Psalm 145. Psalm 145. I'm entitling the message from
this psalm. I'm calling it the crowning jewel
of praise. Notice under Psalm 145 it says
David's psalm of praise. David's psalm of praise. I believe
that's a believer's desire, is it not? To praise the Lord. Not this outward show of religion,
but in our heart before God, He looks upon the heart. Isn't
our desire this evening and every day, it says here, every day
I'll bless Him. Every day I'll praise Him. Isn't
that desire of our heart? In our heart, in our soul before
God is to honor Him. by believing Him and therefore
we love to worship Him. We're going to see in this psalm
that that is the theme of this psalm is praising the Lord. I know this, He's worthy of it,
He's deserving of it, all praise and honor. Praising the Lord
is the essence of worship. is the essence of worship the
Lord, worshiping the Lord. He seeketh such to worship him
in spirit and in truth. Believers cannot live without
praying unto the Lord. That is our life breath. We have seen that many times
in our study where David says, Lord, hear my cry. Look down
at verse 19. He will fulfill the desire of
them that fear him. He will also hear their cry. That's our prayer unto the Lord.
Believers cannot live without praying, nor can they live without
praising the Lord for all that He is. All that He is. This psalm sets forth the attributes
of God as He is. All that He has done, talked
about His wonderful works of salvation. All that He is, all
that He has done, and all that He has freely given to us in
the Lord Jesus Christ. God who spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely, open hand, freely give us all things? That is David's determination. David, a man after God's own
heart, a sinner saved by the grace of God. Look at verse one
and two. I will extol thee. I will. I will. Now, by nature, we don't
have a will to do that. By nature, the will is self-ward
and downward, never God-ward, upward. But thy people shall
be willing in the day of God's power. I will, by His grace,
by His power, exalt thee. You're my God. He's my God. My King, I will bless the Lord,
worship the Lord, praise the Lord forever and ever. That starts here, doesn't it?
That starts here. But it will never end. It'll
never end. We'll praise the Lord here every
day. Believers will. The saints of God will. But for
eternity, we'll be praising the Lord, singing worthy is the Lamb
that was slain to receive all honor and glory. Look at verse
2. Every day, Every day, this is the day the Lord hath made.
We will be glad in it, remember? Every day will I bless thee.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, David said in Psalm 103. Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy
name. And I'll praise thy name. He says that twice. I'll bless
thy name. And I'll praise thy name forever
and ever. God has given him a name which
is above every name. That's that name. God has highly
exalted him, given him a name which is above every name. That's
that name. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord. You remember his name. Turn to
Isaiah. Turn over here to Isaiah. Is it chapter 9? Yes it is, chapter
9, Isaiah 9 verse 6. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, the government shall be upon his shoulders,
his name, I praise his name, his name declares who he is.
His name shall be called Wonderful, notice these are all capital
letters, Wonderful. He's a counselor. He's a mighty
God. He's the everlasting Father.
He's the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government
and peace, there shall be no end. Upon the throne of David,
upon his kingdom to order it, to establish it with judgment
and justice from henceforth, even forevermore. The zeal of
the Lord of hosts will perform this. His name, wonderful counselor,
salvation in no other name. but the Lord Jesus Christ, salvation
and no other, but our blessed, blessed Savior." Whatever the
character of the day, the circumstance or condition of the day, every
believer is determined in his heart to honor, worship, and
magnify our God and our Savior. He is our King. He's called the
King of Peace. And he is the king of righteousness. The father seeketh such to worship
him. You know how we worship him?
The essence of worshiping him is believing him, honoring him. Abraham was strong in faith,
giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that all that God had
promised, he's able. He's able to perform all things
he's promised. I will, it says there, I will
bless thy name. I will praise thy name. He says it four times. I will
extol thee. I will bless thee. Will I bless
thee every day? I will praise thy name forever
and ever and ever. Only a believer is enabled and
blessed of God to do this. Only those who know the Lord
can praise him. His name declares who he is. His name declares who he is,
Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Sidcanu, Jehovah Rapha, all those sevenfold
names of our God he will provide. He's the Lord our righteousness.
