Psalm 146 this evening, and I'm
entitling the message from the words in verse 5 of Psalm 146. I'm taking the title for the
message from what is said in verse 5, happy, happy. Oftentimes the word that we use
and read in the book of Psalms, blessed is the man who trusteth
in the Lord, and oftentimes that word Blessed is rendered happy,
happy, happy. So we could say here, verse five,
blessed is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help. He is
a happy man. He is a happy man, a happy person
that has the God of Jacob. The God of Jacob is the sovereign,
eternal God who reigns forever and ever, who hath the God of
Jacob for his help. You need a helper? I need a helper,
and we have a tremendous helper. He's all of our strength. He's
all of our help, isn't he? The God of Jacob. He often identifies
himself as a God of Jacob. Happy is that man who has a God
of Jacob for his salvation, whose hope, his help and his hope,
is in the Lord his God. The God of Jacob is our help.
The God of Jacob is our salvation. In Isaiah 41, we read, Fear not,
thou worm, Jacob, and ye men of Israel. I will help thee,
saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. In Psalm
46 verse 1, Psalm 46, it says that God is our refuge and strength,
the very present help in trouble. You know anything about trouble?
I think we all know something about trouble, don't we? We know
from reading the book of Genesis that the God of Jacob singled
Jacob out and blessed him abundantly. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. Not because Jacob was worthy. Jacob was anything but worthy. Jacob was not one whit better
than Esau. but rather because the God of
Jacob is gracious, sovereign in mercy, long-suffering unto
those whom he has chosen unto salvation. I like the testimony
of Jacob when he says to the Lord, I'm not worthy of the least
of your mercies and of all thy truth. And that's the estimation
of every believer whom God saves by his grace. I'm not worthy. I'm a wretched man. I'm a guilty
sinner. Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. And as I pointed out in the reading,
verse 1, this psalm begins with praise ye the Lord, and it ends
the same way. Praise ye the Lord. Now think about this. If the Lord would bless us as
we wake in the morning if this thought would come to our mind,
and you'll probably forget this by the time you wake up in the
morning, but if you can think about this, when you wake in
the morning, let this thought be on your mind. Praise ye the
Lord. Praise the Lord. And then at
the end of the day, when you lay down in the evening and you
get ready to to pull the covers up and lay down in that soft
pillow and enjoy that warm mattress on a cold night, your thought
ought to be, thank you, Lord. Praise ye the Lord. That's a
good way to start our day, continue our day, praise the Lord all
our day long, and to end our day praising our God. He's worthy of it, isn't He?
He is worthy of it. You remember from our study in
the Revelation, in chapter 19, it says, hallelujah, and that's
what praise the Lord means, hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. God reigns. That means that he
is the sovereign Lord over all things, over all creatures, over
all his creation, over all events, events, whatever event it may
be. God rules and reigns over all things. Now, sadly, this
phrase here, praise you the Lord, has been religiously, by religious
people, abused. And they say it and use it so
often in such a flippant way that it becomes really an absurd,
meaningless statement. There is a man who follows on
our radio station. Our program comes on at 8.30,
but there's a man that when we pull out to come over here about
9.45 or so, there's another preacher on the radio, and he's really
obnoxious. He's not a gospel preacher. He'll
say three or four words, and he'll say, praise the Lord, hallelujah.
He'll say three or four more words, praise the Lord, hallelujah.
And it's just, it's repeated nonsense, what it is. He can't
think of anything else to say. So when he can't think of anything
else to say, he says, praise the Lord, hallelujah. Praise
the Lord. That's using the name of God in vain, is what that
is. Holy and reverent is his name.
Let's be careful. Let's be careful. how we use
the name of our precious God. Let us not use it in an irreverent
way to the point of contempt before the throne of our great
God. Be careful how you speak His
name. Speak with reverence. Holy and reverent is His name.
