Several years ago, I was in a
Bible class. It was a college course given
by a professor who, as far as I know, was the
last Sovereign Grace professor in the Southern Baptist Seminary
down in Dallas. His name was Dr. Bullman. And he taught us the Psalms.
The Bible study was a survey in the Psalms. And he talked about the different
types of Psalms there were, imprecatory Psalms and historical Psalms
and Messianic Psalms. And toward the end of the study,
he says, I think you found out in this study, they're all Messianic
Psalms. They're all about Jesus Christ,
the Lord. And this is no exception here.
David is writing about his Savior and what Christ has done for
him. This is a psalm, as many and
most of David's psalms end up, it is a psalm of praise and thanksgiving. Since it is a psalm of praise,
it is at its core. a psalm of thanksgiving. Praise never occurs in a vacuum. It can't be worked up. It can
be faked. It can be talked about. It can
be acted out, but it can never really be and it can never really
occur in a vacuum. When in Scripture men praise
God, they do so because God has done something for them or to
them And in that work they see His glory, and therefore they
praise Him. And His glory, according to His
own words, is what He has done and will do in the matter of
the salvation of the elect, for which His people are overwhelmed
with thanksgiving and praise. When men truly praise God, it
is not generic. It is particular, and it is always
for some specific reason. The reason for praise is thanksgiving,
and that word means to be thankful for what you have been given.
Thanksgiving is being thankful for what you have been given. That's the combination of those
two words. and giving. The believer learns
what he has been given in the declaration of the gospel. He
does not learn what he is supposed to do. He does not learn a bunch
of rules and regulations. He learns what he has been given. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, or
rather chapter 2, Paul talked about this very thing
after declaring that the gospel is understood and received by
the believer. He says in verse 9 of chapter
2 in 1 Corinthians, But as it is written, I hath not seen nor
ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things
which God has prepared for them that love him. Now most people
just drift off into a future eternal state and talk about
heaven, and most people talk about this as being about heaven,
and I don't have any problem with that, except it's not about
heaven. It's about revelation. About
revelation. Because the next word says, but,
which means the opposite. Now eyes haven't seen and ears
have not heard what God has prepared for them. But. but God hath revealed
them unto us. by His Spirit. For the Spirit
searcheth with all things, even the deep things of God. For what
man knoweth the things of man, sayeth the Spirit of man which
is in him. Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the
Spirit of God. Now, we have not received the
Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God. And this
is the reason, that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God. That's why you have the gospel. So God reveals to us what He
has freely given to us. And so our response is thanksgiving. Thanksgiving and praise. It stands
to reason then that the heart of thanksgiving is the heart
that attributes glory to God alone in all things. Thanksgiving
is singular in that it is never and can never be toward God and
toward self or toward God and also toward some panoply of deities. Those who believe that God is
the co-author of salvation, that He cannot and does not act apart
from man's cooperative effort, decision, or decision will have
no reason to thank God whatsoever. Though they do, I always found
it very false and very foolish for a man to say that salvation
is ultimately up to my will and then praise God for it. It just
seems stupid. And it is stupid. If I believe
that salvation is up to you and your will, I'm going to stop
praying to God right now. I'm going to start praying to
you. Because you're the one who's going to save yourself if it's
up to your will. However, if you are lost and without hope
in this world, and only God can save you, and only God can call
you, then I'm going to pray to Him for your salvation. Because
He can do something about it, and has done something about
it. Praise is not a religious punctuation mark. It's not a
stinger attached to the end of some litany about what man has
done. Praise and thanksgiving are not
starry-eyed trance that men enter into where they lose control
or give themselves over to some ersatz spirit that eventuates
in calling attention to themselves. If your praise calls attention
to you, then you're not praising God. It's that simple. It's that simple. We hear talking
about people having praise meetings, and what they are is a bunch
of people getting up and making themselves known by speaking
in tongues or dancing about or laughing or carrying on, drawing
attention to themselves. That is not praising God. Praising
God and worshiping God for the most part is done in absolute
silence And it's from the heart David said I will praise you
from my whole heart whole heart Praise is a willing act whereby
men and women in full possession of the mental and emotional faculties
determined in their hearts to give all glory to God and to
no one else and And this is one of the reasons that praise is
called a sacrifice because it is a willing removing of oneself
from the equation of salvation. And this is the language of this
psalm that David speaks right here. In the first three verses,
David determines to praise God alone and praise no one else. I will praise Thee with my whole
heart. Before the gods will I sing praise
unto thee. I will worship toward thy holy
temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness, and for thy
truth, for thou hast magnified thy word above thy name. In the
day when I cry, thou answerest me, and strengthest me with strength
in my soul. And the praise that he determines
to render God, he says, I will do this with my whole heart. It is offered in the face and
in the midst of and in the discounting of all other deities and gods
that have been conjured in the imagination of men. I'm going
to praise you with my whole heart, he said, before the gods. Before the inventions of men,
what men call God, I'm going to praise you. You see, praise
is distinctive. It's pointed. It's targeted.
