Psalm 146. I love the study of
the Psalms. The years starting in 2010, 11,
and 12, maybe some in 13, we went all through the Psalms for
two or three years, and it was such a blessing to me, and I
trust it was to you. The Psalms are the book of praise. It's praise unto the Lord. Someone
said it's the church's hymn book. Spelled H-I-M. It's all about
hymn. All about hymn. So I'm entitling
the message from this Psalm 146 from the words found in verse
5. Happy is he that hath the God
of Jacob. The God of Jacob. The God of
salvation is the God of Jacob for His help. His help and hope. We have help and hope in the
Lord, His God. I looked this up today in Isaiah
41, verse 14. Let me just read it to you. Fear
not thy worm, Jacob, and ye men of Israel. I will help thee,
saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One, the Holy One of
Israel. Remember, in our study some years
back from Genesis 32, when the Lord met Jacob and changed his
name to Israel, the Lord asked him, what is your name? And he
said, my name's Jacob. God said, yeah, I know what your
name is. I know who you are. But now I'm
going to make you Israel, a prince, a prince with God. The God of
Jacob singled him out and blessed him abundantly, not because Jacob
was worthy, just the opposite, but rather because the God of
Jacob is gracious and long-suffering to his people. Jacob have I loved
Esau. have I hated." I like these words
of Jacob when he said, I'm not worthy of the least of all thy
mercies and of all thy truth. And we can say that in our heart,
we're not worthy of the least of God's mercies unto us, but
the Lord shows mercy unto His people because He delights to
do so. He delights to show mercy. This
psalm begins with the words, hallelujah, praise the Lord,
and it ends with the same words, praise ye the Lord, or hallelujah,
hallelujah. Now, sadly, this phrase has been
widely used and abused by this religious world, so much so that
it's been reduced to a mere meaningless religious slogan, phrase, or
even a slang word. Remember back years ago, they
had that PTL club back in the, what, 70s and 80s? And they were
always talking about praise the Lord. But it was used in such
an irreverent way to the point of contempt, to the point of
using the name of the Lord in vain. We ought to take great
care in using the name of the Lord, lest we're guilty of taking
his name in vain. The scriptures teach us in Psalm
111, holy and reverent, holy and reverent, is His name. Don't ever call someone who says
he's a preacher Mr. Reverend Jones or Reverend Smith. Don't ever call a man reverend.
And certainly don't address me that way. I'm a sinner saved
by God's grace. Holy and reverend is His name.
His name. So remember that. Now let's look
at verse 1 for a moment. Praise ye the Lord. And notice
it's capital L-O-R-D. Praise the Lord. And do it, praise
the Lord, O my soul, O my soul. Not just with word service, but
in sincerity of heart. This is every believer's desire,
is it not? To honor, to esteem, to exalt,
and to worship the Lord. Not with lip service, but with
sincerity of heart. with gratitude of heart, thanksgiving,
and love unto the Lord. Remember, our Lord said to those
Pharisees, you honor me with your lips, but your heart is
far from me. For you teach for doctrines and
commandments of men. The Lord seeketh such to worship
him in spirit and in truth. I want to worship the Lord and
do so in truth, in truth, in His truth, the truth of His Word,
the truth of who He is, the truth of who we are. We can, as a matter
of fact, worship the Lord and praise the Lord and not utter
a word. We can praise and honor and worship
the Lord and not say outwardly, audibly, one single word. Hannah prayed that way. Eli watched
her and she was moving her mouth but didn't speak outwardly anything. And Eli the priest accused her
of being a drunk woman. She said, no, I'm not drunk.
I'm simply praising the Lord. I'm laying out my burden to the
Lord. You see, God looks on the heart.