We ought to use great care in using the name of the Lord unless
we take the name of the Lord and use it in a vain, flippant
way. in a flippant way. Now this statement
in verse one, praise the Lord or hallelujah, is used many times
in the book of Psalms. And I looked this up today, and
it's used 22 times. In 150 Psalms, it's used 22 times. And we know that He is, our great
God and Savior, is worthy, worthy to be praised, is He not? Look
across the page over there, Psalm 145 verse 1. I will extol thee,
my God, O King. I'll bless thy name forever and
ever. Every day will I bless thee and
will praise thy name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and
greatly to be praised. His greatness is unsearchable. So we do desire to praise the
Lord, but not in a flippant, vain way. And really, when you
think about it, when you come right down to it, you don't even
need to audibly speak those words, do you? In your heart before
God, you can praise and worship the Lord in your heart and not
utter one syllable, not utter one word. The Lord looks upon
the heart anyway, doesn't he? hooks upon the heart. Now this
is every believer's true desire to honor and to exalt and worship
the Lord, and it's heart worship. It's inward in the heart, not
just with lip service, but with a sincere heart, a full gratitude,
full of gratitude Thanksgiving and love to Him and everything
give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. Remember our Lord said in John
chapter 4 that the Father seeketh such to worship Him in spirit
and in truth. I learned years ago you cannot
worship God in the spirit apart from the truth. Christ is that
truth, is He not? Our Lord said to those Pharisees
in his day, this people draw nigh unto me with their mouth,
and they honor me with their lips, but their heart, the heart's
far from me. But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. God seeketh such to worship
him in spirit and in truth. Around the truth of who God is,
who we are, who Christ is, what he accomplished for us, As a
matter of fact, we can truly worship and praise the Lord,
as I said earlier, and not utter a word, because God looks upon
the heart. You remember the story of Hannah.
Hannah was Samuel's mother. Hannah was barren, and she cried
to the Lord for a child. And she said, Lord, if you give
me that child, I'll dedicate that young man unto the Lord.
And she did. And the Lord heard her prayer,
and the Lord gave her Samuel, that great servant of the Lord.
But when she was in the temple there praying, and Eli, the old
priest, noticed Hannah praying, and her mouth was moving, but
she did not utter a word. And old Eli looked at her and
said, she's drunk. There's something wrong with
her. No, God was looking on her heart. She was crying out unto
the Lord. And if you read 1 Samuel chapter
2, that tremendous prayer that Hannah prayed in 1 Samuel chapter
2, Hannah prayed and said, my heart rejoices in the Lord. My
horn is exalted in the Lord, my mouth is enlarged over my
enemy, because I rejoice in thy salvation. There is none holy
of the Lord, for there is none beside thee, neither is there
any rock like our God." She was praising the Lord, wasn't she?
Didn't even move her mouth. That's in the heart. God looks
upon the heart. That's a matter of salvation
is in the heart. Look at verse 2 now. While I live, we live by the
sovereign grace of God, don't we? We live by the sovereign
purpose of God. While I live, I'll praise the
Lord. While I have any being, any being at all, or any sense
at all, I will sing unto the Lord, sing praises unto the Lord. I like this phrase here, He's
my God. He's my God. I think of that
psalm over here, don't turn, See if I can find it for you
quickly. When Psalmist said, the Lord is my light, my light,
my salvation. The Lord is the strength of my
life. He's my light, my salvation, because He's my God. He is God,
our Savior. You see that? I will sing unto
my God. My God is a true and living,
true and living God. Every believer is highly motivated
to worship the Lord. We have good reason to do so
because he's given us life. Not only physical and fleshly
life, and even that's the gift of God. Every breath you take is a gift
of God. We quickly die for lack of fresh
air, don't we? Every breath you take is a gift
of God. But more importantly, we have
spiritual life by the sovereign will, eternal purpose and grace
of God. He's given us not only a physical
being and physical life, but he's given us eternal life, spiritual
life. You have to eat quick until we're
dead. Those who are made alive by the power of God, and quickened
by His grace, what do they do? They say, salvations of the Lord. They don't say things like, I
did my part and God did His part. We put the two together and now
we have a whole. No. It's not of Him that willeth,
nor of Him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Remember
we read that a moment ago. Of His own will beget He us with
the word of truth. With the word of truth. Here's what we're to do. We're
to praise the Lord. We're to sing praises unto the
Lord. And verse 3 is what we're not to do. Put not your trust in any prince
or princess, nor in any son of Adam, man, in whom there is no
salvation. You see that? That marginal reference
on that word help, see the marginal reference number six, the center
reference if you have the Cambridge I'm looking at, there's no salvation
found in. Man is not the cause of salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. Believers
desire to worship the Lord and to put their confidence only
in the Lord. We desire to worship Him, to
honor Him, therefore we'll put no confidence in In our flesh,
and even this, we put no confidence in our faith. You with me? Our faith is not
in faith. Faith is in Christ. We put no
confidence in our flesh or our faith. We put our faith in Christ. Saving faith always looks to
Christ. We dare not trust Our flesh,
we dare not trust our faith. We trust Christ, the object of
our faith, the foundation of our faith. Paul puts it this
way in Philippians 3, we are the true Israel which worship
God in the spirit, that rejoice in Christ Jesus, and we have
no confidence in the flesh. We often hear people say, they
go through a terrible situation, and they often say, people that
really don't know any better, they often say, well, my faith
got me through. That's just bragging. That's just self-righteousness.