He's the Lord our provision. He is the Lord. What a great
privilege we have of worshiping our God, calling upon his name. He's the king of salvation. He's
my king. He is my king. He's king of kings
and he's lord of lords. I think I've got this written
down here, the reference here. Let me just read it to you. Well,
God is a king of all the earth. Sing praises with understanding. God reigneth over the heathen.
God sits upon the throne of His holiness. Now, praise ye the
Lord for who He is. For who He is and all that He
is. Then look at verse 3. Great is the Lord. Now, how great is He? How big
is He? He's great in every way. He's
great. He's a great God. He's our great
God and Savior. He's our great Lord. And He's
greatly, because He is the great Lord, what is due unto His name,
He's greatly to be praised. You see that? Verse 3. And of
His greatness, His greatness, can you search it out? Can you
understand the infinite God? We know in part. We preach in
part. His greatness, the greatness
of His power, the greatness of His love. Take any attributes
you want, any characteristics of God. His love, His mercy,
His grace, His truth. His greatness is unsearchable. Unsearchable. Our worship of
Him should be great because He is great. The greatness of our
God is past finding out. Past finding out. Let me read
this to you. You're familiar with this scripture. Romans 11, oh the depth of the
riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable
are his judgment and his way past finding out. And then the
Apostle Paul, when he talked about preaching the gospel and
being put in the ministry, remember he said this, wherefore I was
made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God
given to me by the effective working of His power, unto me,
who am less than the least of all the saints, is this grace
given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ." We sing that song sometimes, oh, the unsearchable
riches of Christ, freely, how freely they flow. God is our great Lord, and because
He is the great Lord, He's to be greatly honored and worshipped
and praised, because His greatness is unsearchable. You can't understand
all the infinite workings of His providence, His creation,
and His salvation. Oh, we know in part by the revelation
of God, but to know Fully God as He is and all of His character
and His doings. It's unsearchable. Look at verse
4. His salvation is a great, great
salvation. His love is great love to us.
One generation. God raises up one generation.
One generation of God's elect called out of darkness in his
marvelous light. One generation shall praise our
works to another. The generation of my father,
that generation just about all gone. But God, during that generation,
that World War II generation, the Lord raised up some mighty
gospel preachers in that day. And that one generation, what'd
they do? They preached unto us the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. One generation shall praise thy
doing, thy works. You see that? The working of
the Lord. His works are unsearchable. Shall
praise thy works to another. and shall declare His mighty
acts. So what did preachers of the
past declare unto us? The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And God has raised up another
generation. And now we're preaching to another
generation in our day, the young people. One generation shall
praise Thy works to another and shall declare Thy mighty acts.
You think how many generations have passed since the resurrection
of the Lord? and how he's maintained a gospel
witness in this world, how he has sent out gospel preachers
in all the world, maintaining this truth, and making sure that
the gospel testimony is declared. And we declare, as we declare
the gospel, we declare his mighty acts. The acts of judgment and
justice, the acts of mercy, the acts of God's doing in salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. The Lord has preserved His gospel
message, His word from one generation to another. The Lord has been
pleased to raise up a gospel witness, and we declare His mighty
works. Turn back with me to this psalm
here, Psalm 92. Psalm 92, look at verse 4. Psalm 92, verse 4. For thou, Lord, hast made me
glad through thy work. I will triumph in the works of
thy hands. Now, when we declare the gospel,
we declare what God has done for us. O Lord, how great are
thy works, and thy thoughts, O Lord, are very, very deep. Turn to another psalm. Psalm
111. I love that number. Psalm 111. I can't mess that one up. Psalm
111. Psalm 111, look at verse 2. The works of the Lord are great,
sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is
honorable and glorious. His righteousness endureth forever.