And in a sense is rendered with a militant posture. A militant
posture. Those who have praised God singularly
have experienced that religion sees their praise as a declaration
of war. Try it sometime. When men start
talking about what they've done for Jesus, you start talking
about what Christ has done for you. And never leave the subject. And no matter what they bring
up, well, what about prayer? Christ is all! What about preaching?
Christ is all! What about going to church? Christ
is all! Pretty soon that's a declaration
of war on what they believe. And they see it as that. It's
very militant. The gospel, the true gospel,
the gospel of free and sovereign grace in Christ glorifies God
alone and thus by default completely discounts any and all other gods. Completely discounts them. The
gospel is rarely spoken in the manner that openly disregards
other gods or even mentions them, but in almost every instance
It's heard and perceived that way by the enemies of the cross. How many times have you talked
about God's sovereign grace and how He graced you and chose you
and predestinated you to be like His Son and justified you and
sanctified you and called you and glorified you? And men say,
well, that's not my God. My God's not like that. Did you
say their God wasn't like that? No, you're talking about your
God. But what they heard was talking about their God. So praise
has a militant aspect to it. Even though you don't militantly
do it, there is a militant aspect to those who hear it. Praising
God is the heart of worship. It's what we do when we gather
here. Worship comes from the heart of thanksgiving for the
loving kindness of God. Worship is praising God for the
truth. That's what he said, I praise you for your truth. I praise
you for your truth. People like to qualify that.
Well, that's your truth and this is my truth. No, there are those
things that you believe are true, but that's not the truth. The
truth is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the embodiment of all that
is truth. The law came by Moses, but grace
and truth came by the Lord Jesus Christ. How shall we know the
way? I am the way, the truth, and
the life, the Lord Jesus Christ said. Worship is praising God
for the truth. For the truth, that singular
thing, that absolute, wondrously, inalterable message of the gospel,
that majestic word from on high that discloses every lie and
puts everything in its proper place, the gospel is the only
thing that does that. Worship is thinking, God, that
we do not have to flail about in this world looking for some
meaning for every rock and twig that hangs about, having to decide
what's best for us, selecting one motto to live by among an
endless list of many wacky possibilities. There's the truth. And David
said, I praise you for your truth, for thy truth. There's one way, one truth, and
one life. And every believer is thankful
that it is a matter settled forever. They're glad about that. They
don't have to flounder about trying to figure out anything.
They've been given an unction from on high and they know all
things. The spiritual man discerneth all things, yet he is discerned
by no man. They are thankful that it is a matter settled forever,
written in iron, with the pen of a ready writer. The last phrase
of verse 2 says, For thou hast magnified thy word above thy
name. Now just roll that over in your
mind for a moment. David says to God, Thou hast
magnified thy word above thy name. It's an astounding sentence.
I remember the first time I heard it. It kind of blowed me away.