If you were given grace to get through that trial, it's God
who sustained you and helped you. It wasn't something, you
know, it's almost like they say, you know, I'm going to work it
up and have energy. No, the strength of faith is
Christ, the object of faith. There is no help, no salvation
in any earthly prince. Our hope and help of salvation
is in the prince of peace. The Prince of Peace, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He made peace for us with His
own blood. There is no help, no salvation
in any son of man or the best of men. You see, the man at his
best state, you remember Psalm 39, man at his best state is
altogether vanity. Would you trust something that's
vain? Someone said to trust vanity is the height of insanity. To
trust vanity, man at his best state is altogether vanity. We're
to come to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in our time of need. We don't look to any
mere man or any hope of forgiveness. I thought about that sermon,
that message I brought Sunday about confession. You know, we
confess unto the Lord what we are. We don't go into some little
special room and confess our sins to some man, and then some
man says, well, if you confess your sins, I'm going to forgive
them. Well, who are you? I mean, our confession is unto
the Lord. He's the only one that if we
confess our sin, He's faithful and just to forgive our sin and
to cleanse us from all our sin. So I'm going to confess to Christ. I'm going to look to Him for
salvation. There's salvation in no other,
is there? Now look at verse 5, and here's the reason that we're
not to put our trust in anyone but Christ or anything but Christ. The reason being, any mere man,
his breath goes forth and he returns to the earth. Thus thou
art, thus thou shalt return. His breath goes forth. Soon as
God takes his breath, he's dead. This body is only sustained by
the gift of God giving you the ability to breathe. You don't even think about breathing,
do you? I mean, it's something we do unconsciously. We're not
even conscious of it. Until we get in such a situation
that we cannot breathe, and then you struggle to breathe. The
Lord takes that breath and we're gone. We're dead. We're dead. That's why we're
not to trust ourselves. Cursed is that man, Jeremiah
said. Cursed is that man that trusteth in man, that maketh
the flesh his arm. Would you dare trust something
that God said is cursed? That's like trusting vanity.
Vanity. Vanity. His breath goes forth,
he returns to his earth, Where did man come from? Out of the
dust. God formed him and breathed into
him the breath of life. And when God takes that breath
of life back, where does he go? Back to the dust. His spirit
returns to God who gave it. In that very day, verse 4, his
thoughts perish. His thoughts perish. His brain
function is dead. He doesn't think anymore. He's
dead. This human body is dead. Dead. Now for the believer to be absent
from the body is to be present with the Lord. But look at verse
5. Look at verse 5. Happy. Happy, happy, happy, happy. Blessed is that word, blessed.
Who's a blessed man? Blessed is that man whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Blessed is that man to whom God
has chosen and causes to approach unto him. Blessed is that man
whom the Lord will not charge iniquity. Happy is he that hath
the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his
God. That's the blessed man. The blessed man is the man who
has all of his help, all of his salvation from the Lord. Salvation
is of the Lord in his planning, his execution, his sustaining
power, his ultimate perfection and application. Salvation is
all of the Lord. The God of Jacob is his salvation,
whose hope is in the Lord his God. And I love those two words,
help and hope. Help and hope. You see that?
Help and hope in the God of Jacob. Look right across the page in
Psalm 144, verse 15. You see that? Happy is the people
that is in such a cache. Happy is that people whose God
is the Lord. That's a happy man. The happy
man who knows that God is God. And beside him there is no other. We find in the scripture this
God of Jacob. He's often, God calls himself
the God of Jacob. 26 times I've found that God
is called the God of Jacob. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. He will have mercy on whom he
will. And whom he will, he'll harden. The God of Jacob is the
covenant God. The covenant God. The God of
Jacob. The God of Jacob had the covenant
sacrificed in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our sacrifice.
The God of peace that brought again from the dead that Lord
Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood
of everlasting covenant. The God of Jacob is the God of
covenant mercies, covenant mercies in Christ. Incline your ear and
come unto me, Isaiah 55, here and your soul shall live. I'll
make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies
of David, the sure mercies of Christ our Lord. So the God of
Jacob is the covenant God. He has a covenant sacrifice,
Christ and him crucified. He has covenant mercies, I will
have mercy on whom I will. He's a God of covenant love.
