Shall we turn to the Psalms and beginning
tonight with the first Psalm.
The Psalms are actually divided into five books.
It was really the hymn book for the
nation of Israel.
They were sung in their original forms.
In the Psalms there is much prophecy because
we are told by Peter that David was
a prophet and that he spake by the
Holy Spirit and much of what he spake
was prophecy in regards to the coming Messiah
and did have its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
There are many Psalms that are known as
Messianic Psalms, that is, Psalms that refer directly
to Jesus Christ.
We'll get one of those tonight as we
get into second Psalm.
Each of the five books of the Psalms
end in a doxology.
The first of the books is from Psalm
1 to 41.
The second is 42 to 72.
The third is 73 to 89.
The fourth is 90 to 106.
And the fifth book of the Psalms is
107 to 150.
The majority of them were written by David.
Asaph was an author of some of them.
Moses wrote some of them.
But they were the songs of the children
of Israel.
They speak of human nature, of man's cry
after God, of man seeking to relate to
God, and they cover all of the gamuts
of man's feelings.
They are poetry, but as we have pointed
out, poetry to the Hebrew was not rhyming
words or sentences, nor was it a rhythm,
but it was a rhyming of ideas or
a contrasting of ideas.
Many of the Psalms are known as acrostic
Psalms.
We'll point them out to you when we
get to them.
That is that each verse begins with a
succeeding letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
And we have several acrostic Psalms with Psalm
119 probably is the best example of an
acrostic Psalm.
However, you find that about eight verses begin.
Each verse within the eight begins with the
letter of the Hebrew alphabet successively, so that
the first seven, eight verses begin with Aleph,
and then the next begin with Beth, and
then Deleth, and Gemil, and so forth.
And so you go through the Hebrew alphabet
with the 119th Psalm, and it of course
is the longest chapter in the Bible.
The first Psalm deals with the godly man
and the ungodly man.
There's a contrast, and the contrast perhaps is
best expressed by the first and the last
words of the Psalm concerning the godly blessed,
concerning the ungodly perished.
Blessed is the man.
The word blessed in the Hebrew has as
a meaning, oh how happy is the man.
First of all, we see this happy man
in a negative context.
That is, he is walking not in the
counsel of the ungodly, nor standing in the
way of sinners, nor sitting in the seat
of the scornful, and there does seem to
be a progression here.
A person begins quite often just walking in
the counsel of the ungodly.
The next thing he finds, he's standing around
in the congregation of the sinners, and finally
he sort of just settled down and is
seated in the seat of the scornful.
That's the negative side.
The blessed man doesn't do this, but contrary
wise, his delight is in the law of
the Lord, and in his law does he
meditate both day and night.
So from a negative standpoint, the happy man
is the man who walks not in the
counsel of the ungodly, but from a positive
standpoint is being directed by the counsel of
God.
He's meditating in the law of the Lord
day and night.
Now the effect or the results of this,
he shall be like a tree planted by
the rivers of water that bringeth forth its
fruit in his season.
His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever
he doeth shall prosper.
So we see, first of all, like a
tree planted by the rivers of water in
contrast to a tree that's growing out in
a barren wilderness, bringing forth fruit in his
season.
An interesting thing about unseasonable fruit, it never
matures.
It never becomes ripe.
You may plant watermelon seeds in August when
you eat your watermelons, and the vine might
grow and watermelons might come on it, but
it's unseasonable.
It will never get ripe.
It will always be green.
There are some people who never mature.
That is, really bring forth mature fruit.
Jesus tells us that the seed planted on
various types of soil result in various developments
of fruition.
Some planted by the wayside, immediately is plucked
up.
On the stony ground may grow for a
moment, but will never bear fruit, never develop,
because it lacks the depth.
That which is thrown among the thorns will
grow, but the thorns will choke out the
fruitfulness of it ultimately.
The cares of this life, deceitfulness of riches,
the desire for other things.
It is only that which falls on the
good ground that brings forth fruit.
In varying degrees, thirty, sixty, a hundred fold.
Now Jesus said, herein is my Father glorified
that you bring forth much fruit.
And then later on in that fifteenth chapter
of John, he said, you have not chosen
me, I have chosen you and ordained you
that you should bring forth fruit, that your
fruit should remain.
And so as children of God, we should
be interested in being fruitful, bringing forth fruit.
And then we should also be interested in
bringing forth fruit that remains or lasting fruit
in our lives.
So often the test of a ministry is
the lasting fruit that is brought forth from
that ministry.
So like a tree bringing forth fruit in
his season, his leaf also shall not wither.
That is, there is a freshness to his
life, a continual freshness.
And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Now, what is this man doing?
He's meditating in the law of the Lord,
day and night.
God has given to us the rules of
happiness.
God has given to us the rules of
prosperity.
They are there in his law.
Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Moses, when he turned the reins over to
Joshua, said unto Joshua, this book of the
law shall not depart out of thy mouth,
but thou shalt meditate therein day and night,
that thou mayest observe to do according to
all that is written therein.
For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous,
and then thou shalt have good success.
Meditate, stay in the word, the law of
the Lord.
Then thou shalt be prosperous, you'll have good
success.
So much the same is declared here in
Psalm 1.
Now the contrast, and here's where the Hebrew
poetry comes in, in contrasting ideas.
The ungodly are not so, but they are
like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Now this is contrasted to the tree planted
by the rivers of water bringing forth fruit
in its season.
But the ungodly is like chaff which the
wind driveth away.
Now when they threshed their grain, of course
when you gather in your barley or your
wheat, it has the hull on it.
And so they would pick it up in
their hands and they would get in a
place where there's a good stiff breeze.
They'd rub it in their hands and then
throw it up in the air.
And the wind would take the hulls, the
chaff, and blow it away.
And just the grain would fall back down.
And that was their form of removing the
hulls from the grain after they had harvested.
Just rubbing it in their hands and then
throwing it up into the air and the
wind.
And so it was a very familiar sight
to the people of a fellow standing on
a windy ridge, rubbing his hands, throwing the
grain in the air and watching the chaff
just blow away and just the grain falling
back down again.
And so the ungodly are like the chaff
which the wind driveth away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in judgment
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
For the Lord knoweth the way of the
righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall
perish.
The second psalm deals with the kingdom age.
The glorious kingdom age when Jesus reigns upon
the earth.
A messianic psalm.
Why do the heathen rage and the people
imagine a vain thing?
For the kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the
Lord and against his anointed.
His anointed there is his Messiah.
The word Messiah is the anointed one.
So they've taken counsel together against Jehovah and
against his Messiah, declaring, let us break their
bands asunder and cast away their cords from
us.
