Now this evening, I want to try
to look at a portion of Psalm 135, 135. And this, I confess
to you, is one of my favorite outlines. I've preached from
this text several times, several times in several different places
here and other places. Whatsoever the Lord please, that's
what he does. Now the question is, what does
it please the Lord to do? Well, the word of God gives us
the answer. Whatever he does, he does right. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? whatsoever the Lord pleased.
Now I wanted to center from this scripture this evening what the
Lord our God is pleased to do in his sovereign will, sovereign
purpose in heaven and in earth. He says he does according to
his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of
this earth, and none can stay his hand, and no one can say
unto him, Lord God Almighty, what doest thou? Now this Psalm
135 is a whole lot like Psalm 115, where the Lord draws a very
sharp contrast between the true and living God, who works all
things after the counsel of his own will, and the mere idols
of men. He kind of mocks the idols of
men, doesn't he? They have hands, they can't use
them. They have mouths, but they cannot
speak. They have ears, they cannot hear. They have eyes, but they cannot
see. The Lord our God mocks them,
doesn't he? Because he is the true and living
God. And there is a great contrast
between the gods, small g, and the idols of men, and between the true and living
God. Now, have you noticed in scripture
how the Lord often makes a contrast between that which is true, right,
and great, and he contrasts that between that which is fault.
And that's what he does in this Psalm and in Psalm 115. To be
occupied with right thoughts about God, right thoughts about
God, We don't think right thoughts about God left to ourselves.
We ought to think right thoughts about God as He is revealed in
the Word of God in Holy Scripture. And to be occupied with right
thoughts about God as He's revealed in the Word of the Lord will
increase our faith. and encourage our hope, inspire
our love for Him, the way to have strong and true faith is
to trust the Almighty God. Now, the way to have strong faith
is to trust Him who is Almighty. You see, it's faith in Him. It's
not faith in our faith. It's not strength in our faith.
Our strength is in Him and faith looks to Him alone for all of
salvation. And saving faith gives God all
the honor and glory. You remember Abraham was strong
in faith. How we know that? Giving God
all the honor and glory, being persuaded that all that God has
said, promised, he will perform. Now, notice verse one and two,
and we'll work our way down to verse six. In Psalm 135, we read
this familiar statement, praise ye the Lord. And it's all the
way through the Psalms. It'd be interesting how many
times it's used in the book of Psalms, but it's used repeatedly
over and over and over again. Even in the last Psalm, the last
verse, Psalm 150, let everything that hath breath praise the Lord,
Praise ye the Lord. Praise has a whole lot to do
with worship. When we praise the Lord, we are
worshiping Him. Believers and servants of the
Lord are told to honor Him, praise Him, and this is their desire
and delight, is it not? To honor the Lord, to praise
the Lord, to lift Him up in preaching and singing and praying. and
to honor Him by believing Him and to glory only in Him. And
that phrase is repeated over and over and over again. Praise
the Lord. And then another phrase that
he uses, and he uses it in this Psalm, where he says, Bless the
Lord. Bless the Lord. Verse 21. Blessed
be the Lord out of Zion. Reminds me of what David says
in Psalm 103. Blessed be the Lord, our God. Blessed be the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me. Blessed be His holy name. So we believers delight to praise
ye the Lord. Ye servants of the Lord, as it
says in verse 1. It's not a burden, is it? to
praise someone you love, to bless someone you love, to honor someone
you love. You cannot overdo this. Now,
this is not talking about that Religious nonsense is going on
where people, always in a public way, they do this, where they
wave their hands and give the Lord a wave offering and praise
the Lord and all this silliness that goes on in religious circles.
This is talking about God looking on the heart. This is the Lord
looketh on the heart. Men look on the outward, God
looks on the heart. This is praising the Lord in
the heart. in your heart, in your mind, in your will. And
you can't overdo this. You can't give him too much honor,
can you? You can't bless his name too
much. You can't worship the Lord too
highly. You can't glory in him too often. Paul said, God forbid that we
should glory, save or accept in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're to praise the Lord.
In the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our
God, he says in verse two, When we come to the worship service,
we should praise the Lord, but not just when we meet together,
but every day is the day that we should praise the Lord. When
we go to sleep at night, thank you, Lord. When we get up in
the morning, thank you, Lord. Open up your eyes and you just
kind of trying to get a little bit of sense about you. Just
praise the Lord. Thank the Lord. Thank you, Lord.
Now, in verse 3, 4, and 5, we see at least four valid reasons
we should bless his name and we should praise the Lord. Notice,
he says in verse 3, praise the Lord for or because, because
of the Lord is good. The Lord is good. The Lord is
good. There is none good but one, and
that is God. There is none good but God. He's too wise to do wrong. He's
too holy to make a mistake. There is none good but our gracious
and holy God, and all that He does It is good. It is good. Whatever he does
is good. God alone is the author and source of all goodness. He's the only thing that is holy
and good. Every good gift and every perfect
gift comes from where? Comes from God. Comes from above.