The meaning of which is higher than the ability of the finite
mind to conceive, and I know that. But whatever the meaning
is, it surely places high and profound value upon the Word
of God. Thou hast magnified Thy Word
above Thy name. This values the Word of God,
not the notions of dying minds. the Word of God. I think that
it is safe to say, because of what it says in John chapter
1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God, the same was in the beginning with God. I
think it's safe to say that this refers to Christ and His Gospel
without a doubt. without a doubt. Peter said at
Pentecost that Christ's name was put above every name, the
only name under heaven given among men whereby we might be
saved. Peter said in another place that
we have a more sure word of prophecy than seeing Christ in person.
I know people would like to see Him in person, and you will one
day see Him in person. But look over at 2 Peter just
for a moment. 2nd Peter chapter 1 Now what
Peter is telling these folks? Who have obtained like precious
faith or elect according the foreknowledge of God? He's telling
them that he's not talking out of ignorance Now what are you
saying? He's not talking about something
that he hasn't physically experienced himself Peter was there on the
Mount of Transfiguration you remember that and He was there. He saw Christ's raiment glow
and glisten brighter than the noonday sun. He saw Moses and
Elijah talking about the death which
Christ should accomplish at Jerusalem. He saw men come from the past
across the time-space continuum and land on that mountain and
talk to the Lord Jesus Christ. He saw his own mouth get him
in trouble. When he said, Lord, it's been
a big day today. We've seen Moses, and we've seen
Elijah, and we've seen you today. This is really something. Let's
build three tabernacles. Let's build three monuments.
One to Moses, and one to Elijah, and one to you. Because Moses
and Elijah were the law and the prophets, and Christ was the
true prophet. And there came a voice from heaven,
and all of a sudden it got dark. The clouds rolled in and he couldn't
even see two feet in front of your face. And a voice came from
heaven and said, this is my son, my beloved son, in whom I am
well pleased. You hear him. Now, wouldn't you
like to have been there for that? Why, anybody would. I mean, I
probably wouldn't want to have been too close, but I'd like
to have stood off and seen it. Wouldn't you like to have seen
something like that? Old Peter did. He saw it. He saw it. He said this in verse 16 of chapter
1, we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known
unto you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We
were eyewitnesses of His majesty. We've seen it with our own eyes.
For He received from God the Father honor and glory, when
there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This
is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice
which came from heaven we heard, and we were with Him in the Holy
Mount. We were there, we were on the spot. And what does it
say in verse 19? Look down in your lap now. Look down in your lap, what you've
got in your lap right now. We have a more sure word of prophecy. Where unto you do well that you
take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until
the day dawn and the day star arise in your heart. What is
that sure word of prophecy? Knowing this first, that no prophecy
of the scripture is of private interpretation, but the prophecy
came not in old time by the will of man, but by holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Right there. Mount Transfiguration, a secondary
thing. to this Word. That's why David
said, I love this Word. I praise You for Your truth.
God's Word is the instrument that brings realization of salvation
accomplished by Jesus Christ through the elect. This phrase
is one of those that simply puts the skins on the silly ideas
of men and causes one to ponder the preponderance of riches contained
in this Word. Verse 3, shows us that praise
and thanksgiving has a basis, a reason for it back in our text. In the day when I cry, thou answer
to me, and strengthen me with the strength in my soul. In my soul. David thanks God
for hearing and answering his cries and strengthened him inwardly
in his soul. Then in verses 4 and 5 reveal
that this psalm is as well As all psalms are messianic psalms,
these words speak of the salvation of the elect through the preaching
of the gospel. All the kings of the earth shall
praise thee, O Lord. And you'll notice, Lord is capitalized
all the way through this psalm. That means Jehovah God, Jehovah
Savior. O Lord, when they hear the words
of thy mouth, yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord,
for great is the glory. of the Lord, the kings of this
earth. Who are the kings of this earth?
These words speak of the salvation of the elect through the preaching
of the gospel. It speaks of the coming of Christ, the desire
of all nations to save out of every nation, tongue, and people,
and making them what according to Scripture? Thou has loved
us and washed us in your blood, it says in Revelation 1, and
has made us kings and priests unto our God. Worthy is the Lamb
that was slain, that has redeemed us by His blood out of every
kindred, nation, tongue, and people, and has made us kings
and priests unto our God. I'm sitting here this morning.