And so man, rebelling against God and against
Jesus Christ, the heathen raging, a vain thing,
that they can cast God off from their
lives.
But he that sits in the heavens shall
laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision.
Then shall he speak unto them in his
wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure.
So we are looking at God's judgment upon
the Christ rejecting world.
And in spite of their gathering together to
try to thwart the return of Jesus Christ,
yet God will establish his kingdom upon the
earth.
God declares, yet have I set my king
upon my holy hill of Zion.
And I will declare the decree and the
Lord has said unto me.
Now this is Jesus speaking the king who
was on the holy hill or rather beg
your pardon.
God is still speaking.
Thou art my son.
This day have I begotten thee.
Ask of me and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance and the other
most parts of the earth for thy possession.
Now verse eight is often taken out of
context and it is used by many missionary
societies as sort of a key verse for
the missionary society.
Ask of me and I'll give you the
heathen for thine inheritance and the other most
parts of the earth for thy possession.
But this is not really a missionary scripture.
It has nothing to do with present day
missions.
This scripture has to do with the kingdom
age.
As the father declares unto the son, thou
art my son.
This day have I begotten thee.
Ask of me and I will give you
the heathen for thine inheritance and the other
most parts of the earth for thy possession
is talking about that glorious day when our
prayers are fulfilled and his kingdom has come
and his will is being done in the
earth, even as it is in heaven and
his kingdom covers the entire earth.
And so it is the father speaking to
the son, promising to him the kingdom ruling
over the whole earth.
And then God speaks of the nature of
that kingdom.
Thou shalt break them with a rod of
iron.
Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a
potter's vessel.
Now Jesus in his message to the church
of Thyatira picked up from this particular Psalm
and he said, he that overcometh verse 26
of chapter two of revelation, he that overcometh
and keepeth my works unto the end to
him, will I give power over the nations
and he shall rule them with a rod
of iron.
And as the vessels of a potter, shall
they be broken to shivers as I have
received of my father.
And so Jesus actually quotes from this Psalm
as regards to the nature of the kingdom
age.
Now, when Jesus comes again to the earth
in his second coming, the purpose is to
establish God's kingdom upon the earth that the
fulfillment of all of the old Testament prophecies
of the kingdom age might come to pass
as righteousness will cover the earth as waters
do cover the sea and he will reign
in righteousness in truth and in judgment, but
it will be an iron clad reign.
During this period of time, Satan is to
be bound and cast into the abuso, the
bottomless pit.
So he will not be one that we
will have to contend with in the kingdom
age.
All we'll have to contend with is that
inherent evil that is in man.
Now, when Jesus comes again, the first thing
that will transpire is that he will gather
together all of the nations for judgment and
he will separate them as a shepherd separates
the sheep from the goats and he'll place
those on his right hand and he'll say
unto them, come ye blessed of the father,
inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you
from the foundations of the earth, for I
was hungry and you fed me thirsty and
you gave me to drink naked and you
called me sick and you visited me.
And to those on the left, he will
say, depart from me, ye workers of iniquity
into everlasting judgment that was prepared for Satan
and his angels.
For I was hungry and you didn't feed
me.
I was thirsty.
You didn't give me to drink.
I was naked.
You didn't call me.
Well, Lord, when did we see you in
these conditions?
And he said, inasmuch as you did it
unto the least of these, my brethren, you
did it unto me, speaking of his brethren,
the Jews.
So the nations will actually be judged concerning
their treatment of his brethren.
Now, those who are placed on the right
side will be allowed to go into the
kingdom age.
Now, when Jesus comes again in his second
coming, we will be coming with him.
Only we will be in our glorified bodies.
We will have gone through the metamorphosis that
Paul speaks about in the, in first Corinthians
chapter 15.
I show you a mystery.
We're not going to all sleep, but we're
all going to be changed.
The metamorphosis in a moment in the twinkling
of an eye for this corruption must put
on incorruption.
This mortal must put on immortality.
And so Paul said, when Christ who is
our life shall appear, then shall we also
appear with him in glory.
We'll be coming back with Jesus to live
and reign with him for a thousand years
during his millennial reign upon the earth in
revelation chapter one, verse seven, as it is
speaking of Jesus Christ, who loved us and
gave himself for us and all.
And it speaks there and we shall reign
with him as a kingdom of priest.
And then in the fifth chapter of the
book of revelation, as he takes this sealed
scroll out of the right hand of him
who is sitting upon the throne, the glorious
song that is sung at that point by
the church is worthy is the lamb to
take the scroll and loose the seals.
For he was slain and has redeemed us
by his blood out of all nations, tribes,
tongues, and peoples, and has made us under
our God, a kingdom of priests.
And we shall reign with him upon the
earth.
So we're coming back to reign with Jesus
upon the earth in his kingdom for a
thousand years.
That's one company, the church in their glorified
bodies, but it will be possible.
And there will be some who will actually
live through the great tribulation period.
They'll survive it.
And providing they have not worshiped the Antichrist,
providing they have not taken his mark and
providing their interest in God's people, they will
be allowed to enter into the kingdom age
in these bodies like we presently have.
In an earth that will be renewed and
restored as was the garden of Eden, in
that again there will be a restored longevity
of life.
For a child will die being a hundred,
but yet those that is evil, but those
that are righteous will fulfill their years.
They won't die.
They will live during this entire period of
time.
The longevity will be restored.
But our position with Christ at that time,
Satan will be bound, that force will be
bound, and so Christ will be ruling, but
we will be the enforcers of righteousness.
As he said to the church of Thyatira,
to those that are overcome, they will be
with me and they will rule over the
nations with a rod of iron and all.
And so here speaks of the iron clad
type of rule that Jesus will have.
In other words, people will be forced to
be good.
Person is evil gets popped like a clay
pot, broken in shivers like a potter's vessel
and it's hit with a piece of iron.
It will be an iron clad rule.
We won't have any sob sisters carrying signs
in those days of leniency for the rapist.
There will be absolute righteous judgment exercised and
people will be forced, that is those who
live in.
Now those who survive and live into the
kingdom age, being in these bodies will actually
be able to bear children and there probably
will be quite a population explosion during this
period of time as the earth will be
restored to such ideal conditions.
However, at that point, we in our glorified
bodies will be as the angels who neither
marry nor are given in marriage, but we
will just be with Christ reigning and ruling
with him during the kingdom age over those
people who have survived the great tribulation, who
have survived the judgment of Jesus.
And I do believe that that is what
the 45 day thing is in Daniel, where
he says, Daniel saying how long Lord to
the end.
And he said from the time that they
cause the daily sacrifices and oblations to cease,
it'll be 1290 days.