He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is
gracious and full of compassion. His works of salvation and mercy,
they're wonderful works. What great thing God has done
for us. But verse 5, I will speak, David
said. Verse 5, I will speak of the
glorious honor of thy majesty and of thy wondrous doings, things,
thy wondrous works. But notice the marginal reference
on the word works. You see that things or words Wondrous words. Wondrous thing. God speaks and sinners are saved. This is what the preaching of
the gospel is all about. Declaring what He has done for
us. Not what we must do for Him. We declare what He has done for
us. Look at another Psalm here. Back
to Psalm 66. Psalm 66. Remember the first time I heard
this read in public, Psalm 66 verse 16? Oh, about 35 years
ago. I never forgot it. Come and hear
all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done for
my soul. I'll declare what He hath done
for me. You see, salvation is what He's done for us, not what
we do for Him. We can't add anything to His
greatness, His majesty, His honor. It's what God has done for us
in Christ Jesus. Look at verse 6 now. Men, and
I think he's talking about untaught men, unbelievers shall speak
of the terrible acts of God. You see that? Untaught, unbelieving,
the ungodly shall speak with the might of our terrible acts.
But David said, I declare thy greatness. I declare thy greatness. Untaught men, unbelievers talk
about the terrible acts of God. Even in the insurance industry,
they have that thing in the insurance industry saying, this was an
act of God. When talked about floods or hurricanes
or earthquakes or these things, they say this was an act of God.
Isn't that interesting that they acknowledge that God is God? He can shake the earth. Untaught
men talk about the terrible acts of God. However, the believer
rejoices in the greatness of God who acts. Whatsoever the
Lord please, that's what He does in heaven, earth, sea, and all
deep places. Don't you marvel that the Lord can whip up a whirlwind. He'll have His way in the storm
and the whirlwind. Don't you rejoice in the fact
that God can shake this whole earth and break it apart just
by decreeing it to be so. That's the great God we serve. He speaks and it's done. He commands and it stands fast,
all that he does. Now, look at verse seven. They
shall abundantly utter, that is, I will declare thy greatness.
They shall abundantly utter the memory, the memory. You know, memory can be a blessed
thing. We sing, sometimes people sing
those songs, Precious Memories, How They Linger. I don't think
we sing that here, but a lot of people do. They shall abundantly
utter the memory, the memory of thy great goodness. Now, most people when they talk
about precious memories, they talk, think about, you know,
their childhood or things that happened in the past that were
were precious to them. Believers have a memory of God's
great goodness to them. A memory of God's great goodness
to them. The wages of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life. Oh, that's the memory of his
great goodness. God saved you. vile, wretched
sinner, ungodly sinner, like you? That's a memory of His great
goodness, is it not? And shall sing, we sing of His
righteousness, His righteousness. Believer, delight in remembering
the great goodness, His great mercy. It is of the Lord's mercies
that we're not consumed. Believer, delight also in the
righteousness, notice that word, Righteousness, we shall sing
of thy righteousness. Now, I'm not going to sing about
mine. Man at his best state is vanity.
All our righteousness is of the flesh. God shed away with its
filthy rag. But I want to sing of His righteousness,
don't you? I want to rejoice in the memory
of His great righteousness. Now, you remember this Psalm?
Turn back to Psalm 71. That whole Psalm 71 is about
this righteousness. This righteousness we have in
Christ. Psalm 71, verse 15. My mouth shall show forth thy
righteousness, thy salvation all the day, for I know not the
numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of
the Lord. I'll make mention of thy righteousness, even thine
only. Verse 19, thy righteousness also,
O God, is very high. Who hath done great things? O
God, who is like unto thee? Look at verse 24, Psalm 71, verse
24. My tongue also shall talk of
thy righteousness all the day long, for they are confounded,
they are brought unto shame that seek my hurt. We're gonna talk
about righteousness, let's talk about His. Blessed is the man to whom God
imputeth righteousness without works." Now I want to talk about
that. I'm not going to talk about going
about to establish a righteousness of our own. I want to talk about
the righteousness that He has established for us. That's the
wonders of His great goodness and therefore we sing about the
Lord our righteousness. He's made to us righteousness. God made Him to be sin for us
who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. That's the memory that's precious,
isn't it? That's the memory that is precious. That's the memory
that we'll have forever. The things of this earth are
going to pass away. Verse 8, the Lord. The Lord now. The Lord our God. The Lord God
our Savior. He is gracious. He is gracious. Full of compassion. Full of compassion. Slow to anger. And of great mercy. Or you could just dive into that
verse right there and camp on that verse for a long time. The
Lord is. The Lord is. I am that I am. What is the Lord? Well, He's
gracious. He's gracious. Of His fullness have we all received
grace for grace. And He's full of compassion.