He does all that he does is right and good. As the scripture says,
shall not the judge of all the earth do right? He does, absolutely
and always in every aspect of our being. The second reason
he said, not only is the Lord good and sing praises to his
name, for his name is pleasant. His name is pleasant. His name,
his character, all of his attributes are pleasant. They're sweet and
they're delightful to think upon. To you who believe the Lord Jesus
Christ is precious, precious. The Lord Jesus Christ, he's altogether
lovely. His name is pleasant. His name is wonderful, counselor,
the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
His name is wonderful. It's pleasant. It's pleasant
to speak the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you noticed
in my preaching and even in my casual conversation, I never
refer to the Lord as just Jesus. Now we sing that all the time
because our songs are written that way, but it is the Lord
Jesus Christ. His name is pleasant. Everything
about His character, all of His holy attributes, everything about
Him is pleasant. There's nothing unpleasant about
Him. Not to the believer. Not to those
who love the Lord. And we love him because he first
loved us. And then he gives another reason. The Lord is good. Sing
praises unto his name. God's given him a name which
is above every name. And his name is pleasant. And
then in verse four, the third reason he gives is this. For
the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself. Now, why would he choose
Jacob? Jacob was a cheat, a rascal,
a sinner, a guilty man. Why would God, it pleased God
to choose Jacob and pass by Esau? It pleased him to do so. For
the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and you remember what
he did to Jacob? He gave him the name of Israel. You remember God changed his
name? He says, your name's gonna be called, you are Jacob, what's
your name? I'm Jacob. God said, now I'm
gonna make you an Israel. Prince of God, favored with God.
For, and Israel, for his peculiar treasure, the Lord's people he
hath chosen. are the Lord's special chosen
people. We're to praise the Lord because
the Lord has chosen us unto salvation. He's chosen us unto salvation. Now, don't turn, but let me just
read this to you, but over in Psalm 65, where it says, Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest, verse 4, and causes to approach unto thee, that he
may dwell in thy courts. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even thy holy temple. Blessed is the man
whom God hath chosen, chosen unto salvation. Had the Lord
not chosen us in that eternal covenant of grace, We never would
have believed the gospel. We never would have loved the
Lord Jesus Christ. You remember in John 15, the
Lord said, you didn't choose me. I chose you and ordained
you to eternal life. And then in verse 5 he says this,
another reason to praise the Lord, the Lord is good, His name
is pleasant, He's a God of election. Wherever you find the doctrine
of election, you find the doctrine of praising the Lord. For example,
2 Thessalonians 2, remember, where it said, blessed be the
God of our Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who had chosen
us unto salvation. Wherever you find the doctrine
of election, close by you find the doctrine of praising the
Lord. So had he not chosen us, we never would have chosen him.
Now, another reason he gives in verse 5, that we should bless
the Lord and praise the Lord, honor and worship Him. He said,
for I know that the Lord is great and that our Lord is above all. Now it says there, small g, God,
He is above all. He said, all power is given on
me in heaven and in earth. There's none above the Lord,
is there? I mean, He's the greatest. He's
the sovereign, almighty God. The Lord is great. And of His
greatness, there is no end. He is above all. Now, if you
hold your place there, let's look at a couple of other Psalms.
If you find one, Psalm 145, verse 3. Psalm 145, verse 3. Great
is the Lord. greatly to be praised, and His
greatness is unsearchable. It's infinite. You can't describe
the greatness of God. It's infinite as His blessed
person. In Psalm 147, verse five, where
it says, great is our Lord, and of great power. How much power
does the Lord have? all power in heaven and earth.
His understanding is infinite, like himself. From everlasting
to everlasting, thou art God. The Lord is great, the Lord is
good, the Lord is sovereign. He is great in salvation. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation? He is our great God and Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who gives us that so great salvation. He is our great Redeemer. Everything
about Him is great, is it not? Almighty, who have obtained eternal
redemption for us. He is our great Mediator. He
is our great High Priest, is He not? Seeing that we have a
great High Priest, He said, wherefore he's able to save them to the
uttermost all that come to God by him, seeing he ever lived
to make intercession for us. He is our great high priest.