But blessed is he who comes to the
1335 day, which the blessedness of it is
that you've made it through the judgment period.
You can enter into the glorious kingdom of
Jesus Christ.
During this thousand years, as we live upon
a renewed earth under ideal conditions, it will
be glorious.
Annually, we'll be all taking a trip to
Jerusalem to sit at the feet of Jesus
and just to worship there together in a
glorious annual holiday.
As the Kings of the earth, which will
be the church come and sort of present
themselves before the Lord in Jerusalem, bringing the
fruits of their section of the earth.
And the Lord said that in the parable,
when he had distributed the talents to the
one, he gave five, he brought back and
he said, Lord, you gave me five.
I've increased them in here are 10.
And the Lord said, well done now, good
and faithful servant, you have been faithful in
a few things.
Now I will make the ruler over 10
cities, enter into the joy of thy Lord,
enter into the kingdom age and ruling over
10 cities.
So the degree of our reigning and ruling
with Christ will be in relationship to the
degree of our faithfulness to those things that
he's entrusted to us.
Now, if I am faithful now in the
little things that God has entrusted to me,
but he said, if he was entrusted the
little things and we haven't taken care of
them, then why would he entrust to us
the greater things of the kingdom?
And so we live in reign with Christ.
Now, at the end of that thousand year
reign, Satan is going to be released and
we'll go around the earth and deceive many
people.
Now, there is no way that Satan at
that point could deceive you or drag you
down because you're already in your glorified body.
And you see the only real angle that
Satan has with us now is in is
the body.
If it weren't for this body of flesh,
Satan would be no problem to me at
all.
But it's because of my body of flesh,
my fleshly desires that he appeals to, to
get me to trip up, but I'll be
in my glorified body.
So people say, oh, you know, many deceive.
Will I be deceived?
No, not if you're a child of God,
your glorified body, no way.
But those who have come into the kingdom,
who have been forced to be righteous, those
who were born during this thousand year period
will then have their time of testing.
And God, just to prove through all eternity,
the human depravity of man will allow Satan
to be released after men have lived in
the ideal conditions under the reign of Christ
for a thousand years.
Satan will actually be able to gather together
a great army to rebel against Jesus, to
come against Jerusalem, to try to drive him
out.
If you can believe that, the human depravity,
God will have proven it once and for
all so that no one throughout all eternity
will question the judgment of God in that
he has cast certain ones out from his
eternal kingdom.
There will be no challenging of the fairness
or justice of God, because every man will
have his chance and man will prove what
is in him.
So the kingdom age, this is what we're
referring to here.
Ask of me, I will give you the
heathen for thine inheritance, the uttermost parts of
the earth for thy possession, as Jesus shall
reign, as we sing, where the sun doth
their successive journeys run.
Thou shalt break them with a rod of
iron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like
a potter's vessel.
Be wise now therefore, O ye kings, be
instructed, ye judges of the earth.
Now he's talking really to us who will
be reigning with him as kings, as judges,
as enforcers of his righteousness.
Serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the son, lest he be angry and
ye perish from the way when his wrath
is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust
in him.
The bottom line, blessed are those who put
their trust or happier those who put their
trust in him.
The third psalm is the psalm of David
when he was fleeing from Absalom, going over
the Mount of Olives and out towards the
Judean wilderness on news that Absalom was coming
from with an army from Hebron.
And David pours out his heart to the
Lord.
Lord, how are they increased that trouble me?
Many are they that rise up against me.
Absalom had been able to gather much of
Judah against David.
Many there be which say of my soul,
there's no help for him in God.
God won't help him now.
But thou, O Lord, art a shield for
me, my glory and the lifter up of
my head.
O God, there are a lot of people
that have risen against me.
A lot of people going around saying, God
won't help him now.
But O God, you're my shield.
You're my, you're the one who lifts up
my head.
You're my glory.
I cried unto the Lord with my voice.
He heard me out of his holy hill.
Now know all the tension that is there.
He's running.
He doesn't know what the future holds.
This could be it.
But he said, I laid me down and
I awaited for the Lord to sustain me.
He was able to sleep under these conditions.
I will not be afraid of ten thousands
of people that have set themselves against me
round about.
Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God,
for thou has smitten all mine enemies upon
the cheekbone.
Thou has broken the teeth of the ungodly.
Salvation belongs to the Lord.
Thy blessing is upon thy people.
So the psalm begins with a cry of
despair from all of the trouble, those which
had risen up against him, those who said
there was no hope.
But he turns to God in this condition
and he is assured of God's strength and
help.
And the psalm ends really with a glorious
note of victory.
Salvation belongs to the Lord.
Thy blessing is upon thy people.
The fourth psalm is to the chief musician
on Niganath.
Now, Niganath is a stringed instrument and it's
mentioned in connection with several of the psalms,
3, 5, 53, 54, 60, 66, and 75.
So it's some kind of a stringed instrument
that they had in those days.
And so this psalm was to be accompanied
as they sang it with this particular stringed
instrument.
David probably wrote not just the psalm, but
the music and also scored for the Niganath
so that the Niganath player could play along
the chords with them as they were singing.
Hear me when I call, O God of
my righteousness.
Thou hast enlarged me when I was in
distress.
Have mercy upon me and hear my prayer.
This is really a prayer of the evening
as David is calling unto God.
O ye sons of men, how long will
you turn my glory into shame?
How long will you love vanity and seek
after deceitfulness or deception?
But know that the Lord hath set apart
him that is godly for himself.
The Lord will hear when I call unto
him.
Stand in awe and sin not.
Commune with your own heart upon your bed
and be still in the evening.
Just lying there.
Commune with your own heart.
Just be still before the Lord.
Just let your heart be in communion with
him.
Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your
trust in the Lord.
There be many that say who will show
us any good.
Now again in the last psalm we were
talking about those that say there's no help
for him in God.
There are always those negative people around.
And there are always those that say who's
going to show us any good.
David's answer, Lord lift thou up the light
of thy countenance upon us.
For thou hast put gladness in my heart
more than in the time that their corn
and their wine increased.
That is those people who are negative about
God.
Ah what good does it do to pray?
What good does it do to worship God?
Who's going to show you any good?
David says Lord you put happiness, gladness in
my heart more than theirs when they are
in the midst of their thanksgiving, their harvest,
their wine.
I will both lay me down in peace
and sleep for thou Lord only make safety.
So the glorious ability of the child of
God to sleep even in the midst of
problems because of our trust in the Lord.
Psalm five is a prayer of the morning.
Psalm four was the prayer of the evening
and now for the morning.
Give ear unto my words, O Lord.
Consider my meditation.
Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my
King and my God.
For unto thee will I pray.
My voice shalt thou hear in the morning,
O Lord.
In the morning will I direct my prayer
unto thee and look up.
This again is upon a nigga not the
song of David and he said for thou
art not a God that has pleasure in
wickedness.
Neither shall evil dwell with thee.
The foolish shall not stand in thy sight
and thou hate us.
All of the workers of iniquity thou shalt
destroy them that speak deceitfully.
The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful
man.
Now the bloody, this is an old English
kind of a word.
Over in England to say you know you're
a bloody bloke is really a bad thing.
Where's Malcolm?
He'll tell you that in England you know
the word bloody is really a gutter type
of word.
You've got to really watch your language when
you go really from one culture to the
other because you can be saying things that
are sort of weird.
When I was over in England I was
speaking to a group of ministers and I
was sharing with them a little bit about
the history of Calvary Chapel and how before
we came the group of people that were
praying whether or not to try to keep
going or just to quit and they were
discouraged.
There were only about 25 people here and
they had a little church down here on
Church Street in Costa Mesa and they had
gone for a couple of years and were
actually just deciding whether or not to try
and go or not and so a prophecy
came to them and in the prophecy the
Lord said that Chuck Smith is going to
come down and be your new pastor and
the church is going to be blessed.
You're going to have to move on to
the bluff overlooking the bay.
The church will be going on the radio
nationally and it will be known around the
world.
Twenty-five discouraged people ready to quit in
a prophecy like that and you have the
same attitude as the guy upon whom the
king leaned when Elisha said tomorrow they'll be
selling a barrel of wheat for 60 cents
in the gate of the city and he
said if God would open up the windows
in heaven could such a thing be.
It seemed utterly impossible.
The prophecy went on to say as soon
as Chuck comes down he's not going to
like the the church he's going to suggest
that you remodel it remodel the platform and
all and and you know it was just
encouragement get in and do it.
They didn't tell me anything about the prophecy
in fact when I finally said yes I
will come down they call me back the
next day and they said don't bother we've
decided to quit.
We just have had it is you know
and I said hey I've already resigned I'm
on my way you know.
So the first Sunday all of us went
out for lunch together to the Sizzler and
I took the napkin on the table and
I said to the guys we really need
to remodel the church and here's what we
need to do the platform and I began
to draw on the napkin remodeling design for
the for the church.
Now they didn't tell me about the prophecy
I didn't know anything about it but they
all began to get real excited and I
said that sounds great let's start this week
and I thought wow this is all right
I've got an eager crew here you know
and so I was relating this to the
ministers in England how that I took out
a napkin I began to draw the plans
on the napkin.
Afterwards my host over there said in England
we call baby diapers a napkin.
So he said all of those ministers were
giggling because they pictured you drawing plans on
a baby diaper.
Though it is interesting how one culture changes
the thoughts and the meanings of course that's
not quite as bad as when I was
in New Guinea and I decided to use
one of Romaine's phrases but never again.
As I at the close of the missionary
conference told those Wycliffe missionaries how the conference
was just such a great blessing to us
said I've just been blessed out of my
gourd since I've been here.
Not realizing that New Guinea tribesmen often wear
gourds over a certain part of their body.
The place broke up.
Now I don't know what the word bloody
means really but it's a dirty word in
England.
So being an English translation of the Hebrew
word it's a it's a word that doesn't
really connotate to us you know the dirtiness
of it that that it is that it's
a dirty kind of a man but it
doesn't really connotate in our in our minds.
But it is used that David used it
several times in the psalm concerning the deceitful
man and and and the evil man.
So he speaks the Lord will abhor the
bloody and the deceitful man.
That'll mean much more to an Englishman than
it does you.
But as for me.
Now here's the contrast and as I told
you poetry to them is contrasting ideas or
compounding of an idea.
Here comes the contrast but as for me
I will come in to thy house in
the multitude of thy mercy and in thy
fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.
Lead me O Lord in thy righteousness because
of mine enemies.
Make thy way straight before my face.
For there is no faithfulness in their mouth.
Their inward part is very wickedness.
Their throat is an open sepulcher.
They flatter with their tongue.
Destroy thou them O God.
Let them fall by their own counsels.
Cast them out of the multitude of their
out in the multitude of their transgressions for
they have rebelled against thee.
Contrast but let all those that put their
trust in thee rejoice.
Let them ever shout for joy because you
defend them.
Let them also that love thy name be
joyful in thee.
This is a beautiful psalm really.
That all of those that put their trust
in thee rejoice.
If you put your trust in the Lord
then you should be rejoicing.
Shouting for joy.
Why?
Because God defends you.
Those that love thy name let them be
joyful in thee.
God does want the consciousness of our daily
walk in life to be that of joy.
For thou Lord will bless the righteous.
With favor will you encircle him as with
a shield.
The sixth psalm is to the chief musician
on this stringed instrument and upon the shemineth.
Now the shemineth is a word that means
the eighth and so it was to be
played in octaves.
So on a stringed instrument played in octaves.
So David no doubt made these notations on
the psalms as he wrote them and wrote
it as a hymnal for the people.
Oh Lord rebuke me not in thine anger
neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
Now here is where David is I'm certain
carrying over a human characteristic to God.
For we as parents are often guilty of
rebuking our children in anger and chastening them
in hot displeasure.
That's a human characteristic and it is a
failing many times on the part of us
as parents.
We're angry and we sometimes over discipline because
of our anger.
Have mercy upon me oh Lord for I
am weak.
Oh Lord heal me for my bones are
vexed.
My soul also is sore vexed but thou
oh Lord how long.
Return oh Lord deliver my soul oh save
me for thy mercy's sake.
For in death there is no remembrance of
thee.
In the grave who shall give thee thanks.
Now this is David crying out of a
soul that is vexed according to the words
of Jesus.
These words of David are not correct.
He is expressing as did Job his own
ideas his own thoughts of death.
For Jesus tells us that when the rich
man in hell lifted up his eyes being
in torment and seeing Abraham afar off and
Lazarus being comforted in Abraham's bosom said unto
him father Abraham have mercy on me and
send Lazarus unto me that he may take
his finger and dip it in water and
touch my tongue for I am tormented in
this heat.
And Abraham said unto him son remember that
thou in thy lifetime had good things and
Lazarus evil.
Now he is comforted while you are tormented.
Besides this there's a gulf that is between
us and it's impossible for you to come
over here or those that are here to
go over there.
Then I pray thee if he cannot come
to me send him back that he might
warn my brothers lest they also come to
this horrible place.
There is a consciousness.
There is awareness.
There is a memory.
It isn't an oblivion as some people would
like to think.