He's full of love. God is love. He's loved us with
an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
does He draw us to Himself. He's full. Full of love. Full of compassion. So He's just
and righteous. He's full of that too. But He's
also full of compassion toward His people. Nothing can separate
us from the love of God which is in our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord is slow to anger. You know what that is? Long suffering.
Long suffering. He's slow to anger. Now God,
His anger is His holiness stirred in activity against sin. God
is full of compassion. But God also must deal justly
with the wicked, and He will. He's slow to anger. He's long-suffering
toward His people, not willing that any should perish. But all
come to repentance. And He's of great mercy. His
mercies are great. His mercies are great. They're
called here in the next verse, tender mercies. Tender mercies. The Lord is good to all, that
is, to all His covenant children. And His tender mercies are over
all of His works. Works of creation, works of providence,
works of salvation. He's tender, tender mercies.
He's great of mercy. Tender mercies. Not by works
of righteousness we have done, but according to His mercy, He
saved us. Tender mercies. Tender mercies. That reminded me of Another place
where David talks about the tender mercies of the Lord. What do
you think of when you think of the tender mercies of the Lord?
Well, this is the verse that came to me today when I was looking
at this. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to Thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of Thy tender
mercies, blot out my transgression. Psalm 51. Tender mercies. Oh, tender mercies toward us.
The Lord is gracious, the Lord is full of compassion, and the
Lord is full of tender, tender, tender mercies unto His people. Look at verse 9. The Lord is
good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. Tender mercies. And His dominion,
His dominion is an everlasting, everlasting dominion over all
things. Look at verse 10, verse 10, 11,
and 12, and verse 13. All thy works shall praise thee, All Thy works shall praise Thee.
We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus. All His children
shall praise Thee, O Lord, and the saints, the saints of God,
will bless His name. The saints of God. Thou only
do the works of the Lord praise Him, but all the saints, they
bless the Lord and praise Him and worship Him. Who are these
saints? Every believer is a saint. Every believer has been set apart
from eternity and sanctified in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
are sanctified in Him. He's made unto us, what? Sanctification. All the saints
talk about the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, the glory of His
kingdom. And His blood bought church, the glory of His power. The glory of His power, the glory
of His kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom. They shall speak of the glory
of Thy kingdom. His kingdom, our Lord said, My
kingdom is not of this earth. His kingdom is an eternal spiritual
kingdom. And the saints of God love to
talk about the glory of the kingdom of the Lord and to talk of His
power. To talk of His power. I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God and the
salvation to everyone that believes. The gospel came unto us not in
word only, but in power. They shall speak of the glory
of thy kingdom, and the saints of God talk about his power.
When Isaiah saw his glory, he spake of him. To make known to
the sons of men, that's why we talk about the glory of his kingdom,
his power. His marvelous work, to make known
to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty
of His kingdom. Now, we don't know these things
by nature. Man by nature doesn't know anything of the true and
living God. But the Lord has pleased the Lord to use men,
to raise up men, and to teach them the gospel, reveal the gospel
to them, and to send those men out. To make known to the sons
of men, God ordained the preaching of the gospel to the calling
out of His people. To make known to the sons of
men His mighty deeds, His mighty works, His mighty acts. Salvation
is an act and decree of God. As many as were ordained to eternal
life believe in the glorious majesty of His kingdom. Look
at verse 13. Thy kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom. Where are the kingdoms of men
that were established two or three thousand years ago, or
two or three hundred years ago, let alone thousands of years
ago? The kingdoms of men come and go, don't they? Like a shadow
on the wall. But the gospel kingdom of Christ
shall never end. It's an everlasting kingdom because
He has everlasting dominion. The Lord shall reign forever
and ever. O Zion, unto all generations
shall they praise thy name. His kingdom, his kingdom endures
forever. It's an everlasting kingdom. In Psalm, don't turn, let me
just read it to you, Psalm 72. You remember we studied this
not too long ago. Psalm 72, In his days shall the
righteous flourish and the abundance of peace so long as the moon
endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, from the
river to the ends of the earth. His dominion is everlasting. Everlasting, everlasting thou
art God. Verse 14, The Lord upholdeth
all that fall. You know, He came to save the
fallen. The Lord upholds His fallen people. He calls them, fallen and ruined
in Adam, and Adam all died. In Christ shall all be made alive.