God looks on the heart. You remember he told Samuel that
when he went down to the house of Jesse and looked at all them
big boys, big strong boys of Jesse. And finally he said, God
rejected all them. And finally said to Jesse, you
have any sons left? God rejected all those. And Jesse
said, yeah, but I'm embarrassed to tell you about him. He's up
there in the field keeping a sheep. And Samuel said, you go get him,
fetch him, bring him here. And he did. And the Lord spoke
to Samuel and said, that's my anointed. God looked on the heart
of all them other boys and passed them by. God looked on the heart
of David and said, this is a man after my own heart. And of course,
you know the rest of the story, how David was anointed and blessed
as the king of Israel. And he writes these words, I
believe. This psalm, like Psalm 145, is the psalm of David. Now
notice verse 2, he says, while I live, while I live, will I
praise the Lord? While I have life, will I praise
the Lord? It's kind of a form of a question,
although there's not a question mark there. But the answer comes
back quickly, I will. I will. praise, sing praises
unto my God while I have any, any being at all. Every believer is highly motivated
to worship the Lord. We have good reason to do so
because we have life while we have any being. He's given us
life, not only physical and fleshly life, but more importantly, He's
given us spiritual life. In Him we live, in Him we move,
in Him we have our being. Of His own will begat He us with
the Word of truth. Now, while I live, while I have
any being, while I'm here among men, I'm going to give Him all
the honor and glory. I'm going to worship Him. Now, he tells us what not to
do. He said, now we're going to praise
the Lord, but here's what we're not going to do. It's good to know what not to
do, isn't it? Put not your trust in princes. The Lord tells us
over and over and over again, trust the Lord. Trust the Lord. Put your trust in Him. Put not
your trust in princes. were kings, princes of the earth,
were kings of the earth, nor in the son of man, and he means
by that any son of Adam, in whom there is no salvation. Now, wouldn't
it be a foolish thing to trust that where God says there is
no salvation? Put not your trust in any prince
or president or king, There's no help from them, not any spiritual
help from them, in whom there is no salvation in them. Salvation
is not found in earthly men, places, or churches. Salvation
is found in Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we can be assured
of it. There is salvation in Him. I
like what Simeon said, Lord let me die in peace. I've seen thy
salvation when he picked up that 40 day old baby, when they brought
him to do according to the custom of the law. Believers desire
to worship the Lord, therefore they will put confidence, the
confidence or their faith, In him we dare not trust the flesh. I don't know if you pick up the
paper and read it, but there was an article in the paper by
a particular writer. She writes almost every week.
And she writes a little something in our local paper about religious
things. And she had an article in there
about Abraham. about Abraham's faith. Abraham
is held forth in the scripture as an example of faith, right? But in that article, she made
this statement and she got it from someone who wrote a book
about Abraham and Abraham's faith, but she said, or this man quoting
this man, Abraham's faith was in his faith. That's not so. Scripture says explicitly, Abraham
believed God. Abraham believed the Word of
God. Faith comes by hearing. By hearing
by the Word of God, our faith is in Christ. Faith is not in
faith. You see how deluded people can
be when they write these convoluted books about Abraham's faith?
His faith was just in faith. No, it's faith. What did the
Lord say? Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw and was glad. So, we put
our trust in Him. In Him. Now, don't trust the
flesh. Mine, yours, or anybody else's.
There's no salvation in the flesh. Matter of fact, Jeremiah, God
says to his prophet Jeremiah, cursed is everyone that trusteth
in the flesh. You remember Paul said, I put
no confidence in the flesh. Now, here's why, verse four. Verse four. His breath goes forth, he returns
to his earth, In that very day, his thoughts perish. Here's why
there is no salvation or help or hope in any son of man or
any prince or any king of the earth. He's just a man. He's just a man. He breathes. How many breaths do you take
in 24 hours? You take a lot of breaths in
24 hours, don't you? One day you take your last breath.
The Lord gives the breath and the Lord takes the breath away.
And when the Lord takes the breath away, notice what He says here,
He returneth to His earth. It's His. That plot in the ground,
that dust, that's yours. Dust thou art, dust thou shall
return. His breath goes forth from Him.
God gives breath and God takes it away. In that very day, all
of his plans and ambitions and thoughts and schemes, they perish
with him. They perish with him. There is
no salvation in any earthly king. We do look unto the Son of God,
who became the Son of Man, that we might become the sons of God
in our blessed Savior. Now, the reason he gives us for
not trusting or looking and trusting the flesh, all flesh, you remember
how many times we've studied this in Isaiah and other places,
all flesh is grass. That's the flower of the field.