That is from the word of Jesus and
I would say that he probably knows more
about it than anybody else.
And I'll take his opinion and his word
for it above anybody else's.
I think that that's prime when you can
get the word of Christ on an issue.
Especially issue of death and after death and
what lies beyond the grave.
Man may speculate but Jesus speaks.
I am weary with my groaning all night.
And of course I would have to say
that David is exaggerating.
He said I make my bed to swim
with my tears.
It's a lot of crying David.
I water my couch with my tears.
And so this is known as speaking in
a hyperbole.
It's writer's license.
David is just talking about and David must
have been a melancholy I guess.
He speaks a lot about crying.
I am weary with my groaning.
My eye is consumed because of grief.
It waxes old because of all of my
enemies.
Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity
for the Lord hath heard the voice of
my weeping.
The Lord hath heard my supplication.
The Lord will receive my prayer.
Let all my enemies be ashamed and sore
vexed.
Let them return and be ashamed suddenly.
So David prayer unto the Lord out of
a spirit that is vexed, that is downcast.
But it is interesting how the Psalms always
seem to end on a high note.
The Lord hath heard my supplication.
The Lord will receive my prayer.
The seventh Psalm is Shigyon, which means the
loud crying of David, which he sang unto
the Lord concerning the words of Cush, the
Benjamite.
O Lord, my God, in thee do I
put my trust.
Save me from all of them that persecute
me and deliver me.
Now David had his share of enemies, poor
fellow, always crying out against the oppressors, against
the enemies.
Lest he tear my soul like a lion,
rending it in pieces while there is none
to deliver.
O Lord, my God, if I have done
this, if I'm guilty of his accusations, if
there be iniquity in my hands, if I
have rewarded evil to him that was at
peace with me, yea, I have delivered him
that without cause is mine enemy.
Now evidently this is the accusation that David
had rewarded evil for a guy who was
at peace with him.
David said, that isn't true.
I, I actually delivered him who without cause
has become mine enemy.
Let the enemy, if it's true, the accusations
are true, then let the enemy persecute my
soul.
You remember in, in Job, Job said much
the same thing.
You know, if I've done these things, then
if I've committed adultery or sin with my
eyes and so forth, then, you know, let
my wife be unfaithful.
I deserve it.
But Job was protesting his innocence.
I haven't.
And David is much the same as did
Job.
If I'm guilty, then let this thing happen.
Let the enemy persecute my soul and take
it.
Yea, let him tread down my life upon
the earth and lay mine honor in the
dust.
Arise, O Lord, in thine anger, lift up
thyself because of the rage of mine enemies
and await for me to the judgment that
thou has commanded.
And so shall the congregation of the people
encircle thee about for their sakes.
Therefore, return on high.
The Lord shall judge the people.
Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness
and according to mine integrity that is in
me.
Now that's far from what David prayed in
the 51st Psalm.
Here it's on this particular issue and he
felt he was righteous in this issue.
I'm not guilty here.
So, Lord, judge me here concerning my righteousness.
But where he was guilty and knew he
was guilty in the 51st Psalm, have mercy
upon me, O God, according to the multitude
of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
He wasn't crying for justice there.
He was crying for mercy.
I have never cried for justice.
Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness,
according to my integrity that is in me.
Now David knew he was innocent of the
charges that Cush had been making.
And so, God, you know and you judge.
Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come
to an end, but establish the just.
For the righteous God trieth the hearts and
the reins.
And God is going to try the hearts.
Our motives will one day be judged.
Actually, our works are all to be judged
by fire to see what sort they are
and those that remain after the test of
fire, we will be rewarded for.
But much of man's work will be destroyed.
God judges the heart.
God knows the motive, something that we're not
even always aware of.
My defense is of God, which saves the
upright in heart.
God judges the righteous and God is angry
with the wicked every day.
If he turn not, he will wet his
sword or sharpen his sword.
He has bent his bow and made it
ready.
He has also prepared for him the instruments
of death.
That's sort of a heavy scripture.
God is already prepared for the wicked, the
way by which he's going to die.
He's bent his bow.
He's sharpened his sword.
He already has planned the method of the
destruction of the wicked.
Behold, he travaileth with iniquity and conceives mischief.
He brought forth falsehood.
He made a pit, he dug it and
it's fallen into the ditch, which he made.
His mischief shall return upon his own head
and violent dealing shall come down upon his
own pate.
I will praise the Lord according to his
righteousness and will sing praise to the name
of the Lord most high.
So again, ending on a high note as
he tells of the judgment of God against
his enemy.
And I will praise the Lord according to
his righteousness.
Sing praise to the name of the Lord
most high.
Psalm eight is to the chief musician upon
Githyth.
Now Githyth means wine press.
And so you have the thought of the
harvest in the sense actually of judgment.
The time of harvest has come.
Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy
name in all the earth.
The first Lord, all capital letters signifies that
it is a translation of the Hebrew name
for God.
That name which we do not know exactly
how to pronounce.
Perhaps it is Yahweh.
Perhaps it is Jehovah.
Nobody really knows for sure.
People have taken sides on the issue, but
it's a mute question.
We really are not certain of the pronunciation
of the name.
The Jews felt the name was so sacred
that they would not write it in their
script.
They would only write Y H V H
the consonant.
So it remained unpronounceable.
They didn't want a person to even pronounce
it silently as they were reading.
So when a Jew would come to this
particular verse to read it, Oh Lord, our
Lord, reading it out of Hebrew, he would
just say, Oh, and then he'd bow his
head and say the name.
But he would not try to pronounce the
name.
Just the name.
For it was the name of God.
It is a Hebrew verb, which means I
am that I am.
I am the name of God.
I am the or more literally the becoming
one.
It is a name by which God describes
his desired relationship to you as God desires
to become to you whatever you may need.
He has become our peace.
He has become our righteousness.
He has become our healer.
He has become our provider.
God becomes to us whatever we need.
And so it is.
It's a beautiful name because it is a
name by which God describes his relationship to
you.
He wants to become to you whatever you
need.
The second Lord here, our Lord, capital L
small or D signifies that it is the
translation of the Hebrew word Adonai, which means
master.
And thus it is a title and thus
it signifies our relationship to him.
The first one signifies his desire relationship to
us, the becoming one.
The second indicates our relationship to him, master.
Oh, Jehovah, our master.
How excellent is thy name?
You see the name Jehovah.
How excellent is that name in all the
earth.
Now we are told in Philippians chapter two
that Jesus, even though he was in the
form of God and thought it not robbery
or something to be grasped to be equal
with God, emptied himself or made himself of
no reputation and took upon himself the form
of a man and coming in likeness of
a man was obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross.