I'm standing here as a king. You're sitting there as kings.
Kings in Cherokee. That's what you are. And it says
here, all the kings of the earth shall praise Thee. Oh Lord. When they hear the words of thy
mouth." That's you. That's me. That's the believer.
In the remainder of this psalm, the Lord continues to declare
salvation. Verse 6 speaks of His wondrous
condescension. Though the Lord be high, yet
hath He respect unto the lowly, but the proud He knoweth afar
off. He who is high and holy, dwelling
in a light whereto no man can approach, has left his glory
to dwell among men. He has come to save his people.
He has taken upon him the seat of Abraham. He made himself of
no reputation, became a servant, and was obedient even to the
death of the cross, though he is no respecter of persons. It
says here he has respect to the lowly. He has respect to the
lowly. And there is no contradiction
here. He respects the lowly, and his respect for the lowly
reveals that his salvation is not about respectability. If
he respects the lowly, his salvation can't be about respectability.
In fact, he says, the proud he knoweth afar off. He don't even
want to talk about them. It is about his choice of whom
he saves. Respect here does not mean that
the lowly have qualities that recommend them to him. but rather
that they are born of inequality that would recommend them to
Him. They're lowly. They're lowly. They're the poor,
and the wretched, and the wicked, and the undone. Undone. I walk down streets of this world,
been to 14 different countries over the years, and I walk down
streets where people were born without a possibility of ever
being anything different than what they were born. If they
were born into a beggar's house, that's what they're going to
be. Not for a few days until they get a college education.
That's not available to them. The caste system of their government,
you have rich and you have poor. You don't have no middle class.
And if you're poor, that's the way you're going to be until
the day you die. to the poor. And when the rich
walk by the poor in those countries, they don't have respect for them.
Ain't nothing that poor can do for them. Don't give a hoot about
them. Don't give a hoot about them.
They are just poor. That's all they'll ever be. What does that
mean? That's you and that's me in nature. What we are born, we have no
possibility of changing our Are we born in poverty? Indeed. Are we born wretched and blind?
That's how we'll remain unless God has respect for the poor and
the lowly. If He doesn't consider what I
am when He saves my soul, then I've got some hope in this world.
if he doesn't consider me. I know if I'm proud, he's not
even going to bother with me. He's not going to bother with
me. His respect of the lowly is diametrically opposed to that
which is highly esteemed of men. He came not to call the righteous,
but brings sinners to repent us. This is the declaration of
the last phrase here. Those who think themselves worthy
of any attention from Christ will receive no attention from
Christ but His displeasure and His vengeance. If you have nothing to offer,
if you have no hope in yourself. And I say to you, want to hear
some good news? He has respect to the lowly.
It can't get no sweeter than that. Verse 7 declares the repeated
theme of the salvation of the elect. Though I walk in the midst
of trouble, thou wilt revive me. Thou shalt stretch forth
thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right
hand, the hand of salvation, the hand of power, thy right
hand shall save me. And through much tribulation
that we enter into the kingdom, it says, the very concept of
salvation is deliverance from trouble. That's the concept of
salvation. deliverance from trouble. And
this lays the ax to the root of salvation being an offer or
an available commodity to be snatched up or rejected at the
whim of men. I hear men talk like that and
then you know, I'd like to slap them. I couldn't get by with
it, I'd be arrested and put in jail, but I'd like to slap them.
Such a notion is stupendously ridiculous. No man in prison,
in the prison of despair or the husskal of helletry would ever
reject deliverance, would they? You ever been in jail? I've been
in jail. You think when they turned the
key and said, you can go free, you'd say, well, no, I reject
that. Did I say that? No, I got out as quick as I could
and didn't look back. I kind of was afraid to look
at any of the police officers. I didn't even look at them. I
walked right out to my car and got in my car and left. Why?