You know that word covenant found in scripture over 250 times? God the covenant God. The covenant
of love, he said, I've loved thee with an everlasting love,
therefore with love and kindness I'll draw thee to myself. The
God of Jacob is the God of covenant revelation. He's hid these things
from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes. And
this covenant God, this God of Jacob, is the God of covenant
salvation. What did David say on his deathbed?
Although it be not so with my house, God hath made me be an
everlasting covenant, ordering all things. And sure, this is
all my hope and all my salvation. He's the God of covenant salvation.
He is all our help for the present, isn't he? I need present help,
present help. I lift up my eyes unto the Lord
from which come with my help. He said, I'm the Lord, I change
not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob, you're not consumed. He is all
our help for the present, and He's all our hope for the future. What is your future? I have a
good future. Christ is all my future. Christ
is all. He's all our help for the present.
He's all our hope for the future. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Now, I don't want to alarm you, but from verse 6 down through
verse 10, he tells us 5, 10, 12 things the Lord is going to do
for us. You reckon I can get through
those 12 things? 12 glorious things are given to
us. We have a good fit description of God of Jacob. This is what
God says concerning himself. This is the way, this is why
we should trust him alone, why he alone should be our help and
should be our hope and all of our salvation, all of our righteousness. He gives us 12 things right here. The first one is this, he made
heaven. He's a creator. He made heaven
and earth. He made the sea. And all that
is in the sea and in the earth, He made all things. He keeps
the truth forever. That's why we should trust Him.
He is our Creator. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
Creator. Not only heaven and earth, but
in this new creation, in this work of regeneration. He hath
made us, not we ourselves. We are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. Only Christ can make us and create
us and make us fit for heaven. He's translated us out of the
kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God, dear son. Why
should we trust him? Well, he's the creator. He's
created all things. by the word of His power, by
the word of His power. Here's the second reason. The
second reason is found in verse 6. He keeps truth forever. Truth. He keeps truth forever. Truth
never changes. Truth can be trusted. What did
the Lord say? I am the way, the truth, the
life. No man come to the Father but
by and through me. He said the truth will set you
free. Heaven and earth will pass away. His truth, His word abides
forever. He is truth. We can trust Him
who is the true and living God. Here is The third one, found in verse
7, he executes judgment for the oppressed. The Lord giveth food
to the hungry, the Lord looseth the prisoner. The Lord executes
judgment and justice for the oppressed. Those covenant people
who are oppressed with sin, he judged our sin in himself and
put it away. What a marvel. And then He gives
us His righteousness. God made Him to be sin for us
who knew no sin that we might be made to righteousness of God
in Him. Blessed is that man whom the
Lord imputeth righteousness without work. He executes judgment. Aren't you glad your sin was
executed in Him? There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Him. And then it says there He gives
He giveth. He giveth. He giveth. He's the
Good Shepherd who giveth His life for the sheep. The Good
Shepherd giveth. He giveth. He giveth. And He
gives food. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall
not want. And He gives food to those who
are hungry. Those who are hungry for salvation
in Christ, He feeds them with the bread of life. He gives food
to the hungry. He's the water of life. The Lord
does feed His sheep. He waters His sheep as the Good
Shepherd. He's the water of life. He's
the bread of life. He's the milk of the Word. And
He's the meat of the Word. Oh, He gives us His food. The
food of His Word, His truth. And then, the fifth one is found
in the last part of verse 7, the Lord. It's the Lord that
looseth the prisoners. You remember when our Lord went
to Nazareth and asked for the book of Isaiah, and he opened
and read from Isaiah 61, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me
because He has anointed me to heal the brokenhearted, to set
the captive at liberty, to loose the prisoner. The Lord looseth
the prisoner. And that's what He has done for
His people. The Lord gives us freedom. From the prison of sin
and bondage of the law, he sets us at liberty. From the power
penalty of sin, he sets us free. Stand fast therefore in the liberty
what with Christ has set us free. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
set sinners free, didn't he? He is the liberator. He is the
deliverer. He shall deliver all Israel from
their sin. Now he is not talking about a
political nation Israel, he is talking about his spiritual elect.
He shall deliver all Israel from their sin. In verse 8, it says, this is
what the Lord does. He opens the eyes of the blind.