Wherefore, God has also highly exalted him and
given him a name that is above every
name, that at the name of Jehovah Shua,
the compound name of Jehovah, where he has
become in Jesus Christ, our salvation.
The angel said to Joseph when he was
worried about whether or not to expose Mary
or put her away privately.
The angel said, don't be afraid to take
Mary as your wife.
That which is conceived in her is from
the Holy Spirit.
She's going to bring forth the son.
Thou shall call his name Jehovah Shua or
Yahshua in Hebrew for he shall save his
people from their sins.
A name that is above all names.
How excellent is thy name?
The name of Jesus, the most excellent name
in all of the world.
Yahshua, Jehovah has become our greatest need, our
salvation.
Now in the kingdom age, he's going to
have a new name, Jehovah Tisidkenu.
I would just as soon stick with Yahshua
because Tisidkenu is hard to pronounce.
But Jeremiah tells us that that is the
name in the kingdom age, which is he
has become our salvation.
Jehovah, our salvation.
How excellent is thy name?
A name which is above every name in
all the earth.
Who has set thy glory above the heavens?
Now the heavens are glorious.
The heavens declare the glory of God.
They are not the glory of God.
They declare the glory of God.
His glory is even above the heavens or
higher than the heavens.
And yet perhaps the most glorious thing that
we as man can observe are the heavens.
But God's glory is even above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings
hath thou ordained strength because of thine enemies
that thou mightest still the enemy and the
avenger.
It is interesting to me that that glorious
God has revealed himself in such simple terms
that even a child can comprehend and begin
to know God and have faith in God.
And to me, the purest faith probably that
we can find is that faith within a
child.
How beautiful is that that faith of a
child?
When our kids were growing up, I always
wanted them to pray for me when I
wasn't feeling well.
Such pure faith, simplicity, as Jesus took a
child and put it in the midst of
all the scholars.
And he said, unless you become like a
little child, you're not going to catch on.
You're not going to enter the kingdom of
heaven.
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings,
God has perfected praise.
He's ordained strength.
Then David said, when I consider the heavens
the work of your fingers, the moon and
the stars which thou hast ordained, what is
man?
Now the first philosophers and man today is
seeking to understand what is man.
That is a basic question of the philosophers.
What is man?
But the mistake that the philosophers make is
that they start with man, rather than as
with David, starting with God.
Oh Lord, our Lord, when I consider thy
heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon,
the stars which thou hast ordained, what is
man?
If I start with God, then I have
man in his proper perspective.
If I start with man, I have no
perspective.
I have no place to go.
I don't know where to go.
I have no perspective.
I can't see man in any perspective unless
I start with God, and then I see
man in his proper perspective.
When I consider the heavens the work of
your fingers, the moon, the stars which thou
hast ordained, what is man?
That thou art mindful of him.
How often I've sat at the seashore, watching
the sun go down when I was a
child.
I lived in a seacoast town, Ventura, north
of here.
And I used to love to get my
fishing pole and go down and dig for
soft-shelled sand crabs.
And I had a neat Corbina hole.
And I'd cast out there, and I'd just
watch the surf, and I'd watch the sun
as it would go down.
And I'd be all alone on the sandy
beach, and I felt so small.
As it was getting dark, I felt so
small.
As Venus would start to come out, and
then some of the other stars.
And I'd look up and I'd think, wow,
I'm alone here on the beach, looking out
at that portion of the Pacific to the
horizon, seeing the sun go down, and thinking
how vast the Pacific Ocean was, how vast
the world was.
I knew just to ride my bike the
two miles back to my house seemed like
a long way at that point.
And to realize, you know, just how vast
the earth is.
And I felt so small in relationship to
the earth.
But then I thought of the earth in
relationship to the sun that had just set.
And then the relationship to the earth, to
the stars that I saw coming out.
And what is man that thou art mindful
of him?
Here I am, a speck of dust down
on this little planet, and yet God thinks
about me.
All the time he thinks about me.
And sitting there in the sand, it was
exciting because I'd look up the beach and
see all the sand dunes.
And my mother had taught me the scripture
concerning thy thoughts, concerning me.
If I should number them, they are more
than the grains of sand on the sea.
And I'd think of the greatness of God.
And I would just sit there, just over
awed that God, the one who created this
vast universe that I was looking at, was
mindful of me, this little kid sitting on
the sand, on a beach by myself.
What is man that thou art mindful of
him?
God is thinking about you all the time,
and his thoughts concerning you are good, not
evil.
He's not thinking how he can give you
a bad time this week and make it
really tough on you.
See how much he can make you squirm?
God is thinking, how can I show them
how much I love them?
How can I show them that I care?
What good thing can I do for them
this week?
That they'll know that I'm there, that I
know I'm concerned, that they know that I
love them.
He's thinking about you all the time.
And the son of man that thou shouldest
visit him.
What is man that God should come down
to visit him?
Who am I that God should seek to
visit with me, and yet he desires to
visit with me?
I don't always have time for him.
Sometimes he's called to me and said, Chuck,
come, let's have a little visit.
And I said, no, Lord, I don't have
time.
I'm so busy, Lord.
Can't you see how busy I am?
Catch you later, Lord.
But you know what?
He has never once said that to me,
I'm too busy for you.
In fact, he seems always so happy whenever
I come around.
So glad that I came, as though he
was longing for my fellowship when I had
everything to gain from it.
And he has so little to gain.
Oh, how excellent, Lord, is the Lord that
is thy name in all the earth.
Who is a pardoning God like thee?
Who is a God that is so merciful
and so kind and so loving and so
concerned as our God?
What is man that God should visit him?
And yet he did.
Thou hast made him.
Man is not the product of accidental circumstances.
Man is not the product of a series
of chance, random chance through billions of years.
But the psalmist declares, thou hast made him.
But brilliant men who don't want to acknowledge
God because they don't want to keep God
in their minds have had to create theories
and theories by which they have sought to
explain the existence of man in, quote, scientific
terms.
And these brilliant men tell us that God
was created by man in man's own image
and after man's own likeness.
That because man needed to believe in something,
he created the idea and the concepts of
God.
But God is only the figment of man's
imagination.
He was created by man.
But the scriptures said not so.
Thou hast made him.
God created man in his image and after
his likeness.
So you have the choice to believe that
man created God or God created man.
But to me, if I'm going to have
any kind of a logical base for existence,
I must believe that God has created me.
Otherwise life is without purpose.
I'm living in a puzzle in the middle
of a muddle and there is no reason,
rhyme, purpose for existence or being.
I came by an accident.
I'll go by an accident.
Tough.