The Lord upholdeth all, all that fall. He raises up those that
be bowed down. He's not them of a broken heart.
Save us such as be of a contrite spirit, those who are bowed down. Verse 8 of Psalm 146, The Lord
upholdeth the eyes of the blind, the Lord openeth the eyes of
the blind, the Lord raises up them that are bowed down, the
Lord loveth the righteous. The Lord upholdeth all, and He
raises up. His people who were bowed down,
burdened down under the curse of the law, He redeemed us from
the curse of the law. Verse 15, Psalm 145, The eyes
of all wait upon Thee. That is, the eyes of faith. Where
do they look? The eyes of faith always look
to Christ, the exalted Lord Jesus Christ. The eyes of faith doesn't
look within our own heart. The eye of faith looks to Christ.
The eyes of all wait upon the Lord. Notice the marginal reference
on the word wait. Look. Look to the Lord. Our Lord said, look unto me and
be saved, all the ends of the earth. The eyes of all look unto
Thee, and Thou givest them their meat in due season." The Lord
does feed us, doesn't He? He's the bread of life. He feeds
us with His truth. And the Lord does open His hand,
verse 16. The Lord does open His hand,
and He satisfies the desire of every living thing Believers
are living in the Lord. We're one with Him. Our God is
not tight-fisted. We have that old saying, that
old boy, he's tight-fisted. That is, he's a penny pitcher. He doesn't want to give. He wants
to grab. He wants to get all he can, can
all he gets, and then sit on the can. Tight-fisted. Our God's
not that way. He's open-handed. Breedly, He
gives. Justified freely by His grace.
God opens His hand and we're satisfied. We're satisfied. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. He supplies our every need according
to His riches in glory. Verse 17, the Lord is righteous
in all of His ways and holy in all of His works. And here's
the amazing thing of the Gospel, how God can be a just God and
Savior. He's righteous and holy in all
of His ways and all of His works, and yet He justifies the ungodly
without the expense of His holiness, without the expense of His holy
character. Just God and Savior. Just and
the Justifier. Verse 18, is nigh unto all them that call
upon Him." You remember Romans 10? Whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. It says here, the Lord
is nigh unto all them that call upon Him. Now look at the rest
of it. To all that call upon Him in truth. In truth. to call upon the true and living
God. It wouldn't do any good to call upon the idols of men,
would it? But we call upon the Lord, and
we call upon Him in truth. The truth of the Gospel. And
He will, verse 19, fulfill the desire of them that fear Him.
He will also hear their cry, and save them. I've never read
in the scripture where any sinner came to the Lord Jesus Christ
seeking mercy and was turned away. Blind Bartimaeus, Lord
have mercy. The leper who came and worshipped
him said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. He said,
I will be that clean. Open handed. He will hear their
cry and save them. He's able to save to the uttermost
all that come to God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make
intercession for them. And He will not only save them,
but will preserve them. Preserve all them that love Him. We only love Him because He first
loved us. We'd never love the Lord. We'd
never believe the gospel apart from Him first loving us and
calling us. The Lord preserveth, we're kept
by the power of God. I will be their God and they
shall be my people. The Lord preserveth all them
that love Him, but the wicked He will destroy. God is merciful. God is also
just. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He that believeth not, what?
The wrath of God abides on him. God is merciful, but God is also
just. My mouth, verse 21, my mouth
shall speak the praise of the Lord. My mouth shall speak the
praise of the Lord. The believer's mouth speaks out
what's in his heart. My mouth shall speak the praise
of the Lord. Let all flesh, all flesh, all
flesh bless His holy name forever and ever and ever. Every knee
will bow. Every tongue will confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. If any man
love not the Lord Jesus Christ, you remember from our study in
1 Corinthians 16, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ,
let him be anathema, maranatha, when the Lord comes back. My
mouth, isn't that our desire to praise Him? My mouth shall
speak the praise of the Lord. The glory of the Lord. And we
bless His holy name forever and ever. A crowning jewel of praise.