding
that we might know Him that is true, that we're in Him that
is true, even in His Son, the eternal God, the Lord Jesus Christ. We have wisdom because He's given
us an understanding. And the beginning of wisdom that
is the first fruit of wisdom is understanding. We understand
something of who He is, We understand something of who we are. He's
holy, we're sinful. And we understand something of
the Lord Jesus Christ, what he accomplished for us. Salvation
is of the Lord, is it not? So the fear of the Lord is beginning
the first fruits of wisdom. Because he's given us an understanding.
And those who fear the Lord, they do so. His praise or His
glory endures forever. Those given a spiritual understanding
do fear the Lord in this sense and this way. We fear to trust
anyone but Christ. We fear to trust anything but
Christ. We fear Him. And we're fearful
to trust anything, anyone, but the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
He's given us an understanding and through that understanding
we have wisdom.