Life becomes completely empty, dehumanizing.
If you try to take away from thou
hast made him.
Now it's made him a little lower than
the angels.
Now the angels are God's ministering spirits.
They've been sent forth to minister to those
who are heirs of salvation.
We see the order now of beings in
the universe.
It is God, angels, man, animals, plants.
Thou hast made him a little lower than
the angels, but you've crowned him with glory
and honor.
I look around the earth in which I
live.
I see all of the life forms upon
the earth and I realized that I have
been crowned with glory and honor.
I am the highest order of God's observable
creation here on the planet earth and I
see the accomplishments of man.
Think of what the world would be if
man wasn't here.
Both good and bad, isn't it?
If man wasn't on the earth, they wouldn't
have polluted streams, polluted skies and threat of
destruction by nuclear warheads.
And yet also if man wasn't here, there
would be no music, there would be no
poetry, there would be no beautiful paintings, the
earth would miss so much as God has
placed in man the music and the beauty
of expression.
You've crowned him with glory and honor.
You made him to have dominion over the
works of thy hands.
God has given us dominion over that work
of his hands.
The earth showeth forth his handiwork.
So we have dominion over the plants, we
have dominion over the animals, over the earth.
God gave it to Adam, have dominion over
it.
Now that is dominion in the sense of
dressing it, keeping it, taking care of it,
developing it.
It isn't dominion in the sense that I
can destroy it if I please, I can
waste it if I please, I can recklessly,
carelessly destroy the natural resources if I please
because I have dominion.
Not at all.
The idea is to dress it, to keep
it, to take care of it.
You've given him dominion over the works of
your hands.
You've put all things under his feet, crowned
him with glory and honor.
Now, this in a broader sense, of course,
applies to Jesus Christ and is used in
application to Jesus Christ in the book of
Hebrews, the second chapter, verses six and eight,
and it has been made to apply to
Jesus who was made a little lower than
the angels for the suffering of death.
You see, he was God, not Michael the
archangel.
If he was Michael the archangel, then he
wouldn't have to been made a little lower
than the angels.
He would have been an angel and he
would have had to been made a little
lower than the angels, but he made him
a little lower than the angels and crowned
him for the suffering of death.
As an angel, he could not die.
As God, he could not die and thus
he had to be made a little lower
than the angels angels for the suffering of
death.
And God has put all things in subjection
unto him.
But the author of Hebrews said, we do
not yet see all things in subjection unto
him, but we see Jesus made a little
lower than the angels for the suffering of
death, crowned with glory and honor.
So all of those things that God has
put under man, the sheep, the oxen, the
beasts of the field, the fowl of the
air, the fish of the sea, and whatsoever
passes through the path of the sea.
A sea captain was one time in the
hospital and the nurse was reading to him
the psalms.
And when she came to the eighth psalm,
she read that last, she read the eighth
psalm.
And when she read the last verse, he
said, read that or the next to last
verse there, verse eight.
He said, read that again.
She read it again.
He said, read it again.
And she read it again.
And he said, that's interesting paths in the
sea.
If God has declared that there are paths
in the sea, there must be paths in
the sea.
And so he began to put out bottles
and he began to chart the sea currents
and discovered that there are definite paths in
the seas, the sea currents.
And from that time on the shipping industry
began to follow the sea currents, saving thousands
upon thousands of dollars in fuel because they
go with the currents.
There are paths through the sea.
Oh Lord, Oh Jehovah, our master, how excellent
is thy name in all the earth.
The ninth psalm is to the chief musician
on Muthlaban.
Muthlaban is the death of a son.
This could have been when Bathsheba's first son
died.
I will praise the old Lord with my
whole heart.
I will show forth all thy marvelous works.
I will be glad and rejoice in thee.
I will sing praise to thy name.
Oh thou most high.
When my enemies are turned back, they shall
fall and perish at thy presence.
For thou has maintained my right and my
cause.
And you sat in the throne judging right.
You have rebuked the heathen and you have
destroyed the wicked.
You have put out their name forever and
ever.
Oh thou enemy destructions come to a perpetual
end and thou has destroyed cities.
Their memories is perished or their memorial is
perished with them.
But the Lord and his contrast, they have
perished, but the Lord will endure forever.
He has prepared his throne for judgment and
he shall judge the world.
Now you're building thought upon thought.
He's prepared his throne for judgment.
He shall judge the world with righteousness.
He shall minister judgment to the people in
uprightness.
The Lord will be a refuge for the
oppressed, a refuge in time of trouble, and
they that know thy name will put their
trust in thee.
For thou Lord has not forsaken them that
seek thee.
Sing praises to the Lord, which dwells in
Zion.
Declare among the people his doings.
When he make his inquisition for bloody, remember
them and forget it.
Not the cry of the humble have mercy
upon me.
Oh Lord, consider my trouble, which I suffer
of them that hate me.
Now let this me up from the gates
of death that I may show forth all
the praise in the gates of the daughter
of Zion.
I will rejoice in thy salvation.
The heathen are sunk down in the pit
that they made in the net, which is
hid for their own foot.
Their own foot is taken.
The Lord is known by the judgment, which
he executed.
The wicked is snared in the work of
his own hands.
And that Hegion is meditate on that.
The wicked is snared in the work of
his own hand.
Just meditate on it.
The wicked shall be turned into hell and
all nations that forget God for the needy
shall not always be forgotten.
The expectations of poor shall not perish forever
arise.
Oh Lord, let not man prevail.
Let the heathen be judged in thy sight.
Put them in fear.
Oh Lord, that the nations may know themselves
to be but men.
Oh God, answer that.
Put the leaders, the heathen in fear that
the nations may know themselves to be but
men.
We so often get an exalted idea of
ourselves.
Why do you stand afar off?
Oh Lord, why do you hide yourself in
the time of trouble?
You ever prayed that Lord, why aren't you
doing something about it?
Why do you seem to hide yourself when
I'm in trouble?
The wicked in his pride does persecute the
poor.
Let them be taken in the devices that
they have imagined for the wicked boasts, his
heart's desire and blesses the covetous whom the
Lord abhors.
The wicked through pride of his countenance will
not seek after God.
God is not in all his thoughts.
His ways are always grievous.
Thy judgments are far above out of his
sight.
As for all of his enemies, he puffs
at them.
He has said in his heart, I shall
not be moved for I shall never be
in adversity.
His mouth is full of cursing deceit and
fraud and under his tongue is mischief and
emptiness.
He sits in the lurking places of the
villages in the secret places that he murdered
the innocent.
His eyes are privately set against the poor.
He lies in wait secretly as a lion
in his den.
He lies in wait to catch the poor.