And it fades away. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. Someone said, I quoted it, I
wrote down his quote rather, He said to trust in vanity, all
flesh is, the man in his best state is vanity. To trust vanity
is the height of insanity. To trust vanity, man in his best
state is altogether vanity. So to trust vanity is insanity. Back to his earth, but the word
of our God will abide forever. His breath goes forth, he returns
to his earth, In that very day, his life on this earth, his thoughts,
they perish. Now, verse 5, happy, blessed. That word happy is blessed. Blessed
is a man whom the Lord chooses and causes to approach unto him.
Happy and blessed is that man whom the Lord will not impute
sin. Psalm 32. Happy is he that hath
the God of Jacob, the God of Jacob for his help, His hope,
the God of Jacob for His salvation. The God of Jacob. Happy and blessed
is that man who has the God of Jacob for His hope and help. Look across the page at Psalm
144, verse 15. Happy is that people, that is
such a cache. Happy is that people whose God
is the Lord. whose God is the Lord. The Lord. The Lord our God uses
this name more than any other when He describes Himself. The
God of Jacob. The God of Jacob. Now, I counted
26 times in the Word of God we read the God of Jacob. You remember
from Malachi where it says, I am the Lord, I change not, therefore
ye sons of Jacob, You sons of Jacob are not consumed. Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated. The God of Jacob is the God of
covenant mercies. He said, I'll give you the sure
mercies of David. The God of Jacob is the God of
covenant love. He loved his people with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness
does he call us, draw us to himself. The God of Jacob is the God of
covenant revelation. He hid these things from the
wise and prudent, revealed them unto Babe, even so, Father, for
so it seemed good in His sight. And the God of Jacob is the God
of covenant salvation. The covenant God. You know how
many times that word covenant is used in Scripture? Over 250
times. God is the God of a covenant. Covenant God. The covenant of
salvation. I like what David said, upon
his deathbed, his dying words, God has made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things, and it is sure. It's sure. So, this God of Jacob,
the true and living God, He's all our help. He's all our help. Remember our Lord said, come
boldly unto the throne of grace that you may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need. He's all our help in the
past and in the present and in the future. He was our help even
before we knew Him. He knew us. He was our help then. He's our help now. He's the same
yesterday, today, and forever. He's all our help and He's all
our hope. He's our help now and our hope
forever. We have a hope, don't we? A good hope. Paul said it's
a good hope through grace. Through the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. The hope of glory. We have hope. whose hope is in the Lord his
God. Christ himself is our hope. He's
called that Christ our life, Christ our hope. All hope now and all hope forever. Now in verses 6 down through
10, verse 10, the end of the psalm, We have God's fit description,
the Lord our God, the God of Jacob, a fit description of Himself. Twelve things, glorious things
are given unto us, and it teaches us again that salvation is of
the Lord, whose hope is in the Lord his God, notice, not period,
colon. which made heaven and earth."
That's our God. He's the Creator. Created all
things by the Word of His power. He created the sea and all that
is therein. God spoke all things. God said, let there be light,
and there was light. In the beginning, God created
all things. He's the Lord, our God. Created
all things. And think about this. How does
a dead sinner have a created new spiritual life? He's our
creator. He gives us spiritual life. You
have the Quickened who were dead. You're going to see that in Ephesians
2 on Sunday. He made heaven and earth and
He makes us fit for His presence. He makes us fit for His presence.
He translates us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom
of God's dear Son, and He makes us fit for His presence in that
He gives us a new nature just like unto Himself in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we give thanks unto the Father
who hath made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in Christ, who delivered us from the power of darkness, translated
us into the kingdom of God, dear Son, in whom we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sin, who is the image of the
invisible God. He's the firstborn Lord of every
creature. Salvation is of the Lord. And
then, here's the second thing. He keeps truth. He keeps truth,
which keepeth truth forever. Everything He speaks is true.