Because I was glad to be free. And yet idiots, stupendously
stupid idiots stand and say, I can reject salvation. That's
because they're not in jail. They've never been a sinner.
They've never needed deliverance. And so they have no need of salvation.
No one in prison. rejects deliverance. Nobody. Nobody. Those who feel that they
can choose deliverance or refuse it, the problem is they're not
in trouble. They're the proud ones who God
is afar off from. They are delusional. They see
God as in trouble, not themselves. They see God is falling short
of His quota. And they feel pity for Him and
decide to cut the old beggars some slack because their God
is a beggar. Find me a lowly man. A man in
trouble of soul. Plagued and burdened with his
sin. And I'll show you a man whom God came to save and whom
God will save. Also in these words we find the
fact that salvation is a violent thing. To deliver His elect,
our Lord must destroy the enemy of His people. And He did so
when He bruised the serpent's head and He put sin away. The
wording of the original suggests that the Lord slaps the face
of the enemies with His left hand while gathering His elect
with His right hand. That's the language used here.
That's the language. Stretch forth thine hand against
the wrath of mine enemies, and with thy right hand save
me." That's the language. Our Lord said, the kingdom of
God suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. Verse 8 is the passage This is
my text, so that was the introduction. But I promise you the message
won't be very long. Mercy. The Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever.
Forsake not the works of thy hand. This passage is the declaration
that the saints of the Old Testament were saved the same way the saints
of the New Testament were saved by God's grace, by God's mercy.
They were given faith to look to Christ alone. David looked
to Christ. There is but one dispensation
in Scripture, and that is the dispensation of grace. David
is declaring that Christ will come to this earth, and by His
work He will perfect His people. The Lord, Jehovah, will perfect
that which concerns me. Those things that God says concerns
me. Those things that concern me
in my own heart, in my own mind. What concerns me? My sin concerns
me. He'll perfect that. How do you do that? Though your
sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. My inability
to do anything about my sin concerns me. My lack of righteousness
concerns me. My inability to produce an acceptable
righteousness concerns me. The wrath of God against sin
concerns me. The exacting nature of the law
of God concerns me. The fact that the law offers
me no help but only condemns me for my sin and places upon
me the just sentence of death, that concerns me. My want and
my lack of love for God concerns me. My impotence to change concerns
me. My patent and blatant imperfection
concerns me. The requirement of faith concerns
me because I cannot produce it. My knowledge that God will accept
nothing that is in any degree less than perfect concerns me,
because I know what I am. And in one fell swoop, because
of Jesus Christ, all my concerns are allayed. All my thirst is
assuaged. It is the Lord that does my bidding.
It is the Lord that has undertaken my cause. My concern is erased
away by Him who cannot fail. The Lord will perfect that which
concerns me. I like those words. He will accomplish
this magnificent feat by His mercy. He will show mercy on
whom He will show mercy. He will be gracious unto whom
He will be gracious. It is not of Him that willeth
nor of Him that runneth, but God that showeth mercy. And having
shown mercy, He will never retract it, because His mercy endureth
forever. The believer understands and
gladly averts that all his salvation, the entire process of his perfection,
is in no part accomplished by himself, yet is fully accomplished
by God, his God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. The believer
is pleased that the Lord would not forsake the work of his hand.
Saving, keeping, sanctifying is the work of God's hand. Justifying
is the work of God's hand. The believer knows that if he
should forsake that work that there would be no hope for him
because there was no hope for him when he began to work. David
in this verse looked to the cross of Christ and looked to Christ
on the cross. As we look back 2,000 years ago to the cross,
we can say this without a doubt and with thankful hearts full
of praise, the Lord hath perfected that which concerns me. Only a fool or a Christian would
believe that. Uncle Bartard used to say. But
that's the case. Let me read you the scriptures.
And we'll close with this. I won't make any comments. I'm
just going to read it. You listen. Hebrews chapter 10. But this man, after he offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified." Is that clear enough? He will perfect
that which concerns man. Father bless us for understanding.
We pray in Christ's name. Amen.