He does catch the poor when he has
drawn him into his net.
He crouches and humbles himself that the poor
may fall by his strong ones.
He has said in his heart, God have
forgotten.
He hides his face.
He'll never see it.
And so he describes the wicked in his
deeds.
And the idea of the consciousness is that
God has forgotten.
He hides his face.
He doesn't see.
There is a mistake that people oftentimes make
and that is they mistake the patience of
God for blindness because God hasn't already smitten
them, hasn't already destroyed them.
They begin to get a comfortable feeling like,
well, God doesn't know or God doesn't see.
It's always a dangerous position to be in.
David says, Arise, O Lord.
O God, lift up your hand.
Forget not the humble.
Wherefore does the wicked contemn God?
He has said in his heart, Thou will
not require it.
Thou has seen it for that you beheld
the mischief and spite to requit it in
thy hand.
The poor commits himself to thee.
Thou art the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked, the evil
man.
Seek out the wickedness until you find none.
The Lord is king forever and ever.
The heathen are perished out of his land.
Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the
humble that will prepare their heart, that will
cause an ear to hear, to judge the
fatherless and the oppressed, and the man of
the earth may no more oppress.
Psalm 11 is to the chief musician.
It is the Psalm of David.
In the Lord put I my trust.
How do you say as to a bird
to my soul?
Flee is a bird to your mountain.
My trust is in the Lord.
Why should I flee to the mountains?
Why should I try to hide from trouble?
My trust is in God.
For lo, the wicked bend their bow.
They make ready their arrow upon the string
that they might privately shoot at the upright
in heart.
Now, if the foundations be destroyed, what can
the righteous do?
I think that this is a very interesting
question that we need to ask ourselves at
the present time as we look at the
state of our nation and we see the
foundations being destroyed.
The moral foundations upon which our nation was
built are being destroyed.
The liberal politicians are undermining and destroying the
foundations upon which this nation was built.
And if the foundations are destroyed, what are
the righteous going to do?
The thing is going to crumble even as
Rome was conquered, not from without, but it
crumbled from within because of the rotten planks
that once held the nation Rome strong.
The law and so forth became corrupt, rotten.
The Lord is in his holy temple.
The Lord's throne is in the heaven.
His eyes behold, his eyelids try the children
of men.
The Lord tries the righteous, but the wicked
in him that loves violence his soul hates.
Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire
and brimstone, a horrible tempest, and this shall
be the portion of their cup.
For the righteous Lord loves righteousness and his
countenance doth behold the upright.
The chief musician upon octaves, the psalm of
David, psalm twelve, help Lord, for the godly
man sees it, for the faithful fail from
among the children of men.
Remember when Elijah said, Lord, they've all bowed
their knee to Baal and I only I
am left.
Lord, the righteous man sees it.
There's none left.
Help Lord.
The faithful fail from among the children of
men.
They speak emptiness, every one with his neighbor
with flattering lips and a double heart do
they speak.
He's been around Hollywood.
The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips
and the tongue of those that speak proud
things who have said with our tongue we
will prevail.
Our lips are our own.
Who is Lord over us?
For the oppression of the poor and for
the sighing of the needy.
Now will I arise, saith the Lord.
So God's answer is praying.
Help Lord.
The godly sees it.
People are just, you know, speaking vanity, everyone
with his neighbor flattering and they're saying, Hey,
we'll do it with our lips, you know,
or we'll prevail with our tongues and all.
And so God answers for the oppression of
the poor and for the sighing of the
needy.
Now will I arise, saith the Lord.
I will set him in safety from him
that puffeth at him.
And so the psalmist responds.
The words of the Lord are pure words.
As silver tried in the furnace of the
earth purified seven times.
Thou shalt keep them, O Lord.
Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever.
The wicked walk on every side when the
vilest men are exalted.
The 13th Psalm to the chief musician, Psalm
of David.
How long will you forget me, O Lord,
forever?
How long will you hide your face from
me?
How long shall I take counsel in my
soul, having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over
me?
The cry, O Lord, how long do I
go on in this trial?
How long, Lord, before you deliver?
Consider and hear me, O Lord, my God.
Lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep
of death.
Lest the enemy say I've prevailed against him
and those that trouble me rejoice when I
am moved.
But I have trusted in thy mercy.
My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.
Comes on strong at the end.
He speaks of the confidence of the victory
that shall be his.
I will sing unto the Lord because he
has dealt bountifully with me.
The fool has said in his heart, there
is no God.
They are corrupt.
They have done abominable works.
There is none that doeth good.
The Lord looked down from heaven upon the
children of men to see if there were
any that did understand and seek God.
They are all gone aside.
They are all together become filthy.
There is none that doeth good.
No, not one.
God's estimation of man.
None righteous.
None that seeketh after God.
None that are good.
No, not one.
Paul quotes this in writing Romans chapter 2
as he is laying out his premise and
developing the theme of the whole world guilty
before God.
Paul then quotes this.
There is none that seeketh after God.
There is none that is good.
There is none that is righteous.
No, not one.
Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge
who eat up my people as they eat
bread and call not upon the Lord?
There were they in great fear for God
is in the generation of the righteous.
You have shamed the counsel of the poor
because the Lord is his refuge.
Oh, that the salvation of Israel were come
out of Zion.
Oh, that the Messiah were come.
When the Lord brings back the captivity of
his people, Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall
be glad.
Looking forward actually to the kingdom age, when
God finally restores the people from captivity and
the rejoicing that shall take place.
Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?
Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
The psalmist asked the question.
Who's going to dwell in the holy hill?
Who's going to dwell in the Lord's tabernacle?
And he answers the question.
Thomas Jefferson says of this answer that it
was the picture of the true gentleman.
As David answers his own question, who shall
abide in God's tabernacle and in his holy
hill?
He that walks uprightly and worketh righteousness and
speaks the truth in or from his heart.
He that backbites not with his tongue, nor
doeth evil to his neighbor, nor takes up
a reproach against his neighbor.
In who eyes a vile person is contend,
but he honors them that fear the Lord.
He that sweareth to his own hurt and
changes not.
A lot of times a person will take
an oath, but when they find out that
they made a mistake, they'll change it.
But a truly honorable person, if he said
he'll do it, he'll do it, even if
it cost him.
He who swears to his own hurt.
Yes, I'll do it.
And then finds out, hey, it's going to
cost me, but he goes ahead and does
it anyhow.
He doesn't change.
A man of his word, something that God
really looks up to.
He that puts not out his money for
usury, charging an exorbitant interest, nor takes reward
from the innocent.
He that doeth these things shall never be
moved.
This is the man who will dwell in
the Lord's tabernacle and in his holy hill.