He is our great God. He's our great advocate. He gives
us so great salvation. Praise ye the Lord, for he is
great. That's a good valid reason, is
it not? We desire to praise him for who
the Lord our God truly is, and the psalmist said in Psalm 71,
there is none like him. We desire to praise him for he
is. The only place a sinner will
worship is at the throne of the Almighty God. That's the only place a sinner
will bow and worship is at the throne of the Almighty God. Nada, nada, no true worship going
on between before in a man that bows to an idol or to a God who
wants to and can't. There's no true worship going
on there. True worship is found at the throne of a sovereign
God, and that's the only place where true worship goes on, is
to bow before the throne of God Almighty and praise His name. Now, how great is our God? For I know that the Lord is great,
that our Lord is above all, above all gods. Verse six now. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he in heaven. He does his will in heaven. Now,
most people probably, even unbelievers, wouldn't dispute that fact. God
has a right to do what he will in heaven. But where the conflict
comes in, is they will not have this right notion of God
that He does according to His will, not only in heaven, but
among the earth, and in the earth, among people. Whatsoever the
Lord pleased, that did He in heaven and in the earth. He told
us to pray when He taught His disciples to pray, Thy will be
done in heaven. on earth as it is in heaven,
right? Whatsoever the Lord pleased that
did in heaven and in the earth and in the seas and all deep
places, in heaven and hell, God has his way in all things. Whatever he's pleased to do,
our God will do. There's no limit, there's no
restriction or exception to his absolute, sovereign, eternal
throne. Another Psalm that's similar
to this, if you hold your place there, find Psalm 115. Psalm
115, look at verse 1. Psalm 115. Not unto us, O Lord,
not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and
for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is now their God? David, where is your God? And
the answer comes back, verse three, Psalm 115. But our God
is in heaven. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. In heaven, earth, seas, and all
deep places. Our great God and Savior does
as he pleases, when he pleases, with whom he pleases, and he
is accountable to no one but himself. He works his sovereign
will, his sovereign purpose everywhere in heaven, earth, seas, and all
deep places. A God, small g, whose purpose
is frustrated, whose will is resisted, whose decrees are altered
is in reality, no God at all. It's just a mere idol of man. Now, from this verse, verse 6,
Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he. Now this question,
what does the scriptures teach us that the Lord is pleased to
do? Well, first of all, hold your
place there, or you don't need to hold your place, but if you'll
find 1 Samuel 12, 22. We had this in our study in 1
Samuel 12, 22. What did it please the Lord to
do? Well, it pleased the Lord to make you his people. 1 Samuel
12, verse 22. For the Lord will not forsake
his people for his great namesake, because it had pleased the Lord
to make you his people. He has the sovereign choice to
have mercy upon whom he will have mercy. The Lord our God
in his sovereign mercy has chosen a multitude of guilty sinners
from the beginning of the world and determined to save them in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have a name for that.
We call that the Bible doctrine of election. We have a name for
that. We call that unconditional election. God has blessed us
and chosen us in Christ with all spiritual blessing according
as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that
we should be to the praise of the glory of his grace. That's
right. God chose us and it pleased the
Lord to do so. Our Lord refers to it in John
6 verse 37. He said, All that the Father
hath given to me, they will come to me. And those that come to
me, he said, I will unknowingly cast out. He said again, he prayed
in John 17, Father, you've given me power over all flesh that
I should give eternal life to as many as those that you have
given unto me. Where did the Lord Jesus Christ
get those people? God chose those people in Christ
before the foundation of the world and gave them to the Lord
Jesus Christ, made him the surety of that covenant, made him the
sacrifice of that covenant, and the Savior of that covenant.
So it pleased the Lord. It pleased the Lord to make you
His people. What does it please the Lord
to do? It pleases the Lord to choose a people unto salvation. It pleased the Lord to do so,
to do that. For He is our God, we are the
people of His pasture, the sheep of His hand. We don't make ourselves
sheep, we don't put ourselves in the pasture, we are His people
because He chose us and we are the sheep of His hand. Remember,
he said, my sheep, hear my voice. I know them, they follow me,
and no one can pluck them out of my hand. My father which gave
them me is greater than all, and no one can pluck them out
of his father's hand. I like being the sheep in his
hand, don't you? God, not in our hands. Thank
God we're in his hand. We're in his hand. Well, here's
a second thing. What did it please the Lord to
do? Now, this is familiar to you. You can turn with me if
you'd like to, but Isaiah 53. Verse 10. What did it please
the Lord to do? Remember Isaiah 53, 10. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. When He was wounded for our transgression
and bruised for our iniquity, when the chastisement of our
peace was upon Him and with His stripes we were healed, it pleased
the Lord God Almighty, Jehovah, the Father, to bruise Him, to
punish Him for our sin. Now, we've been studying that
in our studies in Luke 22 and Luke 23, how the men hit Him
and bruised Him and wounded Him. And it pleased them to do that,
to mistreating. But it was not what men were
doing at the cross that's our hope, is it? It's not to bruise
his men inflicted upon him. It is a wrath of God that pleased
God to bruise him in our room and in our stead as our substitute,
as a sacrifice for our sin. He put him to grief. How did
he do that? The Lord laid on him the iniquity
of us all, all of his people. And it caused him grief, grief. because of our guilt was laid
upon him. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, for he shall see his seed, that's those chosen,
he shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord, I love
this statement, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. Whatsoever the Lord does, it
prospers. The word sent forth, Prosper
it pleased the Lord our God to send our Savior in the fullness
of time to put away the sin of those chosen people by the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We call that substitution. And
the substitute made sacrifice for our sin. When he by himself
purged our sin, he sat down on the right hand of God. So it's
what God was doing at the cross. That's our hope, not what men
were doing. It pleased God to bruise him in our room and in
our stead. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law. And He redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us. The death of the Lord
Jesus Christ was not a general atonement. It was a particular
definite atonement, effectual only for the elect of God. The
Lord Jesus Christ was bruised for his covenant people, his
covenant sheep. He bought the church with his
own blood, Acts 20, 28. The Lord said, I laid down my
life for the sheep. That's the sheep of his hand
and the people of his pasture. He said, the messenger from heaven
said, call his name Jesus, which means savior, for he shall save
his people from their sin. He is a savior who really saves. He didn't attempt to put away
sin. He put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He didn't attempt
to save his people and redeem his people. He redeemed them.