You know, there are some things that God cannot do. He cannot
change. I'm the Lord, I change. He cannot
lie, can He? It's impossible for God to lie.
He keeps truth forever. Lives always change. Truth never
changes. What God spoke 10,000 years ago,
6,000 years ago, 4,000 years ago, is still true today. He said heaven and earth is going
to pass away. My word is never going to pass away. He keeps
truth and speaks truth forever. Why is that so important? Our
Lord said you should know the truth and the truth will set
you free. Our Lord said I am the way, I
am truth. I am the way, I am truth, I am
life, no man come to the Father but by and through me. Look at
verse 7. The Lord executed judgment for
those who were oppressed. The Lord giveth food to the hungry,
the Lord looseth the prisoner. Let's look at those three things
in verse 7. The Lord executes judgment and justice for the
oppressed. Those, His covenant people, who
are oppressed with their sin, think about this, He judged our
sin in Himself, because He bare our sin in His own body on the
tree. Christ suffered once for our sin, the just for the unjust,
that He might bring us unto God. He executed judgment. He executed
judgment upon himself for our sin. When he by himself purged
our sin, he sat down at the right hand of God. What a marvel of
God's sovereign, sovereign grace, which executed judgment for the
oppressed. He takes all of our sin, all
the sin of God's people, takes them to Himself, bears our sin
in His own body, bears them away, and then gives us His righteousness. That's redemption, deliverance
from sin, and righteousness. Two things I must have. And they're
both in Christ. He has done these things for
us. And then it says, He gives food to the hungry. We feed upon
the Lord. The Lord giveth food to the hungry.
He's our Good Shepherd. Because the Lord is our Good
Shepherd, we shall not want. He leads us beside still waters,
green pastures of His Word. He feeds His sheep, the water
of life. He said, Ho, everyone that thirsty,
come unto Me and drink. The Lord is the bread of life.
He said, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to Me shall never
hunger, shall never thirst. He is the milk of the Word, where
believers desire the sincere milk of the Word, and we might
grow thereby. The Lord is called, in Hebrews chapter 5, He's called
the meat of the Word. The substance of the Word is
Christ. He's the sum, substance, and subject matter of the Word.
The Lord giveth food to His people. You remember our Lord instructed
His church to feed them with the gospel. Feed the church of
God which He purchased with His own blood. Christ, we feed upon
Christ. He's the heavenly manna. And
then it says the Lord, the last part of verse 7, it's
the Lord that looseth the prisoner. Now by nature, We're held captive
by sin. We're held captive by the law
of God because we've trespassed against the law of God. And we're
guilty before God. Let every mouth be stopped and
all the world become guilty before God. And we're in prison. Nowhere to get out. Sentenced
to death. Guilty before God. What does
He do? He takes our judgment and sets
us free. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that amazing? The Lord looseth the prisoner.
That's why He came. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
set the captive free. You remember from our study in
Luke chapter 4? From Isaiah 61? He said, the Spirit of the Lord
is upon me because I came to set the captive free." To open
blind eyes and to set them free. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
seek and to save the lost. He didn't come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. And then the Lord not only looses
the prisoner, sets us free, gives us liberty, delivers us from
the curse of the law, but He opens our eyes. You see verse
8? It's the Lord that opens our eyes. We were blind. We were blind, dead, and in prison. Had no way to see. Except a man
be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. It's the
Lord that's opened our eyes. He's given us eyes and lightened
our understanding that we might see Him. The Lord has opened
the eyes of the blind. You remember this scripture from
our study? 2 Corinthians 4, He commands
the light to shine out of darkness. He shines in our heart to give
us the light and the knowledge of the glory of God that shines
in the face of Jesus Christ. The Lord opens the eyes of the
blind. We were blind to our own sin,
ignorant, dumb, and dead without God, without Christ, and without
hope. And the Lord opened our eyes. Now we see that we're sinners. Now we see that God is holy.