Now, we've studied that in the book of Matthew. When the Lord
walked among men in the flesh, He gave blind men sight. The Lord is still opening the
eyes of the blind, who are blind spiritually, who cannot see Him. Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the Kingdom of God. The Lord opens our eyes, doesn't
He? He opens our eyes to who we are, sinners. He opens our
eyes to who He is, the Lord Jesus Christ. He opens our eyes with
the eye of faith. We see in Christ all of our salvation. He gives us eyes of faith. We
were blind because we were dead in sin. And then, I like this
one too. The Lord openeth the eyes of
the blind. They said, the Lord, it's the
Lord who raises them that are bowed down. The Lord raises up
those that are bowed down. Bowed down. Look right across
the page at verse 14. Psalm 145, The Lord upholdeth
all that fall, He raises up all those that be bowed down. He
bows us down, He bows us down, and then He raises us up. Isn't
that amazing? That's amazing grace, is it not?
Amazing grace. I've got another reference here,
let me turn to it quickly. Don't turn, let me just read
it to you. In Psalm 113, the Lord is high
above all nations, his glory above the heavens, who is likened
to the Lord, our God, who dwelleth on high, who humbleth himself
to behold the things that are in the earth and heaven. He raises
up the poor out of the dust. He lifts the beggar, the needy,
out of the dunghill, that he may set him among the princes,
even the princes of his people. He raises the poor out of the
dust. He raises us up from the dead. He raises the beggar from the
dunghill, and He makes him a king-priest unto our God. Verse 8, again
it says, The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind. The Lord raises
up them that are bound down. The Lord loveth the righteous.
He loves the righteous. He truly does love the righteous.
You say, well, preacher, I'm not righteous. You're right.
I'm not righteous. But in Christ I am. He is made
to me the Lord our righteousness. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God, which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord,
can He love anything less than righteousness? He's too holy
to love anything less than righteousness. The Lord loveth the righteous.
He commends His love toward us. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. That's how we're made righteous.
He loveth the righteous, you see that? Verse 9, here's the ninth one. The Lord preserveth the strangers. We were alien from the commonwealth
of Israel, strangers from the covenants of grace, without God,
without hope, and without Christ. And yet, He had a people among
these strangers. And the Lord preserveth them.
God preserveth them. The Lord preserves the strangers
because we are just strangers and pilgrims here. We're just
passing through, looking for a city whose builder and maker
is God. We, by nature, are strangers,
but we're made nigh by the blood of Christ. The Lord is pleased
to save. And He saves us with everlasting
salvation. He preserves us. We're kept by
the power of God. Some of you ladies do canning,
don't you? And you use that pressure cooker or the hot bath or whatever
and you take them out and you set them over on the shelf and
then you go off and do some work around and you listen, don't
you? And what are you listening for?
That pop. Then you know it's sealed, right? It's preserved. The Lord preserves
His people because we're kept by the power of God. We're sealed
with the Holy Spirit of promise. And then it says, He relieveth,
verse 9, He relieveth the fatherless, the widow, but the way of the
wicked He turns upside down. He's our relief. It used to be
a commercial years ago, remember? How do you spell relief? Jesus
Christ is our relief. He relieves all our need. We're
destitute sinners. He's able to meet all our needs
according to His riches in glory through Christ Jesus. To the
widow, Christ is our husband. To the orphan, Christ is our
father. But, he says, there's that word
again, but, the way of the wicked. He turns upside down. Nothing
is more wicked before God Almighty than to try to earn salvation
by what you do. That's wicked. God won't have
it because it's an insult to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a
spit in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. The way of the
wicked, there is a way that seems right unto men. The end of that
way is death. The way of the wicked, He'll
turn it upside down. He'll destroy it. Those men in
Matthew 7, Lord, we preached in your name. Lord, we've done
these many wonderful works. Lord, we've cast out demons. Lord, we've done all these things.
Depart from me, I never knew you. Boy, he turned it upside
down, didn't he? Turned it upside down. The Lord
shall reign, how long? The Lord shall reign as long
as you hold out. The Lord shall reign forever
and ever. He saves us with an everlasting
salvation. He gives us eternal life. The
Lord shall reign forever, even thy God, O Zion. Zion is His
city, His church, His people, O Zion, unto all generations. Now, what are you going to say to
that? Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye
the Lord. What are you going to say to
that? Who art thou? But, O man, who art thou that
replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made thee thus? Hast not
the potter piled over the clay the same lump to make one vessel
unto honour and another unto dishonour? What shall we say? Praise ye the Lord. The Lord shall reign from everlasting
to everlasting. Thou art God, O Zion. Now praise
the Lord.