He saved them. He justified them with his blood.
No one for whom the Lord Jesus Christ justified will ever perish
because he put away their sin. Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It is God that justify, who is
he that condemneth. It is Christ that died, yea rather
is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also
makes intercession for us. So it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. Now here's the third one. Find
Colossians, the book of Colossians. Colossians chapter one. Colossians
chapter one. Here's the third thing it pleased
the Lord to do. Colossians chapter 1 verse 19,
for it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. It pleased who? It pleased the
Father. Having made peace through the
blood of His cross by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself,
By him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in
heaven, and you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body
of his flesh through death to present you holy, unblameable,
unreprovable in his sight. Now look at Colossians chapter
two, verse nine. For in him, dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him.
It pleased the Father that in Him, in Christ, should all the
fullness of the Godhead dwell." Who is the Lord Jesus Christ?
He's God. He's God Almighty. He never stopped
being God when He was manifested in the flesh. It pleased the
Lord our God that all fullness of every spiritual blessing would
be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember from John chapter
one, of his fullness, have we all received grace for grace. The only reason that God is gracious
to us is because of his grace. Grace for grace, that's the reason
for grace. Paul writes this in second, Corinthians
8, 9, for you know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
though he was rich, if for your sakes he became poor, that you
through his poverty might be made rich. You see, in him dwells
all fullness, and we are complete in him. I like that word complete,
don't you? perfectly justified in the sight
of God Almighty. Holy, unblameable, unapprovable
in God's sight. Now, here's the fourth one. And
if you'll turn over here to this, it's going to be real familiar
to you because we've been studying this and found in 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. You remember this verse. I know
you do. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 21. For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God. What did it please God to do?
It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe, for the Jews require a sign, the Greeks seek after
wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling
block unto the Greeks foolishness, for unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, Christ the
wisdom of God." You would not know anything about who the Lord
Jesus Christ is, or what the Lord Jesus Christ had done, nor
how He saved sinners, except it pleased God through preaching
of the gospel, God sending forth His servant to tell you the truth. of salvation by the grace of
God. And God has ordained that faith
come by hearing, and hearing by the word of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Hearing the word, the Lord Jesus
Christ. So that's why we make much of
teaching and preaching the word. Of his own will, God begat he
us with the word of truth. Being born again, Peter said,
being born again, not of a corruptible seed, there I go, not being born
again with a corruptible seed, but with an incorruptible Word
of God. Born again by the incorruptible
Word of God. We're born the first time with
that seed of corruption, right? We're born a second time with
that incorruptible Word of God that lives and abides forever.
Now, back where we started, Galatians chapter 1. Galatians chapter
1. What did it please the Lord to
do? Verse 15. But when it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
His grace. When will a sinner be saved?
When it pleases God. He's hid these things from the
wise and prudent and revealed them unto God. When it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
his grace to reveal his son in me that I may preach him among
the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. When
will a sinner be saved? When it pleases God. Not when
he chooses to turn over a new leaf, not when He gives God the consent or permission. It's when it pleases God to save
sinners. Salvation is by the free and
sovereign grace of God, not by the will of man, which is totally
depraved. It's not of him that willeth,
nor him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. What
does he do by his grace when he calls to reveal his Son in
me? You see, it takes God to reveal
God and to show us the Lord Jesus Christ, to translate us out of
the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God, dear son.
Thanks be unto God, our great God and Savior, who is pleased
to save sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is that unspeakable
gift of God. He is the unsearchable riches
of God. Those who have seen His glory
love to praise Him and to bless His name. As David said, not
unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory
for Thy mercy and for Thy truth's sake. What did it please the
Lord to do? Well, that's a good outline.
That's a good outline. And that's answering that question
from the Word of God.