And now we see that Christ is all of our salvation. Here's
the next thing he says here. The Lord raises up those that
are bowed down. He's nigh them of a broken heart. You remember from last week,
right across the page, Psalm 145 verse 14, "...the Lord upholdeth
all that fall, He raises up those that are bowed down." It's the
Lord that raises those up who were bowed, broken, hearted,
over sin. And then it says, the last part
of verse 8, "...the Lord, it's the Lord that loveth the righteous."
Now, hmm. Preacher, wait a minute. In and of myself, by nature,
by birth, I'm not righteous. You're right. All of our righteousnesses
before God are filthy rags. But the Lord loveth the righteous. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God, which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He loves
the righteous. He loves those in Christ. And
he loves us. His people with an everlasting
love in the Lord Jesus Christ because we are righteous. In
Him, He is our righteousness. The Lord loveth the Son, right? Has given all things into His
hand. And the Lord loves all those in His Son. The Lord loveth
His people. Covenant people. Verse 9. Verse
9. The Lord preserveth the strangers. And that's us by nature. We're
strangers from the covenants of God without hope, without
Christ in this world. But the Lord preserves those
strangers that are His people. He preserves them. We are strangers
and pilgrims here like Abraham. We're just passing through looking
for a city whose builder and maker is God. were made nigh
by the blood of Christ. Those who the Lord is pleased
to save, they're saved with an everlasting salvation. The Lord preserveth were kept
by the power of God. The Lord preserveth his people.
And then it says, he relieveth the fatherless and the widow. Hmm. The Lord is our relief. How do you spell relief? The
Lord Jesus Christ. He's able to meet all our need
according to His riches in glory. To the widow, to the believer
who is a widow, Christ is our husband. He's the husband of
those who believe. To the orphan, Christ is our
Father. We're sons of God, adopted into His family. Want for nothing. Have everything. All spiritual
blessings in Him. The Lord loveth the righteous.
The Lord, it's the Lord. He relieveth the fatherless and
the widow. You see, all these things we've
read here, it's the Lord. It's the Lord. I kind of get
the idea here that it's the Lord, that salvation's of the Lord,
in the Lord, of the Lord, because of Him. But, uh-oh, uh-oh. But the way of the wicked, he
turneth upside down. I tell you, my friend, there's
nothing more wicked before God than to seek salvation by self-righteousness. There's a way that seems right
unto man, the end of that way is death. The way of the wicked,
he's going to turn it upside down. Verse 10, the Lord shall reign forever,
even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Now, praise you,
the Lord. Praise you, the Lord, because
the Lord reigns. You know the word sovereignty
is not in the Bible. The Lord does reign. That's where
the word sovereignty comes from. The Lord does reign forever and
ever. His reign is total and complete.
He is the sovereign king. He will have mercy. We read it.
He will have mercy on whom He will. Why? Because He's the Lord
who reigns. Grace is always called sovereign
grace. While the unbeliever might say,
well, that's not fair. That's not right for God to have
mercy on whom He will. The believer rejoices that his
Lord is God and the King of all the earth. What is our message? You remember Isaiah 52. How beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bring us good tidings,
that publish peace, that bring us good tidings of good, that
publish salvation, that say unto Zion, unto the church, what do
we say? Thy God reigneth. Thy God reigneth. How long has He been reigning
as God? Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did He in heaven and earth, sea, and all deep places, from
everlasting to everlasting. Thou art God. He rules and reigns
over all things. In Revelation 19, I'll quit with
this. Let me just read it to you. And the four and twenty elders
and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on
the throne saying, what did they say? They said, hallelujah. What
did we say that meant? Praise the Lord. And the voice
came out of the throne saying, praise our God, all you His servants,
all you that fear Him, both great and small. And I heard, as it
were, the voice of great multitude, as the voice of many waters,
as the voice of mighty thundering, saying, hallelujah. That's our
message now. And that's our message forever.
The four and twenty elders there representing the church of God.
Hallelujah for the Lord God omnipotent. Reigneth. He reigns. The Lord shall reign. Not maybe,
not could be. He doesn't reign if we let Him
reign. No, He reigns as King over all things forever and ever
and ever.